I am pleased to know something of my genealogy, my... 'family tree'. This knowledge is in sharp contrast 
to
what I knew when I started a limited quest back in 1975. Following the
death of my mother, I asked my father questions about his family hoping
to get a grip on his side of my ancestry.
Unfortunately, if you
look up the phrase 'close-mouthed about family matters', one of the
first images is a photo of my father, Leon David Kleylein b. June 29,
1903, d. Dec. 29, 1992.
I
didn't discover until years later the really good reasons he had for
being so reticent, but that was no help getting me started at all. For
example, I didn't even know my own grandmother's maiden name until the
discovery of a marriage record in the Maryland State Archives twenty
years later.
My daughter, Leah, was poking at me for information about my family and I literally had nothing
to offer but about twenty names of relatives. I guess we could have
turned to the Internet, but there were only about 10,000 primitive
websites and newsgroups (remember newsgroups?) in 1994. It is estimated
that in 2012, the number of websites will reach 582 million. Several of
them will be about genealogy. (!)
So, instead, in those dark ages, we 
launched
a succession of trips to the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis and
the National Archives in Washington DC. Microfilm became a close friend.
And so it came to be that on December 29, 1994, it was determined by
means of a marriage record that my paternal grandmother's maiden name
was Harrison.
Now, it is seventeen years later and I have 11,148
names in my family file with 7,467 of them connected to my grandmother
Hallie Violet Harrison.
Hallie
was born Oct. 9, 1886 in Mt. Airy, Carroll Co., Maryland and died Sept.
9, 1971 in Miami, Dade Co., Florida. As research went on, it became
clear that she is related to nearly everyone in Maryland. It's a very
close-knit state. Apparently once you move there, you often stay.
In
the case of my Harrison connection, it's been nearly 400 years in the
new world. Hallie's mother (my great grandmother) was Sarah C. Watkins.
Sarah was a direct descendant of James Watkins who sailed with John
Smith.
Yes, that John Smith of Pocahontas fame, the John Smith
who founded Jamestown in 1607, a full thirteen years before those
latecomers finally got to Massachusetts on the Mayflower. I picture my
ancestors waving to them from the shore.
Well,
Smith and my tenth great grandfather James also sailed up the
Chesapeake into the Maryland area. Watkins Point on the Chesapeake is
named for my ancestor.
Just a few years ago, we could have
celebrated our... whaddayacallit... quadricentennial? Don't forget, the
King James Bible hadn't even been published at that point, it was a long
fricking time ago!
There's no documentation that James Watkins,
my ancestor, had any interaction with Pocahontas. This isn't an actual
photograph of her, by the way. I can tell you with a fair degree of
certainty that if she DID look like this, history would have gone in a
markedly different direction.
Which leads us to what I will never have in the genealogy world. It is demonstrable that I will never be a Daughter of the American Revolution.
Not
that I don't have lots of connections to the American Revolution. The
Harrison ancestors arrived soon after the Watkins ancestors along with
Lewis, Moxley, Carter, Fitzgerald, Randolph, Saffell, Waugh, Becraft,
Norwood, Holland, Shipley, Stevens, Lucas, Chamberlaine, Landon,
Burwell, Smith, Ludlow, Isham, Beverley, Peyton, Gassaway, Lamb,
Tydings, Green, Beall, Hungerford, Howard and more.
Two of my
direct ancestors, Kinsey Harrison and Jeremiah J. Lewis were soldiers
during the war. Two other directs, Jeremiah Watkins and William Shipley
took the Oath of Fidelity. And one direct ancestor, Nehemiah Moxley Sr.
has a very special place.
Everyone is taught
about the Boston Tea Party, patriots dressing up like Indians and
throwing tea into Boston Harbor because of unfair taxes. Well, on
October 19, 1774, Maryland patriots addressed this issue differently. In
Annapolis Harbor, the 'Committee of Observation' (sounds like a
terrorist group, doesn't it?) which included Nehemiah had the brig Peggy Stewart, along with a ton of tea on board, burned right down to the waterline.
This
seems to me a bit more direct and confrontational than some wimpy
costume party with folks dressed up like Pocahontas, but what do I know?
I wasn't there.
So, sure, I can be a Son of the American Revolution many times over but that doesn't really have the caché of the DAR. But my daughters... they can be daughters and Daughters!
Yay!
2 comments:
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Leah Kleylein said...
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They never taught us about this "other" tea party in school! What's up with that!
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Unknown said...
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Hello,
I was looking up a certain ancestor of mine (Nehmiah Moxley) when I stumbled upon your blog. It appears we have some names in common. Is there anyway we can compare trees?
-Amanda
