The Happy Homemaker

I think it is the mystery that makes genealogy so much fun. You are doing the work of an investigator. You look at your ancestors legal documents and follow them as they move. You read their court documents and their wills. Sometimes when someone writes a biography of an ancestor, they almost honor the person with sainthood. You begin to feel that maybe you don’t belong in such a saintly family. The legal documents tell a different story and tell you that, “oh yes, that sounds like my family.” You find family members suing each other for slaves and fighting over legitimacy of marriages. You find some being put into insane asylums or in trouble for being too drunk. You find out that your family fought on the wrong side of a war or weren’t the heroes you were told. This might sound terrible, but I find the real stories to be far more fascinating than the fabled saintly ones. It shows that though the family wasn’t perfect they overcame obstacles and almost always succeeded in life. Instead of being shameful, they are inspiring. Their lives are lessons for us their descendants to learn. Our job is to keep their story moving on to the next generation so that it won’t be forgotten or repeated. The hearts of the children go to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers go to the children.

Though I have Bacons, Nevilles, Howards, and Warrens in my family, there is no evidence that I am related to royalty. The closest we come to is the Warrens and the Bacons. The closest I come to royalty is King Alpin from the 9th century Scotland and possibly Robert the Bruce.

My ancestors were plain old folks whose lives were filled with challenges. My forefathers had a lot more stress than I do today. They were pioneers settling in lands that for the most part were not welcome to them. Many of them were the Ulster Scots who were unwelcome in Ireland and had to fight for their property. They left to come to America and battled Indians to gain land through land lotteries. That is how my family came to Georgia for the most part and how some came to Tennessee. They are no longer considered heroes in our multiculturalist world. Yes, my ancestors fought Creek Indians and Seminoles off of their land. I have relatives who say we have Native American blood but so far none have been found. I suppose it is possible for their are a few deadends in our family tree and in areas where there were a lot of Native populations. I know of a very distant cousin who married an Indian lady and later his family left with the Cherokees pushed off their land by another very distant cousin, Andrew Jackson. So, my ancestors were not hippies and were not multicultural. These Scots-Irish ancestors fought hard for the American Revolution against the British crown who never did anything for them. They loved their freedom and in their new lands were successful.

Other of my forefathers were Highland Scots and were loyal to the crown when our country was in a revolution. Many of them came to America because of their loyalty to the crown during the English Civil War. By the time of the revolution, many lived in North Carolina and were “Tories”. The Scots-Irish in North Carolina rebelled against these Tory landowners. One my ancestors’ brothers was killed during a fight. His son took revenge on his father, stole a horse and fled to Georgia. He was found and hanged for being a thievery though the main reason was that he was a Tory. Not all were Highland Scot Tories. Some had English blood as well but benefited by being loyal to the crown. I did have other Highland Scot ancestors who lived in Maryland and though fought for King Charles II, fought against the Hanoverian crown during the Revolutionary War.

Another interesting story I found out is about the MacGregors. My family was part of the MacGregor clan but came to America with the name Magruder. That didn’t make much sense to me until I read about the history. The MacGregor clan angered King James VI (later King James I of England) and became outlawed. Anyone with the name MacGregor was sentenced to death and any who killed a MacGregor was rewarded with land. Many of the clan changed their names, mine changed theirs to Magruder. The Clan Campbell benefited from this ban and took much of the MacGregor lands. I think this is interesting because I have Campbells in my family as well. Because of the ban the MacGregors would fight for the crown with the thought that they might be rewarded with the lifting of the ban. My ancestor fought for King Charles II during the English Civil War. During a battle, he was captured and sent as a prisoner to Maryland. Being educated he quickly became a success in Maryland and owned a lot of property. For the record, Rob Roy was also of this clan and he fought against the English during the Jacobite Uprising.

My ancestors weren’t all saints though I would say that many were close for all they suffered. The early English ancestors, especially those that were Captains, usually had an illegitimate child or ten. Many of them had slaves, though there were many on my mother’s side who were against slavery. I just found a new ancestress who was the daughter of a French settler in Virginia. As soon as her husband died, she married a dashing doctor who was a bit of a cad. She abandoned her children by her first marriage and went off to live with her second husband. Later the descendants of a son by her first marriage married a descendant of a son by her second marriage. Another man put in his will asking that his wife (who was once his mistress) not marry his best friend. After he died she married him anyway. We like to think of our ancestors as religious prigs, and though many were, there was a period in the 17th Century and early 18th where morals appeared to be a bit lax. This was a time of pirates and adventurers. I don’t know if we have any pirates in our family but it is possible that we had some who were kidnapped by pirates. Early American history used to be so boring to me. I think that was because of all of the focus on Massachusetts. (zzzzzzzzzzz) Virginia in the 17th century is far more interesting. I would rather read court records of the early settlers fighting over property or of Bacon’s rebellion (started by another cousin) than about Puritans whining about how humble and sinful they are.

As a Southerner, I am proud of my ancestors who fought in the Civil War. I hate slavery and am not a racist, but I believe that most fought for their lands in defense of the Northern Army invasion. I believe that is how they saw it at the time. The felt the same way that today’s liberals in San Francisco do not like how someone in Alabama dictates what they can or cannot do on their property. Most of them fought for the South, though my mother has found some of hers who fought for the North. They disliked the practice of slavery and did not own any. They probably hated the Southern Planters much like the later president Andrew Johnson did. I have a new respect for this side of the family and admire their courage to speak up in such a dangerous time. A cousin was killed for fighting for the North as he was returning home after the War. Some had lands who were directly affected. My great great great grandfather was still living in Virginia and owned large amounts of property and many slaves. The Northern Army came in and destroyed everything that he owned. What they didn’t take they burned. They freed his slaves but the two who refused to leave their master were raped and killed. My great great great grandfather fled on his horse but his horse was killed by a soldier and he was thrown off of the horse injuring himself. He never recovered from his injuries and died not too long after. Another North Carolina ancestor fought with two of his cousins on Virginia’s battlefields. At the battle of Chancellorsville, (not too far from my great great great grandfather’s property), all three cousins were wounded. My ancestor survived his wounds, but his two cousins died in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Another great great grandfather was wounded in the arm and sent to a prison in Alabama. After the war, he had to walk all the home to Tennessee probably worried about the family he left behind in Virginia.

We had many who also fought in WWI and WWII and had some cousins who died for this country. A few more died during the great Flu epidemic. Others suffered through the ups and downs of the American economy and would go bankrupt, but later gain wealth.

I would go into detail, but that would easily take up a huge book. The study of our families is the study of our history in a more lively way than any history book can offer us. We are the investigators, sifting through thousands of files and films to read the record of how our ancestors lived and died. Their examples help us go through our own trials and their lives become a guide for us to follow. We can choose to follow their examples and even improve on the past or we can repeat the past over and over again.