Of Links & Honor

For many years I have been the keeper of my family's archives. Photographs, papers, and other ephemera always seems to make its way to me. For many years I ensured it was all safe, if not completely organized. Beyond that I didn't do much.

Then a long-ignored photograph yielded an unexpected surprise. This photograph is a B&W of Charles Lindbergh with a man named Basil Rowe. On the back of the image was a note, from my paternal grandmother, claiming that Mr. Rowe was her first cousin. I should also mention - the picture includes the Spirit of St. Louis in the background. It is a press photo taken at the time Lindbergh was about to make his astonishing journey in said aircraft. 

Now...seriously. Who would believe that a previously thought of unremarkable family would have a cousin who would be in a press picture with Charles Lindbergh. My grandmother certainly did, to her dying day. None of the rest of us would buy it. Eventually the photograph made its way to me, the archivist, and I promptly forgot about it. Then one day it surfaced again and I, finally, got curious - who was this Basil Rowe anyway? And why was he in a picture with Charles Lindbergh? And why did my Gram have this picture? Not a copy, an original photograph. 

Capt. Basil Rowe -
original postcard issued by Pan American Airlines
source: www.clipperculture.com

So I started researching Mr. Rowe and discovered that not only was he indeed a first cousin - he is counted among the pioneers of aviation:

Capt. Rowe was a prominent pilot and entrepreneur, who became the first captain for Pan American Airways. In 1927, he founded West Indian Aerial Express, the first commercial airline that offered schedule service between San Juan, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Haiti, Cuba, and the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

Gram, sorry we didn't believe you! It was truly an epic discovery. And one that lead me down the path of genealogy research to become one of the earliest users of Ancestry.com.

Over the years I have fiddled off-and-on with Ancestry. 15 years ago info was tough to come by making research quite challenging.

Then - records began to be digitized. Which started to flood Ancestry with information that included scans of original documents written by the original scribes. Or individual pages of historical records, websites, wills, probate information, birth and death certificates, cemetery locations, etc... And in the years since that flood began the amount of big data available thru Ancestry increases exponentially with each passing month.

Which turned me into an obsessed individual - spending countless hours on Ancestry, digging thru records, reading tedious details that turned out to be not-so-tedious after all. And that has lead to incredible discoveries.

For starters - about 65% of my entire family arrived in the colonies between 1628 and 1710. Of the remaining 35%, about 75% of them were here by the early 19th century with just three individuals arriving at the turn of the 20th century. I even have an aunt, thru marriage, who arrived in 1620 aboard the Mayflower...Remember Allerton (gotta love those olde English names). 

Once I confirmed all that - I leapt forward over 100 years to see if it was possible that any of my multi-Great Grandfathers might have served in the American Revolution.

Any? How about seven - confirmed. With a few more pending additional information. And that doesn't cover all the Uncles and Cousins. To say I was stunned by all of this would be a massive understatement.

I belong to an historically-significant family. Founding families of Kittery, ME, Portsmouth, NH, Hingham, MA, and Scituate, MA. There are plaques in some of these towns with my ancestors' names on them. 

My 11th Great Grandmother

My maternal 11th Great Grandmother and her sister, my 12th Great Aunt, were executed during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Yes, you read that right. Their names are on memorials and dedications all over that area. My aunt's house is now a museum. A third sister was also jailed during that time and escaped persecution as the fervor died down. Talk about surreal. 

And not a single person in my family ever knew about any of this. Or if they did it was never discussed. Which leaves me with the lingering question - why? Why not share this incredible information, why consign it to the dustbin of discarded memories? Why were there no documents saved of at least one of the Grandfathers who served at the founding of this nation?

Or the other men who served during the War of 1812, the Civil War, and WWI? Their honor buried away - forgotten.

I always loved my position in my family of archivist - proud of retaining the pictures and papers, thinking myself to be so forward-thinking to preserve this information. I never imagined it would take on such - significance to my life.

Now, more than ever, I am proud of the intense work I've done to uncover these people - the sacrifices they made to come to a wilderness and build a new life. The untold hardships each generation endured to keep that dream alive.

I am here because these amazing, courageous people made decisions to pursue something unique, something unheard-of, something BRAVE and NEW.

They will not be forgotten now. My quest to connect all the dots, to follow every family line to the oldest point of reliability, will be one I undertake until I die.

Oh yes and I'm also doing this for my husband's family. My next post on this topic will cover some of that history - and how it relates to mine in a unique and surprising way.