What happened to the decendants of our Founding Fathers, such as the Adams, Franklin and Hamilton families?

Question

I'm just curious to see if the decendents of the men who founded the United States are aware of their family history, if they embrace it, if it's made them rich or miserable, or whatever. Knowing so very little about my own family history, this subject fascinates me

Answer 1

Hey Brian,

The descendants of our Founding Fathers numbers in the tens of thousands! After approximately 9 Generations each having 3 children, times the number of Founding Fathers - say those that signed the Declaration of independence, the numbers are staggering. I doubt that most are even aware of their ancestry.

9 Generations for 1 person: 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 is approximately 512 possibilities for people to look back at. If we cheat, and use that as the number of possibilities, times the number of kids for each generation times the number of people on the Declaration, well 56 by my count, then we have:
3 * 56 (signers) * 512 possibilities = 86 thousand individuals. This is if they only had 3 children, most had more.

Answer 2

Benjamin Harrison is my 5th great grandfather. The 2 Harrison s who were Presidents are of course also family. I m not sure how many in my family are aware of this information. But I ve recently passed on all the family history to my niece. My great grandfather did an incredible job on the family tree side of his family. From all the different spellings of the name Ramseur, Ramsour, Ramsaur (could be more) where they came from and when they got here, what they owned etc. up to I think around the 60 s. They recreate the Battle of Ramseur s Mill each summer here in Lincolnton, NC. There is a pole plaque on Main St. regarding one of the most famous Ramseur s. His name is Stephen Dodson Ramseur. He continues to be one of the youngest ever to be commissioned a Major General. My great grandfathers wife, Fetna Hamilton, is our link to the Harrison s and is a direct descendant of Alexander Hamilton (though she wanted that to remain secret!). At one point I had traced her side all the way back to Pocahontas but lost it all with a computer crash. I m leaving it all up to my niece now.

Answer 3

I am a somewhat avid geneologist. I love my family history and helping others. I am a direct decendant of John Adams and Stephen Hopkins who was a merchant and tanner by trade and came over on the Mayflower. He also signed the Mayflower Compact. The longer I think about it the more proud I am that I have roots in the founding of this country.

Answer 4

I know I am descended from Benjamin Franklin's sister and Governor Bradford of the Plymouth colony. Franklin is one of my real heroes because, he, like me loved so many different thinks, writing, printing, experimenting with electricity, writing laws, negotiating with governments, and even flirting with beautiful French ladies.

However, since the genes of any famouse person fan out and are diluted by the genes of so many others over the generations I feel it is best to look to them as role models with ideas I can follow rather than assuming some spark of genius filtered down through the ages.

And consider this: I f you are directly related to a murdering horse thief does that make you more likely to be a bad citizen? Count your blessing and work on your skills and choose the people in history who inspire you.