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The line of descendants I'm in became part of the great American melting pot. We've fought in wars, protested wars, inter-married, made fortunes, gone broke, moved west, driven foreign, hearded cattle, put man on the moon, gone to jail, saluted the stars and bars, fought for civil rights, shoveled snow, lain on the beach, combed straight hair and frizzy hair and long hair and no hair. Nothing special but truly, uniquely American.
I'm here! My paternal grandmother was a member of the DAR once upon a time. My daughter wants me to look into getting her and I signed up - just another thing I'm always putting off until "later".
My first ancestor on American soil was an excommunicated Irish priest, sometime in the 1600s. I'd have to look up the exact date. Dad has some copy of a piece of paper - something that his *great* grandfather (not sure how many greats that is) signed when he became a soldier at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. There are a few more of those copies, dealing with various ancestors enlistment during the Civil War. A few death notices from the Civil War too.
My mom did not like the policies of the DAR and refused to join but my grandmother and a generation or so back had. Actually my mom was good old Scots in her stubborness and didn't like to join anything. But they DO have the records for me to find that side of the family so I'm glad they did. Dad's family were Scots/Irish and probably came early on too, but didn't have paperwork to join.
Looking into my ancestry, most of the family names were Scots. So I guess I come by my stubborness naturally. I told someone I know this and she responded that all you have to do is look at me.
I could probably if paperwork still existed be part of the Daughters of the Confederacy but don't want to. Mom's attitudes stuck. The family was entirely southern before the Civil war and then it went west. I may live in Oklahoma (by choice, since I moved here by myself) but am a third generation native of California and thats where I'll always be from.
I love the strong line of women in my family. I just try to keep up the tradition.
Two branches of my family on my father's side were here 140 years before the Revolution. One was the first European born to live to be 100 in North America. His decendant ran the ferry which carried Washington and his officers across the Housatonic River.
My mother was a DAR member for a short time. The records kept back in colonial times were often very good. Population and geographic areas were much smaller than today.
Last edited by pc-not; 12-11-2010 at 09:22 PM..
Reason: addition
....What i'd like to know is where are all of the English who founded America?
The "English who founded America," both in the original colonies and as a separate republic were also composed of large numbers of Dutch, French Huguenots, Germans and Scots-Irish, in addition to people from England and Wales.
The descendents of the Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony (which is what I assume you're asking about, Alphamale) are also right here.
My Perkins family of Gloucestershire sailed from Bristol on the Lyon, arriving in1631. Incidentally, this was the same ship that brought Roger Williams to the colonies. My Towne ancestors most likely sailed from Great Yarmouth on the Rose in 1637.
As an aside, my husband is also descended from the same Towne line. So, our kids got a double-dose of the Separatist mentality.
Last edited by formercalifornian; 12-12-2010 at 09:31 AM..
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