Since I began tracing my family tree last July, I have made many interesting discoveries. The first one was the ancestor who enabled one of my sisters and two of my nieces to get into the DAR. John Preston fought in the American Revolution out of Connecticut. His great granddaughter Clemenza Marilla Mills (my 2nd great grandmother) married Daniel Kenney Wright, who not only fought for the Union in the Civil War, but was eventually put in charge of one of the black units out of Michigan. These are only two of many ancestors and cousins who have fought in wars from early colonial days to the present generation.
Some ancestral connections have been fairly easy to trace online over the past year. Others have proved to be surprising to discover, mostly as I have traced generational ancestor and sibling descendants forward on findagrave.com and other websites. I found Salem witches, their accusers and defenders on different branches of my dad's side. Both President Garfield and his wife were descended from different children of Dad's common ancestor. President Truman and I share a common ancestor on Mom's side of the family.
The most recent discovery happened this week. I was tracing one of Dad's lines forward using findagrave. Suddenly I found a marriage with a Barton. Edmund Barton was Clara Barton's great grandfather. This means that Clara was my fifth cousin five generations removed. She was the founder of the American Red Cross, and headed the organization for twenty-two years.
It's not that I am a fame seeker or name dropper. I think all of my ancestors led amazing lives, for good or ill. It is, however, a nice treat to find someone of note in the tree on occasion. It gives a little added spark to the search for family history that continues to spur my interest. Who know what person of interest I will find tomorrow?
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