Family Stories

Television of late seems to be rife with series devoted to genealogy. PBS recently featured a series called "Faces of America" which traced the genealogies of various black and white American celebrities. Each of these peoples ancestors were full of fascinating stories of who they were and where they came from and a bit about what kinds of lives they led. Now there is a series on network television called "Who Do You Think You Are?" where another set of celebrities are having their family histories traced, and once again, we are getting to hear fascinating stories of these peoples ancestors. As I have watched both of these programs, I've found myself feeling a bit melancholy because I always felt like we didn't really have any real stories of our family, just names and dates and not a whole lot else, but the more I think on it, the more I realize that I am wrong about that. We DO have stories, albeit some a bit apocryphal, but they make for good storytelling, for what it is worth. I can't say that I am descended from any royalty, nobility, war heroes, famous Americans or much of anything else colorful or interesting. Most of my ancestors were just ordinary people who came here, like so many other immigrants, seeking a better life than that they led in their home country. Once here, they didn't do anything remarkable or interesting, they just led ordinary lives and did what they had to do in order to survive here.

I admit that I become just a wee bit jealous when I hear people able to tell detailed stories of their genealogies, their ancestors lives and such, more than I could ever tell about my ancestors. Our ancestors didn't leave much in detail about their lives. If they wrote letters, few have survived to this day to tell us about their lives. But we do have stories that can be told of these peoples lives that are quite fascinating. I found out yesterday, in fact, that we have Cajun ancestry from an ancestor named Marie Herbert. I immediately assumed that she was from Louisiana, but apparently, some Cajuns settled in Alabama as well, which is where she was from, according to my mom. I'd love to know more about this part of my family history.

Some of the stories I have heard over the years, or read about in the few letters we have, are really interesting. For example, my four times Great Grandfather George Henry Williams was said to be a Captain of a sloop in His Majesty's Navy during the War of 1812. The story has it that he was captured at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, his ship confiscated, and he was made a prisoner of war. He married a woman named Georgianna Ball, who was supposed to be the daughter of the Governor of New Hampshire, but research proved that this was not the case. However, she was said to be of a prominent family in that state one way or another. Upon marrying her and staying here in the US after the war was concluded, according to a family letter, he "forfeited substantial land holdings in England". According to what I have heard, you could not be an officer in the Royal Navy at that time unless you were landed gentry, so this guy was a well-to-do landholder who gave up a substantial amount by staying here. I'd love to know more about him and where his lands were.

His son, also named George Henry Williams, married one Mary Ann Rogers, who it seemed was not a nice person. Their children were sent off to work in the woolen mills at a fairly young age, and upon the outbreak of the Civil War, the two eldest, John Thomas and George Henry III, joined up with the 26th Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers and spent four years fighting in that regiment, seeing action from the Louisiana bayous to the Shendandoah Valley. My great-great grandfather, William Rogers Williams, was said to have tried to enlist, but he was too young and ended up marrying an illiterate Irish peasant girl, Annia Noria Gately, who emigrated here from County Roscommon, Ireland, with her parents and siblings. After the war, William's siblings all went west to Beaverton, Oregon, but William and his wife stayed back east in Massachusetts because Annia refused to leave her Irish kin. John founded a bank in Beaverton and apparently did well for himself. George followed his brother west after an industrial accident in Cleveland.

These are just a few of the tales I know of about my family history, mostly on my mom's side. My father's side has been well documented thanks to my grandmother's membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. We know names and dates but not much in the way of stories, other than the fact that our ancestor David Sayre fought the American Revolution with the Essex Rifles, 1st New Jersey militia, and got a land grant in SE Ohio after the war for his service, where he settled and died and is buried. His ancestors came from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England, and founded Southampton, Long Island. The family home built in 1634 stood well into the 20th century but was eventually razed, which I find to be terribly tragic. Beyond these few tales, I don't know much more than names or dates about that side of the family. I do know that my great grandfather Charles Newman Wagner divorced my great grandmother, Lillie Leota Wolfe, and married a much younger woman named Nina Belle Ashley, with whom he had a second family, so I have some half ancestors and cousins still alive.

Charles had an ancestor, Alfred Newman Wagner, who served in the Civil War in the 140th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was a 90 day regiment that did guard duty along the Kanawha River in West Virginia. Alfred was 38 when he enlisted, a bit old to be signing up for a combat regiment, and he enlisted fairly late in the war as it was, so he probably figured that doing time in a short enlistment regiment would be a better deal for him at his age. He didn't see any action during his enlistment and at the end of 90 days, he went home to his family and could at least say that he served in the Civil War, even though he had a relatively easy time of it compared to my maternal ancestors the Williams brothers.

Our family, although ordinary and unremarkable, has some stories to tell about our history that are quite interesting and ought to be passed along so that future generations will never forget who we were or where we came from. We may not be descended from royalty or famous people, but we are a part of the fabric of this country that has made it what it is, a country of immigrants who, by the toil of their hands and the sweat of their brow, built better lives for those who came after them. And that is a remarkable story in and of itself.