Vol II File 1: The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James

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Vol II File 1: The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James

Untitled

Revision Date: November 28, 1995

The Genealogy of Homer Beers James

Volume Two of Three Volumes

Medieval Ancestors from France and England to the Early Puritan Period in England

The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James

(Contains Family Genealogies Which Eventually Descend to the Negus Family, finally through Jennie Negus to Charlie Negus James and then to Homer Beers James and His Descendants)




Compiled and Written by

Homer Beers James



Published by

JANDA Consultants

1636 Jamestown Place

Pittsburgh, PA 15235

1993





Copyright (c) Homer Beers James 1993

Introduction

The initial source that triggered my efforts was a small, privately printed, pamphlet on the Negus family. I obtained a copy through my cousin, Barbara Gervang, living in Novato, California. This document was written by Rev. Ira E. Nolte, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. "The Negus Family Ancestry Through Terrell - Wing - Coppock Lines." It is undated, but it was published circa 1950. It lists ancestral lines back to King Egbert of England, 802 A.D., extending downward to King Edward I, the last royal ancestor of England. The many names of the Middle Ages includes Plantaganet, De Clare, Fitz Alan, Marney, Muscegros, Beauchamp, Bassett, Bohun, Quincy, Berkeley, Lygon, and many others. The line progresses to the early pioneers who came to America in the 17th Century, where the Negus name first appears. As originally written, this book did not include my line beyond Shaidlock Negus, Sr. However, the author, Rev. Ira E. Nolte, as an after thought, added Shaidlock Negus, Jr., and his descendants, after he noted that there were a number of Neguses in Springdale, Iowa, not in the lines he was investigating. But even this did not include my line beyond me great grandfather, Albert Bracken Negus. The most recent information of Jameses and the last few generations of Neguses came from the personal papers of my grandfather, Walter James, and was substantiated by the records of several different Monthly Meetings of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa, as well as the U. S. Census Records.

Later, in order to have a means to collect and correlate genealogical information, I obtained a copy of Brother's Keeper, an IBM-compatible computer program which facilitates the systematic compilation of genealogical records. This program has been used to collect almost 5,000 names of direct and closely related ancestors. The program has features that permit many different pedigree trees and ancestral charts. This was used to maintain control of the linkages between all the people involved.

As time went on I moved into a more serious study of all available information in public libraries, university libraries, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family History Library, and other sources, starting with the names of the various ancestors in the original Negus Family genealogical records.

This was augmented by hand-written records on the James and the Negus family, prepared by my paternal grandfather, Walter James, in the late 1930's. They were obtained from my cousin, Barbara James Gervang. These particular records were used for Volume III. to verify and establish the details of the more recent ancestors of the James and the Negus families.

The genealogical information that follows has been compiled from the books and publications, listed in the attached bibliography. Most of information for the time period from 1000 A.D. to 1450 A.D. and even some legendary records that go back to over 1000 B.C.!) has been derived from three primary sources:

The massive volume, "A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire,", published in 1866 by Sir Bernard Burke (Burke refers primarily to Dugdale's "Baronage", as his main source);

The eight-volume set by Wurts, titled "Magna Charta", published in 1942, in particular, Volumes 1-2, and 3. (These volumes are the ones which contain some lineages that go far back in the time before the Christian Era. These are obviously more questionable because much of it is derived from legends, but are they nevertheless included, because they are part of the published record.);

Weis, "Magna Charta Sureties, 1215", recently reissued in 1992.

By March 1993 accumulated information was consolidated into a 225-page narrative document, using Microsoft Word for Windows, but due to a massive "crash" of the 210-megabyte computer hard drive, every bit of data was lost. The only record of this genealogy that survived was an earlier "hard copy" of about 75 pages of material as of January 21, 1993. Thus it was necessary to research the resource documents a second time; this was a huge task, representing over 400 hours of time just on the word processor, all of which was lost, in addition to reentering all the material from the "hard copy." The only wisdom, as a result of my unfortunate experience, that I can pass on to the readers is that you should always back-up your essential data to a floppy disk or tape cassette. Sooner or later something will happen. The fact is that I had all the latest backup systems, but failed to use them over a period of six weeks. Learn from my mistake! The pages now for Volume I thru Volume III., total about 375, so the security is even more mandatory.

Homer Beers James

1636 Jamestown Place

Pittsburgh, PA 15235

Original: March 22, 1993

Revised: May 16, 1993

Acknowledgments

Preparing this genealogy has been a very humbling experience. One is completely overwhelmed with the massive numbers and information that is available from diligent research. In the process of compiling this information I have had the pleasure of meeting many professional genealogists and librarians and other people pursuing their individual ancestral lines, too numerous to mention, who have provided assistance in gathering all of this voluminous data.

Table of Contents

Volume II - French and English Nobility from 11th Century to the 15th Century

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Other Lines to be Explored

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