What's in a Name?

I  have to say that discovering genealogy and researching my family tree has been the biggest adventure in my life so far.  To some that may seem like I have lived a very sheltered life: to others it may mean that I have no life at all and that at 62 years of age, I may need to find one before it's too late.  Both may be true, but  I don't always know what is going to blow my skirt up.  I know that I can count on a few simple things--a pretty girl always turns my head, I enjoy a good football game, nothing beats a good book and I am never too old to learn how to make something delicious.

For example, I just got 8 new books on the Deerfield Massacre, two on Jamestown and one on the history of 17th Century, Eastern Shore, Virginia.  Life is rich.  My OCD nature requires that I share every single detail that I learn.  My wife can't stand hearing the same stories over and over again, but my captive audiences (Uber customers) have no choice but to endure the history lesson of the day. It is a large component of why my job satisfaction is so high for such low wages.

I am still exploring several areas of American and Canadian history concurrently but it is genealogy that brought all of the areas to the forefront.  Until a few weeks ago, I never knew of  any English ancestors from New England, except for one from Upstate New York.  However, because of family tree research, I have discovered two ancestors who fought for the Union and 14 relatives who were either murdered, or kidnapped and enslaved by the French and Indians. Now how many white boys do you know that can honestly say that they have family members who were lynched or slaves?  Too much fun, right?  I will share some of the stories as time permits in the future, but recently, what has jumped out at me has been a variety of cool first names that I  have discovered among my grandparents. To avoid rambling, here is the short list: Freedom (a mother and a daughter), Patience, Experience, Mercy and Israel.  You just gotta love those New England Puritans...almost every given name is a character from a Morality Play.