My Family History Page - Phys, Lavertys and OthersUpdated August 23, 2006 |
Ingrid Rochelle Briles Charleston, WV 25302 United States ingrid_briles@yahoo.com |
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| I grew up without history. Finding family has been the greatest gift of my life. Finding my history, has given me a sense of belonging to something larger than myself. I feel an intense pride in what I call my "Patriots and Martyrs". This Family History, is to honor those I knew, and those before them. On my Patriot side, are my Irish, who came to escape the terrible famine, or just to build something that was theirs. They were farmers, whalers, teachers, doctors, shopkeepers, servants, and ministers. Miners from Ireland and England, became coal miners in Pennsylvania, and, gold miners in California. They became proud members of the "Irish Brigade". They survived Andersonville. They bound the wounds of soldiers at Gettysburg. They built farms, universities, and governments. They owned taverns, and bought land for a state teachers college. On my Patriot side, are my Germans. They left towns and forests of Germany, where they worked until their hands bled, but for other men. They came to America, dreaming that they would work their own land. They came willing to fight for that dream. These men from another land, claimed America as their own, and took it away from King George. Poor men, who came to America with nothing, worked to buy land, yet became willing to sacrifice even their lives for a dream. Every member of the Pennsylvania Militia, or those who aided the Militia, knew that if England had won, they would have lost their newly acquired land, and probably their lives. They were willing to chance being executed as traitors, for the dream of an independent nation, of being in control of their own destiny. My German patriots became farmers, businessmen, scholars, and many ministers. Their calloused hands built a country. On my Patriot side are the French, who came to worship freely, and who as French Canadians, scouted for the Americans during the Revolutionary War, worked as interpreters during the French and Indian Wars, trained farmers to become soldiers during the revolutionary war, and who moved north and created a country called Canada. And then, there are my Martyrs. From Switzerland, the Bavarian Alps, Germany, and Sweden, came a "peculiar people". They were the Anabaptists; the Amish, the Mennonites, the Brethren in Christ; the Plain People. Their most basic 'crime' was their belief in Adult Baptism. Taxes were assessed on the people of Europe based on household size, determined, and kept track of, by Baptism rolls in local parishes. The Anabaptists believed that according to the scriptures, you could and should only be baptised when you were old enough to know what you were doing, and to mean your baptism as a lifelong spiritual commitment. For this belief, they were chased out of most countries in Europe. They were rounded up to be imprisoned, or killed. Although they were feared and hated, they were also courted by the countries of Europe. They weren't afraid to work, and wherever they set their plow, the land blossomed. They brought their odd, gentle ways to a wilderness called Pennsylvania. With their hands holding tools, with their huge families, and their unswerving faith, the 'plain' farms became the lush fields of Lancaster County, and other "plain" counties. They wouldn't fight with anyone. When the Revolutionary War broke out, they found themselves feared and imprisoned again, for practicing 'love of the brethren'. Eventually, people understood that they were neither traitors or enemy sympathizers, just gentle people who wanted to live in peace. Today still, in countries from Africa to the Mid-east, where there is need, the descendants from my early Martyrs, are binding wounds, feeding the hungry, and showing love to everyone, doing harm to no one. Today, in places where tyrants would destroy life, and hope, my Patriots are still standing for those who can't stand for themselves. Still willing to give everything. |
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My Family History |
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