How do you get other people to research your family history? Run for political office.

From Wikipedia

Since Paul Ryan was selected as the VP candidate, I have been watching a website with information about his ancestry. It has been interesting to see the amount of information on the website rapidly increase. When I first looked at the website, there was only a small amount of information. Now, the first five generations are mostly complete and several branches have names for the eighth generation.

Looking at Paul’s ancestry, we find that it is mainly Irish and German with a little bit of English and Scottish. Of course, with the surname Ryan the Irish was expected :-).

Paul’s paternal great-great grandparents were all born in Ireland and immigrated to Wisconsin where all of his paternal great grandparents were born.

Paul’s mother was a Hutter. When I saw the name Hutter, I thought about Jacob Hutter who was an early 16th century Anabaptist leader and the founder of the Hutterites. Jacob Hutter was originally from what is now northern Italy, but he later migrated to Moravia. Paul’s Hutter ancestry can be traced back to the early 1800’s in Bavaria, which is near Moravia. It will be interesting to see if genealogists or historians will be able to trace his family further back and make a connection to Jacob Hutter.

When we look at Paul’s maternal great-great grandparents, we see that six of them were born in Bavaria or Germany and that two of them were born in England. His maternal great grandparents were born in Wisconsin (2), Kansas and Michigan.

The website also includes information from census records and it is interesting to look at the occupations of his ancestors. His ancestors have been Doctors, Lawyers, Farmers, Laborers and Brick Layers.

When I found out that the VP candidate was from Wisconsin, I wondered if I might be able to find a family connection. Part of my family came from a nearby county in Wisconsin. I did not find a connection, but it will still be interesting to follow his ancestry as further research is completed. It will also be interesting to see what family connections they might find.

Steven