I began celebrating, in my own way, the Semiquincentennial (250th) anniversary of the birth of the United States on the 19th of April 2025, the day 251 years ago now, that the first shots of the American Revolution rang out along the Lexington-Concord road.
I began with a tour of American Revolutionary War parks and sights. I followed that up with several genealogical documentation efforts that included:
- Documenting more of the Lexington Minutemen.
- Documenting the People of Valley Forge
- Researching the Green Mountain Boys
- Identifying Revolutionary Ancestors for my family members and blogging about many of them
The culmination of this celebration ends on the day it officially begins, 4 July 2026 when the fireworks fill the evening skies across the country marking the 250th anniversary of our declaration.
I don't know why this anniversary hit me stronger than most. Maybe it is because I remember looking forward to the 200th Anniversary in 1976. Maybe it is because I have a copy of George Bancroft's 1876 Centennial American History six volume set of books. Maybe it is because I realize I am very unlikely to survive to see the 300th Anniversary. Maybe it is because I am fascinated by the zeal for independence and the sacrifice for liberty that was not and could not be adequately communicated in grade school curriculum.
As with the other blogs on the subject, I'm going to explore personal connections to the events. Wikitree has a feature that allows you to find connections (if your tree is on Wikitree) to various people who have developed profiles. For example, there are categories for things like the Signers of the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta Barons - both examples of a group of peoples asserting their perceived rights to self-govern.
When I look at my family ties to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, I discover three standouts worth discussing.
First, I am a third cousin to John Adams. John, in great collaboration with his wife, Abigail, thought about the formation of the nation from a legal perspective. In many ways he didn't originally want to break from England - but once he realized it was inevitable, he fought vigorously and tirelessly to make it successful. The struggle came at a great cost to his relationships with family and friends.
Second, I am a first cousin to Roger Sherman. You don't hear much about Roger, but he was the only signer who signed all the founding documents. He signed the Continental Association, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Roger and I are related through a common grandfather, Benjamin Wellington.
John and Roger are prominently portrayed standing next to one another in John Trumbull's painting (shown above) of the signing of the declaration.
The final "close" family member is Thomas Nelson, Jr a fourth cousin. Thomas was not portrayed in Trumbull's famous painting. Thomas was a commander at the siege of Yorktown. Some British took refuge in his town home. His artillerymen deigned to fire at his house - so Nelson aimed the cannon at his own house.
Fourth cousins are not particularly close family members. Often people don't personally know any of their living fourth cousins. But this signer is of special interest because our common ancestor is Theophilus Hone (one of my 9th great-grandfathers in my paternal lineage). Theophilus lived in Jamestown, VA in 1666 where he was a Burgess. But he has the distinction of connecting me to both my paternal and maternal family. Theophilus received a grant of land on the Rappahannock in payment for providing passage for one of my maternal eighth great-grandfathers, Charles Gorsuch, (and three of his siblings) while they were orphaned minors to the Colonies in the early 1650s.
As the semiquincentennial approaches and in thinking about these three cousins, I realize what I would never have been told in a classroom history class. I am personally connected to the very founding of this country. Like the three-cornered hat of the 18th century, these three patriots and the contributions they made rest on my head reminding me of the precious inheritance their contributions provided me.
Liberty! Hard won and easily eroded. Liberty! Fraught with risk yet alive with promise. Liberty! Self-determination bound to responsibility. Liberty! Held in trust and shared with grace. Liberty! Give me liberty or give me death! We cry for liberty.
Do I and my fellow heirs have what it takes to maintain and expand our inheritance?
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