52 ANCESTORS 52 WEEKS - MEMBERSHIP

I have been interested in genealogy for most of my life.  I did start seriously researching when I got married and wanted to merge the two families.  It has been a long and interesting process.  You start with just what and who you know and work back in time through the family.  You accumulate information on each ancestor and hope you can fill in some of their life as you go along.

One such ancestor, Benjamin Foster, had a very interesting life.  He was born in 1699 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  In 1775 he was living in Machias, Maine at which time the townspeople were hearing that the British wanted to retain Boston and all New England under British supremacy.  When the British armed vessel Margaretta was ordered to Machias as convoy of merchant vessels to procure “lumber and boards” to build barracks and officer’s houses in Boston, for use of British troops, the citizens of Machias felt they had to do something.  A council of war led by Captain Jeremiah O’Brien and Col. Benjamin Foster voted to make an attack on the Margaretta.

The attack was successful, it was the first surrender of a naval flag by the British Crown on 12th of June 1775 and the first naval victory of the American Revolution.

Benjamin Foster is my patriot and my 6th Great Grandfather. He is the reason I was able to join and be a member of the Daughters of the Revolution, the DAR.

Note-The Capture of the British Sloop of War Margaretta published by Hannah Weston Chapter - Daughters of the American Revolution, Machias, ME