Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

  MARCH 07, 2021 In 2019, my New Year’s resolution was to prove lineage to the Mayflower in anticipation of a 2020 trip to Plymouth for the 400th Anniversary. Of course, that trip didn’t happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And sadly, the familial connection didn’t happen either! William Halsall, “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” 1882; Wikimedia Commons, database with images ( https://commons.wikimedia.org : accessed 7 Mar 2021), search for Mayflower. Week 10: Name’s the Same When I initially made that 2019 resolution, I truly thought it would be a snap to find a direct line from myself to a Mayflower passenger. There’s one branch of my father’s family that has very deep American roots around the Massachusetts Bay Colony area. I was absolutely certain that someone in that cluster of the tree must have been one of the lucky pilgrims to make that “maiden” voyage. And not once, but twice, I thought I had made the discovery! There were several other “cousins” who had blindly accepted th...

  MARCH 23, 2020 While novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is certainly the talk of the town right now, a hundred years ago, my 2nd great uncle, Benjamin Newton Dean, met an untimely fate by the hands of a related disease, influenza. Benjamin Dean sitting on the front steps of “the old Hogg place” on Wheeling Creek in West Virginia. It’s unclear whether Benjamin succumbed to the famous 1918 “Spanish” Influenza Pandemic, or whether his strain was a mutated version, as his death did not take place until August 1920. But what is clear is the seriousness of these viruses and the importance of taking every precaution to prevent their spread. Benjamin Dean was only 20 years old. That’s right. He wasn’t an adolescent, and he certainly wasn’t elderly by any respect. He was 20 years old! He was born May 30th, 1900 in Sand Hill, Marshall County, West Virginia to John Alexander Dean, Jr. and Mollie (Boyce) Dean. He was short with a medium build, dark hair, and blue eyes. In September of 1918, at th...