RTOL Our Tree of Life
Adventures Exploring Family History
Great gifts
for children
and grandchildren.



Our Tree of Life Books

Our Tree of Life is about family, our family. We live in an exceedingly short window of the historical timeline. We know our parents as adults, our grandparents as older people, our children, and our grandchildren as young people. If we are fortunate, we may get a glimpse of the beginning of the life of a great-grandchild or the end of the life of a great-grandparent. That is only a handful of the many generations that have come before us and the many yet to come. This book is about extending our knowledge of our family to some of those we never met in person, learning who they were, how they lived, and what it was like to live in their world.

Learning about our ancestors broadens our thinking and enriches our lives. Someday we too will be someone's ancestors. If you, too, are descended from these families, Our Tree of Life books make great gifts for future generations to pass on so that generations yet unborn may know about our colonial ancestors.

They came alone or with their families on small wooden sailing ships that took seventy to eighty days to complete the voyage. The ships were packed with people, their personal possessions, and even farm animals. Many got sick on the journey. Some died. Yet still, they came for the promise of an opportunity of a new life and to escape the tyranny of the King and the feudal societies of Europe. Between 1620 and 1640, thousands made the journey or died trying. Many of our ancestors were among them. They came for different reasons, but they all faced the challenges of starting a new life.

In this volume, we focus on our Hathaway paternal and maternal ancestors, starting with Nicholas Hathaway, who immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s, through Isaac Hathaway Junior, Nicholas's great, great, great-grandson, who fought with Washington's Army during the Revolutionary War. Along the way, we will meet twenty-eight couples who were our grandparents and explore history as it really happened, up close and personal. In these pages, family and history come together.

Amazon

Click on button on the left to order Colonists to Revolutionaries on Amazon.

In the mid-1630s, groups of Puritans from Watertown, Dorchester, Roxbury, and Cambridge migrated to the Connecticut River Valley. Among them were our ancestors. They established the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Springfield. Our family history in the New World begins with them.

In this volume, we focus on our Alford paternal and maternal ancestors, starting with Benedict Alford, who immigrated to Windsor, Connecticut Colony, in the late 1630s through Benedict Alford the Third, Benedict's great-grandson, who moved his family to the frontier area of Rutland, Vermont. Along the way, we will meet twenty-five couples who were our grandparents and explore history as it happened, up close and personal. In these pages, family and history come together.

Amazon

Click on button on the left to order Connecticut River Colonists on Amazon.