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Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family
Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family
Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family
Ebook432 pages7 hours

Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family

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Historians and biographers have traditionally favored stories of the powerful and the trends they set in motion. More recently, they've spotlighted the neglected lives of the disenfranchised and dispossessed. But, asks Linda H. Matthews, descendant of the pragmatic, adaptable, and lively Hammill family, who tells the stories of the people in the middle?

Spanning three centuries and three seas, from the bluffs of Scotland and Ireland to colonial Chesapeake Bay and Virginia, then across the expanding nation into the Pacific Northwest, Middling Folk makes the compelling case that the experiences of the middle classes--those who quietly, century after century, conducted the business and built the livelihoods that made their societies prosper--reveal a great deal about the founding of the United States and the ways in which customs and traditions are perpetuated through the generations.

Matthews combines meticulous research and deft storytelling to show how the Scots-Irish Hammills--millers, wagon makers, and blacksmiths--lived out their lives against a backdrop of the American Revolution, the Civil War, and westward expansion. Readers will come away with a newfound respect for the ordinary families who helped shape this country and managed to hold their own through turbulent times.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 1, 2009
ISBN9781569763803
Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Why was I so fascinated by a family history of someone else's family? It's a thoughtfully written history that goes beyond listings of vital statistics and facts to put the family into its geographical and social context across several generations. The author's Hammill family were affected by the same events and conditions that affected everyone else living the United States at the same time, such as the American Revolution and the Civil War. Reading about the impact of these events on the Hammill family gives me an idea of some of the choices available to my own ancestors who lived at the same time. Recommended for readers with an interest in family history or social history in the United States, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Linda Matthews very ably demonstrates how we can give life to our ancestors by incorporating social history, diaries, and other materials into the narrative to offer a fuller and richer understanding of their lives. She takes her Hammill ancestors and moves them from Scotland to Ireland and then to America. While the family eventually settled in Prince William County, Virginia, she offers glimpses of their lives before in Maryland and afterwards in Washington state as well. This is a very readable family history. The author does a great job making it clear what is documented and what is possible or probable based on various factors. She does take liberty in some clearly identified "aside" chapters to fictionalize accounts based on what she has discovered. I did feel that the narrative bogged down a bit in places, particularly in the information she learned from Southern Claims Commission records, but overall this is a very well-done book. Anyone interested in genealogy should read this to see how a readable family history can be accomplished.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Surprisingly interesting history of a middle-class family from its roots in Scotland to the present-day in the American Northwest. The author is a descendant whose father researched deeply into their genealogy. Ms. Matthews, who has been both a professor of Medieval Studies at Northwestern University and founder/publisher of Chicago Review Press, has a very engaging writing style and an appealing inquisitiveness that encourages the reader through the sometimes confusing string of Hughs, Williams, and Katharines. Offers fascinating insights on some world-historical events through the eyes of seldom-heard-from "middling folk" participants.

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Middling Folk - Linda H. Matthews

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