Sister Rain’s Note:
This is the second story in a series about my search for an ancestor who was a Patriot in the American Revolutionary War. To read the previous posts, click on the following:
“Historical Society Of Pennsylvia“
I have had a dream for many years to find an ancestor who fought for the United States in the war for independence against Britain. As my husband got deeper into and more adept at researching my family, the first stirrings of possibility bloomed beyond want. I knew that my mom and her parents were from Philadelphia, but I had no idea from when or where we came. There was no one to ask. It took years to travel back in time, with each generation discovered came the holding of breath that they had not just arrived from another country. When it was revealed they were born in the United States, Mister Rain would turn his attention to the parents of. More breath holding. More Americans. More hope.
My husband spent countless hours on Ancestry.com, we met with a genealogist in order for her to provide him with next steps when he got stuck. We could have hired her to do the research for us, but he wanted to do it himself. We visited many cemeteries in Philadelphia, locating the grave of a relative whom we knew was buried there, looking for nearby headstones with names and dates we needed. Mister Rain went to a local FamilySearch Center, we also spent a day working with the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. It was at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that he found two five hundred page books, similar to a family bible. With my sight such that it is, I could not help him go through the original, difficult to read volumes, but on our second trip to review them, he hit pay dirt. This branch of my family tree arrived in Philadelphia in the 1600’s from South Wales. Which meant we were here during the American Revolutionary War. But was there a male in my lineage that would have been of fighting age? And dare I even put this in print, was he a Patriot or . . . gulp . . . a loyalist?
To be continued . . .
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