Surprise
For 2023, I’m writing responses to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Days prompts provided by Amy Johnson Crow on her ”Generations Café” website and Facebook page.
This isn’t really the story of one ancestor, but more a story of how my family history has been a constant surprise to me.
I didn’t learn anything about my family’s history while I was growing up. There was no “family lore” that was shared around holiday dinners or during family visits. My parents were part of what we now label the “greatest generation” – the generation that came of age during the Great Depression and World War II. I always got the impression that their families were too busy putting food on the table and figuring out how to navigate not one, but two, World Wars. No one told stories. I don’t know if my parents knew any stories about their ancestors that they just didn’t pass on to me. The past really was a clean slate.
When I began to do genealogy research 12 years ago, I find myself on a wild ride into the past. By the time I have tentatively fleshed out multiple generations of my family’s history, I found that I could trace my ancestors on all my family lines back to before the American Revolution. I had ancestors living in 11 of the 13 American colonies (only Delaware and Georgia didn’t make the cut). I had ancestors in the earliest colonial settlements – in Jamestown in 1610, Plymouth in 1620, and New Amsterdam in 1647.
So this was all surprising.
It was also surprising to learn that all of my ancestors were living west of the Appalachian Mountains by 1840. They had moved to western New York, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois. They took advantage of Revolutionary War land grants in their first moves, and in subsequent moves took advantage of Civil War land grants, the Homestead Act land grants, and Oklahoma Land Run grants to find new places to live.
My family lines came together when my parents met in Tucson, Arizona, in the late 1930s. They married there in 1940, and found themselves “back” in Virginia by 1946. I say “back” because I have been able to trace both my maternal and paternal lineages to colonial Virginia – both of them in areas not far from where I live today. My father’s ancestors were in Jamestown, and my mother’s ancestors were in York and New Kent counties – all within about 20 minutes of where I currently live.
All of these findings were a surprise to me. I am a historian by training and trade, so I have thoroughly enjoyed finding my ancestors in the midst of all of the historical events I have read, researched, written, and taught about over the course of my career. I can’t think of a better way to spend my years in retirement.