52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Long Line

It is week three in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge. This week’s prompt is titled Long Line.

I immediately thought of the many lines I have traced back through history the farthest. A few years ago, I became fascinated with identifying and proving lineage for several “gateway ancestors,” colonial immigrants whose ancestry can be traced to Old World gentry, nobility, or royalty. So far, I have determined that the following ancestors are direct descendants of Charlemagne: Edward Foulke (1651-1741) of Pennsylvania, my spouse’s 8th great-grandfather; Lawrence Smith (1629–1700) of Virginia, my 10th great-grandfather; Edmund Hawes (1612–1693) of Massachusetts, my 11th great-grandfather; and Peter Worden (1569-1639) of Massachusetts, my 12th great-grandfather.

From Our Families to Yours…

On behalf of my Cole-Marriner family, some of the original 1600s settlers of New Jersey’s Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean Counties, I would like to wish you Happy Holidays!

Speaking for my Watts-Stark family, early settlers of Virginia and South Carolina who, generations later, joined other pioneers venturing west, eventually settling in Cole, Moniteau, and Miller Counties, Missouri, I say Season’s Greetings!

Genealogy Poetry Challenge: Scotland

For 11 years, Bill West, a retired bookseller with a computer and an interest in genealogy and history, has hosted an annual genealogy poetry challenge.

Anyone is welcome to join the challenge. All you have to do is blog a poem or song (or in my case, both) about the region in which at least one of your predecessors resided. Within the post, share how that poem/song relates to your ancestors’ lives.

ABCs & Our Family Trees: Letter M

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy. I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

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This is the twelfth installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

Well, since I already covered the L names, let’s now address the letter M:

Sum Total of Our Ancestors

“[You] are the sum total of [your] ancestors. You are not limited by their limitations, but you have the potential of their accumulated sense of possibilities. And, you are a product of their stories even though you don’t know it.” ~Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Like every family everywhere, our combined families (mine, my spouse’s, our stepfamilies’, and extended) are a blend of ups and downs, highs and lows.

Throughout the branches of our family trees, I have discovered abolitionists alongside slaveholders and freemen next to slaves. I hope that by telling each and every tale, no matter how distasteful, that I might help shine a light on one of the darkest times in American history.

It is because of our families’ connections to the many sides of slavery that I found Ancestry.com’s Railroad Ties both poignant and hopeful. I hope you find this short film as moving as I have.