Welcome
After a good 8 weeks of work this summer, I finally reformatted all the pages to XTHML using CSS. Please let me know if you find anything awry--especially broken links. This genealogy site is dedicated to my family's roots, which chiefly comprises the Goss, Goodwin, Converse, Fisher, Miller, and Malugani families of Northern California.
Contents
Scope
This web site is a selective narrative version of my more complete Family Tree Maker database. More detailed and searchable infomation is also posted RootsWeb.com. This site focuses on my direct ancestral lines and gives details about my ancestors, their siblings, aunts, and uncles. My database on the other hand goes down four generations from where my line leaves off, i.e. down do my ancestors' first cousins and their children (first cousins, once removed). As such my database houses information on over 13,000 known or suspected relatives!
I try to be careful about how much information I post about the living. I maintain as much data as possible in my home database but endeavor to be selective about what is posted publicly on the Internet.
About the Family Histories
Each family book gives a narrative on each individual, by generation, and lists his/her children. Children are assigned a number and linked to their own narrative. The number represents the lineage by generation and order of birth in each generation (i.e. "1243" is a fourth generation descendant (four digits in the number) who is the third child of the fourth child of the second child of the progenitor.) When linked/underlined, the number will direct you back to the parents of the individual.
Additionally, my direct ancestors are noted by a superscript generation number to make them a little more prominent (ex: Andrew Goss1).
A miniaturized mailbox (
) adjacent to someone's name indicates I have e-mail contact with the person. I do not list email address on this web site out of concern for privacy, however I will forward your mail to that person to help you initiate contact.
Overview
England-Massachusetts
From the perspective of arrival in America, our family begins with the Edward Fuller (1575-1621) who sailed to America from England aboard the Mayflower and settled at the Plymouth, Massachusetts. George Bonham (~1609-1704) also migrated to Plymouth where his son married Edward Fuller's granddaughter.
Deacon Edward Convers (1588/9-1663) sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony aboard the Arbella with Winthrop in 1630 and established the Puritan First Church of Woburn, northeast of Boston. His prolific family expanded into Connecticut and Vermont. Erastus Convers (Sr.) (~1804-~1847) came from one of the Vermont branches that resettled in Erie County, Pennsylvania, by around 1820. From there the line moved west to Iowa and then followed the California Gold Rush to Coulterville, Mariposa County, California.
Pennsylvania Dutch
The German lines start right at the founding of William PENN's Germantown Colony on the outskirts of Philadelphia. The Küster/Kesters, Mennonites from Kaldenkirchen/Krefeld for the Rheinland-Pfalz (Lower Palatinate), near Dusseldorf, arrived about 1685. Later the Müller/Miller, German Baptist Brethren ("Dunkers"), arrived in Germantown from Steinwenden, Rheinland-Pfalz, near Kaiserslautern, in 1727.
The Fishers, likely from New Jersey, may also have had roots that go back to Germantown.
These families migrated across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska before leaping across to California after the Civil War.
Virginia Colony
The Chapman family settled in Virginia's middle peninsula, between Richmond and Fredericksburg, by 1700. From there they moved inland to Amelia County, southwest of Richmond. After the American Revolutionary War, the Chapmans moved further inland to Amherst County in the Virginia Blue Ridge mountains. From there they crossed into Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa, where Harriet J. Chapman6 (1842-1936) married John Jackson Fisher3 (1843-1906) in Wapello County, Iowa.
California '49ers
The John Converse3 (1829-1909), of Puritan English roots, arrived in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California, first in 1851. That same year, the Goodwins, Scottish coal miners from Ayrshire, Scotland, arrived in Pennsylvania and began working the coal mines of Northumberland and Schuylkill counties. James Goodwin2 (1829-1864) began investigating California in the mid-1850s, finally settled in Coulterville in 1856, and sent for his family in around 1857. They came by way of the Isthmus of Panama.
Andrew Goss1 (1840-1912) arrived in California in 1853 or 1854 and settled in Coulterville. He married Elizabeth Goodwin3 (1852-1942) and their son married Alice Converse4 (1879-1951) to produce my paternal grandfather, Lloyd Goss3 (1912-1981).
The Greeley and Barrett families of Mariposa County also married into the Converse and Goss families, respectively.
Italian Swiss
The Cerinis of Giumaglio, Ticino Canton, Switzerland, began investigating Marin and Sonoma Counties in California, as early as the 1880s and finally made their permanent migration with the Maluganis in 1892. The Maluganis, small in physical stature, became allied with the Fishers of tall, robust German-Pennsylvania Dutch stock in the hills above Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, and produced my paternal grandmother, Hazel (Malugani) Goss4.
Polish Roots
My mother's Wargin family arrived in America in 1890 by way of Ellis Island from north-central Poland, then ruled by the Prussians. They probably settled first in Chicago, Illinois, before putting down roots in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Around the same time, the Sikorskis arrived from Poland, probably originating in central and eastern Poland, which was under Russian rule. After arrival, they operated saloons in iron ore towns in northwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota.
Other Writings
- "Our Roots in Coulterville & Greeley Hill," an article written for the Mariposa County branch of the California GenWeb Project.
- "Coulterville Cemetery," a compilation of names and dates found in the Coulterville Cemetery, Mariposa County, California.
- "Sylvester & Sarah (Parkhurst) Fisher of Gage County, Nebraska," although not posted on line for download, I have a rich-text formatted transcript of this work that Calvin C. Hobson compiled in 1972, Joy May Gagon re-edited in 1988, and I re-transcribed in 1996. Please email me if you're interested.
Allied Lines
Although I don't have direct blood relations with the following lines, the Barrett, Beaman, and Greeley ties to my Goss, Goodwin, Converse, and Malugani lines are such that I've taken on a little bit of research of my own. If you're interested in these lines please let me know and I'll try to put you in touch with blood-kin.
BARRETT:
The Barrett clan of Mariposa and Merced counties originates with Hugh Massey Barrett (b. 1791) and Carolina Butler (b. 1794). Their son, Joseph Barrett was born 13 Jan 1824 in Clonmel, Waterford, Tipperary, Ireland. Joseph moved to the New World and married Henrietta MacInnes of Scotland in Ontario, Canada. Joseph and Henrietta moved to California by 1857 and started a family in Hornitos, Mariposa County. Later they moved to Maxwell Creek (modern day Coulterville) in Mariposa County, and eventually to Merced County.
Joseph's grandson, Francisco "Frank" Harry Barrett (1898-1977) married Ila Anna Goss (1905-2006) in Modesto, Stanislaus County, California in 1924. Having grown up in Coulterville, they returned to their family origin and became historians for the small gold mining town. Their historical and genealogical work was key in sparking my interest in history and genealogy.
GREELEY:
The Greeley clan descends from Andrew Greele of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England who sailed to the New World from Londonderry, Ireland. He married Mary Moyse and began a line in New England. Andrew's great-great grandson, Stephen Greeley (b. 1772 in Newcastle, Lincoln Co., Maine) and his wife, Hannah Nelson had as many as 11 children. Among the children were Burnham T. Greeley (b. 1806) and Orchard Cook Greeley (b. 1806) who both followed the Gold Rush to California. They settled in what is now known as Greeley Hill, near Coulterville, Mariposa County, California.
Horace Austin "Doc" Greeley, a grandson of Orchard's, married Elizabeth Ann Converse in 1902.