During COVID I finally did my deep dive into my family’s ancestry. I started building a ancestry.com profile in 2010, and I was able to take my father’s paternal dominate lineage all the way back to Galbraith in the 13th century. While that line goes back many centuries, I would instead find that my paternal great-grandmother’s line is where the history lies. Sadly, while the history would give 1980’s educated me an boost with pride, adult me would dig deeper and find with the good comes the bad. Recently I feel out with a friend who was getting caught up in politics (granted I am not innocent of that myself), but I called this person out for advocating for expulsion us citizens who were here legally or born here. This was a long time friend who honestly made me realize in my college years, I grew up in a heavily curated bubble when it came to history. If you grew up in the burbs of a major metro area, you were likely learning from heavily redacted history books. My hometown was no different.

Over the past 16 years I have found out so much information about all four lines in my family. As I mentioned, my father’s paternal grandmother was where the history book connections lay. From Sir Isaac Newton being a very very distant uncle to a pilgrim leader and Mayflower passenger as my 10 great-grandfather. This line of families settled not around the north-east in the 1600’s but there is also a branch that goes back to the early Jamestown settlers. In this conclave of great-grandparents, lies the little black sheep you wish you had never learned about. Don’t get me wrong, the Puritans were not innocent settlers, while their initial wave into the new land was met with more prosperous relations. Those who followed the initial arrival of the Mayflower, including the Anne which my 9th great-grandmother sailed on carried many new settlers who used force and death to take over lands. Even today, history books gloss over their ties to ethnic cleansing in Plymouth area which was actually Wampanoag indigenous lands. Right around same time of William Brewster and Capt. Isaac Allerton were cultivating their Plymouth colony. My 9th great-grandfather Capt. William Tucker had landed in the Jamestown area and had cemented as one of it’s key leaders for this new community.

The Jamestown settlers landed in 1610 in Algonquians indigenous lands, and proceed to take over the lands by murdering tribes or small communities to gain more land access to cultivate tobacco crops. The slaughter of indigenous people was rife all over the eastern sea board. But Jamestown and Capt. Tucker took it to a whole new level. The ethnic cleansing of these indigenous lands took a toll on all of the tribes. And history has shown us, communities who have suffered great pain and suffering, will fight back. In 1622, history repeated itself again with the Algonquians fighting back. It’s sad that history just seems to repeat itself over and over, which leads humanity into the great question of; if history has been so heavily documented, in a modern era, why does humanity continue to repeat these poor choices. A question that even today in the United States has large communities asking themselves, why are we doing this AGAIN? Pure and simple, greed & power.

A drawing by John White of a Powhatan village.

By 1622 near Jamestown, Virginia, the Powhatan tribal areas had endured genocide at the hand of many of the Jamestown settlers for over a decade. The settlers took their homelands away and settled them as their own. The Algonquians had tended to their lands for centuries before the first landing of European settlers in 1610. The tribes started fighting back in 1620, and with fights like the 1622 Indian massacre. More than 300 settlers were killed in Powhatan tribal villages. Sadly my numbskull of a grandfather thought it would be fun to host a Thanksgiving-esque celebration after attempted peace negotiations to end the conflict, he decided to poison the drinks of the 100+ Powhatan natives, killing them all. Now Captain Tucker was a captain in name only, he never helmed the head of sea vessel in his lifetime, he did travel on boats, but was never a Captain. His title was awarded to him after the slaughter of 1623. Thankfully history made sure Capt. Tucker was branded by this evil act of murder.

I am sure there are many incidents of our ancestors pasts that are sitting right there in history books. Do these moments define us 10 generations later? No! Understanding these moments in history, should invoke our humankind, instead so many fail in not just one generation, but many generations later down the line. My family never knew about this little tidbit of history in our family. Some things are just kept silent. For example, on my maternal side, after 3 years of research I had learned that my great-grandparents were in fact first cousins. In modern day culture this is considered a no-no. In the 1800s, it was the norm for people of the Azores. Sadly today there is return for certain states allowing first cousins to wed. Most of these states have also seen rise of control by Christian Nationalism rhetoric in government and even the royal families of urope.

While our distant pasts might not define us. The immediate past does have relevance with the scars that may get passed down, generation to generation. There are moments even in my generation where the scars might be passed to the next generation.The lesson here in a way, is be careful what you wish for when diving into your past. On a plus side, I did learn that through my Brewster family lineage, that I am related to some people that I have admired for most of my life. William Brewster’s 9th great-granddaughter just happens to be author and activist Angela Davis, who’s work I read in college and later in life. Sadly, Angela found about her lineage on a TV show and was not to happy about the news. Other family members include Mamie Eisenhower, Julia Child, Katherine Hepburn and a US president and two Vice Presidents of the US. With names you get excited about, like the previously mentioned or author Margaret Atwood, comes the shaming connections, like politician Sarah Palin. Now Sidney Biddle Burrows is a distant cousin, the Mayflower Madam, but honestly, I don’t blame the lady for earning a living. It’s the worlds oldest position. So be careful what start claim, you may tote one celebrity ancestor, but there is one waiting in the wings to knock you down to totem pole

While researching my paternal line, I ran across many interesting people and even lines that I never knew existed. Through the puritan line of the Brewsters, I learned that my 9th great grandfather was Isaac Allerton, signer of the Mayflower compact with Brewster, and would take William’s daughter Fear Brewster as his second wife. Allerton was always at the right place, at the right time. Sadly the tasks or jobs he was handed, weren’t always managed well. Over the years I have had strong interests in place, I couldn’t explain. From Provincetown, which is where the first landing of the Mayflower made. Which I discovered that the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum has a carved stone in memory of Brewster and Allerton families. Digging deeper into Allerton’s misguided money management and eventual banishment of the Plymouth shipping hub. He ended up moving the family north to Maine and finding a shipping port, New Haven. Another town that has been on my bucket list to return since the 90’s. It’s crazy how we find ourselves drawn to things, places, and people from our past. The lines are there! Call it whatever you want, you cannot deny its a little strange. As I dive into my maternal side of the family. For now, I am just enjoying all the little discoveries, shameful or not!

Ancestry: Careful What Your Pride Yourself On

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