Wednesday, November 30, 2005

A little family trivia

I am the 11th generation of my family in this country. They arrived in 1630 in Massachusetts. They settled in Ipswich in 1635. Nobody knows what in tarnation they were doing for five years before Ipswich. Possible indentured servitude? Who knows.

My great great grandfather died in the Civil War. He died of malaria like so many did back then.

My great great great grandfather was impressed into the British navy while out at sea in the late 1790's (you know, one of those issues we had with the Brits that brought on the War of 1812) When he finally got home, the entire family had up and moved from Ipswich MA to Nowhere Maine, somewhere near Augusta (think its called Hallowell or something or other)

My great great great great grandfather has no death date on his tomb. I have come to the conclusion that he's a vampire and that is the reason the entire family up and left. They were probably run out of town with torches and pitchforks. It's not like our family is a stranger to scandals.

Another great great great great grandfather was a Hessian soldier that jumped ship with his buddy. According to family legend, he had a Cinderfella kind of story, including an evil stepmother who he felt the need to run away from. So he ran away from home and wound up in BF Maine. Good thing he could swim.

My great great (crap, need to count fingers), well 5X great grandfather marched to Lexington in 1776. They missed the show, but he still get's a little flag and a medal on a stick on his grave. He would have got the "I marched to Lexington and Concord for nothing and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" t-shirt, but t-shirts hadn't been invented yet. He was in his 60's in 1776.

Gotta go get the kids... I'll finish this later.

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