I struggled for a long time on how to write this book. I tried my best to write it in a way that went beyond the dry facts of birthdates, marriage dates, and deaths. It was a slow process until I started using AI to help craft narratives around the tidbits of information I had, weaving research and family stories together into something I could then edit and finish.
This book traces my wife's family story back four generations, sixteen interconnected families and beyond —from their Irish and English origins to their lives in frontier America, and eventually into towns and cities of the Southwest. I wrote a story about their journey and how they all came together into one person, my wife Nancy.
Going back four generations to her 2nd great-grandparents, only five out of sixteen people were immigrants. The rest were born in the US. Looking at the nationalities of the fourth generation, I found one Irish, two English, two Scotts, with the rest born in the US.
- Ireland — Hobson, McWard, McWenie, Moore, O'Connell
- Scotland — Beveridge, Hill
- England — Barnard, Englebright, Heath, Holt, Lamb, Logan, Pate, White, Worley
The McWards have a strong Quaker foundation through the lines of Hobson, Talbott, and Logan. The Talbotts were part of the early settling of Maryland with Talbot County named after the family.
Each chapter follows a family group, moving from their origins to the US and the Southwest, where the lines eventually come together. To help identify direct ancestors, I have bolded their names throughout.