T. Boone Pickens-16th Cousin

Family History Research
Repinski Family History
Dietz Family Tree
Surnames: Repinski-Dietz-Brown-Smith-Sayles-Scott-Marbury-Blount

 T. Boone Pickens 

(1928-2019)

A True Texas Legend "shuffled off this mortal coil today"...

T. Boone Pickens passed away today, September 11th, 2019 in Dallas Texas.

T. Boone was one of the better known Texas Oil Tycoons of the last century.

I heard about his passing on my way to work this morning. I again heard about it while listening to the news on TV while setting up the restaurant. 

I felt a personal connection to this man for some reason....

On my way home from work tonight, NPR had a segment talking about his life and how his philanthropic efforts helped so many Texas institutions and the people served by this.

When I got home, there was a post on my Facebook Wall about his passing.

I then decided to a bit of research on this man.

I discovered in a matter of minutes that

Thomas Boone Pickens was my 16th cousin once removed.

I had the pleasure of meeting him at the hotel I work at a few years ago.

Back then I had no idea we shared the same kinfolk that goes back many generations.

Following is my family connection to T Boone and the discovery I made this evening that shows how we share some pretty neat ancestral family lines including some English Knights and Barons and a Spanish Ancestral Great Grandmother named Sancha Blount, Lady de Ayala, who's family ancestry goes back to the Royal and Noble families of Early Spain and Portugal.

Rest in Peace Cousin Thomas

In Memory of Diane Repinski Pichler

Sunday August 25th, 2019

Today I take a break from my family history to honor a member of my family from the present who passed on to the next realm a few days ago. 

It is rare that one person can touch so many lives in such a positive way. 

My cousin Diane was one of those people.

We understand death only after it has placed its hands on someone we love.

And when death has placed its hands on those that we love, it gives us solace to remember them and their life.

Today I remember my friend and my cousin.....

Another Repinski Cousin in Texas!!

Family History & Research
Repinski Family Tree
Repinski Family Branch
David Repinski-Cousin
Mathias Rzepinski-3rd Great Grandfather

On Monday, December 17th, 2018  I received and email on my LinkedIn account from a David Repinski.

He saw my name on the site and that I lived here in Texas.

The email mentioned that my name, John, reminded him of his dear departed grandfather who had the same name as myself.

We started corresponding and we realized that not only do we live two towns apart (he in Southlake, TX and myself in Keller, TX) but that we both hail from the state of Wisconsin.

His family moved to Georgia when he was a young child.

Read on for my discovery of a new cousin that lives right around the corner from me here in Texas and in the process of researching I discovered my 3rd Great Grandfather, Mathias Rzepinski!!

Elvis Aron Presley-12th Cousin

Family Tree History and Research
Deitz Family Line
Mayhew-Skiffe-Reaves Branch
Elvis Presley

A new discovery today!
As I was researching one of my lines from my mother's branches I was notified that one of my Family Tree programs found another rather well known relative.
I am amazed at how small the world really is and how humanity is so connected to one another.

The line is a long one and through researching the various other lines that connect to this one I discovered it is a blood line that not only goes back to our mutual ancestral great grandparents but also goes back further to some very interesting people. Read on for my discoveries.

Today I introduce you to our 12th Cousin, Elvis......

The Kashubian Exodus-The 1st Polish Settlers of North America-

Family History Research
Repinski Family Tree History
Repinski-Dulak/Dulek Line
My Kashubian Ancestors

My First Polish Settlers of North America 

"A Long Line of Kashubian Immigrant Ancestors" 

About a month ago I received a message from my cousin Shelby Repinski Ellison who just happened to be traveling abroad for work and she messaged me from Poland...the "Mother Land" of my dad's family.
To say I was a little jealous of her at this moment is just a bit of an understatement....

She asked if I knew of any of the areas where some of our family ancestors may have come from.
I have quite the list and I am sure that after sending numerous 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and more Great Grandparents and the places that they came from in Poland....she was probably saying "Oh why did I ask??" (inject big grin).

Some day I hope to make it to Poland and visit all of the places I have discovered in my research. I haven't talked to her since her return but I do hope that she got the opportunity to explore a bit.

As I was going through some of the family tree branches on my Repinski/Dulek side to find these towns for her, I decided to do a little more in depth research into one of the areas that quite a few of my ancestors came from.

I already knew from previous research that most of my dad's ancestry from his mother's Osowski side of the family and her mother's Kiedrowski side of the family all came from an area of Northwest Poland called "Kashubian Pomerania".
A distant cousin, Arthur Newkirk, who lives in North Carolina has helped me with this line by finding and adding some of my ancestors to my family tree on Geni.com which is where I have a tree connected to the "World Tree". The more ones line is filled in on the World Tree, the better one is able to connect to other relations through out the world and throughout history.

The more I dug into my family lines, the more I realised just how intimately KASHUBIA and POMERANIA are connected to my dad's family lines from both his father, Clarence Repinski and his mother Evelyn  Dulek Repinski starting in the late 1800s and establishing the bedrock of our family as we know it today.

As one write up in an article on the first settlers says very well:

The hopes and dreams of these immigrants began to be realized as they moved into the 1880’s. 
Their simple log homes became part of larger and more comfortable white frame houses. Their children moved to their own farms or to the city for work or to set up a business. 
Seven more Polish Catholic parishes were organized. 
Even though the "chain migration” from the Kaszuby region had begun to subside by the mid-1880’s, immigrants from the Austrian and Russian partitions of Poland began to find their way to Portage County - usually after a short stay in Chicago or Milwaukee while deciding where to locate. 
Perhaps they were drawn to this area by the large, successful Polish community with its Polish Catholic Churches which had its beginning almost 150 years ago.

Some of those immigrants to North America and in particular the ones that settled in Portage County Wisconsin that are my ancestors have the following surnames: Repinski, Dulek, Osowski, Riemer, Kowalski, Cyzewski, Kosobucki, Mrocki, Zblewski, Kiedrowski, Kynter, Polzcynski, Janta, Wosocki,


Come learn about Kashubia and Pomerania and those Kashubian Poles who emigrated away from their homeland to make new lives for themselves...a very large part of the ancestry of my Repinski/ Dulek family history...

Wont You Be My Cousin-Fred Rogers

Family Tree History Research
Deitz Family Tree
Pope-Jenny Line

On a lark today I decided to do the "Geni.com Spin the Relative Wheel" and came up with a cool cousin connection to a "Childhood Friend" through my mom's family tree lines back to New England.

That line then goes back to England and connects way back in history around 1428 with one of my 15th Great Grandfathers named Sir John De Neville, who was the Earl of Northumberland and his sister, my 16th Great Aunt named Lady Eleanor De Neville Stanley, who was the Countess of Derby and who would be Fred Roger's 14th Great Grandma.

I grew up watching Fred and his pals and learning about manners and how to be nice to one another.
His shows taught me much about the world and I so looked forward to his being my neighbor each day of the week. On weekends I couldn't wait until Monday rolled around.

Each episode began the same way: Mister Rogers is seen coming home, singing his theme song "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", and changing into sneakers and a zippered cardigan sweater.
In a typical episode, Rogers might have an earnest conversation with his television audience, interact with live guests, take a field trip to such places as a bakery or a music store, or watch a short film.
Typical video subjects included demonstrations of how such inanimate objects as bulldozers and crayons work or are manufactured.

Each episode also included a trip to Rogers' "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" featuring a trolley with its own chiming theme song, a castle, and the kingdom's citizens, including King Friday XIII. The subjects discussed in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe often allowed further development of themes discussed in Mister Rogers' "real" neighborhood.

Mister Rogers often fed his fish during episodes. They were originally named Fennel and Frieda.
Typically, each week's episode explored a major theme, such as going to school for the first time.
Originally, most episodes ended with a song entitled "Tomorrow", and Friday episodes looked forward to the week ahead with an adapted version of "It's Such a Good Feeling." In later seasons, all episodes ended with "Feeling."

Come meet "my neighbor" and my cousin.....

My Bryant Family Line-Charity Bryant & Silvia Drake

Family Tree History & Research 

Monday, March 12, 2018

As I continue to research my family history from my moms many lines back to New England, I am being frequently surprised by the many interesting people "hanging in the branches of this crazy tree".

I have recently started digging into my 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Bryant Great Grandparents and I am finding quite a few neat histories in this line.

Going back a few centuries, today I would like everyone to meet my third cousin Charity Bryant.
Charity's life has been talked about in many circles and has been the subject of many research articles and stories through out the years. She was also the aunt of another of my cousins in this Bryant family line, the famous author William Cullen Bryant.

She lived on this earth from 1777 until 1850.....

My Bryant Family Line-Kissing Cousins

Family Tree History and Research
March 4, 2018

"Untangling A Slew of Abigail's and John's and Finding  Kissing Cousins"

I made another strange discovery last night while researching my mother's family lines back to New England.
As I was working on the never ending task of growing and building my family lines, and researching my Faunce family branch, I discovered that a set of my 9th great grandparents were 1st cousins!
At first I thought to myself, how can this be?
There has to be some error in the trees somewhere.
There were numerous Abigail's with the same names but different birth dates (separated by generations) and the names kept coming back to the some of the same people in my tree such as Lt. John Bryant. (see screenshots below)

So I dug into the family lines and spent hours looking at their parents and their parents and researching numerous sites and books and becoming so confused that I was getting a headache trying to sort out what can only be described as a major conundrum.....

An Amazing Discovery! The Father of Texas is my Cousin!

Family Tree History and Research
Monday, Feb 5th, 2018

As I was researching my family tree just now I stumbled upon and discovered a 14th Great Grandfather through my mother's family line from her father (my grandfather) Ray Dietz, named Stephen Austin, who was born in 1484 in Kent England.

On a lark I decided to research the ancestry of the namesake of Austin Texas to see if my ancestral great grandfather was somehow connected to the "Founder of Texas"......

Stephen Austin 

(1484-1557)

My 14th Great Grandfather

*Stephen F. Austin's 6th Great Grandfather*

Stephen F. Austin 

(1793-1836)

My 7th Cousin

Father of Texas