​The Royal Genealogist
Randall R. M. Redman
Hello,
My name is Randall Redman and I am a proud American and a Genealogist. However, I did not start my career that way. For many years, I was the manager of an Intellectual Property law firm in center city Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My firm specialized in Copyrights for Fortune 500 Companies. Needless to say that my position was one of constant research on United States Patents and Copyrights. Although, I learned much in my time spent with the firm, it was not until the lead partner decided to write a book about the origins of the United States Copyright Law that my interest started to change. One of many tasks was to look for living descendants of the main focus of the book, a man named Ira Arnstien. This is when I was first introduced to the world of Genealogy and when I found one of my life’s callings.
As a child, I was raised in large part by my paternal grandparents. I can remember my Grandfather speaking with great pride on many occasions how our direct great grandfather a man named George Clymer had the honor of signing both the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States. I can also remember promising my grandfather that someday, I would document our descent from George Clymer “The Signer.” Up until this time I had worked on my family tree from time to time but always kept hitting “Brick Walls” I could trace myself back 5 generations but could not make a connection with George Clymer “The Signer”
As any Genealogist will tell you when you hit a “Brick Wall” there are several things that you can do. One is to simply put the file on that particular person down and start working on someone else. Secondly, you can hire a genealogist that can utilize their training to search areas, sources and data that you had not thought of before or have access to. Since the majority of my friends where Genealogists they would suggest to me different areas and sources to check but in the meantime; I put the file down and decided to do my grandmother’s side of the family. I never knew anything about my Grandmother’s ancestry for she never spoke about it and when asked said that she herself did not know much about it either.
Thinking that it was only right to do her ancestry as well, I embarked on an adventure that still has my head spinning. The first thing that I encountered was that my Grandmother had 3 direct great grandparents who set sail and came over to the new world on the legendary “Mayflower” I immediately called the Esteemed Mayflower Society to check the validity of my line. I was told that my line was indeed possible but had not been worked on since 1730 and that to prove my line I would need to find and furnish over 100 pieces of documentation. Yes, that is correct; over 100 different pieces of information. By no means is this normal of joining the Mayflower Society it is just that my particular line had not been worked on since 1730.
Not knowing where to begin, I contacted Mayflower’s New York Chapter and spoke to the General Historian who not only provided me with the guidance I so desperately needed but the moral support to help me with enormous task at hand. I scoured the entire New England and Pennsylvania areas for all the information that I could find. In the end I found 99% of the information that was required. The only thing that I could not find was a marriage certificate from 1745 stating that my 6th great grandfather Mr. Jacob Pyatt III married my 6th great grandmother Miss Elizabeth Dunham. Believing that we had all the information needed minus the marriage certificate we submitted my application for membership to Plymouth for final approval. Unfortunately, I was declined for membership due to the missing marriage certificate.
Needless, to say I was upset. For, I had thought that I had enough information to show that the marriage had taken place. Feeling a bit dejected but not willing to give up, I turned to a new area of documentation called DNA. DNA is the ultimate documentation because it simply cannot lie. You are who you are and it can show you who your common ancestors are regardless of the facts committed to paper (Provided that someone in your family distant or otherwise has taken the test.) Well, I decided to have my father and his first cousin tested to see what results I might discover in My Family Tree DNA’s Family Finder. (The Family Finder test focuses on Autosomal DNA, which is basically a mixed bag of confetti that you receive from both your mother and your father) This is in turn used to match other people in the DNA Database to see if you match anyone. Everyone, that you come to Match in the Family Finder, you will share a set of common great grandparents. With a little luck they will have a GEDCOM or Family tree attached to their page and you simply compare it with yours to find out where you link or match up.
About two months after the test is taken you will get your results. My results conclusively stated that I was indeed related to Miss Elizabeth Dunham and her family but the Only way that could be possible was if the marriage that I had stated above had taken place. I immediately contacted the General Historian of the New York Chapter of the Esteemed Mayflower Society and informed her of these matches and asked her if, I could submit them to Plymouth so my application could be approved. She reluctantly told me that although it had proven to her that the marriage took place that The General Society would not accept DNA as a source. Feeling vindicated by my DNA Results, I informed my mentor that I would become the first person in the History of The Esteemed Mayflower Society to be accepted on Documentation supplemented by DNA and I set off to work.
Going back to the skills I had learned while working for the law firm, I wrote about a hundred page brief showing my matches and correlating them with the matches in Family Tree DNA’s Family Finder. Showing my tree and showing the people who matched me and their trees (Thus showing conclusively that our common grandparents could only have come about if the marriage in question had taken place.) Included in the brief was a “Naming Practice Analysis of Jacob Pyatt and Elizabeth Dunham’s children” this showing that the naming practices at the time had be completely upheld. Most importantly, I researched and found the main genealogists for the Pyatt/Piatt and Dunham families. They, themselves had arrived at the same conclusion about the marriage taking place Independently of my own research and each wrote letters to Mayflower to that effect. Feeling confident, I resubmitted my application and in short order, I received a message from my mentor and General Historian of the New York Chapter of the Esteemed Mayflower Society that my application was approved and thus I became the first person in the History of the Esteemed Mayflower Society to get my application accepted on Documentation supplemented by DNA.
I spent thousands of hours researching and learning the process of researching in genealogical standards but in the end it was well worth it. I cannot say that I did it for myself as this would be untrue. I did it for one simple reason and that was do restore my Grandmother’s Birthright. My grandmother sacrificed many things during her life for me and I owed it to her to restore her Heritage and her Ancestry. Somewhere, I know that she knows that a wrong had been righted and that her family legacy is in safe hands with her grandson.
