In my haste today, I nearly forgot the singular meaning of September 17, 2024. Today is Constitution Day. On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania signed the Constitution of the United States of America.
For me, the most important word in the Constitution is the very first word “WE” as in “We The People.” The delegates did not hammer out a governing document for northern identities and southern identities. The genius of the document was a self-perception of unity, that unity trumped geographical differences. In unity was the vision of a republic.
A few years ago, a distant cousin, Jimmy, excitedly urged me to embrace the President of the Constitutional Convention, George Washington, as a Second Cousin Seven Times Removed. I was reluctant to do so. Despite my independence of thought, I had been programmed to believe that black Americans didn’t have famous founding fathers in one’s family. It seemed unnatural. Fortunately for me, Jimmy had escaped a slave mentality in his self-perception. Jimmy, a doctor with course work in genetics, prevailed upon me to consider the genetic evidence and family trees with dispassion. I was a Twyman (Three Cheers!). Twymans were descendants of Peter Montague (1603 - 1659). And the evidence indicated Mary Montague (1665 - 1743) was the maternal grandmother of Washington. None of this is surprising as there were few people living in colonial Virginia in the 1600s and many people were cousins by blood in wilderness Virginia.
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HOW DID I DISCOVER ALL OF THIS?
About 2½ years ago my research started with the first DNA hits my cousin got with Elizabeth Garnett and Salvatore Muscoe. Subsequently we found out that she was married to William Buford Twyman II.
I found all the rest by luck and diligence.
I started out researching the Twyman name, the origin of it. I found that the highest concentration of the name in England was in Kent. I got in touch with Twymans in England, but they didn’t know the origin of their name. However, one of these Twymans had a website, on which it was mentioned that there was rumor in their family that the original Twyman in England came over with William The Conqueror.
I looked at the distribution of the name “Twyman” throughout England, and saw that there were only a few outside of Kent (one or two in Scotland and one or two in the South of England). Whereas there were over 200 Twyman descendants still living in Kent, strongly suggesting that was their origin. I knew from history that the Normans landed in Kent during the Norman Conquest, so it would make sense that if a Twyman came over with them, there would be a high number of them left in Kent. That’s what I started with, that premise. That’s all. Nothing more.
So, I did a search for the men who accompanied William The Conqueror. This proved a little problematic because there are tons of people who would like to claim that their ancestor was there with William. I did, however, find a certified document that listed the “Companions of William.” I noted that there were a few unique names on that list, including Montague, but I thought no more about it at the time. I did not see the name ‘Twyman’ on that list. I filed away that document in case I might need it later.
I decided to backtrack the Twymans. In backtracking the Twyman ancestors, going back from William Buford Twyman II, I found that his grandfather, George Twyman (1661-1703), had married Katherine Montague (1678-1743). I remember thinking: “now where have I heard that name before?” And then, I remembered: “Oh yeah, I saw that name on the list of “Companions of William!” The person on that list was Drogo Montague (aka Drogo de Monte Acuto). So, I followed Drogo’s descendants forward, generation after generation (I learned a LOT about the Montagues, about their roots, their responsibilities, their accomplishments, and their duties as nobles in service to the king — it was quite an education). Because these were nobles, there was a lot of information available about them (Wikipedia; Geni website, etc). As I continued down the Montague line I eventually bumped into Peter Montague II (1603-1659) and found that he had immigrated to America. Then, I discovered that it was his granddaughter, Katherine Montague, who married George Twyman. Bingo !!!
That was the first big discovery I made about the Twyman family. This gave me encouragement that this line of research could be fruitful, so I kept going.
Then, my wife and I were watching a TV series “Vikings” and remarking “well, those are our ancestors!” (we each had ancestors -DNA proven- who were vikings). The lead character was Rollo. As I was researching out the ancestors of Drogo de Monte Acuto, this led me back to his 3x great-grandfather, Rollo “The Dane,” leader of the Vikings! To use a quote I heard recently, I nearly fell out of my chair! The very same character we were watching on TV was my actual 30x great-grandfather!
Once I found out about Rollo, I discovered that his 2x great-grandson was William The Conqueror (that means that William and Drogo were cousins!).
I then followed Rollo’s descendants downward and discovered his granddaughter, Adelaide of Aquitaine, married Hugh Capet, the future king of France. I then followed her descendants forward to make sure they all carried Rollo’s DNA, all the way down to Marie Antoinette, thus confirming our family’s bloodline.
I am in touch with another DNA cousin who lives in Indiana. My great-grandfather is her great-grandfather’s half-brother (James Twyman Jr). She said she had evidence that suggested that George Washington was our relative. So I, independently, tracked his lineage which led to the discovery that his grandmother, Mary Montague, was the sister of my 6x great-grandmother, Katherine Montague. That was a ‘wow’ moment, for sure.
~ Cousin Jim
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What does it mean to be a distant relative of the original founding father on the one hand and the descendant of American slaves on the other hand? It is a good question to address on Constitution Day.
I feel closer affinity to the man who shared family ancestors with me — the Montague family. Accepting Washington as a distant second cousin forces me to release mental Jim Crow in my sense of genetic self. I am propelled into a higher level of unity which is, ironically, the aim and purpose of the Constitution. We’re all cousins if one goes back far enough. The real value is dissolving the sense of the Other between myself and the founding fathers of my country. Most of the founding fathers had black cousins, close or distant. Some like Thomas Jefferson and George Wythe even had black children.
To be an Old American, a full and complete Old American, is to be unified in one’s perception of one’s genetic self. The genetic stuff of life that created the top political leader in world history lives on in those who are Old Americans, both white and black. The ability to perceive Washington, and other founding fathers, as We, is as it should be. And that is the spiritual power of claiming one’s authentic DNA heritage, I think. We are the living embodiment of the wide expanse of our American experience.
The President of the Constitutional Convention, George Washington, and the American slave lives on in my chromosomes, our chromosomes. We are one at the level of our DNA and many of us never knew until the magic of genetic genealogy.
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That is an interesting question, for sure (about fate vs. happenstance).
Since so many of the nobles married their cousins, they continued to share DNA down through the centuries. This continued in the Virginia Colony, as well. Cousins marrying cousins. Because the population was sparse, there weren’t many potential spouses to choose from; so they married one another. They were familiar with their cousins (from family get-together’s, etc. ) and they could trust that other family members were suitable, upstanding, trustworthy people - which made choosing one of them as a mate an easy choice. The thing is, they kept producing outstanding leaders, century after century. So, . . . one is tempted to think that they were passing down some pretty awesome DNA to each subsequent generation. Generation after generation . . . . century after century. — Cousin Jim
Conclusion: The more we Old Americans think of ourselves as cousins, the closer we will come to the unity hammered out in the Constitution. That day, September 17, 1787, ushered in a political document uniquely suited to competing fractions in politics. We are blessed as Americans. Some argue the Constitution’s enduring genius has been a focus on the aim of a more perfect Union. I would suggest the more profound insight was self-identity, WE THE PEOPLE.
We have reached a place and time where WE includes George Washington in a family way. There is no Us and Them in our genetic selves. We are one people.
WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES