#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1 – First

I’ve always wanted to join in on the #52 Ancestors Challenge, but I was afraid that I couldn’t keep up. Guess I was right, since I’m already a week behind! Nevertheless, I’m going to try this year. I need to start writing again and I think it’s a good year for new beginnings for me. If I get behind, that’s okay.

Whenever I consider ‘firsts’ as far as genealogy, I have to remember the first reason I ever got involved in family history research. Aside from my love of history and family stories, it was two stories in particular that intrigued me. I needed to prove or disprove those stories I had heard all my life. Many of you have heard these reasons because I’ve mentioned them often in genealogical circles. But if we’re dealing with ‘firsts,’ I have to address these two stories. Also, I’ve looked back in my blog notes and this was the very first subject that I wrote about, so it’s a natural for me – and an easy one.

The first story that I always heard was that my middle name, Lee, was given to me because our family was related to Gen. Robert E. Lee. As a southerner growing up in the 50s, I heard his name everywhere and believed that story to be total malarkey.

The second story was that my four times great grandmother, Hannah Gage Norman, was the daughter of Gen. Thomas Gage, the British general who sent the troops to Lexington and Concord. Oh yes. I definitely believed that one! Leave it to my family to be on the wrong side of the Revolution!

I actually started my research on Hannah Gage in the mid-70s, often visiting the local library and devouring everything that was written on Gen. Thomas Gage. There was frequently a list of his children, but I never found her name, and I just couldn’t understand that. After all, I had a family tree drawn out in my Father’s beautiful handwriting, and I knew he couldn’t be wrong. I was convinced in my naivete that she wasn’t mentioned because she had obviously gone against her Father’s wishes and married someone who was involved in the Revolution. Naturally, he must have just cut her out of his life.

I never even thought to research the Lee story until the advent of the internet in the 90s, and the ease of researching allowed me to delve into what others had researched about General Lee. I had read a number of books about him before that, but none of them had any familiar names to me and, again, I just couldn’t imagine a connection.

Finding out that my great-great grandfather, Charles Jones Love (1824 – 1890), had married Julia Elizabeth Lee Shrewsbury (abt. 1823 – aft. 1870) was the beginning of a great adventure that led to the discovery that my 9x great grandfather, Richard Lee (1618 – 1664), was also the direct ancestor of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Well, how about that? Old Robert Edward Lee is my 4^th cousin, 5x removed.

Poor Hannah, on the other hand, might be a distant relative of Gen. Gage, according to a paper written and published about her grandson (Solomon R. Norman) in the late 1800s. (Kentucky: A History of the State. Perrin, Battle & Kniffin, 6th ed., 1887, Spencer Co.)

I suppose that particular publication is how that ‘family story’ began, and I know for sure that research is how we make sure that the real stories continue.

@2019 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland