Digging Roots



Jacob Van Valkenburg. Sorry Jake,
I have no idea whether we're related.



It all started with a suggestion in the right-hand column of my Facebook page: Fortenberry Genealogy.

I’ve always wondered about my last name and where it came from. This was my chance. I joined the group, and quickly discovered that there’s a fair amount of research connecting people with my last name to a guy named Lambert Van Valkenburg, who came to the United States in the 1700s from Denmark, the Netherlands or some other ancient European place. He came to New York and owned land where the Empire State Building is now located. Wow.

I had to see if I could make the connection. That’s when the bug bit.

Now, six months and a 14-day ancestry.com trial membership later, I’ve lost sleep, marveled at history, discovered a connection to a Civil War POW, two Revolutionary War soldiers, one of the first governors of the Carolina territory, a tutor to King Edward VI and some guy name Cosimus from Florence, Italy.

I’ve spent the past several evenings clicking on links and census records and other people’s family trees to try to find the connections that make me, well, me. It’s intoxicating. It’s like a drug. I can’t help myself. I find one relative, and this little leaf icon appears to tell me more information is available, and I get this rush of adrenaline and energy. It’s hopeless. I have to keep click on just one more leaf.

Next thing I know, it’s 2 a.m. I can barely keep my eyes open, and I’m forced to go to bed with a cliffhanger, like, who is Alfred Johnson, my great, great, great grandfather on my mama’s side?

I’m hooked. There’s no doubt about it.

I still haven’t found the definite link to Van Valkenburg, but I have discovered that my great grandfather Fortenberry was arrested for murder back in the early 1900s. I’d tell you about it now, but there’s another leaf dangling on my family tree demanding to be clicked. I’ll have to tell you that story another day.