Finding Distant Cousins through Genealogy

There are many reasons to research your family history. Some of us love history and our ancestors hold a fascination for us. Many people begin their genealogical research in order to compile a family medical history. And then there are even more who would like to confirm whether or not the family stories passed down are myths. There are also people like me who think everyone should know where they came from and who their ancestors were.

I began researching my own genealogical story when I was nine years old. The male lines were relatively easy on one side to find, but the interesting history is actually on the female side. My family history on this continent starts with New England and Quebec in Canada. Everything prior to the Mayflower days - on which eight people were my direct ancestors - is all in Europe and Russia.

I have varying amounts of evidence that document over 13,000 ancestors and extended family. For most people the hardest part is getting the first five generations documented. Once you find out who your great-great grandparents were, the records can be amazingly complete for some things like births, deaths and marriages.

If you are among the 30 to 40 million people in the United States descended from the Royal families in Europe, you may even find portraits of your ancestors and their castles.

To my delight and surprise I learned that a dear friend from Battle Ground and I are actually distant cousins. The last direct ancestors we share are a married couple James Leonard (1621-1691) and Mary Martin (1619-1664), the parents of Abigail Leonard, one of my great-grandmothers, and James Leonard, one of my friend's great-grandfathers.

Although this period was obviously prior to the advent of photography, the family became wealthy once they started their iron business in the United States. Before they started the first iron works in America, they were struggling with Scottish iron works and left sizeable debts in Scotland and England and probably forfeited property when they immigrated. There is no shame in this history, frankly, as life has ups and downs. My point is that their new life probaly afforded the luxuries one could expect in the wealthier classes in America, like portraits of the family. As so much information is on the Internet, my latest research challenge is to try to find those images.

I did a quick search and as I know something about the Leonards, it was easy to verify this is a passage about my ancestors written by a distant relation at some point:

"The Leonards called their bloomery Raynham forge, doubtless from Raynbam in England, which is the station where one alights to visit Belhus mansion at Aveley Easex, the head quarters of the English Leonards where the beautiful portraits are of our English ancestors. The owner, Sir Thomas Barrett Leonard, is a landed proprietor of at least 10,000 acres of land inberited from the early Leonards. It may be that James and Henry Leonard lived here in their boyhoods and had childhood's associations with Raynham, for which they named their forge. The site of this old forge which was carried on by seven generations of Leonards, was pointed out to me by my father, when as a child I rode with him through Raynham to Taunton.

I was also rather delighted to read this segment of the same family history piece which was another example in my extended family's excellent relations with the Native American communities wherever they lived - with the exception of a different Great Grandfather in the 17th century in Yarmouth, Maine who was killed by a war party during the Indian Wars. Nobody's perfect, right?

"James Leonard was a warm friend of the good Indian chief Massasoit who used frequently to visit him, sleeping under his roof and eating his bread. James gave him every assistance in the repair of his guns and making his weapons and tools. Massasoit, before his death, required a solemn oath of his son Philip that he would never harm a Leonard, and Philip in 1675 in an imposing meeting in Taunton Church at which James Leonard was present, affixed his mark to a document promising peace with the men of Taunton. Philip's tribe molested the white settlers in Middleboro and New Bedford, but the inhabitants of Taunton and Bridgewater suffered little in King Philip's war, and no harm was done to the Leonards with Philip's consent. Thus the name of Leonard represents to Taunton not only splendid enterprise, but the hospitality and friendliness which secured safety for the town at a critical period. King Philip had a summer home near the Leonards, and Lake Nipenicket between Raynham and Bridgewater was a favorite fishing ground of his. There is a tradition that Philip's head was secreted after his death under the old Leonard house in Raynham.

I can undoubtedly find more information about our shared ancestor by contacting the Old Colony Historical Society http://www.oldcolonyhistoricalsociety.org/Genealogy%20and%20Local%20History%20Research%20at%20OCHS.htm which is located in Taunton, Massachusetts. If I were interested in spending a little money, I could actually pay to have research done for me, but where's the fun in that?

However, now that I know these portraits exist, I am curious and would like to find an image to view.