Shakin' the Family Tree

...And the rockets' red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave?
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave...

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Although we all know that the holiday we will celebrate Monday s the 240th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence - a statement declaring that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as a new nation - not everyone realizes how the Star Spangled Banner came to be, or that it was not written during the Revolutionary War.

As a matter of fact, Francis Scott Key didn't call it the Star Spangled Banner. His original title was Defence of Fort M'Henry.

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It was during the War of 1812 that the verses that would become our national anthem were written.

Key was an influential lawyer who volunteered to negotiate with the British for the return of some American prisoners captured during the war, and being held on the the flagship of the British fleet on the Chesapeake Bay. He and some friends were permitted to board the ship and were successful in their efforts, but since they had learned of plans of the British fleet to attack Fort McHenry at Baltimore, they were allowed to re-board their own vessel, but under British guard.

It was under this close scrutiny that on the night of 13 September 1814, Key watched anxiously as the British fleet continued to shell Fort McHenry, and the Americans became slower and slower to return fire. At twilight, he could still see the 30 by 42 foot Stars and Stripes (one of two flags made the previous year by a woman named Mary Pickersgill), tattered but still flying over Fort McHenry. The shelling continued throughout the night.

By dawn, an eerie silenced descended. Through the smoke, fog and haze, Key and the other Americans looked for the flag. There was a break in the haze, and they could see it.

Our flag was still there... announcing the American victory.

Mary Pickersgill's original flag is preserved at the Smithsonian Institute.

The memory of our ancestors and other relatives who fought for our independence from England during the Revolutionary War, and then fought for it again during the War of 1812, is preserved in our hearts.

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Revolutionary War
Joshua Bloomer Ashmore, Sr.
Stephen Bloomer Balch
Luke Chapin
Samuel Chapin
Thomas Hale
Jesse George Hoshal
Alexander Meek
James Meek
Samuel Meek
Nelson Edward Parrish
Elijah Rollins
Ichabod Rollins
Nathaniel Rollins
Jesse Williams

The War of 1812
John S T Callaway
John Ivie
Ephraim C Lemley, Sr.
Keys Meek
Abraham Lincoln Parrish
George Wharton
Jacob Wingfield


Lest we forget...

Theodore Higgins Rollins passed over today. Those close to him knew him as Ted.

He was born on 9 Nov 1923 in Akron, Summit Co., OH to John Hooper Rollins and Anna Marie Rian.

He loved talking genealogy with me.

Ted's health had declined in the last few years, and he and his wife had moved from Faulkner County to Little Rock to be closer to their son.

Their son is my brother-in-law.

Ted was really proud to see his son marry my sister.

So was I.

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Rest in peace, Ted.

We'll see you on the other side.

I found nineteen news articles and clippings from late 18th and early 19th century issues of the Dover Sun, (now available from Genealogy Bank) that related directly to my brother-in-law's extended Rollins family.

His ancestors settled in Strafford and surrounding counties as early as 1644, with patriarch James Rawlins arriving in colonial America in 1632 from Cornwall.

Even with the magnitude of information - well researched and documented - about the hsitory of the Rawlins/Rollins clan of New Hampshire, information found in these news clippings does not seem to be widely available, and adds that third dimension to the family members that I love so much.

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As is unfortunately often the case, women rarely received mention except at their births, marriages and deaths.

Such was the case with many of the Rawlins/Rollins women.

Sometimes, even the death notice or obituary was very brief.


DIED, at Somersworth, Miss Susanna Rollins, aged about 15...daughter of Mr. James Rollins.
Dover Sun, 2 Mar 1805

Every once in a while, it was much lengthier.




OBITUARY
Departed this life on the 28th ult. in the 28th year of her age, Miss Rachel Rollins of Somersworth, daughter of the late Mr. I Rollins of that place. Her malady (a consumption), was long and lingering, attended with much pain and distress, which, agreeably to her uniform character, she endued with the mildness of the Dove, and the meekness of the Lamb. In the extremity of her sufferings, not a murmur, nor even an involuntary groan escaped her lips! She was all patience, and resignation. Such was the sweetness of her Disposition, it smiled at Grief! and such the purity of her Soul, the terrors of the gloomy Messenger fled before the heaven of her countenance. There, in the darkness of Death, Religion sat smiling, like the Star of even on the bosom of the night.

She was accomplished in her person and manners; possessed of a mind highly susceptible, with feelings exquisitely delicate, and tender as Pity itself. Modest almost to a fault, and chaste as the virgin snow. Her many graces and virtues, drew forth the warmest affection of her friends, and her ever decorous and amiable demeanour, endeared her to her acquaintance. She was a pattern to her sex in acts of kindness and charity to the poor, whose gratitude proclaimed her benevolence, and whose tears now feelingly bespeak the magnitude of their loss. Although cut off in the meridian of her days, yet she arrived to full maturity; for wisdom was her grey hairs, and her spotless life old age. -- As all her pleasing prospects below were vanishing in the darkness, they brightened above in the Paradise of light. Joyful her exit from this transitory scene; a dreary wilderness, a world of woe, a vale of tears! She has passed gloriously, triumphing through her REDEEMER, the billow-swelling Jordan of death, and gained, borne on a Seraph's blissful wings, the promised land, the heavenly Canaan. There grows the TREE OF LIFE, whose taste is immortality. There flow rivers of LIVING WATER, making glad the heavenly inhabitants. There tears are wiped from every eye - and there all her cares, pains, and sorrows are lost and forgotten, in the overflowing fountain of bliss.
Dover Sun, 5 Dec 1812

Something tells me Rachel was very much loved.

Tracking the ancestors of some of the family in-laws...

Have just discovered, unbeknownst to him, that my brother-in-law named his blue and gold macaw after his 5th great-grandfather...

Not just a whole lot of Ichabods running around these days...