Re: Heritage
Deborah
searles@summerlands.com
Sat Jun 13 01:59:27 1998
Hi Tal,*p*Boy, when you ask questions, you dont mess around do you? <G>*p*OK... let me see if I can answer... at least for myself and my ancestry.*p*I look at having 4 main branches.  2 matrilineal/2 patrilineal.  So far, I've traced my mother's mother's line and my father's father's line. *p*Mom's maternal line goes back to James Wilson (1st ancestor in this country) who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  I've traced him back to his parents/home town on the Firth of Forth.  There are two main Wilson branches in Scotland.  One in the north which is a Sept of Clann Gunn and the southern branch which is a Sept of Clann Innis (whose lands just happen to be around the Firth of Forth <G>)  Still looking for hardcopy documentation for that particular affiliation.  But was accepted as a member of Clann Innis by their local representative in my home town at the Scottish Society there.*p*Traced my father's father's line back to Moses Cleveland who came from a small town in the SE of England and who settled in Massachuchetts in 1635.  He married and buried 3 wives and had 18 children! between the three of them, so I'm still trying to connect my upline (back about 4 generations) with the proper downline (about 10 generations)... and I thought CATS bred like Rabbits (they didnt have ANYTHING on old Moses).*p*Granny (mom's mom) married Charles Collins (I'm going out on a limb and guess he's Irish?!.. especially since his face looks like a map of Ireland <G>)*p*Grandpa (dad's dad) married Lula Theresa Neal (could be Irish... not sure).*p*So basically I'm from the Celtic Isles no matter which way you slice it.  I do have a couple of Dutch and at least one French in the mix.  Have one distant line that we connected all the way back to the 1400's.  But that's just because I have a cousin involved in genealogy(on mom's side of family).*p*I got the information about Dad's people from the LDS Family Center near my house... they have amazing records.  My mom's line I got from old letters handed down through the family detailing the heritage... and from some digging in the library to find out where James Wilson came from before he arrived in America in 1745.*p*As to the worth of my heritage and my outlook on it...It's VERRRRA important to me.  And I will continue digging and if the time ever comes when I can afford a professional genealoger to help me, I'd love to do that.  But to me my heritage and ancestors is the base from which I launch my present and future.  I'm not going to shortchange my family's future by spending all my time and money on my distant past.  I know enough to know where I basically came from.  The rest is gravy.  I revere my ancestors, but I dont worship them.*p*How's that?  Was that the type of info you were looking for?*br*Deb
Heritage
Taliesin_2
14
Fri Jun 12 21:20:08 1998