Stories of our ancestors: the attractions of genealogical research
Knowing the stories of our ancestors makes them come alive for us. Isn’t this one of the greatest attractions of genealogical research? They pull on our imagination and inspire our admiration: because without their incredible courage, we would not be who we are. We all have them: stories passed down in our families from interesting, eccentric, tragic, and even infamous relatives. But how many of these stories stand up to the scrutiny of genealogical research? Among my own friends in the genealogy world, certainly less than half turn out to be true. Oh, but the ones that do …
Three years ago, I received a brief family history from McMillan’s distant cousin – six handwritten pages covering more than a hundred years since the family’s immigration to colonial America and subsequent settlement. This story contained two amazing stories, which when combined made me think. The second involved an incident from the War of 1812. Ananias McMillan, a soldier stationed with his family in Detroit, along with his 12-year-old son Archibald, went to bring their cow one night when Ananias was suddenly shot and torn away by the Indians. , who later kidnapped Archie. Months later, the United States Army released the boy and returned him to his mother. * The account had enough names, dates and places to investigate to determine its veracity. But that first story …
Sophia McMillan (1843-1909), author of the story, wrote just four sentences about the tragic arrival of her great-grandfather from Ireland:
“He went to this country with his widowed mother and her baby, when he was 14. They were shipwrecked on the way. His mother, like a mother, understanding the situation, gave her son the chance to live, threw her bag He ordered God to hurry if he came to this country: A few moments later he saw that two Pieces of the Boat came together, Crushing Mother and Baby, and they sank to never get up again. I heard his Daughter, my grandmother, say He always saw that sight when he closed his eyes, and the roar of the oceans was always in his ears. “
That gruesome scene, along with the kidnapping and scalping of the Indians, caused me to dismiss these stories as family myths told around the fireplace for evening entertainment. But after verifying Detroit’s history with city and county histories, my mind went back to that wreck. Unlike the second account, this first one seemed to lack sufficient details to investigate. No date, no ship name, no location of the disaster. But the age of 14 turned out to be the key. Knowing the date of death and the age of Sophia’s great-grandfather, Jonathan, I was able to fix the wreck around 1737, and certainly the location had to be off the New England coast, since Jonathan had survived and ended up in Maine.
AmericanAncestors offers an external database of leading American newspapers, including The Boston News-Letter Y The Boston Evening-Post. Within 10 years of 1737, only one shipwreck was reported off the coast of New England – the loss of snow ** Katherine. Sailing from Port Rush in Ireland on June 4, 1737, the Katherine It was a mile off the coast of Nova Scotia’s uninhabited Sable Island around 1:00 a.m. on July 17, in dense weather with high winds and waves. After the rudder broke, the sea engulfed her and broke the entire ship. The passengers were thrown into the stormy water among the pieces of the damaged ship and 98 drowned.
The swell washed 104 survivors ashore, where four more were killed by debris. In the morning, they buried their dead and began to repair the badly damaged boat. Three days later, the ship’s captain and six other men set out in the launch, bound for Canse, Nova Scotia, 110 miles away. They survived the trip and assembled a rescue team, which returned to Sable Island six days later.
This had to be the shipwreck that Sophia had written about, an event that occurred 106 years before she was born! But the details that came down through the generations – the origin of the trip, the age of his great-grandfather, the ship breaking down, the passengers being thrown into the water – allowed this incredible event to be verified as family history, not simply an entertaining tale. for winter nights. And what a remarkable event: elements of the Titanic disaster along with the stranding of the Shackleton Expedition and ultimate salvation. I have to marvel at the tenacity of these people, so determined to make a better life for their descendants. I cry for the mother and baby crushed by rubble, I marvel at the courage of the men who set out to row through 110 miles of open sea, and I wonder about the terror of the survivors left on Sable Island, speculating about your chances. to the rescue.
Knowing the stories of our ancestors makes them come alive for us. Isn’t this one of the greatest attractions of genealogical research? They pull on our imagination and inspire our admiration: because without their incredible courage, we would not be who we are.
Family genealogy research isn’t just for professional genealogists, but sometimes a hired genealogist can really help you trace your ancestry. If you need the help of an ancestry genealogy service to improve or expand your genealogical research, to determine whether the stories are family history or family legends, consider contacting a professional genealogy service. Trained and experienced genealogists can help you with ancestry searches and confirm facts vs. fiction.
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* A full review of this story and the steps that led to its confirmation can be found in the Spring 2012 issue of American Ancestors, “From Family Myth to Historical Account: The McMillan Incident in 1814 Detroit”.
** A type of square rig boat, similar to a brig but with a triple sail behind the main mast.