Discovering a Lost Legacy

"And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the Ring passed out of all knowledge." - Lady Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (the film). Unlike the "Ring" that passed out of all knowledge for 2500 years, most of our Meeker legacy had been forgotten for almost 150 years! This book devotes one chapter to each of twelve Meeker generations, from the first generation that came to America up until my generation. The history of our Meeker family, recounted in these pages, spans ~400 years. It begins with William and Sarah Meeker (originally spelled Meaker) who were part of the "Great Puritan Migration" from England to America. Family history loss occurs for a whole host of reasons, but in the case of our Meeker family legacy, three factors were most dominate: Lack of documentation from one generation to the next, distant migration by an earlier family that had limited abilities to contact relatives and early death of parents and grandparents who were not present to pass on family stories to their adult children. This book brings together a whole variety of genealogical resources to describe something of the lives of my earliest American Meeker ancestors, who had a deep faith in Jesus Christ and demonstrated courage against British tyranny; which had been lost to our family for almost 150 years!