From the Blair Bruidhinn,
   The Newsletter of  
The Clan Blair Society
A poem by Elizabeth Morse:
                        
                                   GENERATIONS
                          My life cycles ever around
                                 My Memories grow
                             Entwining the memories 
                                  of generations                                               
                     My mind holds the memories of my past,
                          The visions of my childhood,      
                  The dreams of my parents and grandparents,
           The tears of my frustrations and the glow of my joys.
         
                          My life ticks out my destiny
       Vitalizing the lives of my children and my children's children,
                        Enriching the streams of my life.
                All the genes and tracings of my ancestors echo 
         And imprint a mold for the living cycle of my life and theirs
                       As it makes its way toward the sea.

                         The rivers of the generations fuse
           The contributions of all my ancestral voices in my memory, 
                           My loves, my faith, my causes.
                 In the cocoon of my heart, I do not stand alone.
                 Watching the circling of the wheels of my life,
                For the generations of my ancestors support me.

                Welcome to My Website
  
This website won a 2008 Vintage Kin 'Yellow Ribbon Web Award'.
 for a "very high standard of aesthetic appeal, quality of navigation 
 and great value to the genealogy community".

                                     We Are The Chosen
                                 In each family there is one
                   Who seems to be called to find the ancestors 
       To put flesh on their bones and make them seem alive again
                                    To tell the family story
                  And to feel somehow they know and approve.
                 Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts
          But instead breathing life into all who have gone before.
                          We are the storytellers of the tribe...         
                    (This is an exerpt from a longer work attributed 
                         to  Della M. Cumming Wright and others.)
 
             When we turn to our ancestors something changes us inside.
                                                                  Russell M. Nelson

     Those of us who research our family's ancestry have a special bond. We do it for 
the love of it, although it's a lifetime pursuit that is never finished. Once you 
catch "the genealogy bug" there is no turning back; there is no cure!
  What better way to gain a personal relationship to history, or to "discover" 
ourselves, than by researching and discovering our ancestors? Who needs fiction 
when the truth is not only 'stranger' but much more fascinating? Another great 'perk' 
is finding cousins you never knew you had!
  (Remember, when it comes to genealogy, all success is relative.)
  I edit this website periodically-so you can check back for new data/photos etc.
                "Old Genealogists Never Die-They Just Lose Their Census."

Stories: Go to 'People'-upper left-then click 'Stories'
  I have entered stories about our ancestors and recollections about my
  generation and photos that I hope you enjoy-For more photos: go up to
  'Photos' then to 'Index' and the Album: 'The 1940s and 1950s'.
  
Guest Book: Click on Guest Book-upper left.
  You can leave a message, lines you are researching etc. Your email address will 
be seen only by me. 
                You can also contact me from the click here 
         link at the top of this page or through my Facebook page.
  
'Sources'
CHECK OUT: Useful Links at left.

Websites and Sources:
  Some good websites for research and sharing are:
   geni.com                   ancestry.com           familysearch.com
   myheritage.com       findagrave.com             wikitree.com     
   ancientfaces.com     google.com                   cyndislist.com
   geneanet.org            rootsweb.com            findmypast.com
   
   I have too many websites, genealogy sources, surname sources etc. to list here but 
will be glad to share them if you contact me. There are many good sources-including 
those 'of royal descent', descendants of Charlemagne-websites, books, organizations 
etc. One good book is Royalty for Commoners" by Roderick W. Stuart.
   There are also Census Reports, local newspaper archives, military records. historical
   libraries etc... CHECK OUT EVERYTHING!
      When we turn to our ancestors-something changes inside us.

Genealogy Software Programs:
  You MUST have a good genealogy program installed on your computer.
   There are several good ones on the market-I use the Legacy program. And BACkUP! One 
   on your computer and an external hard drive to keep your records safe. Few things are 
   sadder than to hear of something losing years of research: gone forever!
   
   ANOTHER GOOD SOURCE: Family Tree Magazine: 
                                       familytreemagazine.com
  It is a good source for genealogist-researching, websites, software reviews-every
  issue has valuable information.

          "When a nation perishes or a society goes down, one condition
                may always be found. They forgot where they came from." Carl Sandburg
                           
                           THE PURPOSE OF THIS WEBSITE:
            "Those only deserve to be remembered by posterity
             who treasure up a history of their ancestors." Edmund Burke

   This website is designed to help those researching their surnames-to connect with 
those names and also to trace these families back to earlier ancestral lines. You don't 
start with early lines but trace your family back to them. The problem is to get from 
HERE to THERE, which is the focus of this website: to help 'cousins' make these crucial 
connections. 
  
NOTE:There are over 19,000 names in my Legacy program-with other 
          lines of descent in biographical and historical notes.
      
RESEARCH, FAMILY STORIES AND PHOTOS ON THESE LINES CAN ALSO 
    BE FOUND ON: 
       Geneanet.org  where my entire gedcom is uploaded. Type in a name to search.
       Ancestry.com under the tree name: Pixleyblair.tribalpages.com
       MyHeritage.com where a gedcom is uploaded with notes and some pictures
       Geni.com where my entire gedcom is uploaded-see Overview-notes and Media-photos 

  Some lines can be traced to Charlemagne and beyond Roman times. Of course, 
most of our lines can't be traced back that far-but we do the best we can with the 
data available.
  There is also much more information on COLLATERAL lines: siblings, cousins, 
children, marriages, descendants and photos which I will be glad to SHARE if you 
contact me. What is the point of all these years of research, if not to share with
others, as others have shared with us?

           "Trying to plant the future without a sense of the past 
             is like trying to plant cut flowers." Historian Daniel Boorstin

  
NOTE: My DNA results from Ancestry.com are as follows-European 97%: Europe 
West 40%, Europe East 1%, Great Britain 32%, Ireland 10% and Iberian Peninsula 7%. 
  Trace Regions: Italy/Greece 4%, Finland/Northwest Russia 3%, Scandinavia 1%.
  West Asia is given as 2% Middle East 1%, Caucasus 1% and North Africa as 1%. 
  The European results are not surprising and other results appear to confirm our 
connections to West Asia and Middle East etc. which include Egyptian, Persian, Syria, 
Iraq, Byzantine, Macedonian and Russian lines etc. Some of which are listed below.
  Some of  early lines can be found on on this site, on my Ancestry.com tree: 
Pixleyblair.tribalpages.com and with notes and stories on Geni.com and My Heritage.com

  Our family's history is truly the history of the western (and eastern) world. The book I  
would like to write would be titled:
                                PIONEERS AND PRINCES
           "The cowards never started, the weak died along the way.
            Only the strong survived. They were the Pioneers."
             From a plaque at the Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska
  The PIXLEYS came from England and settled in colonial New England-first in 
Massachusetts then to Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut. They came west 
by way of Wisconsin, Kansas and Nebraska. Mary Wescott Pixley and Hannah Paul Pixley 
have royal and aristocratic ancestry and are 'golden connections' to early lines.
  My Grandmother Pixley's DELLNOW ancestors may have been of Irish descent and 
came from Ohio and West Virginia. Her LANCET line originated in England; they went to 
Germany and eventually emigrated to Indiana and Kansas.
  My Grandmother Blair's FRIDAY and FOREMAN families were of German descent. 
Her KRICK line emigrated from the Palatinate in Germany and were among the earliest
"Pennsylvania Dutch" settlers in Berks and later Lancaster Counties. 
  The BLAIRS were Scots-Irish who came to York Co., Pennsylvania; they connect to 
the FLEMING family-of Scottish descent. They married into the influential RANDOLPH 
family of Virginia-Col. William Randolph and Mary Isham Randolph who are called "The 
Adam and Eve of Virginia" and were of royal descent-they are another 'golden connection'
 to royal, aristocratic and early and ancient lines.
  Thomas Jefferson is a Randolph cousin-he grew up with our Randolph family at 
Tuckahoe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. Other Randolph cousins include: Presidents 
William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.
  Other Randolph cousins include: Chief Justice John Marshall, Patrick Henry and General 
Robert E. Lee. Pocahontas also connects to this line. 
  Presidents John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama and First Lady 'Dolley' Payne Madison are cousins
from our Fleming line. 
  President John Tyler is a cousin from our Armistead family and cousin President James
Madison descends from our Eltonhed family.
  Actress Marilyn Maxwell is a cousin from the Fleming family. Daniel Boone is
 a cousin from our Webb line. Walt Disney (who was a a member of DeMolay) is a distant 
cousin from our Tisdale line. 

  (Their lines can be found on this website.)

OUR ANCESTORS SERVED IN A NUMBER OF THIS COUNTRY'S CONFLICTS-including:
 The Pequot War: Samuel Gorton b. 1593; King Philip's War: Dr. William Avery b. 1622, William Pixley b.1635: Bacon's Rebellion: Capt. Capt. William Carver; Colonial Forces of Massachusetts: John Badger b. 1423: Queen Anne's War: Robert/Alexander b. 1635; The War of 1812: John Tarlton Fleming; The Revolutionary War: Alexander Pixley b. 1753, Col. Tarlton Fleming,  John Peter Krick and William PInkston Turner; The Civil War: John Henry Friday, James M. Pixley and John Smith.

Our Family's Ancestors Also Include:
 Mark Antony, Claudius Caesar,Malcolm Canmore-King of Scotland, Somerled-Lord of the Isles, Frederick Barbarossa, William the Conqueror, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lady Godiva, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar-'El Cid', Byzantine Empress Theodora, Viking warriors, Medieval knights and Crusaders.
  Another ancestor is Chizkiya/Hezekiah II-38th Exilarch, descendant of Bostanai ben 
Haninai-1st Exilarch of the 3rd Dynasty of Jewish Babyonian Exilarchs, descendants of 
King David, who fled following the destruction of the kingdom of Judah. Bostanai's wife 
Izdundad-a Sassanid Persian Princess-is descended from a line that includes Alexander 
the Great, Darius I King of Persia, Sargon II King of Assyria, Chinese Emperors of Wei, 
the Gupta Dynasty of India and the Ptolemy Kings of Egypt-ancestors of Queen Cleopatra. 
  The Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law Uthman bin Affan, is given by sources as an ancestor
-also the Prophet's daughter Fatima-connecting to our Spanish lines. We also descend from
the so-called barbarians, including Alaric-King of the Visigoths and Genseric-King of the
Vandals, who sacked Rome. Our ancestors also include Igor Grand Prince of Novgorod and
Kiev, Casimir I King of Poland and Bela I King of Hungary.
  There is also possibly descent from Attila the Hun-which is entered here for consideration
-but it is sometimes difficult to separate fact from legend.
  John of Gaunt-Duke of Lancaster, son of King Edward III-is our ancestor, connecting 
our family to Europe's royal lines-back to and beyond Charlemagne.
  We descend from eighteen Magna Carta Barons-Magna Carta Sureties and are related to 
four others. We are also descended from or related to many others who supported the 
Great Charter and also supported the king. Ironically, we also descend from King John who 
was forced by them to sign it!
  Some of our ancestors died fighting each other!
  There were the noble and ignoble: Alfred the Great was really great; Aethelred the
Unready was really unready. And if you like 'soap operas'-there's the one starring our
'grandparents' King Edward II and Queen Isabella: she literally 'did him in'. But (as shown
in the movie "Braveheart") she never met William Wallace. And ironically (considering our
family's connection to the Order of DeMolay) Isabella was Jacques DeMolay's goddaughter 
and he was executed by her father, our ancestor, Philip IV. You couldn't make up this stuff!
  So, we are proud of most of them, not so proud of some of them-but they make up the 
fabric of history and of OUR history. I wonder what THEY would think of us?
  And remember: If even one of these names was missing-WE'D be missing!

                    "Genealogy is tracing yourself back to
                     people who are better than you are." John Garland Pollard

                               OF HEROES AND HEROINES
  Most meaningful for those lucky enough to claim this heritage-it is the story of
the courageous men and women who came to this country to make a new life; they 
were among the earliest colonists, settlers and pioneers. Only a few of our ancestors 
were landed gentry, "Virginia Cavaliers" or of aristocratic descent. 
  Most of them arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs and faced 
hardships that we, today, can hardly comprehend. 
  Many had endured much in their native lands;they risked and survived miserable 
voyages to this new country-expecting nothing more than the opportunity to live in 
freedom and earn a better life for themselves and their families.  
  With their beliefs in hard work, education and self-sacrifice-they endured, 
perservered, fought for their new country and left us a priceless legacy: AMERICA!
                                  AND HERE'S TO THE LADIES:
  The unsung heroines were the wives, mistresses, concubines-many without even a 
name to remember them. Most had little control over their lives-some bartered into 
marriage-no more than chattel. Yet it is amazing how many of them, through intellect,
ingenuity, self-reliance and sheer force of will did manage-not only to survive-but to 
wield power and leave their stamp on history!
                                      "Remember the ladies."
               Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband John Adams 1776
 
        TRUE HEROES AND HEROINES AND WE MUST NEVER FORGET THEM!
 
  Genealogy is rewarding-but it can also be frustrating! Some of these lines-
especially the early ones 'circle back upon themselves'. They can become so 
convoluted that tracing them is rather like trying 'to navigate a spider-web'. 
Hopefully we can help each other climb the often confusing branches of the family 
tree. 
            What a special legacy to leave to those who come after us.

From The Eleusis of Chi Omega:

                               "Hold high the torch
                             You did not light its glow
                        It was given to you by other hands
                             you know
                         It's your task to keep it burning bright
                          And pass it on when someone else
                             needs light."

From "On Eagle's Wing" by John Anderson
 A musical celebrating the Scots-Irish 2004

                         "You gave your future to me,
                          You made me what I became.
                       You have your future through me,
                        I am proud to carry your name."