Majosta A Leibrecht Family History: Twelve Generations Romancing the American Dream 1630-2002 (LEIBRECHT GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH SERIES)

This is a story about fearless immigrants in search of the American dream, written by two inquiring brothers hoping to discover our family’s hidden mysteries. When we embarked on this journey into the past, we expected to uncover an inspiring story of hard working farmers who left their German homeland in the late 19th century in hopes of finding a better life in America, which was the story we had always been led to believe. What we discovered during our ten years of research was totally unexpected: a cast of characters so delightfully diverse we could scarcely believe we had sprung from such a lavish heritage, a family tree richly adorned with poets and peasants, Puritans and patriots, Huguenots and heroes, Loyalists and liars. In fact, our family lineage connects directly back to William the Conqueror and the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne; and our list of famous relatives includes George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, and Diana, Princess of Wales. As the title of this book implies, our story embraces twelve generations stretching back to 1630, to Plymouth Rock, and the founding of our nation. The common thread that binds these intrepid souls together, and to us, is that every single one of them was a refugee, willing to leave their past behind, willing to risk everything without knowing what was in store for them, hoping to find a better life in a distant land, where anything was possible. This is the American dream that we are all a part of, and this is their story. In fact, this is your story, too, and it will prove to be at least as interesting as ours. Every family has a history, with features that are both common and unique. Ten years ago, the authors were largely unfamiliar with the subject of family genealogy, although we were both vaguely aware of TV programs such as Finding Your Roots. Fortunately, one of the authors’ daughter had developed a deep interest in genealogy, and her enthusiasm was infectious. Lucky for us, the genealogy landscape has evolved dramatically in the last ten years. We now live in a world that is generously endowed with websites and tools that make it relatively easy to explore your own family roots. With a little imagination, and generous helping of persistence, it is possible to establish your own family tree that is guaranteed to be at least as interesting as ours. This book can serve as a guide for anyone wishing to embark on this incredible journey of discovering your own family roots. In the end, the truest and most compelling story of the Leibrecht family is one of honest, hard-working immigrants who were nearly all farmers with a deep yearning to experience the freedom of America and a profound wish to acquire their own piece of land. In nearly every case they realized this dream through one of several processes, including “headrights”, land grants, serving in the colonial militia, and serving out a period of indentured servitude to a wealthy landowner. But homesteading was the principal method used by the authors’ more recent immigrant ancestors in their quest to become self-sufficient landowners, so the process of homesteading is a central theme of this inspiring family story.