Thompson appears to be the 4th most popular name in the Northern United Kingdom. It's the 4th most popular name in Belfast Ireland after Johnston, Wilson and Campbell. I think it's the 13th most popular name in the U.S.
How can it be so hard to find people in my little branch of this tree then? It seems nearly impossible that I'm alone looking up these particular Thompsons.
Right now I'm busy waiting for some documents from the National Archives. There is no guarantee that they will find anything. A person with the Sons of Union Soldiers told me that it's most likely that Levi applied for his pension but died before he could collect it. I don't have any record of him receiving a headstone and I have no idea what his death date could be. Although I believe it's before 1880. Confusingly a Levi Thompson dies in a nearby town in 1894, but I believe that is John Levi Thompson who marries a Nancy Trueblood..different guy.
I also haven't been able to find any marriage record for Levi and Rosa/Rosanna. So I have no idea what her maiden name might be. I can't find any record of Levi before 1860 when they appear in the census in VanBuren, Madison, Indiana already married and with a few children.
Really, when I had reached Albert's father, I had hoped to find him in other family trees. Every generation I go back, mathematically, I'm just that much more likely to run into some existing family on their own path. So far no luck though.
I contacted the Methodist Church in Alexandria Indiana trying to get any possible information from them about my Thompsons but they don't have any record of them. One of my great-grandfather Ray Bishop's brothers was a Methodist when he died, but that doesn't mean the rest of the family was. I think I have some information from news articles that Bishop's sisters were Baptists as was my grandfather. I'm not sure if the Baptists keep those kind of records. I haven't heard back from the Baptist church I contacted.
I have two trees on Ancestry.com, one at myheritage.com and one at genetree. Ancestry and Genetree have my Y-dna results attached to the trees.
The waiting is the hardest part.
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