I joined the United Empire Loyalist Association as a descendant of Anthony Walliser. I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a reminder that many old American families have ancestors who fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War. The Wallisers had an interesting history. Anton was born in Germany in 1739. He...
I knew, vaguely and in the back of my mind, that Utah was a slave territory before the Civil War. It’s one of bits of trivia I trot out from time to time to serve as a reminder that I’m a history nerd. Not that anyone really cares. Not that it matters to Civil War buffs, either. Utah wasn’t part of the Confederacy. The early Mormons were realists. They cooperated with the Union...
Did our immigrant ancestor Dr. John Durand (1664–1727) have a coat of arms? I don’t think so. John (Jean) Durand (1664-1727) was a French Huguenot, orginally from the Isle de Re, near LaRochelle. He came to America about 1685, eventually settling at Derby, Connecticut. The usual reference for John Durand’s coat of arms is Bolton’s American Armory: “Durand. Sa. a fess...
My great grandparents Wilford “Bill” Luce (1864-1948) and Essie Wilson (1878-1927) got married October 24, 1898 in Champaign, Illinois. So, where did a Wyoming rancher meet this woman from south central Illinois? I’m afraid I might have been responsible for a bit of erroneous information here. I answered an email off the cuff many years ago, saying I seemed to remember they met...
Great grandpa Will Luce married as his first wife a woman who was daughter of a local rustler and the local madame. Grandpa Will later divorced her for adultery after he came home and caught her in bed with one of his ranch hands. She stayed in Big Piney, never re-married, and continued using her married name Luce. The connection annoyed my very proper grandmother, who used it as as example of...