Introduction

Starting May 2015, this blog will host stories, photographs and personal thoughts about my 5x great-grandparents. William Prendergast (1727-1811) was the first in my family's line bearing the name Prendergast to arrive America in 1748. He led a forgotten colonial rebellion against wealthy land barons and British regulars a decade before the American Revolution, despite being loyal to the British king. He was supported and saved by his Quaker wife Mehitable Wing.

Both of my 5x great grandparents risked everything, including their own lives and family to do what they believed was right. I'll include passages about their British ancestors and American descendants who were as proficient at creating history.

On May 12, I'll visit protestant William Prendergast's native Wexford, Ireland. It's an area where the Prendergasts built castles and estates going back to when Philip de Prendergast and Maurice de Prendergast crossed the Irish Sea from Prendergast, Wales in the Norman Invasion of 1169.

From May 20-25, my sister Bette Prendergast and I will travel to many locations in New York state, from New York City north along the Hudson River through Poughkeepsie to the Hoosick River valley and west to Chautauqua County, along Lake Erie, where William and Mehitable's son James founded Jamestown. I hope you'll follow the journey.

Ruth Prendergast Wightman c.1900.

My journey began decades ago thanks to my great aunt Ruth Prendergast Wightman who collected a vast amount of family history in her 95 years of life. Her life ended in 1987 when I was 20 years old. Unlike many young men around their elders, I paid attention to what she said and am happy to receive and share the abundant physical evidence of history she gathered along the way.

I hope you'll enjoy traveling along with me in exploring American history and genealogy.

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