holy cow. i sent a message to my nearest dna match. she is adopted.

[wnylib]

49. My ancestors had a farm near

the towns of Wheeler and Bath, just south of Keuka Lake. They went farther west after that, near Buffalo, before ending up in PA, where they were among the founders of a village in Crawford County, PA. That village was the last stop for pioneers to stock up before heading into the Western Reserve Frontier (Ohio). A couple generations later, my great-grandmother moved north to Erie, PA, my hometown.

I minored in anthropology. Wanted to major in it, but I was taking courses piecemeal as my husband's job meant moving a few times. By the time we settled into one spot where I could take full time classes, I switched to modern languages, with an anthro minor, which seemed more practical.

The first British ancestor in America that I was able to trace arrived at Watertown, MA Bay Colony, in 1636. He moved soon afterward to become one of the founders of Wethersfield, CT. MA Bay was too theocratic in government for him. (A "liberal" Puritan, LOL)

Another branch settled briefly at Hartford, CT in 1652, then moved up the CT River Valley to western MA. His son settled in a village at the edge of the MA frontier, where his village was raided by French and their Indian allies. His wife, youngest daughter, son-in-law, and brother-in-law were killed. Three of his children (including the son who is my ancestor) and another son's wife were taken captive to Canada. So he later ransomed them back, along with several other captives. Books have been written about the raid and his role, so I've been able to read details about him, his family, and their lives.

It's those kinds of stories that I like to collect in genealogy research. They make dry facts come to life and are more interesting to me than just a collection of names, dates, and who begat whom. I wrote it all down, with a list of references for more reading and passed it on to relatives, along with photos that I found. A 3rd cousin that I met online sent me a photo of our gg-grandparents, which my 90 year old uncle loved getting.