A Story to Last - Comes from the Past!
Tell your grandchildren about their relatives! They will love it!
Do you love history? If so, the exciting adventures of your ancestors are woven throughout. All you need to do is find them.
I have traced my ancestors (and hundreds more for others) for more than sixty-five years, and I can tell you that the stories are there! I read an old will in which the testator complained that his two daughters had been taken by Indians and pledged some of his estates should they “ever return.”
What a sad story that made. As it turns out, I had never substantiated the marriages of one of the women to my ancestor! And there it was! I had the maiden name and proof of what had happened to her! One cannot suppose that passing through Indian territory was an easy task. By the time these families reached the West Virginia border, they had lost wives, husbands, and children to Indian attacks.
Then there were the ships that, while transporting families from Northern Ireland, sank into the deep storms of the Bermuda Islands before reaching the American shore. Irish journals wrote about this shared experience. But one has to read the old Journals for details.
The massacre of 1623 wiped out the population at Jamestown, except for some five hundred persons. The losses of the survivors caused a long period of suffering and starvation. The only record left is a list of the survivors (available on virginiapioneers.net). Following the tragedy, the transports of future supply ships delivered wives to the settlers. Until that time, only men had been sent to the Virginia Colony!
Pension records from the Revolutionary War are not disappointing. Soldiers wrote of their experiences on the battlefield. There was a sixteen-year-old Macdonald who lay on the ground with a sword pointed at his neck. For some reason, the British soldier withdrew his sword.
Then, in March of 1776, the British, in need of food for its army, sent ships to Yamacraw Bluff in Savannah to seize rice boats. During the skirmish, Americans set a ship on fire and pushed it into the rice boats. The Georgia Militia and British forces skirmished during the battle, while three ships burned.
After the war, the Tories fled to avoid execution, and thousands of veterans scrambled to rebuild their homes.
To begin your story, join georgiapioneers.com and search the Wilderness Trail for families who ultimately settled on land grants in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The newsletters provide factual data to assist in your endeavors. Scroll down the homepage of georgiapioneers.com and click on the newsletter of your choice.