Chapter 1

 Wife of a Conqueror

Normandy and England 1000s

(images and more material)

Too few have paid attention to William the Conqueror’s wife, Matilda, who was perhaps the most remarkable woman of her times. Many more people than realize it can trace their lines along her sterling pedigree hundreds of years farther into early medieval Europe.  [more…]

Family Names

Matilda of Flanders, Matilda, Queen of England (b. c.1031)
William, Duke of Normandy, William I, King of England (b. c.1026)
Baldwin V, Count of Flanders (b. c.1012)
Robert, Duke of Normandy (b. 1000)
Henry I, King of England (b. 1068)

Chapter 2

 Two Knights and a Swordsman

England
1300s

(images and more material)

The tale of two knights: a father who reached the top in the court of England’s great medieval king Edward III; and his son, who, trying to follow his father’s footsteps, strays, loses his head and becomes one of Shakespeare’s dark villains.  Then there is another who, according to family tradition, was their progeny and England’s greatest swordsman.  Was he part of the plot to kill the fabled Princes in the Tower? [more…]

Family Names

Sir Thomas Greene (b. 1292)
Lucy de la Zouche
Sir Henry Greene (b. 1310)
Catherine Drayton (b. c.1319)
Sir Henry Greene (b. 1347)
Matilda Maduit (b. c.1354)
John Greene the Fugitive

Chapter 3

 Struggle for American Values

Puritan America
1600s

(images and more material)

Charlie and Ida May Leonardson homestead a frontier ranch in the harsh mountain climate of the Idaho-Montana border.  Ida May’s heritage ascends to earliest colonial days, when non-conformist families exiled from Plymouth and Massachusetts find their way to Rhode Island.  Some of them are prominent in establishing the new values that made America. [more…]

Family Names

Ida May Dawley (b. 1859)
Charles (“Charlie”) Harry Leonardson (b. 1857)
Arthur J. Leonardson (b. 1882)
Dr. John Greene (b. c.1595)
Joan Tattershall (b. 1598)
John Greene of Quidnessett (b. c.1606)
Samuel Gorton (b. 1593)
Mary Mayplat (b. 1609)
James Greene (b. 1626)
Obadiah Holmes (b. 1609)
Katherine Hyde (b. 1608)
Chad Browne (b. 1605)
John Coggeshall (b. 1599)

Chapter 4

Road to Rebellion

Rhode Island Colony
1770s

(images and more material)

The pre-Revolutionary War adventures of a group of cousins, among them future War of Independence Major General Nathanael Greene.  One of these was the attack in 1772 on His Majesty’s warship, the HMS Gaspee, a more daring and dangerous adventure than the better-known Boston Tea Party a year and a half later. [more…]

Family Names

James Greene (b. 1626)
Joseph Greene (b. 1745)
Patience Sheffield (b. 1748)
Nathanael Greene (b. 1707)
Nathanael Greene (b. 1742)
Rufus Greene (b. 1712)
Rufus Greene (b. 1747)

Chapter 5

Day of the Revolution

Concord, Massachusetts, 1775

(images and more material)

One day and one family on the first day of the Revolution: Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Brothers, Brothers-in-law, a teen-aged Granddaughter and her Brother all left us their stories of resisting the British the day they marched into Concord.  Among this extended family was Col. James Barrett, commander of the American forces in Concord.  Another was Jonas Barrett, 1^st Lt. of the Ashby, Massachusetts Minutemen, and my far-back grandfather.  [more…]

Family Names

Benjamin Barrett (b. 1681)
Benjamin Barrett (b. 1705)
James Barrett (b. 1710)
Jonas Barrett (b. 1737)
Lydia Minott (b. 1687)
Mary Fletcher (b. 1739)
Rebecca Hubbard (b. 1717)
Rebekah Jones (b. 1710)
Thomas Barrett (b. 1707)

Chapter 6

Soldiers, Survival, Sorrow

Missouri and Kansas
1850s-1860s

(images and more material)

A family is caught in the middle of the tumultuous bloody border wars in pre-Civil War Kansas and Missouri.  When the Civil War begins, the young men ride in the ranks of a regiment of Union cavalry as it fights its way through the Rebel-controlled Southern state of Arkansas.  Along the journey we get close to resolving two of the most perplexing questions among our family stories.  [more…]

Family Names

Chester Lent (b. 1815)
Susanna Frasure (b. 1810)
Hercules Lent (b. c.1765)
Elisabeth Prosper
John William Lent (b. 1838)
Lewis Lent (b. 1849)
Maria Lent (b. 1842)
Mary Elizabeth Lent (b. 1840)
Nancy Jane Lent (b. 1852)
Robison Lent (b. 1854)

Chapter 7

Promised Land

Birmingham to Utah
1860s

(images and more material)

Following the trail of thousands of pioneers: the Howards’ large family says good-bye to Birmingham and departs for a promised land on the far side of America.  Tragedy stalks their path as they sail across the Atlantic, bog down in Civil War-torn America, face Sioux war parties, and brave foul weather and disease.  In spite of tragic loss, they find closure at the end of their long journey. [more…]

Family Names

Joseph Howard (b. 1819)
Ann Shelton (b. 1817)
James Howard (b. 1849)
Juliett Fackrell (b. 1846)
Betsy Jane Fackrell (b. 1850)

Chapter 8

“What was Your Name in the States?”

The Old West
1870-1900

(images and more material)

A great-great-grandfather travels from one side of the Old West to another, not wanting to be found.  Tracing his faint tracks takes us from Ireland to New York City, the Northern Plains Indian wars, and booming mining towns and railroad projects in Utah, Idaho, and Arizona.  And finally, we put him to rest in a high desert cemetery along the Continental Divide separating Idaho and Montana, his grave full of secrets. [more…]

Family Names

Joseph Richard McGuire, Joseph Wilson, Richard Wilson (b. 1858?)
Mary Ann Taylor (b. 1864)
Eli Taylor (b. 1819)
Mary Elizabeth Nichols (b. 1838)
Emma Louise Holden Wilson Eddie (b. 1870)
Mary Emma Wilson (b. 1884)

Chapter 9

Homesick

Utah and Idaho
1880s-1963

(images and more material)

For Matilda Johnson and many women of her generation, life on the frontier is far from glorious.  But in spite of her homesickness she does not shrink from assailing her hardships with a vigor of heroic proportions.  In the end, her accomplishments surpass in many ways even what her enthusiastic renaissance-man husband is able to achieve. [more…]

Family Names

Matilda ( Tillie”) Ann Howard (b. 1874)
John Johnson (b. 1867)
James Howard (b. 1849)
Mayme Louise Johnson Cleverley Woolley (b. 1901)

Chapter 10

Two Rivers Join

Finland
1930’s-1970’s

(images and more material)

Caught in the hinterland between Hitler’s and Stalin’s armies, a young couple loses their home and almost everything else… twice.  As the mother flees before the Red Army blitzkrieg the second time, her baby clutched in her arms, she is told her husband has been killed in battle.  But in a dream, he tells her he is still alive. [more…]

Family Names

Seija Kaarina Heimala (b. 1942)
Manne Heimala( b. 1908)
Lempi Tuulikki Roos (b. 1911)
Aleksander Roos (b. 1885)
Selma Kokkonen (b. 1888)
Ida Riikkilä (b. 1988)
Immanuel (”Manu”) Heimala” (b. 1884)
Eelis Riikkilä (b. 1880)