Digging for witches...

Dear Miriam and Sarah,

Genealogy is sure a strange thing.  In the course of researching your family tree, I have discovered these things called "heritage societies." These include the well-known Daughters of the American Revolution but also lesser known groups like the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Jamestowne Society, the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters, the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford, and (my personal favorite) the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches.  I really hope I find a woman accused of witchcraft among our ancestors.  I would join that society in a heartbeat!

But mostly I find myself wondering about these societies and about the purpose of doing genealogy. I have found in your tree ancestors that founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony and no less than four(!) Ancient Planters of Virginia.  Don't know what an ancient planter is?  Go here: http://www.ancientplanters.org/about.htm . There are also men who fought in the Revolutionary War.  So, technically we could apply to join many of these heritage societies.  But, this is where the problem comes in.  I really don't care about the Ancient Planters in your tree any more than I care about the Irish slate picker in Scranton, PA in 1890 or the Jewish merchants in nineteenth-century San Francisco. Its all good to me. It is all part of your glorious story.  I read somewhere that there is such a thing as a prestigious family tree and it was suggested that this prestige, at least in American circles, derives from early colonial ancestors. I think that is weird.  It is no accomplishment of mine that a few of my ancestors were Ancient Planters!  I wasn't even there!  I do genealogy because I love the stories of all my ancestors. I love seeing how they moved around, who they married, how they coped.  I love thinking about why they left Pennsylvania for Nebraska or North Carolina for Kentucky or the Rhineland for California or, indeed, England for Virginia.  I marvel at the hard decisions these people made and the struggle of it all.  Everybody in your tree has a story. And all the stories are compelling and all the stories are part of the greater American story. I have been pursuing the story of your illegitimate great great grandmother with as much zeal as the story of any colonial planter. 

I still hope I find a woman accused of witchcraft though.  I'll keep digging.

Love,
Mom

Bessie Colver--Your Ticket to the DAR

Dear Miriam and Sarah,

I always thought my family came from 19th century immigrants--you know the old Irish Potato Famine story with a little Scottish subplot thrown in.  And, trust me, there is plenty of that.  But I have discovered a few family lines that go way back to the fun-loving days of John Winthrop and John Smith. Take Bessie Colver, for example.  Your great-great grandmother, Bessie, has some darn fine colonial roots. I'm not sure she knew it herself, but her lineage goes all the way back to Edward Colver (1600-1685), one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Not only that, in Bessie's line are also the Arnolds (a family that goes back to Colonial Rhode Island, was among the first pioneers of Kentucky, served in the Revolutionary War, and produced the most infamous traitor in our nation's history), the Noels (Huguenots that came to Virginia from the Netherlands in the middle of the 17th century), the Grays (who were among the original Colonial families of Jamestown), the Bone family (Scots who colonized Ulster--Northern Ireland-- in the early 17th century and came to Pennsylvania in the 1690s), and the Brownsons (early--1650s--landholders in Hartford, Connecticut).

So, don't forget that you are really Daughters of the American Revolution!  I don't think I will be joining the DAR anytime soon.  I am still stuck on what they did to Marian Anderson back in the 1930s.  But when you turn 18, it's up to you.

Love,
Mom