Websites of Importance for
Kitts Family History
Significant Internet Websites
Today’s internet provides some significant outlets for researching the Kitts family history. In particular, the reader will find helpful information through the following websites:
FTDNA
The most important website at this time is the Kitts DNA Project found at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). The web link is https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/kitts/about This site chronicles the scientific endeavors that are allowing us to reveal our ancestors and distant cousins via genetics.
The primary goal of this site is to discover the parents of John Kitts (Götz) [b.1730 - d.1802]. As of 2022, family historians have hit the proverbial wall, as we have no definitive idea of John Kitts (Götz)’s parentage. Our best hope is to find a genetic link between John and a potential ancestor and then to analyze historical documents for corroboration of the linkage. This website holds the key to unlocking the genetic door to another generation.
Thus far, the FTDNA Kitts Project has determined a significant portion of the genetic markers for John Kitts (Götz). We were able to do this because the direct male descendants of four of John Kitts (Götz)’s grandsons provided DNA samples by lightly scraping the inside of their cheeks and shipping the gathered cells to the FTDNA lab in Houston, Texas. The samples were compared, derivations accounted for and the mode of the markers was ascertained. This procedure allowed the geneticists to determine 67 of John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers. Presently, FTDNA kit #180848 is the only Kitts descendent that has had no mutations since John Kitts (Götz)’s birth. The other descendants have one or two deviations out of the 67 markers. Refer to https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Kitts?iframe=ycolorized for complete information.
Questions naturally arise, “So what can we do with John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers? What can we discover using DNA?”
First, we were able to discover the haplogroup associated with John’s markers. According to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, a haplogroup is a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on the patriline or the matriline. Since, John‘s haplogroup is labeled I-M223, this common ancestor is approximately 17,400 years old. When looking at a map of I-M223 (also known as I2a2) located at https://www.eupedia.com/europe/maps_Y-DNA_haplogroups.shtml#I, one will see the heaviest concentration of this genetic group in Germany is in the Thuringia/Hesse region. From this epicenter, one can make an educated guess that John’s family was living in or near the Hesse side of the German Palatine by 1600s-1700s. From here, John’s family floated down the Rhine River and immigrated to America.
Secondly, we have been able to eliminate a person who had been perceived as the most likely candidate to be John Kitts (Götz)’s father. Based on the documented records from the book Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808, a person named Johann Peter Gotz sailed to Philadelphia aboard the ship named Phoenix in 1744. Along with Johann Peter Gotz on the ship’s list of passengers was Andonius Weyrich. The documented family connections between the Götz/Getz and Weyrich/Wyrick were too overpowering to ignore the possibility that Johann Peter Gotz was somehow related to John Kitts (Götz).
So Michael Kitts set out to prove or disprove any relationship between John Kitts (Götz) and Johann Peter Gotz. He telephoned and actually visited descendants of Johann Peter Gotz in Pennsylvania to secure a DNA sample to compare with DNA markers of John Kitts (Götz) descendants. Michael was able to persuade a direct male descendent of Johann Peter Gotz to send in cheek scrapping to FTDNA. The result was there was no connection; the DNA markers were too different. Johann Peter Gotz is not related to John Kitts (Götz).
In addition, Michael Kitts’ diligent work shed light on an inaccurate assumption about the origin of Johann Peter Gotz. On the internet, one will read Johann Peter Gotz being referred to as Johann Peter Gotz von Kestenberg. In speaking with descendants of Johann Peter, Michael learned that Kestenberg was an American village where Johann Peter lived in the Hempfield Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A descendent of Johann Peter Gotz had simply decided to add von Kestenberg to his name because “it sounded so German.” So let the reader be aware that Kestenberg has nothing to do with a German location where Johann Peter Gotz might have lived prior to immigrating. Kestenberg is a small village in Pennsylvania, not Germany.
Speaking of misinformation, there has also been an issue with some genealogy sites that list John Kitts (Götz) as John Jacob Kitts. By carefully examining the historical documents, one will realize there are no records from the 1700s or 1800s that connects John Kitts (Götz) with a John Jacob Kitts. The reason this middle name of Jacob was mistakenly applied is due to the fact that Johann Peter Gotz had a son named Johann Jacob Gotz. People are assuming, without checking the DNA research, that Johann Peter Gotz was actually John Kitts (Götz)’s father and thus John Kitts (Götz) had the middle name of Jacob. The DNA testing has proven that Johann Peter Gotz is not John Kitts (Götz)’s father and therefore John Kitts (Götz) is not Johann Jacob Kitts.
Furthermore, along with this misnaming of John Kitts (Götz), the internet keeps supplying readers with a supposed photo of John Kitts (Götz). The photo shows a long, white bearded man wearing a vest, coat and trousers, sitting in a chair holding a book in his left hand. https://www.geni.com/photo/view/6000000008091359606?album_type=photos_of_me&photo_id=6000000010252137258 Court documents prove that John Kitts (Götz) died in 1802 and the world's earliest successful photograph was taken by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826, twenty years after John Kitts (Götz) had died. Therefore, it is impossible to have a photo of John Kitts (Götz)! Unfortunately, several genealogical websites have replicated this photo. This supposed photo of John Kitts (Götz) actually comes from the website https://www.littlewalkerscreek.com/id29.html and the man sitting in the chair is clearly labeled as Jacob Franklin Kitts who was born in the 1840s.
Thirdly, John Kitts (Götz) markers sits like a beacon floating on top of the DNA ocean. Its light flashes across the dark waters telling the world where to find the genetic link to the Kitts family. John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers are the conduit for cousins to locate each other and to uncover their family’s heritage via DNA. However, this utilization of the DNA markers could take a surprising twist though. At this moment, John Kitts (Götz) parentage is unknown. One has to accept the outside possibility that that John Kitts (Götz) could have been born out of wedlock and thus another surname is his true heritage. This possibility reemphasizes the ultimate goal of the Kitts DNA Project at FTDNA: one day, John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers will point us to the correct genetic link and solve the mystery of who his parents were.
FAMILYSEARCH
Another important source of genealogical information that is free to the public at this time is FamilySearch. This website is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). Basically, the site is a trimmed-down, free backdoor into parts of the data found on Ancestry.com. You may search for an individual using birthdate, residence, name of spouse, child’s name, death date, etc. (The dates of birth, death, residence, etc. may be entered within various date ranges of 5-year intervals in case the exact date is unknown.) Once the information is submitted through the search engine, numerous possible names appear. Usually the person who is the most likely candidate for your search will appear on the first couple of pages.
Each person in the FamilySearch database is given a unique ID number, which is actually comprised of both numbers and letters. Clicking on this identification number, one views several information tabs, such as “Life Sketch,” “Vitals,” “Other Information” (usually county residences), and “Family Members.” In addition, a tab for “Sources” may reveal census records, marriage certificates, death certificates, wills, and estate inventories. Through a tab labeled “Memories,” individuals may also add clips from books on family histories, screen shots from webpages or even type in additional notes.
FamilySearch also provides the user with a descendant’s bracketed family tree. This allows one to see quickly a person’s siblings and ancestors ascending in one direction and the person’s children and grandchildren descending in the other. Each person on the tree has his or her own ID number listed that so the researcher may merely click on the number to review the personal information about the chosen individual.
There are, however, a couple of caveats about FamilySearch. First, I have found on a few occasions there to be duplicate names of people with their own trees. So one has to be careful to take the time and carefully review the information before attempting to merge the duplications into a single listing for a person. Secondly, let the users of FamilySearch be aware of misinformation. Most of the bracketed family trees originated from the work of ordinary folks trying their best to make sense of the family data they have collected over the years.
Unfortunately, people have sometimes inserted information based solely on oral stories without any historical documentation. This can lead to a very frustrating time having to chase down sources. For instance, I spent nearly two months attempting to confirm a bracketed family tree that had linked a paternal great-grandmother with one of the Mayflower pilgrims. I eventually had to request help from a representative of the Mayflower Descendants Association who was able to send me documentation that my ancestor in Tennessee did not connect to the Mayflower families in the New England area. I left a note on the FamilySearch section of my great-grandmother that the supposed Mayflower descendancy was false. I am hoping to keep another person from wasting precious time running down that rabbit hole.
FIND A GRAVE
Another important website is Find A Grave. Presently, this website allows the public to search pages without paying a fee and enables individuals to add memorials and cemetery information concerning gravesites. This vast collection of individual memorial pages is automatically absorbed into searches using Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. This inclusion of Find A Grave has greatly expanded the potential of discovering genealogical tips. Owned today by Ancestry.com, the Find A Grave database possesses several advantages.
First, Find A Grave memorial pages often provide links to a deceased person’s immediate family members -- parents, siblings, spouse and children. From there, it is simple to follow the genealogical breadcrumbs in either direction to discover great-grandparents or grandchildren.
Secondly, Find A Grave is used by a multitude of individuals and thus gaps in one’s genealogical information might be filled by a distant relative who supplies information to solve a historical puzzle. For instance, sometimes a memorial page will include the text from the deceased person’s newspaper obituary that details the cause of death and, more importantly, lists deceased and living family members. This is truly helpful as memorials for dead family members may not exist and the family connections are missing.
Thirdly, the individuals contributing to Find A Grave will usually supply pictures of the tombstone and on occasions, photos of the deceased person will be uploaded to the memorial page. Personally, I have tried to upload at least one photo of my kinfolks, including direct ancestors and photos of great uncles and aunts. With my direct Kitts ancestors who lived before the days of photographs, I have intentionally sought out their signatures from military pension papers, land deeds and will registrations. To me, the attachment of photos and signatures makes the memorial page seem more human. Instead of just staring at a polished or rough stone with a name carved on it, looking at a person’s portrait or viewing a person’s handwriting style makes a distant ancestor come alive.
Fourthly, Find A Grave allows for the creation of a memorial page for those cases where the exact grave location of the deceased person is uncertain. I was able to make a page for an ancestor that died during the Civil War at a camp hospital. As his family could not get his body through enemy lines to be buried in a family cemetery, the body was buried near the military hospital and today his grave is unmarked. I was able to make a memorial page and thus provide a missing link between the memorial websites of his children and his parents. In addition, I created a memorial page for John Kitts (Götz), my oldest known Kitts ancestor in order to get his genealogical information on the internet. To do so, I was forced to make an educated guess based on historical documents that he was buried in or near the same cemetery were his son-in-law was buried. Of course, this memorial will be updated whenever his actual gravesite is located, but this is the best, historically speaking, that can be done at the moment.
The last advantage of Find A Grave is that it will give you GPS coordinates so you can locate the graveyard or cemetery where your ancestors are buried. Using Google maps, one may travel to physically visit the gravesites of family members and check up on the condition of the tombstones. Sometimes, private family cemeteries will be located near the site of old family farms where an individual can view where ancestors lived a century ago. On some rare occasions, there may even be a house or other structure still standing from the time when the ancestor lived there.
The biggest disappointment of Find A Grave is locating a memorial page with only scant details listed: the deceased’s name, birth year and death year. No immediate family connections are listed. It is a literal dead end. One can only hope that in the future, a genealogical rock will be over turned and the identity of the deceased person’s family revealed. As always, one has to be careful to double check the memorial page information with historical documents. Sometimes, people will insert information based on family oral history without checking documented census and wills.
WEEBLY
Weebly is a web hosting service that allows individuals to build free websites with easy drag and drop elements for the webpages. I created a Weebly website called www.kittsgen.weebly.com to function as a central hub of various information about John Kitts (Götz) and his three children. I have tried to include historical materials to better understand what these ancestors faced during the troubled times of the Revolutionary War. I have dedicated a section to John Kitts (Götz) followed by a section on his children: Peter, Mary and Elizabeth. Under the John Kitts (Götz)’s children section, I have already created a subsection for Peter Kitts Sr. and I plan to finish subsections concerning Mary and Elizabeth as well. In these webpages, I have attempted to include transcriptions of the original handwritten court documents. In some cases, I have been able to attach a copy of the original document as well. The information for my Weebly site is drawn primarily from Barr and Waldron’s book entitled Kitts Legacy Primer. Through this Weebly website, I hope to supplement Barr and Waldron’s book by inserting more photocopies of the actual historical documents.
In addition, I have dedicated some space exploring the heraldry connected to the Kitts surname. I have included the foundational research on the family coat of arms including the original wording describing the shield and crest. I have provided a couple of examples of modern drawings of the coat of arms and the contact information of a genealogical company that can produce a variety of apparel and artwork based on the “Kitts – Germany” shield.
Lastly, if all goes to plan I would like the Weebly site to become the online repository of 250 Years of Kitts Family History (1769-2019) in .pdf files. It is my hope to set up a section on www.kittsgen.weebly.com that will allow Kitts genealogists to download this entire book, thus avoiding an interlibrary loan.
Today’s internet provides some significant outlets for researching the Kitts family history. In particular, the reader will find helpful information through the following websites:
- Family Tree DNA
- FamilySearch
- Find A Grave
- Weebly
FTDNA
The most important website at this time is the Kitts DNA Project found at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). The web link is https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/kitts/about This site chronicles the scientific endeavors that are allowing us to reveal our ancestors and distant cousins via genetics.
The primary goal of this site is to discover the parents of John Kitts (Götz) [b.1730 - d.1802]. As of 2022, family historians have hit the proverbial wall, as we have no definitive idea of John Kitts (Götz)’s parentage. Our best hope is to find a genetic link between John and a potential ancestor and then to analyze historical documents for corroboration of the linkage. This website holds the key to unlocking the genetic door to another generation.
Thus far, the FTDNA Kitts Project has determined a significant portion of the genetic markers for John Kitts (Götz). We were able to do this because the direct male descendants of four of John Kitts (Götz)’s grandsons provided DNA samples by lightly scraping the inside of their cheeks and shipping the gathered cells to the FTDNA lab in Houston, Texas. The samples were compared, derivations accounted for and the mode of the markers was ascertained. This procedure allowed the geneticists to determine 67 of John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers. Presently, FTDNA kit #180848 is the only Kitts descendent that has had no mutations since John Kitts (Götz)’s birth. The other descendants have one or two deviations out of the 67 markers. Refer to https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Kitts?iframe=ycolorized for complete information.
Questions naturally arise, “So what can we do with John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers? What can we discover using DNA?”
First, we were able to discover the haplogroup associated with John’s markers. According to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, a haplogroup is a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on the patriline or the matriline. Since, John‘s haplogroup is labeled I-M223, this common ancestor is approximately 17,400 years old. When looking at a map of I-M223 (also known as I2a2) located at https://www.eupedia.com/europe/maps_Y-DNA_haplogroups.shtml#I, one will see the heaviest concentration of this genetic group in Germany is in the Thuringia/Hesse region. From this epicenter, one can make an educated guess that John’s family was living in or near the Hesse side of the German Palatine by 1600s-1700s. From here, John’s family floated down the Rhine River and immigrated to America.
Secondly, we have been able to eliminate a person who had been perceived as the most likely candidate to be John Kitts (Götz)’s father. Based on the documented records from the book Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808, a person named Johann Peter Gotz sailed to Philadelphia aboard the ship named Phoenix in 1744. Along with Johann Peter Gotz on the ship’s list of passengers was Andonius Weyrich. The documented family connections between the Götz/Getz and Weyrich/Wyrick were too overpowering to ignore the possibility that Johann Peter Gotz was somehow related to John Kitts (Götz).
So Michael Kitts set out to prove or disprove any relationship between John Kitts (Götz) and Johann Peter Gotz. He telephoned and actually visited descendants of Johann Peter Gotz in Pennsylvania to secure a DNA sample to compare with DNA markers of John Kitts (Götz) descendants. Michael was able to persuade a direct male descendent of Johann Peter Gotz to send in cheek scrapping to FTDNA. The result was there was no connection; the DNA markers were too different. Johann Peter Gotz is not related to John Kitts (Götz).
In addition, Michael Kitts’ diligent work shed light on an inaccurate assumption about the origin of Johann Peter Gotz. On the internet, one will read Johann Peter Gotz being referred to as Johann Peter Gotz von Kestenberg. In speaking with descendants of Johann Peter, Michael learned that Kestenberg was an American village where Johann Peter lived in the Hempfield Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A descendent of Johann Peter Gotz had simply decided to add von Kestenberg to his name because “it sounded so German.” So let the reader be aware that Kestenberg has nothing to do with a German location where Johann Peter Gotz might have lived prior to immigrating. Kestenberg is a small village in Pennsylvania, not Germany.
Speaking of misinformation, there has also been an issue with some genealogy sites that list John Kitts (Götz) as John Jacob Kitts. By carefully examining the historical documents, one will realize there are no records from the 1700s or 1800s that connects John Kitts (Götz) with a John Jacob Kitts. The reason this middle name of Jacob was mistakenly applied is due to the fact that Johann Peter Gotz had a son named Johann Jacob Gotz. People are assuming, without checking the DNA research, that Johann Peter Gotz was actually John Kitts (Götz)’s father and thus John Kitts (Götz) had the middle name of Jacob. The DNA testing has proven that Johann Peter Gotz is not John Kitts (Götz)’s father and therefore John Kitts (Götz) is not Johann Jacob Kitts.
Furthermore, along with this misnaming of John Kitts (Götz), the internet keeps supplying readers with a supposed photo of John Kitts (Götz). The photo shows a long, white bearded man wearing a vest, coat and trousers, sitting in a chair holding a book in his left hand. https://www.geni.com/photo/view/6000000008091359606?album_type=photos_of_me&photo_id=6000000010252137258 Court documents prove that John Kitts (Götz) died in 1802 and the world's earliest successful photograph was taken by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826, twenty years after John Kitts (Götz) had died. Therefore, it is impossible to have a photo of John Kitts (Götz)! Unfortunately, several genealogical websites have replicated this photo. This supposed photo of John Kitts (Götz) actually comes from the website https://www.littlewalkerscreek.com/id29.html and the man sitting in the chair is clearly labeled as Jacob Franklin Kitts who was born in the 1840s.
Thirdly, John Kitts (Götz) markers sits like a beacon floating on top of the DNA ocean. Its light flashes across the dark waters telling the world where to find the genetic link to the Kitts family. John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers are the conduit for cousins to locate each other and to uncover their family’s heritage via DNA. However, this utilization of the DNA markers could take a surprising twist though. At this moment, John Kitts (Götz) parentage is unknown. One has to accept the outside possibility that that John Kitts (Götz) could have been born out of wedlock and thus another surname is his true heritage. This possibility reemphasizes the ultimate goal of the Kitts DNA Project at FTDNA: one day, John Kitts (Götz)’s DNA markers will point us to the correct genetic link and solve the mystery of who his parents were.
FAMILYSEARCH
Another important source of genealogical information that is free to the public at this time is FamilySearch. This website is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). Basically, the site is a trimmed-down, free backdoor into parts of the data found on Ancestry.com. You may search for an individual using birthdate, residence, name of spouse, child’s name, death date, etc. (The dates of birth, death, residence, etc. may be entered within various date ranges of 5-year intervals in case the exact date is unknown.) Once the information is submitted through the search engine, numerous possible names appear. Usually the person who is the most likely candidate for your search will appear on the first couple of pages.
Each person in the FamilySearch database is given a unique ID number, which is actually comprised of both numbers and letters. Clicking on this identification number, one views several information tabs, such as “Life Sketch,” “Vitals,” “Other Information” (usually county residences), and “Family Members.” In addition, a tab for “Sources” may reveal census records, marriage certificates, death certificates, wills, and estate inventories. Through a tab labeled “Memories,” individuals may also add clips from books on family histories, screen shots from webpages or even type in additional notes.
FamilySearch also provides the user with a descendant’s bracketed family tree. This allows one to see quickly a person’s siblings and ancestors ascending in one direction and the person’s children and grandchildren descending in the other. Each person on the tree has his or her own ID number listed that so the researcher may merely click on the number to review the personal information about the chosen individual.
There are, however, a couple of caveats about FamilySearch. First, I have found on a few occasions there to be duplicate names of people with their own trees. So one has to be careful to take the time and carefully review the information before attempting to merge the duplications into a single listing for a person. Secondly, let the users of FamilySearch be aware of misinformation. Most of the bracketed family trees originated from the work of ordinary folks trying their best to make sense of the family data they have collected over the years.
Unfortunately, people have sometimes inserted information based solely on oral stories without any historical documentation. This can lead to a very frustrating time having to chase down sources. For instance, I spent nearly two months attempting to confirm a bracketed family tree that had linked a paternal great-grandmother with one of the Mayflower pilgrims. I eventually had to request help from a representative of the Mayflower Descendants Association who was able to send me documentation that my ancestor in Tennessee did not connect to the Mayflower families in the New England area. I left a note on the FamilySearch section of my great-grandmother that the supposed Mayflower descendancy was false. I am hoping to keep another person from wasting precious time running down that rabbit hole.
FIND A GRAVE
Another important website is Find A Grave. Presently, this website allows the public to search pages without paying a fee and enables individuals to add memorials and cemetery information concerning gravesites. This vast collection of individual memorial pages is automatically absorbed into searches using Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. This inclusion of Find A Grave has greatly expanded the potential of discovering genealogical tips. Owned today by Ancestry.com, the Find A Grave database possesses several advantages.
First, Find A Grave memorial pages often provide links to a deceased person’s immediate family members -- parents, siblings, spouse and children. From there, it is simple to follow the genealogical breadcrumbs in either direction to discover great-grandparents or grandchildren.
Secondly, Find A Grave is used by a multitude of individuals and thus gaps in one’s genealogical information might be filled by a distant relative who supplies information to solve a historical puzzle. For instance, sometimes a memorial page will include the text from the deceased person’s newspaper obituary that details the cause of death and, more importantly, lists deceased and living family members. This is truly helpful as memorials for dead family members may not exist and the family connections are missing.
Thirdly, the individuals contributing to Find A Grave will usually supply pictures of the tombstone and on occasions, photos of the deceased person will be uploaded to the memorial page. Personally, I have tried to upload at least one photo of my kinfolks, including direct ancestors and photos of great uncles and aunts. With my direct Kitts ancestors who lived before the days of photographs, I have intentionally sought out their signatures from military pension papers, land deeds and will registrations. To me, the attachment of photos and signatures makes the memorial page seem more human. Instead of just staring at a polished or rough stone with a name carved on it, looking at a person’s portrait or viewing a person’s handwriting style makes a distant ancestor come alive.
Fourthly, Find A Grave allows for the creation of a memorial page for those cases where the exact grave location of the deceased person is uncertain. I was able to make a page for an ancestor that died during the Civil War at a camp hospital. As his family could not get his body through enemy lines to be buried in a family cemetery, the body was buried near the military hospital and today his grave is unmarked. I was able to make a memorial page and thus provide a missing link between the memorial websites of his children and his parents. In addition, I created a memorial page for John Kitts (Götz), my oldest known Kitts ancestor in order to get his genealogical information on the internet. To do so, I was forced to make an educated guess based on historical documents that he was buried in or near the same cemetery were his son-in-law was buried. Of course, this memorial will be updated whenever his actual gravesite is located, but this is the best, historically speaking, that can be done at the moment.
The last advantage of Find A Grave is that it will give you GPS coordinates so you can locate the graveyard or cemetery where your ancestors are buried. Using Google maps, one may travel to physically visit the gravesites of family members and check up on the condition of the tombstones. Sometimes, private family cemeteries will be located near the site of old family farms where an individual can view where ancestors lived a century ago. On some rare occasions, there may even be a house or other structure still standing from the time when the ancestor lived there.
The biggest disappointment of Find A Grave is locating a memorial page with only scant details listed: the deceased’s name, birth year and death year. No immediate family connections are listed. It is a literal dead end. One can only hope that in the future, a genealogical rock will be over turned and the identity of the deceased person’s family revealed. As always, one has to be careful to double check the memorial page information with historical documents. Sometimes, people will insert information based on family oral history without checking documented census and wills.
WEEBLY
Weebly is a web hosting service that allows individuals to build free websites with easy drag and drop elements for the webpages. I created a Weebly website called www.kittsgen.weebly.com to function as a central hub of various information about John Kitts (Götz) and his three children. I have tried to include historical materials to better understand what these ancestors faced during the troubled times of the Revolutionary War. I have dedicated a section to John Kitts (Götz) followed by a section on his children: Peter, Mary and Elizabeth. Under the John Kitts (Götz)’s children section, I have already created a subsection for Peter Kitts Sr. and I plan to finish subsections concerning Mary and Elizabeth as well. In these webpages, I have attempted to include transcriptions of the original handwritten court documents. In some cases, I have been able to attach a copy of the original document as well. The information for my Weebly site is drawn primarily from Barr and Waldron’s book entitled Kitts Legacy Primer. Through this Weebly website, I hope to supplement Barr and Waldron’s book by inserting more photocopies of the actual historical documents.
In addition, I have dedicated some space exploring the heraldry connected to the Kitts surname. I have included the foundational research on the family coat of arms including the original wording describing the shield and crest. I have provided a couple of examples of modern drawings of the coat of arms and the contact information of a genealogical company that can produce a variety of apparel and artwork based on the “Kitts – Germany” shield.
Lastly, if all goes to plan I would like the Weebly site to become the online repository of 250 Years of Kitts Family History (1769-2019) in .pdf files. It is my hope to set up a section on www.kittsgen.weebly.com that will allow Kitts genealogists to download this entire book, thus avoiding an interlibrary loan.