Beatrice

The life of Beatrice Cardwell was much like that of many Americans in the early 20th century. She grew up in rural southwest Missouri, went to a one-room school through the eighth grade, married, and raised a family. Curiosity about her family tree never went much beyond two generations. However, like many Americans, she had a rich heritage. There were a few men and women of great prominence and renown in her past, which every genealogist hopes to discover. Her tenth great grandfather was the colonist Roger Williams, the Puritan founder of the state of Rhode Island; she shared a distant relationship with Judy Garland; and had the same ancestors as Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Notwithstanding these examples, her people were mostly farmers of modest means who made up the core of the American story. This book begins in 1635 with William Fellows of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Thomas Cardwell of Colonial Virginia. It is about the ancestry of these two families and the daughter of their union in 1904. Biographical sketches and genealogical summaries contain 145 surnames and more than 375 individuals; plus 85 illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, and index.