Genealogy and History

Genealogy is a great way to start an interest in history - in following my family tree, I've noted several incidents that ancestors were involved in, which made me want to learn more...  I grew up considering myself to be a Southerner in the United States.  Mom was from Virginia, Dad was born in Oklahoma and spent the majority of his youth in Kansas.  I was born in Virginia, and grew up in Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, and Florida.
   I was extremely surprised to learn that Chincoteague Island, Mom's Virginia hometown, declared for the Union (not the Confederacy), and while people fought for both sides, Chincoteague was a Northern ally.  So I read a great deal about the agricultural and seafood economies of Accomack County, and came away with a much better understanding of why the citizens decided to support the Union, rather than the South.  I had no idea that the Eastern Shore was not a part of the Confederacy - I was never taught that, nor did I ever see it mentioned in my history texts at school and college.
   Digging nuggets of information along family branches, I found that a great-grandfather (many generations ago) was hung for his part in Bacon's Rebellion at Jamestown in Virginia...  So I read up on that bit of history.
   I've found that one of my great-great-grandfathers was a part of the jury that found abolitionist John Brown and his sons guilty in absentia for the Pottawatomie Massacre.  That relative went on to be burned out during the Civil War, and became a Justice of the Peace and a Judge in Missouri.  At the same time, the great-great-grand Uncle of my sister's husband was one of the seven men supplying John Brown and his abolitionist followers with money and firearms that led to Harper's Ferry.  Jim's great Uncle somehow avoided trial and conviction, while many others did not.
   An ancestor supported Lord Calvert of Maryland in the only English Civil War battle that occurred in the American colonies, was caught and sentenced to prison.  He escaped, left the main land, and settled in Accomack County, Virginia, where he prospered.  Another ancestor, a Cleveland, was imprisoned during the British Commonwealth period, for writing "scurrilous verses" about Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.  The ancestor was incarcerated in the Clink Prison for six months.
   Ancestors and relatives of my parents fought in the Civil War, the War of 1812, multiple Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War, and I've traced a few who fought in the Wars of the Roses in England, the Crusades, and even a couple of battles that contained warlords and troops of Roman Legions...  Right now, I'm reading about the Roman Empire, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and the beginning of Charlemagne's  Frankish Empire that became the Holy Roman Empire.  It's fascinating stuff - especially when you realize that someone you're related to lived though it.

Thanksgiving Thoughts - Immigrants and Refugees

With the emigrant crisis in Syria and surrounding countries, and the posturing of American politicians regarding immigrants and refugees, I thought I'd share a few of my own views, and what I know of my family history, regarding the United States of America. Unless you are a Native American, or Indian (as Columbus and other voyagers mistakenly called them), including the so-called "Hispanic mixes" (all of Native American races) in the southwestern United States, you are an immigrant somewhere along your family tree.  If you're African-American, your ancestors were brought to the Americas without a choice; if you're Caucasian, someone, somewhere along in history, decided to leave the country in which they were born, and to live permanently in what is now the United States.  According to the dictionary, an immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in another country.  A refugee is a person forced to leave their country of birth in order to escape war, persecution, or a natural disaster.
   I believe that the majority of my ancestors were immigrants to the New World.  I know that several of them were refugees from war and persecution.  One of my ancestors was a trader in early Virginia, who (supposedly) married a Powhatan woman.  One of my ancestors signed up as a bond-servant in London, and worked on a tobacco plantation for seven years, six days a week, to earn his right to be known as a free man.  One part of the family - a many, many-times Great-uncle - arrived aboard the Mayflower, which was a ship full of religious refugees seeking relief of persecution in England and the Netherlands.  (My direct ancestor, the Mayflower guy's younger brother, came over to the colonies a few years later and became the coffin-maker for Plymouth and the surrounding area.)  I know I have a couple of French Huguenot ancestors, who came to the colonies as religious refugees.  I'm not quite sure of the reason for immigrating for the few Germans in the tree.  My great-great-grandfather left Denmark to avoid fighting in a war against Germany, and arrived here in the USA in time for our Civil War.  My great-grandparents, and my grandfather, held dual citizenships in both the United States and Sweden.
  In  my family tree, I am more than half English, with the Swedish and Danish mixed in.  But, truly, if you look at the history of England - Great Britain, that is - one sees that they, themselves, are a hodge-podge mixture of races and ethnicities, too.  You have the early Picts, followed by the Celts, followed by the Britons, followed by the Romans, (not to mention the mixing in of Scots and Irish) followed by the Vikings, followed by the Normans (who were originally Vikings), followed by waves of settlers from Flanders, the Netherlands, and various other European and African countries.
   Ninety-nine point nine percent of all my ancestors were immigrants and/or refugees that arrived on the shore of North America with hopes, dreams, and no land.  To my knowledge, America has accepted refugees from every country in the world.  Since our wake-up call to terrorism on September 11, 2001, the United States has admitted over 1 million people seeking refugee status.  Four of those million have been arrested for terrorism charges in the 14 years since.  In my mind, that means our system of checking out the backgrounds and histories of people who want to escape tyranny is pretty damn good.  (That is 0.0004 percent, by the way.)
   I think that refusing any refugee, no matter their race, creed or religion, is a slap in the face to our ancestors, and the Founding Fathers of this nation.  I think that Senators, Congressmen, and Governors should face recalls for refusing to support refugees.  Where the heck would they be, if not for an open immigration and refugee on the part of our government?

   Thank you for letting me get on my soap-box and have my say.