Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

As the family story goes, Simon George Mills was a wife beater, and his spouse ran him out of the house because of it. Unless any court documents testifying to this fact (or contrary to it) come to light, this is the disparaging image we're left with of my 2nd great grandfather. But he probably was not brought up to act in such a manner. Simon George Mills alias George Simon Mills He was raised by parents, Lewis Mills and Ann (Jackson Smith) Hopkins, who both originally belonged to the Quaker faith. The official name for their religion is the Religious Society of Friends. It's said that the word "Quakers" was an insulting nickname bestowed upon them by others to describe the way their bodies shook while experiencing spiritual energy, but over time they've come to embrace it. Quakers believe that every individual is capable of experiencing the divine nature of the universe and receiving messages from God or finding their "inward light," even to this moder...

  DECEMBER 11, 2021 In addition to having ancestral lines in my family, I also have ancestral Lynes in my family. The surname Lyne sits on the paternal side of our tree. My 3rd great grandmother, Margaret Ellen, was born a Lyne. Margaret Ellen (Lyne) Scheetz, ca. 1880. Week 50: Lines My Lynes are thought to have originated in Bristol, England around the mid to late 1600s. It’s thought my 6th great grandfather was a Lyne who came to America with his brother. The two allegedly split up when they arrived, with my ancestor settling in Westmoreland County, Virginia and his brother settling in Granville, North Carolina. My Lyne married Miss Mary Edwards and raised a large family. One of their sons, Thomas Lyne, was my 5th great grandfather, born about 1745 in Westmoreland. This was during the colonial era when Virginia was still under British rule. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Thomas joined as a private in the 6th regiment of Virginia. He survived the war and started a family w...