My GGGGGrandfather came to North America in 1835.
He was a humble Irish sawyer up in the Maritimes. That means he spent his day in the pit, drawing on the saw, up and down. Hard work by any measure. His son tried several jobs, including farming. He came to America as an illegal. It was just a matter of a few miles, and you were in Maine. After a failed marriage, and a move to Boston, he took time out to serve on the Union side manning the Blockade ships along the Southern Coast.. His five children all settled in for family life in America, and all that meant at the time. We do know that one served in the Spanish-American War. One of the children, from one of that lot became a vaudevillian actress. The children of those children became Military Men, Lawyers, and Teachers, and Nurses. The children of today have become Insurance brokers, and Sound Engineers, Medical Transcriptionists, and Cafeteria workers, Computer geeks, and Moms. I won’t get into the Maternal side…think 1630 and the Planters.
Genealogy is an interesting research, and a fine way to learn out about your Family. How You came to be. It is also a measure of the Country’s History, and what it means to be American. Not one person in my North American Family ever became famous. Sure, some became well respected in their communities, but for the most part, just buckled down, and did what was necessary, contributing to the cloth that is this Nation. This is how most of us live each day. We Live, and Love. We work and Play. We find time to help those that need it. We don’t want interruptions in our Affairs. The prying neighbor, just gets us steamed. Medical emergencies scare the hell out of us. The phone calls from pollsters, and politicians interrupt our evening meals. The Government always finds a way to break into our meager lives. To some it’s the taxes, to others, its not having the tax monies to pay for roads, and schools. War always disrupts to the maximum. Some of the Wars fought by this Country may have been necessary. Our duties to Protect our Country, or those of our friends, is part of our way.
But Modern warfare, in these days of Global Communication, merely shows the inadequacies of our systems, and Elected Officials. Our children are ripped from our lives, and sent beyond our reach, to live or die according to the whims of fate, or the the negligence of our Leaders. When talking to each other doesn’t work, try talking again, and then, again. When we are attacked by lunatics, hunt them down and arrest them. Our Policeman are better trained, and armed than whole armies of our past. Our Special Operation Teams can penetrate the most impenetrable environments. Why is it necessary to spend Trillions of our wealth, and surrender the lives of our sons and daughters? To preserve what, our Pride, our Oil, Our American way of life?
If it’s to prevent another attack, why do we act in such a way as to create an entire new crop of enemies, like a Nebula of new suns? The greatest interruption in our lives today is the presence of these children of luxury that purport to be our Leaders. They are not men who lead, they are scurrilous, and unintelligent. They are subject only to their reptillian brains.. They are plain and simply the worst leaders this Country has ever known.
My ancestors are rolling in their graves.
Links to get you started:
Genforum
Rootsweb
FamilyHistory
This story originates at my website.