Projects
I had always been told I had Germans in my family tree, but it was not until recently that I began to really uncover what that meant. Come to find out, many of my grandma Wilda's ancestors were Anabaptists, a persecuted Christian minority, from south Germany and Switzerland. One of the first stories I stumbled across was that of Dirk Willems, who, having an opportunity to escape prison for his faith, returned to rescue his captor. In the end, Willems paid with his life for that choice. I could not help but wonder what the source of his faith was in the face of such persecution and how he dealt with the doubts that must have plagued him. What about my faith? Is doubt necessarily a bad thing?
Began in 2008, this is a life-long project.
Thomas Ballard (1630-1689) was my 9th great grandfather. A politican, militia colonel, buisnesman, Thomas Ballard was a foundational member of the early Virginia colony.