So...As much as I love genealogy, history, rummaging through yellowing record books at courthouses and traipsing about in old cemeteries and battlefields, I seldom have the amount of time that I wish I could devote to such activities. Still, when I find the spare time, I take advantage of it to the fullest extent possible.

I've been actively researching since at least 1990, most of it in local libraries, courthouses, and cemeteries, collecting several documents that I still have yet to scan from the Westmoreland and Indiana County Courthouses in Pennsylvania. Now the internet has made it so much easier, particularly in international research and the volume of records available (as long as you keep paying that membership fee! LOL).

My main interest lies in the names in my father's side: RUGITO, DeRENNE, and BRUTOUT - all European immigrants that arrived in the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s. His line also includes common names that are nearly impossible to clarify at times: HARRIS, THOMPSON, and RANDOLPH (which is most likely derived from the colonial FITZ-RANDOLPH clan).

My mother's side has been well researched by others for the most part. Those lines are STAKLEY, WEATHERS, LINTON, and MARTIN (again with those common and hard to research names). The MARTIN line goes back to colonial settlements and a gateway ancestor with ties to European royalty, but until I can personally verify a few sources, we'll just leave that bookmarked for later discussion.

I can be reached at [email protected] and on Facebook under Gina Rugito Anderson, and I currently reside near Asheville, NC.

I really like this site, and I'm amazed by the amount of information available by members who have been so generous with their time. Thank you.

So...As much as I love genealogy, history, rummaging through yellowing record books at courthouses and traipsing about in old cemeteries and battlefields, I seldom have the amount of time that I wish I could devote to such activities. Still, when I find the spare time, I take advantage of it to the fullest extent possible.

I've been actively researching since at least 1990, most of it in local libraries, courthouses, and cemeteries, collecting several documents that I still have yet to scan from the Westmoreland and Indiana County Courthouses in Pennsylvania. Now the internet has made it so much easier, particularly in international research and the volume of records available (as long as you keep paying that membership fee! LOL).

My main interest lies in the names in my father's side: RUGITO, DeRENNE, and BRUTOUT - all European immigrants that arrived in the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s. His line also includes common names that are nearly impossible to clarify at times: HARRIS, THOMPSON, and RANDOLPH (which is most likely derived from the colonial FITZ-RANDOLPH clan).

My mother's side has been well researched by others for the most part. Those lines are STAKLEY, WEATHERS, LINTON, and MARTIN (again with those common and hard to research names). The MARTIN line goes back to colonial settlements and a gateway ancestor with ties to European royalty, but until I can personally verify a few sources, we'll just leave that bookmarked for later discussion.

I can be reached at [email protected] and on Facebook under Gina Rugito Anderson, and I currently reside near Asheville, NC.

I really like this site, and I'm amazed by the amount of information available by members who have been so generous with their time. Thank you.