Over time, memories of their family histories and ancestral homes tended to fade for New Englanders pioneering new territories to the north and west after the close of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. In the author's case, his family settled the little northern border town of Berkshire, Vermont, about 1800, and all that remained of its history prior to that time was a cryptic reference to its "colonial family strains." The fact that the family in question had the common surname "Lewis," further added to the difficulty of tracing them prior to the settlement of Berkshire. However,...
Over time, memories of their family histories and ancestral homes tended to fade for New Englanders pioneering new territories to the north and west a...