I've always lived under the assumption that my family's heritage was pretty boring, made up largely of farmers, merchants, tradesmen and ordinary working class people, not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you. I just figured that I was born of very ordinary heritage, nothing noteworthy, nothing spectacular, nothing interesting to write home about. How wrong I was! I know some things about my maternal side, which suggests that I am correct in assuming my humble roots, but trace my father's side back far enough and you start getting into some pretty fascinating and spectacular heritage! For example, we are direct
descendents of Charlemagne, King Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror, to name a few! Two of my paternal ancestors, Thomas Sayre and Christopher Foster, made their way to the colonies in the early 17th century, thereby sealing our family's fate. I have to wonder what caused them to leave England, but I have my suspicions. Given that they were probably fairly well off, perhaps high born and of royal and noble lineage, they might well have been loyalists to the English crown during
a turbulent time in English history. There was still a fair amount of religious and political tension during the reign of King Charles I and perhaps these gentlemen saw the writing on the wall that it was time to depart England and set off across the ocean to the colonies to pursue greater freedom than what they had in their own country. So off they went and what fate had in store for them when they arrived would be for them and their descendents to become a part of the Great American Story. Their descendents would fight the Revolutionary War to free the US from England and would eventually move "west" to the Ohio country via a war service land grant. Once there, they hacked out of the wilderness a living as farmers and tradesmen on the wild frontier. They were simple, humble hardworking people, the salt of the earth, who would intermingle with Welsh and German immigrants who would also settle in the same area.
One of the more interesting revelations that I discovered while tracing back my paternal line is that one of my ancestors, Samuel Sayre, served as a juror during the Salem witch trials. I never knew that any of our family had anything to do with this horrible period of early American history. Women were unjustly persecuted for what seemed the slightest infraction that could be interpreted as "witchcraft". It was a time of terrible and deep suspicions and I am glad that Samuel signed a letter later on in his life apologizing for his role in the whole thing. Another fascinating tidbit is that if you have been watching the NBC series "Who Do You Think You Are?", you will know that actress Sarah Jessica Parker had an ancestor named Esther Elwell who was one of the last of those women accused of witchcraft, but this came as the whole affair was winding down, and so she got off without being hanged or burned at the stake. I find myself wondering if Samuel ever faced Esther in a court of accusation. This would make for a fascinating distant connection to fame. You know, the old "six degrees of separation" sort of thing. It would be really interesting to see if you could somehow connect these two people, but you'd almost have to find the original papers of accusation against Esther and see if Samuel signed them or had anything to do with them. Somehow, I am not at all surprised by any of this, given how much smaller the world was hundreds of years ago. I get the feeling that millions of people can trace very similar ancestry as we can, and that I have relatives out there that I don't even know about yet. I think that the further back you go, the more likely it is that people are related to each other through similar lines, because it was common for relatives to marry one another, so no doubt I am related to millions of Americans out there who are from the same lineages as I am and who can claim nearly identical heritage. So that's my family story, a part of the patchwork quilt of people who created this country from the sweat of their brow and the work of their hands, who tilled the soil, grew the food, wove the cloth, and built this country from the ground floor up. Humble people who left behind everything and everyone they knew to strike out for a New World and build a new land for themselves and their posterity. I am humbled by knowing that our family is a part of the Great American Story.
I've always lived under the assumption that my family's heritage was pretty boring, made up largely of farmers, merchants, tradesmen and ordinary working class people, not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you. I just figured that I was born of very ordinary heritage, nothing noteworthy, nothing spectacular, nothing interesting to write home about. How wrong I was! I know some things about my maternal side, which suggests that I am correct in assuming my humble roots, but trace my father's side back far enough and you start getting into some pretty fascinating and spectacular heritage! For example, we are direct 
descendents of Charlemagne, King Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror, to name a few! Two of my paternal ancestors, Thomas Sayre and Christopher Foster, made their way to the colonies in the early 17th century, thereby sealing our family's fate. I have to wonder what caused them to leave England, but I have my suspicions. Given that they were probably fairly well off, perhaps high born and of royal and noble lineage, they might well have been loyalists to the English crown during
a turbulent time in English history. There was still a fair amount of religious and political tension during the reign of King Charles I and perhaps these gentlemen saw the writing on the wall that it was time to depart England and set off across the ocean to the colonies to pursue greater freedom than what they had in their own country. So off they went and what fate had in store for them when they arrived would be for them and their descendents to become a part of the Great American Story. Their descendents would fight the Revolutionary War to free the US from England and would eventually move "west" to the Ohio country via a war service land grant. Once there, they hacked out of the wilderness a living as farmers and tradesmen on the wild frontier. They were simple, humble hardworking people, the salt of the earth, who would intermingle with Welsh and German immigrants who would also settle in the same area. 
One of the more interesting revelations that I discovered while tracing back my paternal line is that one of my ancestors, Samuel Sayre, served as a juror during the Salem witch trials. I never knew that any of our family had anything to do with this horrible period of early American history. Women were unjustly persecuted for what seemed the slightest infraction that could be interpreted as "witchcraft". It was a time of terrible and deep suspicions and I am glad that Samuel signed a letter later on in his life apologizing for his role in the whole thing. Another fascinating tidbit is that if you have been watching the NBC series "Who Do You Think You Are?", you will know that actress Sarah Jessica Parker had an ancestor named Esther Elwell who was one of the last of those women accused of witchcraft, but this came as the whole affair was winding down, and so she got off without being hanged or burned at the stake. I find myself wondering if Samuel ever faced Esther in a court of accusation. This would make for a fascinating distant connection to fame. You know, the old "six degrees of separation" sort of thing. It would be really interesting to see if you could somehow connect these two people, but you'd almost have to find the original papers of accusation against Esther and see if Samuel signed them or had anything to do with them. Somehow, I am not at all surprised by any of this, given how much smaller the world was hundreds of years ago. I get the feeling that millions of people can trace very similar ancestry as we can, and that I have relatives out there that I don't even know about yet. I think that the further back you go, the more likely it is that people are related to each other through similar lines, because it was common for relatives to marry one another, so no doubt I am related to millions of Americans out there who are from the same lineages as I am and who can claim nearly identical heritage. So that's my family story, a part of the patchwork quilt of people who created this country from the sweat of their brow and the work of their hands, who tilled the soil, grew the food, wove the cloth, and built this country from the ground floor up. Humble people who left behind everything and everyone they knew to strike out for a New World and build a new land for themselves and their posterity. I am humbled by knowing that our family is a part of the Great American Story.
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Translated by YahooBabelfish, this means, "The true friendship, has when like the health loses, the beginning knows its value."
I get the gist. Thank you, Chinese poster, whoever you are! (Translated, your name means, Crown Ming Wang Ling.)
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