The Pump-house Project

Photo courtesy Tom Lewis

The Freeland property at Omena - called "Freeland's" during its days as a summer resort - was a property that bound together five generations of my family on my mother's side. The first Omena property owned by our family was several dozen acres acquired by Thomas Edward Hart McLean, who was the uncle of Mary (McLean) Frazier. This Mary was the mother of Mary (Frazier) Freeland, who was the mother of my Nana, Mary (Freeland) Smith.

Embracing My Inner Jew: A Brief History of the Friedlanders

Mary (Frazier) Freeland and Albert Luke Freeland

I got back my DNA results from ancestry.com a few months ago. Ancestry performs a type of test called autosomal DNA. I'll be writing about DNA testing in another post. DNA testing for genealogy is really very new and exciting.

One of the things autosomal testing does pretty well is figure out your ancestral roots. My results were not too surprising. I'm more than 50% "Western European," and another 28% British/Irish. No Native American, but a dash of Greek/Italian and Middle Eastern, leavened with Caucasian (the region, not the race) and Scandinavian.

One fraction that came in right where I expected it: I am 1/8th Ashkenazi Jew. (Ashkenazi is the name of the Jews of Europe.) Both of my law partners have tested, and both were surprised to find that they too have some Ashkenazi Jewish blood. We now refer to one another as "our people" in the firm, unlike the goyim in the outfit. One of my partners found he also has a smidgen of Gypsy blood. He says, "I may steal your wallet, but I will invest the money wisely." We get to make jokes like that because we are Yiddishe.

But I digress.

Our Anti-Prelatick Scots Ancestor: David Frazer

David Frazer (also sometimes spelled Fraser, Fraizer, and Frazier, depending on his mood) was the immigrant founder of our line of the Frazier clan in America. 

He was born in Scotland around 1720, and would have been old enough to have joined his countrymen in the Battle of Culloden. It's unknown exactly when he made it to the colonies. The earliest written evidence shows him working a farm near a place called Marsh Creek, Pennsylvania in 1750, so it is possible he was banished to the American colonies by the English as punishment after Culloden. He later left Marsh Creek and moved southwest to a farm near a little town called Gettysburg. Therein lies a Frazier tale for another day.

He was a devout member of what became known in the colonies as the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and would have supported Bonnie Prince Charlie against the usurping Hanoverian princes. He may even have been among the first people to sing "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," which our children still sing today. He was well educated, and had a considerable library, including, among other titles, the delightfully named title to the right.

Some American Scots became ardent Patriots when the War of Independence came. Many others were Loyalists. There is a scholarly explanation of the divisions among the Scotsmen in this website. 

David died in 1782, shortly before the war was won.

Here's a painting of Bonnie Prince Charlie. He really was quite bonnie.