A peculiar type of privilege I acknowledge is the ability to trace my family line back 10 generations or more.
The Taylors (father’s family) appear to have emigrated to this continent almost 380 years ago: my 9th great grandfather Robert Taylor (also my father’s name) traveled from Devon, England in 1646 landed in Massachusetts and died 2 years later in Connecticut. His descendants eventually moved to western New York and Pennsylvania, where many of the Taylors still live (around Bradford, PA). My paternal grandmother’s family settled in the same area in the mid-19th century. The Daltons escaped the Irish potato famine to establish farms in the rocky rises of the Allegheny valley.
The other side of my family has called the coastal region of northeastern North Carolina home for centuries. Tristram Hardison, my mother’s 7th paternal grandfather, emigrated from the York, England area in the 1650s, arriving in Maine and starting his family there. His grandson Jasper traveled down the coast as a teenager, and established a new family settlement in the Albemarle Sound region of North Carolina in the early 18th century. My mother’s maternal line, the Bass family, I just discovered, has an even longer history in that region. Captain John William Basse (my 10th great-grandfather), born in London, England in 1616, was brought to the Jamestown Settlement area by his father when he was 3 years old. A native tribal rebellion, when John was only 6, killed many of the European settlers in that region while his parents were traveling back to England on business, and he survived as an orphan adopted by the Nansemond indigenous tribe. He eventually married a Nansemond tribal leader’s daughter, and their progeny now populates much of south-eastern North America. A well-written account of this amazing story, penned by a distant cousin, follows:
My curiosity around this family history began many years ago, inspired by a desire to address my experience of family trauma. In my genealogical research I gathered work done by other relatives and, over many years, have charted an extensive map of relationships on Ancestry.com ( https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/17940327?cfpid=581378941 ). Though incomplete and with many errors I’m still correcting, this tree has helped me reflect on the stories that give me my foundation. And I know that having access to these stories carries immense privilege. I know of many dear friends whose ancestors were forcibly brought to this continent, and thus do not have the same paper trial I have access to. (A disturbing fact of my family story: many of my ancestors recorded wealth included ownership of enslaved people of African descent). And others have their lineage cloaked in sealed adoption records. So I am grateful that many strong branches of my tree are available to explore.
My journey through these generations has helped to give context to present-day trauma. I have found that families share pain in paths influenced by both nature and nurture. We escaped persecution (political / religious), we sought wealth, we faced war and violence, we endured poverty; my family survived. But not without scars that our DNA transferred forward generationally, and not without imbedded behaviors that have been imprinted upon each member.
So today, I offer reverence and respect to a special survivor: my 10th great-grandfather John Basse – who came to this continent as an infant on his mother’s hip, who was raised by indigenous North Americans, who married a tribal princess, and whose descendants have endured for over 400 years on this continent.
Scars and strength.
A Publisher of Truth 