Anne of Kiev, Queen of France, was a captivating woman, according to historical sources. She reigned almost 1,000 years ago. Yet her memory has come alive in the 21st century...
Robert John Bonner was a classicist and Professor and Chair of the Classics Department at the University of Chicago for many years. The following biography was written by Gertrude Smith,...
St. Vladimir the Great & The Introduction of Eastern Rite Christianity to Rus’
Vladimir the Great was the Prince of Novgorod, Grand Prince of Kiev and ruler of Kievan Rus’ from 980-1015. When he came into power, Slavic paganism was the predominant practice...
Details of the Royal Bonner Lines of England & France
Nancy Bates, daughter of Sir Ralph Bates and Anne Ellison, was born at Melbourne Hall, Northumberland, England, in 1777. Her son, Robert Turnbull (Jr.) was the first of the Bonner...
Charlemagne & St. Arnulf of Metz – The Most Ancient Bonner Ancestral Line
Charlemagne, King of France and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great or Charles I, founded the Carolingian Empire in France and was crowned...
Details of the Royal Mullins Lines of Scotland & France
Anne Keith Walker was the first immigrant to the American colonies in our lineage to the royal lines of Scotland and France. She was born in 1674 in Aberdeen, Scotland[i],...
We have a long-ago ancient ancestor, King Duncan I of Scotland, a relatively obscure and ineffectual king who reigned a millennium ago from 1032-1040. He was killed at the Battle...
Three letters from the Jane Curl Walker Letters Collection are summarized below. These letters offer a unique window to life in Arkansas in the mid-19th century. The full Jane Walker...
The following is the proof that Rev. Thomas Mullins (1736-1816) served in the Continental Army, and therefore is a qualifying ancestor for the Sons of the American Revolution. We do...
A Skirmish with Indigenous Americans at Jamestowne
Dr. John Woodson and Sarah Winston were both born in England and were among the first immigrants to the new Jamestown Colony in Virginia. They arrived in April 1619 on...
Ethel Francis Hilda Russell (1893-1971) was the eldest daughter of Martin Reinhold Wallenstein Russell (1868-1962) and Hilda Caroline Oberg (1864-1938), and sister of Agnes Martha Russell Bonner. Ethel was an accomplished...
Charlemagne & St. Arnulf Of Metz—Our Most Ancient Ancestral Line
Charlemagne, King of France, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great or Charles I, founded the Carolingian Empire in France and was crowned Emperor...
How Our Swedish Ancestors Came To Be Named “Russell”
The Russell and Oberg families immigrated to the U.S. around the same time: The Russells in 1879 The Obergs (spelled Åberg in the old country of Sweden) in 1887. The...
John Willson (1802-1888) was among the earliest settlers of Ridgetown, Ontario, when he arrived in 1833. He and his brother, Crowell, farmed adjacent 100-acre lots just east of the new town....
The Bonner Family came from Scotland, driven from there in the 1820s during what the English politely call the “Clearances,” which comprised of driving families off their farmland, so it could...
During the 18th and 19th centuries in Scotland, most farmers rented their land from wealthy landowners. Beginning in 1762, started by Admiral John Ross of Balnagowan Castle in Scotland, landowners...
Hannah Schauer (1737-1797) was born in the Hudson Valley of New York in 1737 to our Palatine German ancestors, Johann Adam Schauer and Maria Fritz. At age 18, she married...
Benjamin Willson, son of a Scottish immigrant, was raised in Wantage, New Jersey (located in Sussex County, about 30 miles west of the Hudson and 60 miles northwest of New...
Annie Willson Bonner was quite adamant that the family’s heritage was Scottish, to the point that she became angry with her granddaughter on one occasion when the young girl wrote...
The Bates family, one of the maternal branches of the Bonners, originated in Northumberland County, the northeastern-most county of England, on the Scottish border. Sir Ralph Bates (1734-1783) and Lady...
Annie Willson Bonner‘s mother was Catherine McKinlay—she descended from Finlay McKinlay, a Scot who lived in the early 1600s. Finlay had 4 sons who started a farm called the Anie...
There is a dramatic story of the wedding between Ruth Wilson and Thomas C. Mullins. T.C. enlisted in the Army in June 1918 and was made Captain in the Corps of...
The Mullins family tree contains a juxtaposition of three of the most unlikely individuals: Queen Elizabeth II Jesse James Josiah T. Settle They have one, and probably only, thing in...
The Mullins and Bonner families are related to 3 American presidents and one First Lady . . . plus a 4th president, by marriage. President George Washington President George Washington...
Our zany national politics moves one to ask if there are politicians in the family tree . . . Thomas Clinton (T.C.) Mullins The most recent politician in our family...
Sir Henry Wyatt was born to humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England, but became involved in a battle of Royal succession. He fought valiantly in two revolts against one of the...
During the first 300 years of Christianity, there were dozens of different Christian sects, each with their own unique theology. The most nettlesome issue of all was the relationship of...
The Model Store The year after Ruth Willson was born, her father, Elisha Wilson, opened a dry goods store called the Model Store with his brother John Wilson. The Model...
On the cold, snowy morning of April 16, 1849, 120 citizens of Fayetteville, Arkansas, gathered in the town’s central square to bid farewell to family and friends who set out...
This story about Dr. Martin Luther Hawkins appeared in the Northwest Arkansas Times (a Fayetteville, Arkansas, paper) many years ago . . . told to the reporter by Loddie...
The Mullins’ family roots are almost all English and Scottish. But one branch of the family immigrated to the U.S. from Frankenthal, Bavaria (today’s southwest Germany), from an area known...
The Mullins family had two relatives on the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806: Sergeant Charles Floyd and Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor. Both men were 2nd cousins of our ancestor Martha...
The inscription in this story is recorded at the Mullins-Stacey cemetery in North Carolina, where several early Mullins relatives are buried . . . “Thomas Mullins (1740-1817) seized this farmland...
This story is about our great uncle Martin Hawkins (1747-1819), who was called “The Sturgeon Rider”. It sounds like a fish tale, but it really happened! Uncle Martin’s nephew was...
Colonists’ support for the American Revolution was strongest in coastal communities that were subject to British taxation on trade. Inland areas of the colonies were more divided in their loyalties....
Smallpox Inoculation During the American Revolution
John Hawkins was a wealthy land owner and merchant. Before the Revolution, he served as commissary under a Virginia State Commission. From the start of the Revolutionary War until his...
Colonel George Walker and Captain John Holcombe both owned land and farmed in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Walker, in particular, was one of the wealthiest men in the county. Walker...
Our Family in the Revolutionary War – Patriots and Loyalists
We have many ancestors who performed military service during the Revolutionary War. Most fought on the side of secession from England, one was neutral, and two were Loyalists to the...
If you visit Colonial Williamsburg, you can tour the home of a member of our family, George Wythe (1726-1896). He was an eminent Virginia judge, member of the Continental Congress,...
There are many jokes about committees [e.g., “A recent study concluded that the most efficient size for a working committee is 1.6 people”], but at the outset of the American...
Richard Wyatt was a descendant of the famous Renaissance poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. Richard owned extensive farmland located on the North Anna River in Caroline County, Virginia. His estate was...
Abraham Venable II was one of 12 wealthy landowners who founded Louisa County in central Virginia in 1742. Most counties in colonial Virginia were formed by establishing a new Anglican...
Mullins family cousins include George Washington and Robert E. Lee, with whom we share our Virginia ancestor Col. Augustine Warner (1610-1674). Col. Warner was great great-grandfather to President George Washington,...
The Lewis branch of our family spent a generation on Barbados and likely owned a windmill. The island’s settlers traded extensively with the Netherlands, and Dutch influence can be felt...
In 1718 our ancestor George Walker I was appointed to the office of Naval Officer of the Lower District of the James River. As such, Walker was involved in the...
A Dispute over the Religious Education of the Children
More than a dozen of our ancestral families lived in the Jamestown settlement in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Among these were George Walker, the son of a Scottish...
Can you imagine hiding your daughter in a barrel, and sending her for a sea voyage on a cargo ship to sneak her past hostile harbor guards? Our ancestor Susanne...
George Keith was a Christian Quaker, later an Anglican missionary, born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1639 [1]. He earned his M.A. from Marischal College in Aberdeen in 1658 [2] and...
Our ancestor Walter Chiles became embroiled in the politics of the English Civil War and lost his ship as a result. Walter was born in England and immigrated to Charles...
Among our Virginia ancestors is Nicketti, a member of the Powhatan Nation. Our Freyschlag cousin Joanne Ferguson uncovered this direct ancestor many years ago, and Grandma Ruth Wilson was already aware...
