Our Extraordinary Ancestors PDF Download

The author compiled this family history using her own research and that of many near and distant cousins who shared their findings. The ancestors of her grandfather Clinton were participants in the founding of what would one day be these United States. Most of them came from England, and were the settlers and founders of Rhode Island Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Nantucket Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Ancestors included Quaker ministers, and people who were jailed, fined, beaten, whipped and persecuted simply because of their religious beliefs. The Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whitter wrote a poem expressing the experience of one young relative sitting in prison, waiting to be put on the slave auction block.Other ancestors were veterans of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. One was a Member of Parliament in England. Three arrived on the Mayflower. Some family lines are traced back up to 20 generations. One man was banished from town because he kissed his wife on the Sabbath. The Pellett family was able to keep their heads but had associates who did not, being executed for High Treason. Our ancestors came from all walks of life. Most could read and write; many owned books, and held esteemed positions in their communities. They were physicians, merchants, constables, blacksmiths and carpenters, coal miners, weavers and spinners. Many were land owners, gentlemen, planters and farmers. They erected glassworks and saw mills and operated ferries and taverns. Some represented their colony at the General Assembly. At least three are said to be of the Boston Brahmin. Included among some of the cousins are U.S. Presidents, vice presidents, a British Prime Minister, a few famous Generals, notable abolitionists, writers, poets, philosophers, abolitionists, actors and actresses, singers, an aviatrix, and the Duchess of Sussex. The ten page chapter on The Genetic Evidence explains the results obtained via Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-DNA testing at Family Tree DNA and Ancestry. Indexed and illustrated, with 93 family surname chapters and a 38 page Bibliography, the book should be useful to family researchers and genealogists who are related to these and allied families.