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• Famous Ancestor: Benjamin Franklin

  4/1/2013 3:25:00 PM

  Born in Boston in 1706, Benjamin Franklin was the youngest son of Josiah Franklin, a chandler and soap maker. At a young age Franklin was apprenticed to his older brother James, who was a printer. James started The New England Courant, the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies (other papers just re-printed news from London). Wanting to write for the paper but knowing that James wouldn't let him, young Franklin contributed for the paper under the pseudonym "Silence Dogood."

  In 1723 Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship and went to Philadelphia. He was hired by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith to go to London to secure printing equipment. Upon his return to Philadelphia, Franklin purchased The Pennsylvania Gazette and was finally able to go into the printing business for himself. He began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack in 1733; many of the aphorisms associated with Franklin come from the Almanack.

  Franklin became involved in politics in the 1750s; in 1754 at the Albany Congress in New York, he proposed a plan for unification of the American colonies. In 1757 he went to London to represent the Pennsylvania Assembly in a dispute over the colony's charter. After returning to Philadelphia for two years, he went to London again in 1764. In 1765 he was instrumental in convincing Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. In 1775 he returned to the colonies and began working for independence. In 1776 he signed the Declaration of Independence and then embarked for France. As ambassador to France, he secured the Treaty of Alliance in 1778 and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Paris at the end of the war in 1783. After returning to Philadelphia, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and a signer of the Constitution.

  To view Benjamin Franklin's Family Tree, visit:

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• Famous Ancestor: Samuel Adams

  3/25/2013 12:48:00 PM

  Bostonian, revolutionary, inciter of the Boston Tea Party, and signer of the Declaration of Independence-by many accounts, Samuel Adams was the man of the American Revolution. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Boston Town Meeting for many years and spearheaded nearly every revolutionary effort taken in Massachusetts.

  One of Adams' most enduring contributions was the Massachusetts Circular Letter. In 1767, the British Parliament passed the Townshend Revenue Act, imposing new duties on lead, glass, paper, paint, and tea. The revenue generated by these new taxes would be used to pay the salaries of royal governors and officers in the colonies, making them no longer dependent upon-and therefore no longer answerable to-colonial legislatures. In protest of the Townshend Revenue Act, the Massachusetts House of Representatives issued the circular letter in 1768, drafted by Samuel Adams. The letter was sent to the lower houses of all the other colonies, calling on them to protest against the Townshend duties by boycotting British goods.

  When the First Continental Congress was called in 1775, Adams was one of the five Massachusetts delegates chosen to attend. The following year, he attended the Second Continental Congress. Later he would serve as the governor of Massachusetts from 1789 to 1797, but his greatest contribution was as an American revolutionary, and that is how he is remembered by Americans today.

  To view Samuel Adams' Family Tree, login to OneGreatFamily, launch Genealogy Browser, and enter OGFN#512686524. You can also see whether or not you are related to Samuel Adams by going to the Relationship Calculator on the Family Dashboard Page when you login to OneGreatFamily.

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• Famous Ancestor: James Madison

  3/18/2013 12:34:00 PM

  February 24th marked exactly 210 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. Madison had been serving as Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson. During his lifetime, Madison also served as a representative in the First U.S. Congress, served as president for two terms, and was instrumental in drafting and ratifying the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights.

  In his political theory, James Madison emphasized the importance of having checks and balances, and his three-branch system became the foundation of the Constitution. Once it was drafted, he teamed up with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton to write the Federalist Papers, published in 1787 and 1788 to rally public support for the new government system.

  Initially Madison was not in support of a bill of rights; he did not feel that it was necessary to include in the Constitution. But when it became clear that many states would not ratify the document without a bill of rights, Madison changed his mind. He proposed twelve amendments to the Constitution, ten of which were approved and became the Bill of Rights. He is sometimes called the "Father of the Constitution" for his role in drafting and ratifying it. He served as U.S. president for two terms, from 1809 to 1817.

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• Famous Ancestor: Alexander Hamilton

  3/11/2013 12:41:00 PM

  Alexander Hamilton was born and raised in the Caribbean and came to New York in 1772, when he was about 13. He attended King's College, now Columbia University, and served in the Revolutionary War as an aide to General George Washington.

  After the Constitution was drafted in 1787, he teamed up with James Madison and John Jay to write the Federalist Papers to rally support for the new government. Eighty-five editions of the Papers were published anonymously in 1787 and 1788, fifty-one of which were written by Hamilton.

  After the Constitution was ratified, Hamilton became Secretary of the Treasury to President George Washington. As secretary, he argued for the creation of a national bank, justifiable through the "implied powers" in the Constitution. Throughout his political career, Hamilton advocated a stronger federal government and government intervention in the economy. Hamilton and his followers became the Federalist Party. Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and others believed that a strong central government was a threat to the agricultural and republican ideals of the new nation; they became the Democratic-Republican Party.

  Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804.

  To view Alexander Hamilton's Family Tree, login to OneGreatFamily, launch Genealogy Browser, and enter OGFN# 596209767. You can also see whether or not you are related to Alexander Hamilton by going to the Relationship Calculator on the Family Dashboard Page when you login to OneGreatFamily.

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• Famous Ancestors: George Washington

  3/4/2013 12:25:00 PM

  This blog will now feature a famous or notable person's family tree each week.

  The renowned "father of our country" is usually extolled for his roles as general of the Revolutionary war and president of the new American republic. But what about his life before that? What experiences prepared him for those great responsibilities?

  When he was only twenty years old, George Washington was appointed adjutant general of the Virginia Militia, which meant that he was responsible for training one quarter of the troops. He continued to move up the ranks of the militia, and in 1755 he was promoted to colonel and named commander of all Virginia forces.

  Washington was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758. As a member of the Burgesses, he began to be involved in revolutionary activities. After the Townshend Acts were enacted by Parliament in 1767, he proposed that Virginia boycott English goods. The Acts were repealed in 1770, but then Parliament passed the Coercive Acts against Boston in 1774, as a reaction to the events of the Boston Tea Party. Washington regarded the Coercive Acts as an attack on American rights, and he attended the Second Continental Congress of 1775 dressed in his military uniform and ready for war. The newly-created colonial army needed a leader; John Adams nominated George Washington, and he was elected commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

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