2009-05-27

wolfpangs: (made a swiveling chair--now I nap)
2009-05-27 06:00 pm

a Soldier of the Revolution.

I'm making this face, too!-------->

Just doing some more genealogy research and I've found some really interesting stuff. I've managed to trace my family back to the 17th century! In Virginia! I read about my great^5 grandfather, who went to court at 73 to get the pension he was rightfully owed for his military service. The court found that "the above named applicant George VEST was a revolutionary Soldier and served as he states." So I really am a daughter of the Revolution. Oh, but wait.

Going back further, I found some information on his brother James, who seems like quite the righteous dude. On Nov. 14, 1785, James signed a petition supporting separation of Church and State. And then there was his will. After specifying the distribution of his possessions, including his "horse mountain" (I want a horse mountain!) and his "utenshuls," he said, "I do appoint my two trusty friends Thomas Burfoot and Archer Trayler for my Executors to this my last will and testament whereunto I have set my hand and seal this day and date above written."

That's where a light flickered on in my fevered brain. Archer Trayler, one of the trusty friends of my superb uncle (that's gotta be better than great), is a descendant of Christopher Branch II. Christopher Branch's great-grandson was a man by the name of Peter Jefferson, who gave his father's name to his third child, a boy he named Thomas.

Y'all. Now if there were someone in Virginia who would have had something to say about the separation of church and state, I wonder just who that could have been.