Back From the Future – Part 2

 A Quote from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, June 2014: Christopher Columbus never reached the shores of the North American Continent, but European explorers learned three things from him: there was someplace to go, there was a way to get there, and most importantly, there was a way to get back. Thus began the European exploration of …

The Killing Spree . . . Our Ancestral Legacy

Attributing our traits to our ancestors Some days when I look at myself in the mirror, I can see glimpses of my ancestors. My once beautifully brilliant blue eyes; I remember seeing these same eyes in my maternal grandfather, Roy (a Ford from Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina).  Unfortunately, I also get my thick midriff from either or both--my …

How Deaf Children Should Communicate–“I’m Trying to Get People to Hear Us . . .”

. . . Says Extraordinary Dance Contestant and Advocate for American Sign Language, Nyle DiMarco   I hope this post's title and headline caught your attention. It actually follows on to two of my posts from 2014 where I discussed deaf heritage among our ancestors in the Boling/Bolling/Bowling and Randolph family lines from the 1700’s in England and …

Salty as the Sea–Sweet as Wine–Another Story from Jamestown

Back to Jamestown and Unearthing Yet Another Notable Ancestor Because of my ancient Bolling family lineage, I have long been following anything and everything published related to Pocahontas, her marriage to Thomas Rolfe, their cultural and genealogical histories in England and Virginia.  Among the vast resources available, I also have followed the archaeological endeavors of …

There’s Nothing Civil About War

General Robert E. Lee, the Man... Descended from several of Virginia's First Families, General Robert E. Lee was a well-regarded officer of the United States Army before the American Civil War. Born in 1807 to Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee in Stratford Hall, Virginia, Robert Edward Lee seemed destined for military greatness. His decision …

BRAVE NEW WORLD: JOHN SMITH

In my research on  Pocahontas, the  Rolfes, Bollings, Branches, Lewises, and Randolphs of Virginia... I happened upon the following blog post from Life - News, articles, and information on family life and entertainment: Brave New World: John Smith. Unfortunately this Blogger website has no history, author, or contact information other than the article being posted (without any …

Our Descendancy–in Red, White and Blue…

America's Red, White and Blue... On June 14, 1777 in Philadelphia,  the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution: “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white, in a blue field representing a new constellation.” As to the significance of our flag's …

More Than a Few Names or Mere Numbers

As an addendum to this week's post What's In a Name?, I revised my Surname Report in Family Tree Maker™. This report shows that our family's tree (including my spouse's family) has 10,772 persons in it.  Of those persons (living and dead), 52 percent of them are male; making my database's percentage of males three percentage points higher than the …

Our Native American Heritage–A Follow On

 My post just a few days ago focused on our Native American heritage and the tribes who resided along the borders of the Chesapeake Bay. In my April 24, 2014, and December 3, 2012, posts we looked at our paternal Pocahontas ancestry--First Lady Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (my third cousin), and our lineage to Pocahontas …

The Chesapeake Bay and Our Native American Heritage

This post focuses on our Native American heritage who resided along the borders of the Chesapeake Bay.  Digressing just a little into my lineage, my paternal Bolling ancestors were among the first in Jamestown and my maternal Lathrop ancestors the first in New England.  My ninth great-grandfather, Colonel Robert Bolling married Pocahontas' granddaughter, Jane Poythress …

Nearly 75 Years Later – A Family’s Unanswered Questions and Unsolved Mysteries Unravel

My Family of Secrets A year ago, nearly exactly to the day, I wrote a rather long and personal post about my paternal grandparents and great-grandparents--the Bollings and the Chambers.  From its title, you can infer that there were some unanswered questions and mysteries surrounding these people and their relationships that dated back years before …

The Thornton Family’s Fredericksburg Mansion – Part I

My Thornton Family History The Thornton Family is one of Virginia's distinguished Colonial families. A large branch of my family tree includes Thornton ancestors and spans 24 generations. My Thornton family members date back to 1314 in Bolling Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire, England when Robert DeBolling (my 16th paternal great-grandfather--Generation 2) married Elizabeth DeThornton in 1337 before the two …

Two Pocahontas Descendants Became First Ladies

A wonderful post dated July 12, 2013 on my second cousin (7X removed), Edith Bolling Wilson Museum's Facebook Page that includes many wonderful short snippets about Edith, her life, and museum artifacts, pictures, and events in Wytheville, Virginia was all the prompting I needed to adapt and expand it. Pocahontas and Edith Bolling Wilson... Strong Women …

ISO my Family’s Sociological “Big Bang!”

According to my most recent research into the Bolling-Chambers-Taylor families, I am descended from an ancient line of folks who were known to be bald, short, fat, stammerers, and some even barbarians! At my eldest grandson's wedding in Chicago last weekend,  my third eldest grandson approached me for genealogical help. For his college sociology class, his assignment …

Remembering a 19th Century Educator…

My Paternal 2nd Cousin--5 times removed, from Linden, Amelia County, Virginia Anna Peyton Bolling (1836-1919) was born 177 years ago. At that time, her father, John Peyton Bolling, was 48 and her mother, Anne Field Gilliam, was 40.  Anna was the sixth of seven children born to Petersburg, Virginia farmers.  Anna had six siblings, namely: Mary …

ISO Family Athletes and Olympians

Origin of the Olympic Games The Olympic Games began in ancient Greece about 3,000 years ago.   From the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., the Games were held every four years in Olympia, in Southern Greece's western peninsula, Peloponnese.  The Games honored the Greek God Zeus, who was the god of the sky and ruler of …

Our Deaf Heritage

I have had the following post in draft form for several months during which time there have been some Boling, Bolling, Bowling family members discussing whether deafness and hard of hearing runs in our family.  The answer is, in fact, that there have been Boling family members who were born deaf and some of those …

Our 28th President, His First Lady Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, Pocahontas, and Me

In Celebration of November -  Native American History Month President Woodrow Wilson - husband of my 3rd paternal cousin Edith Bolling Galt Wilson Edith Bolling Galt Wilson was the 35th First Lady of the White House. President Wilson's daughter, Margaret Woodrow Wilson served as First Lady for a brief period following the death of President Wilson's …

…Back to Ole’ Virginny

Although we are officially two weeks into the 2013 Fall Season today (October 3), it is yet another day in a string of unseasonably warm ones with brilliant blue skies, bright sunshine, blossoming flowers, mostly green trees, and temperatures rising again into the mid-80's.  What an opportunity to  'Saisir le jour,' as the French would …

Railroaded in Colonial Virginia…

THANKFUL THURSDAY...PART 2 King George County, Port Royal, Virginia We are picking up from Part 1 of this post, dated January 30, 2013, in King George County, Virginia, meandering toward our final destination the Centre Hill Mansion Museum to do the annual January 24th Ghost Walk through the house originally built by Colonel Robert Bolling …