Sunday, October 21, 2007

Climbing Through The Family Tree

Mom needed some details on the Remington heritage, so yesterday I dug out the Remington genealogy information. Yellowed and fading like a diagrammed sentence on steroids was the list of generations of Remingtons in the United States.

I discovered some things that caught my attention. John Remington immigrated to America in 1637, very probably the fifth son of the Reverend Richard Remington, D.D., Parson of Lockington, in Yorkshire and Archdeacon of the East Riding, England. He became a "freeman" after two years. I did not recall what a freeman was, so I read on, and was disturbed to find out the authority of the Puritans after leaving England to avoid the same. [My selective recall of US history amuses me.]

Freeman – "Puritans set up in Massachusetts a 'religion dominated state even more authoritarian and even less tolerant of dissenters than the England from which they had fled. So to be a freeman – or citizen with a right to vote – a man had, first to be a member of a Puritan congregation. All colonists were required to take an oath of submission to the regime they had created and to attend church regularly.”

Benjamin Remington, 6th generation. from whom I am a descendant, lived in Jamestown. I do not know if there was only one Jamestown at the time. However, he was a Captain in the Revolutionary War and had two homes burned by the British.

Next, I discovered that one of the distant relatives had a grandson name was Richard Henry Dana. He wrote the book, "Two Years Before the Mast," and Dana Point is named for him.

I finally narrowed down our distant link to the Western artist, Frederick Remington. John Remington, the first generation in the USA had kids, including another John Remington and Thomas Remington. I am 13th generation through brother John. Frederick Remington is 9th generation through Thomas. Not as direct a link as I originally thought.

The Remington Arms Company (rifles) founder is also in the ancestral lines. Not close enough for inheritance, and with my position on guns -- that is probably a good thing. I would feel compromised.

Glen and I talked about the Davis family coming to the USA about the same time. It is interesting to connect to the past and think of real lives not just dates and events within history.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! All that and $2.50 will get us a venti drip no-room from our local barista.

    ReplyDelete