Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Not endless: 1606 to present



March sure is a busy month.
At least for our family.

There is so much to celebrate!

On March 1st, we celebrate the day my husband's family got their property in Maryland.
From Lord Baltimore.
In 1673.
The property was named "Northhampton" and "Kettering".
Later Lord B. also handed over "Sprigg's Request". The gentleman pictured above, Thomas Spriggs (b. 1630, d. 1704) built a house on the thousand acres, and named it "Resurrection Manor."

George Washington used to drop by, in later years, and later still, President Madison hid out there while the British burned the White House.
Here's a picture of how the house looked until it a fire destroyed it in the early 1900's:

On March 2nd we celebrate the anniversary of my family's immigration to America.
That would be March 2nd, 1633, arriving at Richmond Island, in New England in the Massachusetts area. That was another Thomas, the one I call my Thomas.
Thomas Dustin (b. 1606 d.1662)

On March 7th we celebrate our son's birthday, he being the 12th generation of Spriggs in America. Thirteenth generation of Americans on my side of the family. (well, OK, one of those generations slipped up and was born in Canada...)

We remember the Indian raid on March 15th.
(Stay tuned! More details coming soon!)

Then there is the anniversary of when we became engaged, on March 23rd.

And of course, there was the scalpings, to be celebrated on March 30th.

Like I said: Busy, busy, busy.

On my "To Do" list for March is to re-copy our family Genealogy from the tattered 15 generation pedigree chart I've been lugging around for the last decade or so. It was done in pencil, as I was researching all the names, and wanted to verify names, places and dates before inking them in.

There are over 300 names. I started with 50. The research was addictive, exhilerating, and took decades.

Re-copying the names is going to take a while. But it is worth it.

Every name is a name of someone we would call either Mom or Dad, or Grandpa or Grandma. Some of those Grandmas and Grandpas would require eleven "greats" to be uttered before hitting the Grandma or Grandpa part.

But I think that is pretty great.

4 comments:

Lovella ♥ said...

Jill that was an amazing post. I love it that you celebrate. Period. Too many people don't celebrate anything. What an amazing chart you have with so many generations. I enlarged it a bit and it is just fascinating. I am the first generation of my family to come to Canada since my parents were both brought from Russia as children. There is very little in the way of history recorded. Imagine that, the President stopping in at your family house for tea. Scalping's? Oh my, do tell.

I look forward to tomorrows post, no doubt you will have some cherished pictures of your son. I love baking birthday cakes, I do wish you were all a bit closer.

Marie said...

Scalpings?!! Scalpers? or Scalpees?

I think it is amazing that you have produced such a wonderful lineage chart. One of my aunts has done my mom's family (Bingham) back to the Druids....well, some strange names there.

But back to scalpings.....I have some Chocktaw and Cherokee blood in my --- so I guess I would be a "scalper". Or did just the Apaches and Iriqouis do scalpings. I'll have to ask my sister, Patricia - she's the American Indian expert in our family.

Becky said...

JIll,
I don't know about that slip up in Canada, hmm... But the research is amazing! My Mom has researched her side of the family back to 1700's, and that is all in the Prussia and Russia area, which is rather difficult as land names changed frequently. Unfortunately, we don't have the pleasure of being able to celebrate dates either as it appears, many were controversial, and which calendar are you talking about (Russian vs. Canadian, ...) My Grandmother actually was able to pick her birthdate (Feb 14) when she came to Canada because no one seemed to exactly know how to translate, or calculate the differences from Russian (my ancestors all spoke German as well but in the early 1900's, you didn't want to be speaking that language in North America) to English. Its a myriad of confusion yet totally enthralling! Congratulations for your persistance and diligence. There is something to be said for knowing where you came from, and appreciating the work of your forefathers.

Julie said...

Jill, our history gives us roots, doesn't it? And you certainly have lots to celebrate. My family tree is quite well documented and my husband's has been published back to the 1600's, but he immigrated from Russia and I am first generation Canadian...so I find it fascinating to have a lineage like yours all in your home country, where you can still 'touch' it!!
PS. thank-you for the paper clip, can't imagine what I would do without it!!