Patriot Ancestors and Patriotism

A Memorial Day week thought that has circled about is that Patriotism and Patriot Ancestors are not synonymous. I was born in the last month of WWII and belonged in actuality to the "Baby Boom". My generation had much anger in the 60s and many boys from my small Delaware Valley town did not return from Vietnam.I was very anti-war as a young adult.


My Irish ancestors who most recently immigrated were those I knew most about, although still not much it seems. I understand or thought I did the reason for their coming, Ireland's Gorta Mor. It seems I was incorrect in some ways.



To start with William Faunt who emigrated to New Jersey in 1869 had a British Army pension to live on.He was almost immediately living in Beverly NJ with his young family so may have had a job prior to his departure..They did not come because of hunger or any particular discrimination except the usual anti-Catholic bias.He and his wife lived in Belfast and lost an infant there ( two infants named William born in Belfast).Did so many tensions in Belfast began in 1867-8
?
When I began to do my family genealogy a few years ago I learned much more about all of them.
In their way many if not most of them were happy and grateful to their new Native land.The new Irish immigrants were eager to assimilate and did not seem to suffer greatly from anti-Irish sentiment. They had saleable skills for the most part and relatives who employed them.Ellen Lynch Faunt and William were Greengrocers in Beverly NJ and apparently she employed Mary Dugan her daughter-in-law.Mary's uncle John Dugan was also an entrepreneur.

And so it went. I have two lines who were not recent immigrants and there I have discovered both Patriot status and my own Patriotism. I am proud of these folks who appear on both my Dad's side of the family and Mom's.

Peter Rementer has been established as a new Patriot in the D.A.R. just this year.I am working now on two other men who are related to him. What a grateful, faithful group they were to the new land.

John Hunneker( Honaker) was wheelwright who served in the Philadelphia City Guards under Captain Jacob Bright.His family may have been Swiss. His daughter Catherine married a Rementer.

Adam Mayer's daughter Mary Magdalene was the wife of Peter Rementer.Adam also served in the Philadelphia Militia.

Henry Norbeck was Grandfather of John Honaker and his patriotic service included paying a Supply Tax which fed and clothed local soldiers and the general war effort.He may have come from Norway via Rotterdam.

John Swanson and his brother William from Beverly NJ served in the Civil War .
William F.Carrow and most of his brothers from Delaware did also. James Sweeney a farmer from Quinton NJ has an ornate headstone that looks like other Civil War monuments and he likely served the war effort in some way.

On Dad's Carrow side both William Keys and John Carrow, a younger man, served the cause.John Carrow's son married William Keys' daughter Mary.

Tomorrow ( still Memorial Day week) I will go to the Delaware Archvives to try to find if John Jones can join this exalted group.I have tried to find Harriet Jones Carrow's actual line for some time and now it is confirmed.I will look for records that will confirm this line and the Maloneys who they intermarried with.

My father William Charles Carrow and my Faunt uncles served very honorably in WWII.
Dad told me in later years that he would not fight again unless the enemy was "landing at Atlantic City". I have moved much more to the center in recent years and have great pride in my family patriots.