52 Ancestors - Week 4 - Witness to History

52 Ancestors - Week 4 - Witness to History

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

Thinking back on the stories of my father's family, living in Western Pennsylvania, some since before the Revolutionary War, there are a lot of times they were a witness to history in the making. It is hard for me to imagine my Revolutionary War Patriot, Barnett Cunningham facing the situation so soon after emigrating from Ireland to start a new life in Penn's Woods.

When Barnett and his half-brother James Torrance brought their families from Cumberland County to settle and start farming in Fayette County, they built a small church near where they lived. Tyrone United Presbyterian Church is still used and is the oldest church in the area. They both served as elders for more than 30 years.

Barnett was born in 1736 in Ulster, Ireland and was 24 when he married Anna Wilson probably in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. When the Revolution began, he joined his fellow Irishmen and enlisted. He served as a Private in Major John Murray's Company, 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment.

After the war, he returned to farming. He acquired a lot more land in the area, and some of my distant relatives still reside on these properties.

Many of his descendants have gone on to serve as well, in various wars to follow. Those include my father Clyde Keefer, who served in the Army Air Corps/Air Force during World War II in Japan; my older brother David Keefer, who served with General Petraeus during the first Gulf War; and me, who was called to active duty soon after 9/11 to serve in Kuwait with the 3d Personnel Command, Third Army. 

52 Ancestors - Week 2 Origins

WEEK 2 – ORIGINS

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

or·i·gin

/ˈôrəj(ə)n/

noun

plural noun: origins---the point or place where something begins, arises, or is derived. "the name is Norse in origin".  Similar words: beginning; start; origination; genesis; birth; dawning; dawn; emergence.

 

“Where do you come from?” That is a question we have all been asked. Where do I come from? I was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1958. So, I am from Atlanta. I am from the South.

My parents were Clyde Andrew Keefer (born 1 Jul 1926 and died 28 Mar 2023) and Dolores Jean Mahanna (born 15 Mar 1933 and died 14 Dec 2016). He was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania and she in Washington, Pennsylvania. So, I guess I come from my parents. And I come from Pennsylvania roots.

I come from America. That is the answer I gave when I was a Soldier and serving overseas after 9/11. I am American, I come from America.

But many, many years before I was born, my ancestors came from many places in Europe. Ireland, England, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. So “we” come from Europe.

Since doing genealogy for over forty years, I think I have come to the conclusion that we are all so connected, that we have shared life experiences, shared hometowns, shared belief systems, and shared DNA segments.

But aside from all that, there is no one else on earth who is like me. Who is me. I am an original, the definition of which is “present or existing from the beginning, first, or earliest OR not a copy or imitation.”

So, my conclusion is that my origin is EVERYTHING that I come from.