Myths debunked when doing family histroy.

[DianaCanada]

My children’s direct paternal ancestor left Yorkshire in 1640 and arrived in Massachusetts as a servant, although I am not sure he was indentured.  He later set up the first grist mill in the area.

Just my opinion, but I do believe the original Puritan settlers did set a “tone” in New England of hard work, sobriety, and a conservative approach to life, if not politics, as it does tend to be a liberal area in that regard.

 I highly recommend the book Albion’s Seed about how the British settlement of the original colonies influenced four major regions of what is now the US.  It is by David Hackett Fischer. He also wrote Champlain’s Dream, about New France.

[Erato]

The same author also wrote "Paul Revere's Ride" which is an excellent account of the events leading up to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.  And especially interesting to me since I grew up in the town where the first shots were fired.

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"Just my opinion, but I do believe the original Puritan settlers did set a “tone” in New England of hard work, sobriety, and a conservative approach to life, if not politics, as it does tend to be a liberal area in that regard."

There I tend to agree with you.  The actual modern religious descendants of the New England Puritans are the Congregationalists and the Unitarians, not the fundamentalist nut jobs of the bible belt.  Those Puritan settlers did set a "tone" that is still dimly perceptible today even though New England is no longer numerically dominated by pure blooded Yankees.  Certainly Yankee culture was a major theme in my paternal family.

[coombs]

I suppose the "99% of people never moved 10 miles or so from their birthplace prior to the invention of cars" could be a misapprehension of facts as opposed to a myth.

[Nickeleye]

My mum's mum used to say that we descended from Sir William Pitt, mum would always mutter under her breath, 'Sir William Pitt, the one that didn't get married'. Dad would always say that he descended from people who were hung for steeling sheep. Well it turns out we descend from William Pitt who made beds in Bordesley Green and on dad;s side from someone who was acquitted for steeling a deer. Reality is more interesting, in the end. I have now been to my great great grandad's grave, an impressive Victorian granite obelisk erected by those who employed him, and worked with him out of respect for all his innovative contributions to the industry, I've chatted with cousins Ive never heard of and I have seen photos of real people that look like family, because they are or were family.