52 Ancestors :: Week 27: Independence

Well, I have to admit, my research for last week's "Black Sheep" post revealed a much larger story than expected, so I am still working on it. I hope to post it soon! In the meantime, I hope you will appreciate the following information:

I hope you all enjoyed celebrating the 4th of July this week! I grew up loving this day - my town always made it a highly-anticipated, day-long affair. That said, I have often stated that, while I might have Patriots in my line, I had not yet verified a connection to them. As I have mentioned before, I have Loyalist ancestors - John Ogilvie and father/son duo James Lake, Jr. & Sr. - and so have been more aware of their stories of leaving land in the former colonies, and settling in Nova Scotia and Ontario. I believe that this has made me a little more sympathetic to the Loyalist cause than the average American, particularly since I have been lacking in stories about brave, revolutionary colonists to balance the narrative.

After hearing myself joke about having more Loyalists in my tree than Patriots this past week, I decided to it was time to dedicate myself (and this post), to learning more about the Patriots in my line. I sat down and made a list of each of my great-grandparents' families, pulled up my tree on FamilySearch, and systematically identified any possible lines which might have had an ancestor who was in the right place, and of the right age, to have participated in the Revolutionary War. Once identified, I then checked their names on the online databases for both the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada (UELAC), and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

The results were very surprising to me! Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I had not done this before. I now have a list of SIX identified ancestors who are in the DAR's ANSWER database, as well as at least three more possible ancestors who were in the right place at the right time. I also found a potential listing for yet ANOTHER Loyalist in my family, as well as two other ancestors who seem to have followed a Loyalist migration pattern. Wow!

I will add the caveat here that I based my search on what others have entered into my shared family tree on FamilySearch. I still need to follow and evaluate the evidence for each line, in order to verify what others have put forward. (This reminds me of the time I thought I might have a Mayflower ancestor, but once I looked into it, I quickly determined that it was a big mistake - don't believe everything that others put out as fact!) This is enough work to keep me busy for several months, and probably part of what kept me from looking into this for so long in the first place... wish me luck - ha!

Cosmelia Ellen Farnsworth Ogilvie, my great-great grandmother [1]

Stephen Martindale Farnsworth - Cosmelia's father, and my link to three Patriots [2]

While I still plan to do more reading and data-gathering, I do feel fairly confident about being related to three Patriots through my Farnsworth line. My great-great grandmother was Cosmelia E. Farnsworth Ogilvie. It is through her grandparents, Reuben Farnsworth III and Lucinda Kent, that I am connected to DAR Patriots Reuben Farnsworth, Jr., and Cephas Kent, Jr. & Sr. Here is a lovely blog post written about the younger Cephas Kent, by Mary Mettler: 
http://blog.californiaancestors.org/2008/09/tuesday-tales-from-road-dorset-vermont.html. 
​I can't tell you how exciting it has been just to scratch the surface of information for these ancestors of mine, and how inspired I am to start learning more!

"Vermont Society of Colonial Dames, Historic Marker, Site of Cephas Kent's Dwelling, Adjacent the Cephas Kent Inn, Where The First Convention of the New Hampshire Grants Was Held in 1776, The Dorset Conventions... July 24-26 1776, Voted to Defend the Cause of the United American States, Erected 1912" Source: Wikipedia: Kent Neighborhood Historic District [3]

If you are interested in finding out about the roles your ancestors may have played in revolutionary times, follow the steps I've outlined above, and then start verifying the information you've found with original documents. If you are on Ancestry, you can view past applications to the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), in this collection: "U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970." You might even find that one of the applications was written in the handwriting of one of your own ancestors!

I am, despite my proud Loyalist heritage, wishing a very happy Independence Day to you all with new-found confidence!

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1. Photo of Cosmelia Ellen Farnsworth, circa 1880, digital image, 
FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/5038880 : accessed 8 July 2018).
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​2. Image of Stephen Martindale Farnsworth, ​Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, Frank Esshom, Utah Pioneers Book Publishing Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1913, pg 285; viewed at Google Books (https://books.google.com : accessed 8 July 2018). Note: variations of this image have been distributed widely on FamilySearch and Ancestry.

3. "Dorset VT Kent Corner Dorset Convention Marker," digital image, Wikipedia: Kent Neighborhood Historic District (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Neighborhood_Historic_District : accessed 8 July 2018), photo credit: MagicPiano, ​CC BY-SA 4.0.