William R Travers

William Riggin Travers (July, 1819 – March 19, 1887) was an American lawyer who made a fortune on Wall Street. Along with John Hunter, in 1863 he founded Saratoga Race Course and served as its first president. Saratoga's Travers Stakes is named in his honor and is the oldest major Thoroughbred horse race in the United States. In 1884, William Travers became one of the backers of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track on Coney Island.

Travers was a partner in Annieswood Stable with John Hunter and George Osgood. The operation had considerable success both in racing runners and with breeding at their Annieswood Stud farm in Westchester County, New York. Their horse Kentucky won the first running of the Travers Stakes in 1864. One of their most famous horses was Alarm, considered one of the best sprint race horses in American Thoroughbred horse racing history.

Travers was a long-time president of the New York Athletic Club. On January 13, 1887 the club purchased Hogg Island in Long Island Sound and Pelham, New York shoreline from the estate of John Hunter and renamed it Travers Island in his honor.

A well-known cosmopolite and high liver, Travers was a member of 27 private clubs, according to Cleveland Amory in his book Who Killed Society?

William R. Travers married Maria Louisa, the fourth daughter of Reverdy Johnson. They had nine children. One of their five daughters, Matilda, married the painter Walter Gay and moved to Paris, France in 1876 where she remained until her death in 1943

Lineage: William R Travers 1819 was father to Louisa Travers aka Maria Louisa Travers 1848 who married James W Wadsworth 1877, James Wolcott Wadsworth 1846, James Samuel Wadsworth 1807, James Wadsworth 1768, John Noyes Wadsworth 1732, James Wadsworth 1677, John Wadsworth 1630, William Wadsworth 1594, William Wadsworth. Hannah Wadsworth 1750 was the 3rd great granddaughter of WW 1550. She married John Bigelow 1739

Connection To Noted 1800's Author

Helen Maria Fiske b. 1830 in Massachusetts. Helen Hunt Jackson was born Helen Maria Fiske during the first term of President Andrew Jackson, a former Indian fighter and advocate of removing Indians living in the eastern United States to the West.

She was a prolific writer, her initial literary efforts were devoted to children's stories, travel sketches, poems, novels, and essays under the pseudonyms "H.H." and "Saxe Holm." Her anonymous work included Verses (1870) and a novel Mercy Philbrick's Choice (1876), in which Emily Dickinson was part-model for the heroine. In time, Jackson would produce over 30 books and hundreds of articles. She most likely would have become better known without the pseudonyms, but popular convention of the time dictated that female writers conceal their true identity. However, once she began to author books about Native Americans or Indians (as they were generally known), she proudly used her full name.

Jackson became perhaps the most prolific woman writer of her era in the country. In 1874, the noted Transcendentalist philosopher, essayist, orator, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, regarded her as "the greatest woman poet" and rated her poetry as superior to the work of almost all her American male contemporaries. This was, indeed, high praise from a very respected source and reflected her position as a national cultural leader. Jackson continued her struggle to redress Indian grievances and also returned to her earlier career as a writer of poetry, essays, and novels.


In 1884, based upon her earlier experience with the California Indians, she hurriedly wrote the popular, commercially successful novel, Ramona. The work, which has been reprinted frequently and adapted to screen and stage, was the highlight of her literary career. In 1886, the North American Review called the book "unquestionably the best novel yet produced by an American woman," ranking it with Uncle Tom's Cabin by her friend Harriet Beecher Stowe as one of the two foremost ethical novels of the century.

Notwithstanding such positive reaction, Jackson was disappointed by the public's failure to appreciate the work for its attempt to do for the Indians what Stowe had achieved for the slaves. According to the late California historian Walton Bean: This novel was often called the Uncle Tom's Cabin of California, but its most enduring effect was to create a collection of regional myths that stimulated the tourist trade. These legends became so ingrained in the culture of Southern California that they were often mistaken for realities. In later years many who visited "Ramona's birthplace" in San Diego or the annual "Ramona Pageant" at Hemet (eighty miles north of San Diego) were surprised and disappointed if they chanced to learn that Ramona was a (fictional) novel rather than a biography.

She is a member of one of my direct lines so I have not listed her lineage. To see her lineage please reference my rootsweb site.

Connection To John Hancock

John Hancock b.1737 in Massachusetts. Originally a merchant from Boston. Graduate of Harvard College in 1754. Signed Declaration of Independence. While merchants in England routinely paid duties on imports, the colonies not only evaded duties, but smuggled cheap sugar and molasses from the French West Indies, an enemy country, undermining their countrymen in the British West Indies. Hancock smuggled an estimated 1.5 million gallons of molasses a year on which he should have paid £37,500 per year, but which corrupt customs officers only collected £2,000 per year.

At first only a financier of the growing rebellion, John Hancock later became a public critic of British rule. On March 5, 1774, the fourth anniversary of the Boston Massacre, he gave a speech strongly condemning the British. In the same year, he was unanimously elected president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and presided over its Committee of Safety. Under Hancock, Massachusetts was able to raise bands of "minutemen"—soldiers who pledged to be ready for battle on short notice—and his boycott of tea imported by the British East India Company eventually led to the Boston Tea Party.

In April 1775 as the British intent became apparent, Hancock and Samuel Adams slipped away from Boston to elude capture, staying in the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington, Massachusetts (which can still be seen to this day). There Paul Revere supposedly roused them about midnight before the British troops arrived at dawn for the Battle of Lexington and Concord, but Prescott was the one who actually informed Hancock and Adams. At this time, General Thomas Gage ordered Hancock and Adams arrested for treason. Following the battle a proclamation was issued granting a general pardon to all who would demonstrate loyalty to the crown—with the exceptions of Hancock and Adams.

On May 24, 1775, he was elected the third President of the Second Continental Congress, succeeding Peyton Randolph. From October 27, 1775 to July 1, 1776, his title was "President of the United Colonies". From July 2, 1776 to October 29, 1777, the title was "President of the Continental Congress of the United States of America".

He would serve through some of the darkest days of the Revolutionary War including Washington's defeats in New York and New Jersey as well as Great Britain's occupation of Philadelphia until resigning his office in York, Pennsylvania on October 30, 1777. He was succeeded by Henry Laurens.

In the first month of his presidency, on June 19, 1775, Hancock commissioned George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. A year later, Hancock sent Washington a copy of the July 4, 1776 congressional resolution calling for independence as well as a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Hancock's signature on the United States Declaration of Independence

John Trumbull's famous painting is sometimes incorrectly identified as a depiction of the signing of the Declaration. What the painting actually depicts is the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to the Congress. Trumbull's painting can also be found on the back of the U.S. $2 bill.[10]

Hancock was the only one to sign the Declaration of Independence on the fourth; the other 55 delegates signed on August 2nd (see also "Lee Resolution" that declared independence on July 2nd). He also requested Washington have the Declaration read to the Continental Army. According to popular legend, he signed his name largely and clearly to be sure King George III could read it without his spectacles, causing his name to become, in the United States, an eponym for "signature".[11][12] However, other examples suggest that Hancock always wrote his signature this way. In January 1776, he was appointed commander in chief and major general of the Massachusetts militia. In July 1778, he led 6,000 of his militia in an failed attack on the British at Newport, Rhode Island.


Lineage: John Hancock 1737, John Hancock 1702, John Hancock 1671, Lucy Hancock 1713 dau of John Hancock 1671, Lucy Bowes 1736 dau of Lucy Hancock 1713, Lucy Clarke 1767 daughter of Lucy Bowes, Lucy Clarke married Reverend Thaddeus Fiske 1762

Post #1

I started work on my family tree back in 1999 after I had taken a week long trip to England where I visted London, Cambridge, Ely, and York. I started out with roughly 100 names and then I lost interest.

Here I am today. I got back into the family tree this past August with the same 100 I left off with and now have close to 9,000 names. I have uncovered some very interesting family along the way and I guess that is the purpose of this blog to share what I have found and hopefully share the information with others who are on the same journey.

I have started a file with the the famous and more noteworthy family members along with their lineage to one of my main family lines. It is called Barker Family Tree as that is my surname but I can only find my family back to England in mid 1700's. So needless to say there are a number of lines that have more names than Barker.