This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: MichaelWright12 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.wright/6959.2703.2.1.2.2.2.1.1.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi, I did know that Harriet Wright was a daughter of Ashael Wright (d. 1842: eldest son of Dan Wright, Sr [d. 1832]) and Martha Sweeny (d. 1863), but I did not have Harriet's marriage information or descendant line, so thank you for that. As you know Milton (d. 1917) was the son of Daniel Wright Jr. (d. 1861: third son of Dan Wright Sr), so they were indeed 1st cousins. Quiet or not, it is always good to know who your family is. Thanks for speaking up and adding to the story of this very large Wright descendant family. My grandfather descended from Deacon Samuel Wright's eldest son, Sgt. Samuel (d at Battle of Bloody Brook, 2 Sept 1675), eldest brother of the Milton Wright ancestors, James Wright (d. 1723) and Abigail Jess (d. 1707). So my grandfather, who lived in Ashtabula, County, OH, was so far removed from the Wright Brothers that in his day, he had no idea he was a 9th cousin once removed to the famous Wright brothers down in Dayton, OH. During WWI my grandfather was in the Signal Corps and helped at various times with pilot directions from the ground with both flags and radio equipment. He also strung telephone/telegraph wire in a number of European theaters and helped rescue a few downed pilots from behind enemy lines because that was where he spent a lot of time stringing wire through shallow trenches and thick brush. He also came upon a few who didn't make it back. Grandpa never had a clue those pilots were up in the air because of the work his distant cousins had done promoting airplane design and air travel. He died not knowing as did my grandmother, who was the one who got me hooked on genealogy back in the early 80's. Building on her work on the Wright family, and with the help of a number of other researchers, I was able to complete the picture of our ancestry back to Deacon Samuel Wright for my father before he died and knowing that there were people like the Wright Brothers, Ethan Allen, Judge Josiah Wright, Governor Silas Wright and many other versatile pioneer and professional types in the family I think helped explain to him why he himself was possessed of the extraordinary ability to solve mechanical, mathematical and visual problems which he had used to take him from art school to mechanical engineering to business management. The entire family seems to be adept at solving problems of a complex and intricate nature. Our ranks are full of doctors, lawyers, inventors, engineers and scientists and other technically difficult fields of endeavor. We also seem to be a particularly restless bunch, always seeking, searching and expanding our grasp of things around us, moving about looki! ng for opportunities. Our ancestry, which by use of genetic genealogy we can now trace back to the first century in England and beyond. What we believe now about the family ancestry really begins with the restless nomadic tribe of Dardanians of the Drin River valley in the Balkans at a time contemporary with the life of Jesus Christ. This is an area that lies between the present day cities of Pic and Pristnia, Kosovo and the Dardanians were the last of the Illyrian-Tracian tribes to be subdued by the Romans in their quest to control everything south of the Danube River. Typical of conquered people who had gained the respect of the Roman military leaders during battle, the Dardanians were recruited by the Romans to fill the ranks of auxillary units accompanying the Roman Legions on campaigns into Gaul and later into the new Roman province of Britannia (Great Britian). Specifically, Roman Legion XX had with them one of the Thracian auxillary cohorts of mixed cavalry and engineers (read fort bui! lders) when Emperor Crasius settled them at a place called Colchester in southeastern England. This same place is now Colchester, County Essex, England and the heart of the territory where we find the first of our ancestors recorded in written history dated to 1424. We believe this ancestor was the descendant of one of these "Thracian" mercenary soldiers who, having served his 25 years in the Roman army sometime between 79 and 110 C.E., took up the small estate and full Roman citizenship that was his due under pre-Constantine empire rules for non-Roman citizens serving in the Roman army auxiliary units. He probably had been stationed at and helped build the first Roman settlement at Colchester with Legion XX and retired to the area before Legion XX was relocated to Chester during Hadrian's reign. He probably had acquired a wife of local origins and it is possible that his sons also served in one of the later Legions stationed in the area(the son would have inherited his! father's Roman citizenship and been eligible for Legion duty versus a uxilary duty). This is also probably why we find that the first mention of our ancestor in 1424 makes it fairly clear that he was a man of property and some small standing in the communities in which he lived, and that it was not an unusual circumstance that his descendants grew steadily more prosperous and prominent in private and public arenas, being possessed of a grant of crest and arms from a fairly early time and in possession of a considerable number of estates in Cos. Essex and Oxfordshire by 1500. Clearly this family had a leg up from an early time, but not so much of a leg as would have been true had the story that George W. Wright tells in his 1929 publication of the Wrights coming over from Bayeux, Normandy with William the Conqueror, been true. There are other arguments for why this origins theory is now known to be incorrect, but this is not the place to go into that. I hope you have found this interesting and if you have other information on your branch of the family you would like to share with me, you can reach me directly at [email protected] Best Regards, Mike Wright Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.