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Jimi Mac

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Jimi Mac...

 

My earliest-known ancestor was born in your area just after King Philip's War - 1680. So the family obviously had been here somewhat prior to that date.

 

The family kept moving to frontiers when it started to get crowded and developing aristocracies. Kinda always a rebellious folk. I think it more than likely I inherited quite a bit of that gene.

 

I could join the SAR too. Don't really care to although my sis is in DAR.

 

m

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Jimi Mac...

 

My earliest-known ancestor was born in your area just after King Philip's War - 1680. So the family obviously had been here somewhat prior to that date.

 

The family kept moving to frontiers when it started to get crowded and developing aristocracies. Kinda always a rebellious folk. I think it more than likely I inherited quite a bit of that gene.

 

I could join the SAR too. Don't really care to although my sis is in DAR.

 

m

 

 

The DAR state park is right up the road from me and is part of the area of the regional high school I went to. Their headquarters is a town over from me too...

My heritage includes Mountain Man Jim Bridger that is firmly ensconced in my family tree. Also being of Scottish descent my family knows a thing or too about rebellion, especially toward them limey brits... [razz]

 

The house my Grandfather (Sam in the original post) grew up in as a child was a large period mansion of the day and was a known stop on the underground railroad. He used to tell stories recalling playing in the secret passageways of that house, which is still called "The Hill House" in Florence Massachusetts and was part of the family properly where The Hill institute still resides.

 

I was named after his father, my paternal Great Grandfather James. My Grandfather Sam was almost mortally wounded as a small child growing up in that house. They had a babysitter watching the 5 boys and they were playing in an old automobile at the time that had the shift knob missing from the shifter and in their horse-play he had become impaled on the shifter and it went completely thru his torso...

 

The babysitter hid the fact from my Great Grandparents and simply put Sam in bed, took her pay, and went home when they returned...

 

He nearly died, but survived not only the surgery but the recovery in that time period in the 19-teen's... He had reoccuring issues throught his entire life including hernias, and complications with galbladder and other ailments and was certified 4F and excluded from active military service in WWII. He was very unhappy about that with all his brothers going over-seas and he became the local Civil Defense Warden of Northampton MA/Hampshire County to do his part fighting the war on the home-front. He also served in The USO.

 

He was the most jolly/jovial man I ever knew. Sam was larger than life always smiling, whistling, and laughing. A physically strong and imposing man of 6' 200 pounds, even as a senior citizen, he was the icon of the family! He died in his 80's in 1994 still working as an armed security guard after having been an accountant/comptroller most of his life. He died of a heart attack while at work...

 

He (Sam) was son of Marion Hill of the esteemed Hill family of Florence (Northampton) MA;Daughter of Arthur Hill, and Grand-daughter of Samuel Hill the abolitionist & Utiopian Society pioneer; My Great-Great-Great Grandfather. Marion married my Great Grandfather James McCullough; The man I was named after. He later moved north to Keene New Hampshire USA and became a long time state assembly-man in NH. He actually died on the state assembly floor during session in 1961... approx. 6 years before I was born.

 

I loved Sam dearly! He was my Grandpa, and made me proud of who I was! He lived on the coast of southern Maine most of my life where I have very fond memories going out deep sea fishing on his boat in the Atlantic Ocean as a child...

 


I shared all of this because I do have some of the family orchestra pics I intend to share. I thought I had them alot closer/handier to scan and post, but have found I need to search 'em out... Bear with me...

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The Grandmother I spent most of my time with was a Gospel pianist until arthritis made her stop.

Her Brother, my Great Uncle Paul Elmore was a Bluegrass guitarist from Bluefield(W.Va.) to Baltimore in his day....despite having been left w/less than half his fingers (several "nubs")when as a boy his older brother tricked him into holding a lit blasting cap between his hands. [scared] (My Grandmother later chopped off the older brothers index finger while splitting firewood [lol] ) Coal mine camps/towns in the very early 1900s were rough places to grow up.

 

One of my Cousins was a Music professor at Ohio State.

Dad played Gypsy mandolin and some guitar.

My favorite Aunt played and restored pump organs from the 1880s/1890s....she was a Master Craftsperson !!

I've played for 39.5 yrs now....someday I may even be decent! [biggrin]

My Son played guitar for 6 yrs before his untimely death at 17.

 

Both sides have some musical backgrounds.....much moreso my Moms side.

 

Edit: on the "non musical" note.....i'm a direct decendant of James Younger, on my fathers side.....and my Moms side carries Hatfield blood.

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We could be twin brothers if you're the guitarist... That's exactly what I looked like about 27 years ago... When I had a full head of hair...

 

WhiskeyLakeReview.jpg

 


My family was actually big in the area's aristocracy back before the depression where we lost it all...

 

My family were founding members of abolitionists and Utopian Society in these parts and rubbed elbows with John Brown, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde and many of the period high-society and the search for enlightenment crowd. I am a direct descendant of those credited with starting the first free Kindergarten in America in Northampton/Florence MA.

 

My family actually owned a number of the area's biggest business enterprises here in The Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts...

 

During that era they family had large/full family orchestras that performed in several variations at society, government, and community functions. They played all manner of instruments from brass to strings, piano, and invariably there were singers in the family too right up to WWII and after...

 

The great thing about my family is they persevered and going from literally riches to rags during the depression didn't seem to phase them at all. Every one of them did their part and served during WWII. Lost a couple of them then, but most of them actually survived. Huge portions of the extended family were either in Europe or The Pacific during WWII.

 

My families other history was a long line dating back to The American Revolution, and further, of gallant and honorable military service... Right up to my father that was an Air Force Engineer during The Vietnam era on active duty. I was born an Air Force brat when he was stationed in California and spent my first 10 months on the West Coast before he retired from active duty and we moved back to Western Massachusetts when I was just shy of a year old where I've been ever since, and we had originally come from for the most recent handful of generations...

 

My family went from living in mansions to farms in the fertile rural farmlands of The Pioneer Valley and they made an honorable go of it and never complained about what used to be... The family still owns some great farmlands in these parts to this day... And that's where my young cousin is doin' his thing... I'm across the river (The Connecticut River) in a more Hilltown locale that my father moved us to in my grade school youth...

My long lost twin brother... [biggrin]

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  • 4 years later...

I come from a long paternal line of drummers.

I play guitar, but... I have natural rhythm and can do a drum beat/I can drum (thanks for a lesson my father gave me with a couple of hard backed books and a couple of Biro pens when I was 9 years old).

I once dropped in on my friend's drumming lesson with a drum kit and took it all in like a fish takes to water, and me personally, with music (guitar); I'm a guitarist who's in tune with the drumming (because it's in my blood maybe).

I can table top drum (with hands/sticks and pens and things), and I once enjoyed a drum circle with ease in Croydon, UK once.

 

I have a sister in America who also plays guitar.

 

Documented family history:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cordy_Burrows

Sir John Cordy Burrows 1813 - 1876 (of Ipswich, England, and of Brighton, England fame).

My great great great granduncle was a surgeon/3 times mayor of this city and they've erected a statue in his honour.

320px-Statue_of_John_Cordy_Burrows%2C_Old_Steine%2C_Brighton_%28IoE_Code_481003%29.jpg

There's this water fountain there that he paid for too.

I have a brother in America named after him.

 

His brother, Robert Burrows 1810 - 1883, (Ipswich painter)

My great great great granduncle.

kc790_master.jpg

My father and his brother and sister were heirs to these royalties from this guy's works and got paid each when they were young.

When Michael Jackson died, one of his paintings was a lot in a Michael Jackson auction, lot #0548: 548

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/18623_michael-jackson-auction-dec-art-2-and-fine-art/?page=10

(sold for $500.00).

I was named after this person.

 

My father's maternal great aunt was none other than Gertrude Lawrence 1898 - 1952

800px-Gertrude_Lawrence_1947.jpg

A singer/actress who used to knock around/hang out with Noel Coward, and was close to my maternal grandmother.

She and Noel in WWII London would visit my father and his parents everyweek.

When this TV show called Goodnight Sweetheart (a sitcom in the UK) had Noel Coward visit the characters in this show in WWII, well my father loved it.

Apparently Noel Coward also named a character, a Butler 'Burrows' after us.

 

On my mother's side, there's one person of interest whom, made my maternal grandmother very paranoid for fear of MI5 and MI6 wire tapping us well into my lifetime.

It's this UK anti nuclear activist who smuggled a Russian spy out of Britain.

Bertrand_Russell_leads_anti-nuclear_march_in_London%2C_Feb_1961.jpg

Michael Randle (1933 - )

My maternal grandfather's cousin.

 

There's also this Australian entertainer/celebrity from way back when who's related to us, but my father knows who they were/are, I don't).

 

I took an AncestryDNA test last year, and here's what I've got:

Europe West 41%

Great Britain 26%

(Southern England)

Iberian Peninsula 14%

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 12%

Low Confidence Regions

Scandinavia 4%

Europe South 3%

 

I also bought a kit and had my maternal grandmother tested, here's what she got.

Great Britain 85%

(Wales & the West Midlands)

(Northern England & the Midlands)

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 11%

Low Confidence Regions

Europe South 2%

Europe West <1%

Iberian Peninsula <1%

 

and it was able to find us as genetic matches with a very high probability of common ancestor.

 

Up until I took that AncestryDNA test, I know about being English, Welsh and that my maternal grandfather's name is an old anglicised Viking name from the Midlands.

Everything else was a surprise to me.

 

There is an unverified rumour from my mother's side/maternal side (the Welsh in me), that we're related to Emlyn Williams (1905 - 1987) - my Welsh name is Williams, and my Grandmother's father was a Welshman who came to London; he was a faith healer called Billy Williams.

 

 

Me last year;

d10406c52d9601ebbd375594da70ee07.jpg

 

My father's now a published author but in the 1960's he was a session singer/ghost writer who wrote for Johnny Cash and who's voice is on some records from them.

My father used to belong to The Writer's Workshop and has worked at Abbey Road Studios singing on other artists tracks.

In 1973, he decided he wanted to sing his own stuff;

This is one of my father's song; he wrote it about the breakdown of his first marriage before he met my mother in 1974.

Now The Fuss Is Over (1973, Dolphin Records).

My father plays keys/drums, and sings and writes.

 

If you believe my Maternal Grandmother, my father's a spy who had to spy on the IRA who were bombing London at that point, he kept tabs on them for the British (in London) who's cover was 'singer'... If you listen to my father, she's paranoid... However, something went down and I can't disprove my father is a James Bond type guy, but my father's a police trained driver and as a child I once was in a the car and saw another side of him when he chased down a road raging driver who rubbed him off the wrong way; Also, my father raised us with stories about other planets and aliens 'to entertain us' and let us know which shaped UFO was friendly and which shape were bad...

FYI, if it's saucer shaped, they're the good guys, if they're cigar shaped, they're not.

 

My father says our 'musical ear' is a genetic trait.

I have a brother who doesn't have it though, but mine's developed, it developed growing up.

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I come from a long paternal line of drummers.

I play guitar, but... I have natural rhythm and can do a drum beat/I can drum (thanks for a lesson my father gave me with a couple of hard backed books and a couple of Biro pens when I was 9 years old).

I once dropped in on my friend's drumming lesson with a drum kit and took it all in like a fish takes to water, and me personally, with music (guitar); I'm a guitarist who's in tune with the drumming (because it's in my blood maybe).

I can table top drum (with hands/sticks and pens and things), and I once enjoyed a drum circle with ease in Croydon, UK once.

 

I have a sister in America who also plays guitar.

 

Documented family history:

 

https://en.wikipedia...n_Cordy_Burrows

Sir John Cordy Burrows 1813 - 1876 (of Ipswich, England, and of Brighton, England fame).

My great great great granduncle was a surgeon/3 times mayor of this city and they've erected a statue in his honour.

320px-Statue_of_John_Cordy_Burrows%2C_Old_Steine%2C_Brighton_%28IoE_Code_481003%29.jpg

There's this water fountain there that he paid for too.

I have a brother in America named after him.

 

His brother, Robert Burrows 1810 - 1883, (Ipswich painter)

My great great great granduncle.

kc790_master.jpg

My father and his brother and sister were heirs to these royalties from this guy's works and got paid each when they were young.

When Michael Jackson died, one of his paintings was a lot in a Michael Jackson aution, lot #0548: 548

https://www.liveauct...ne-art/?page=10

(sold for $500.00).

I was named after this person.

 

My father's maternal great aunt was none other than Gertrude Lawrence 1898 - 1952

800px-Gertrude_Lawrence_1947.jpg

A singer/actress who used to knock around/hang out with Noel Coward, and was close to my maternal grandmother.

She and Noel in WWII London would visit my father and his parents everyweek.

When this TV show called Goodnight Sweetheart (a sitcom in the UK) had Noel Coward visit the characters in this show in WWII, well my father loved it.

Apparently Noel Coward also named a character, a Butler 'Burrows' after us.

 

On my mother's side, there's one person of interest whom, made my maternal grandmother very paranoid for fear of MI5 and MI6 wire tapping us well into my lifetime.

It's this UK anti nuclear activist who smuggled a Russian spy out of Britain.

Bertrand_Russell_leads_anti-nuclear_march_in_London%2C_Feb_1961.jpg

Michael Randle (1933 - )

My maternal grandfather's cousin.

 

There's also this Australian entertainer/celebrity from way back when who's related to us, but my father knows who they were/are, I don't).

 

I took an AncestryDNA test last year, and here's what I've got:

Europe West 41%

Great Britain 26%

(Southern England)

Iberian Peninsula 14%

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 12%

Low Confidence Regions

Scandinavia 4%

Europe South 3%

 

I also bought a kit and had my maternal grandmother tested, here's what she got.

Great Britain 85%

(Wales & the West Midlands)

(Northern England & the Midlands)

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 11%

Low Confidence Regions

Europe South 2%

Europe West <1%

Iberian Peninsula <1%

 

and it was able to find us as genetic matches with a very high probability of common ancestor.

 

Up until I took that AncestryDNA test, I know about being English, Welsh and that my maternal grandfather's name is an old anglicised Viking name from the Midlands.

Everything else was a surprise to me.

 

There is an unverified rumour from my mother's side/maternal side (the Welsh in me), that we're related to Emlyn Williams (1905 - 1987) - my Welsh name is Williams, and my Grandmother's father was a Welshman who came to London; he was a faith healer called Billy Williams.

 

 

Me last year;

d10406c52d9601ebbd375594da70ee07.jpg

 

My father's now a published author but in the 1960's he was a session singer/ghost writer who wrote for Johnny Cash and who's voice is on some records from them.

My father used to belong to The Writer's Workshop and has worked at Abbey Road Studios singing on other artists tracks.

In 1973, he decided he wanted to sing his own stuff;

This is one of my father's song; he wrote it about the breakdown of his first marriage before he met my mother in 1974.

Now The Fuss Is Over (1973, Dolphin Records).

My father plays keys/drums, and sings and writes.

 

If you believe my Maternal Grandmother, my father's a spy who had to spy on the IRA who were bombing London at that point, he kept tabs on them for the British (in London) who's cover was 'singer'... If you listen to my father, she's paranoid... However, something went down and I can't disprove my father is a James Bond type guy, but my father's a police trained driver and as a child I once was in a the car and saw another side of him when he chased down a road raging driver who rubbed him off the wrong way; Also, my father raised us with stories about other planets and aliens 'to entertain us' and let us know which shaped UFO was friendly and which shape were bad...

FYI, if it's saucer shaped, they're the good guys, if they're cigar shaped, they're not.

 

My father says our 'musical ear' is a genetic trait.

I have a brother who doesn't have it though, but mine's developed, it developed growing up.

 

First of all, how did you find this old thread? msp_biggrin.gif Jeez, we haven't seen Jimi Mac in ages.

 

Also, have you ever read Fall Of Giants? The first book in the Century trilogy by Ken Follett. There are quite a few Welsh characters and one is named Billy Williams. BTW, my last name is Davies which is also Welsh, but I was adopted so I might not really have any Welsh blood. eusa_think.gif

 

 

 

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First of all, how did you find this old thread? msp_biggrin.gif Jeez, we haven't seen Jimi Mac in ages.

 

Also, have you ever read Fall Of Giants? The first book in the Century trilogy by Ken Follett. There are quite a few Welsh characters and one is named Billy Williams. BTW, my last name is Davies which is also Welsh, but I was adopted so I might not really have any Welsh blood. eusa_think.gif

my maternal grandmother was adopted too... However, she was adopted by her maternal uncle and his wife when she was 4 in 1928/1929 and was raised as a Wright and knew her birth mother and later her biological father. She had two brothers, both shipped off to Wales, and raised as Williams within that side of her family.

Billy Williams seems to be a common name.

 

My biological great grandmother was a Chelsea Girl and the man who adopted my Grandmother was sent off to Canada by his father and came back to England with the Canadians in WWI and met his wife and settled here.

The Wrights (the guys) were taken to USA, Canada, and one even made it to Japan and had a family out there; The girls, stayed in London's West End, and they had a business on Greek St. in Soho...

In 2015 I was told this when I moved my business to Greek St. Soho (small world).

 

In the 1960's my biological Grandmother and her new family became £10 Poms and made a new life in Caloundra (near Brisbane) and my Grandmother and my mother were invited to move with them but my Grandmother decided to stay in London because here she had her career as a school teacher and didn't want to leave it; This is why I personally have family from Australia. (I've met the one born in Australia and later her and her daughter who's my generation but even younger than me) I'm a throwback born in 1986 instead of 1966 and am the youngest out of 10 or 11 children & 2 marriages on either side.

 

I'm from Generation X with Baby Boomer Parents and WII Vet' Grandparents, but I was born in 1986 and was raised with the Millennials.

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...

My family was actually big in the area's aristocracy back before the depression where we lost it all...

My family were aristocracy too, but we lost ours by WWI or WWII.

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I wanted a guitar at 8 years old but my father was against it.

 

I got my first job when I was 16. I saved up the wages and bought a guitar 3 months later.

 

 

 

My mother had a good ear for music and could sing well. None of her side of the family were musicians. I have no idea what my father's family were like. They were all assumed killed in wartime Poland. But he wouldn't recognise good music if it had walked up and p1ssed on his shoes.

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Well... if KS popped over to Washngton VT, he could discover records that milod was born July 15, 1842. Left home 'cuz New England already was too crowded. Enlisted in the 112th Illinois as a musician in August of 1862. We still have his fife somewhere. I think my "baby" bro has it. He also rode a lotta dispatch according to family oral history, and supposedly was an exceptional horseman. He died in 1896 when the next milod was 8.

 

Another milod played trombone from the early turn of the century for a number of years. Yet another didn't really play much except the top four strings of an old Stella or a baritone uke, but he and his wife, my Mom, sang together in public quite a bit for special events.

 

On the other side of the family I was flamboozled the summer I bought my first guitar weeks after graduating from high school where I mostly played trumpet, and Grandma told me her mother had been a "fine" guitar player. I only remembered the old lady who was born a bit after the American 1860s contretemps as bedridden and not communicative; time is an inexorable enemy of youth.

 

But prior to milod... clear back to 1680 or so in America, no record of musicianship, although it wouldn't surprise me.

 

EDIT: My "baby" brother also plays guitar and keyboards and writes various music material via computer. Little sis (who's now a grandma) and I sang together for years as kids and likely could drop into harmony in a day of practice of material we know. Little bro (also a grandpa) not really into music, more into sports and such.

 

m

So nice to see a post with Milod's picture on it.

My Cousin played in a band and was a great guitar player, The Rumbles in Council Bluffs Iowa had players come and go, Fred as we called him played in the early years I was told and left. Went to Vietnam after he taught me to play. My oldest sister played piano and clarinet and took music in College and became a music teacher. She wanted me to show her how to play guitar but she doesn't really play it. She is also retired too now and its nice I can ask her questions about music anytime. My other cousin that taught me guitar after Fred was in the military has been gone now for several decades and Fred also passed. Then I have an Uncle alive who plays Acoustic but mostly Country. My son plays a good Sax and our in laws, Christel's father plays drums at his church in Michigan. I heard he is pretty good.

 

 

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My dad plays guitar, swing style, sing along, play anything by ear kinda player. His hick dad played fiddle, then got an electric guitar and drove everybody crazy. I took a few piano lessons but mostly play by ear. Now lovin' keys and guitars....

 

f50r551.jpg

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My mom played piano and she started me on piano in 2nd grade. I quit piano lessons, much to her dismay, in 5th grade and bought a guitar in 6th grade in 1977. My oldest son plays guitar as well but none of the rest of my family has any musical talent, except my cousin's husband.

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My father:

 

1t3fk3.jpg

 

My brother:

 

35n3789.jpg

 

Ksdaddy, your brother and I almost look identical twins when I was a teen, My mom gave me a photo of me playing my Gretsch on her patio way back and we even have the same dark frame glasses. Too funny.

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