Our Family Tree

Introduction

This is the story of our family and its many branches.  What is contained in the following pages is a combination of fact, speculation and conjecture.  The facts are simple:  the persons named herein are real.  They lived from the earliest days of our country when America was still a colony of England.  They were early settlers of the colonies at Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  As the country expanded, they moved westward into western Virginia, Kentucy, Ohio and beyond; or, as in the case of the Harrises, they sought better fishing grounds and moved north to Nova Scotia.

Many of our ancestors took part in the significant events of their day.  They served in the militia before there were armies to protect the settlers from the ravages of marauding Indians. Then they took up arms again during the French and Indian Wars to protect the King's interests in the Colonies.  Many participated in their local colonial government, and when the time came they fought against a tyrannical King for the right to govern themselves in the Revolution. However, their days of service didn't end then, many were called upon to again repluse attack by the British in 1812.  Still later generations fought on both sides in the Civil War and in every other conflict our great country was involved in to protect their freedom and the freedom of their heirs.

The speculation comes about when trying to identify their forebears in England and Europe.  In some cases, whereas the names are correct, the relationships may, out of necessity, be conjecture.  At no time have I included someone in this genealogy simply to show a connection to a famous person or to exclude an infamous one.  Rather, the facts support that the relationship existed; however, the source documentation, which is necessary to confirm the relationship, was not complete or the records had been lost or destroyed.  In all cases, our direct family lines are correct to the best of my knowledge although they may be incomplete.

Let me take a moment to explain the structure of this website.  It is divided into two primary branches:   Harris and Eggleston.  When you click on either name you are taken to that family's home page.  On the name bar, to the right of the primary family name, e.g. Harris, are the branches that married into to that family.  As you will see on the subordinate family pages there are more names to the right; however, these are not links, only the home button and the primary family button are links.  The other buttons are some of the names that will be found in that tree.  In addition, at the bottom of each page is a link to the home page (Our Family Tree) as well as an alphabetical surname list, a bibliography and a photo album.  In these days of computer hacking and in order to protect personal identity, I have omitted all living individuals.

The pursuit of a family's genealogical heritage is never done, instead each new relative found opens up a whole new line of investigation.  As this is a work in progress, I will update the site as my research discovers new and interesting facts.

Lynn Harris Eggleston