Genealogy & American History (11/4/25)
If your ancestors arrived in America during the great migration period from Europe between 1620 and 1640, there is a high probability that we are related. If that is true, it is likely that your family is also related to historic Americans. Our family's connection to these individuals is primarily through common ancestors. These American are either blood-related cousins or married to a blood-related cousin.
We use our family tree of the most recent six generations at the free FamilySearch website to connect to these American cousins. The reliability of these connections depend on the accuracy of our family tree to the common ancestor. We presume that the FamilySearch family tree of the famous American is accurate.
In this genealogy section, the presumed primary relationship to these Americans is shown as a suffix to their last names. The main author of the Preamble to the Constitution is Gouverneur Morris.7c. He is our 7th cousin. Our relationship to James Madison.H9c is through his wife Dolly Payne. She was our 9th cousin and he was her Husband. The suffix of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.9c/H7c means that he is our 9th cousin and Eleanor is our 7th cousin. The suffix of Arthur Altmeyer.?16c indicates our relationship to him is very unreliable. The relationships are subject to change. James Madison.7c/H9c was just updated..
Genealogical Connections to American History
Below is a preview of some of the pages that will become available containing the names of historic Americans.
- Native Americans
Related to Jim Thrope.8c and VP Charles Curtis.7c
Four ancestors were killed by Native Americans during King Philip's War.
- The ancestors are Henry Axtell, Edward Babbitt, Sgt. Thomas Pratt, and James Tisdale.
-- Edward Babbitt's son, Edward, married John Tisdale's daughter, Abigail
-- Henry Axtell's son, Daniel, married Sgt Thomas Pratt's niece, Thankful.
- Early Settlers
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
-- Landgrave Daniel Axtell.1c, son of regicide Daniel Axtell, and Lady Rebecca Holland arrived between 1678 and 1683
-- Daniel Axtell and his father-in-law, Decon William Pratt, were important early settlers of Dorchester, SC in the 1690's.
- Texas
-- Sam Houston.9c/H8c, served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas
-- Simon Mussina,1c founder of Brownsville in 1848
-- Charles Stillman.8c/H6c, founder of Brownsville in 1848
- Founders of American Colonies
- African Americans
- Frederick Douglass.9c/H5c
-- His mother Harriet Bailey.8c
-- His 2nd wife Helen Mary Pitts.5c
- Henry Lewis Gates Jr, the host of Finding Your Roots on PBS
-- His 1st or 2nd great-grandmother, Jane Gates, had a relationship with Charles Wesley Kelly.H4c
-- Charles Wesley Kelly.H4c was married to Mariah Axtell.4c
- Muhammad Ali.12c was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr in 1942
- Founding Fathers & Mothers
- Articles of Confederation
- Declaration of Independence
- Related to all signers except for Francis Lewis and John Morton
- U.S. Constitution
- Electoral College
- Related to ten of the eleven members of the .Brearley Committee on Postponed Matters
- Bill of Rights
- Presidents of the United States
- Related to all of the presidents except for James Buchanan
- Related to Donald Trump.14c
-- Related to Marla Ann Maples.13c
-- Related to Frederich Christ Trump.13c
-- Connected to his property in Bedminster, NJ.
--- Owned by Major Daniel Axtell and his son, William Axtell, from 1726 to 1760
--- A portrait of William has been in the Colonial Portraiture gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
--- It is currently not on view.
- Founders of Social Security
- Thomas Paine.? was the first Founding Father who proposed an old-age pension.
-- See what he proposed at Thomas Paine on the ssa.gov website.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.9c/H7c initiated the effort in 1935
- Frances Perkins.8c. was the chair of the President's Committee on Economic Security (CES)
- Edwin Witte.? drafted the law and is called the "Father of Social Security"
- Arthur Altmeyer.?16c served as chairman of the three-member Social Security Board from 1937 to 1946.
-- In 1946 he became the first Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA).
- Wilbur Joseph Cohen.H8c was another Wisconsin native who started as a research assistant to Edwin Witte, executive director of the CES.
-- He was the leading technical expert on Social Security and later one of the architects of Medicare and Medicaid
- John Rogers Commons.9c was an economist in Wisconsin who was called the "spiritual father of Social Security".
-- Two of his students were founders - Edwin Witte and Arthur Altmeyer.
- Henry Morgenthau Jr convinced Roosevelt to reject the CES proposal to eventually use general funds to help fund Social Security.
-- His maternal grandfather was Mayer Lehman, a co-founder of Lehman Brothers.
- Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) led the opposition in Congress to using general funds to support the 1939 addition of federal assistance benefits to Social Security.
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