ES Motteram

Ancestors

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Biography

I started research in 1992 after my mother had passed from a year long fight with mesothelioma. In the year before she seemed to enjoy talking of her childhood and past which she had never shared before and I had the presence of mind to write it down. Drugs altered the stories retold and my initial research was to simple separate fact from fiction. For instance: there is NO French Royalty in our background! But this opened up the French-Canadian connection with the name Bachant and "dit Vertefeuille"(of the green leaf) (that was assumed royal nomenclature). This research took me back thru Canada in the 1600's and to a French town, Bachant, near the Belgium border and its history.

She told stories of riding horseback to and from school and the barn at Falling Water Farm (that I finally found in 2007 with huge help of new found cousins Will and Anne Sinton) on Judge Orr Road in Falcon, CO!

I was hooked!

Next the mongrel American pedigree of my western pioneers that I have been pursuing for 30 years. The family name Harris given in an adoption in Kentucky in 1860. Where we Confederate or Yankee? The westward migration to Iowa then Colorado. The eastern origins of early colonizers.

My mother had always gravitated toward Quaker (Society of Friends) when ever we made a family move. I never understood or queried what part this played in her life until the last 10 years when I started this exploration. This has gone from persecuted Irish Quakers moving west, Welsh Quakers emigrating to Penn Colony north of Philadelphia and Berks Co., PA to the decks of the Mayflower and lately to this site.

I assumed my fathers English side was bland. Just Pittsburgh steel workers. Here I found stunning revelations of steel workers, strikers, warriors in all wars back to the US Civil War and beyond. With the help of English relatives only recently reconnected we've gone back to the family name origins in UK around 1066 with William the Conqueror.

Fun Stuff.

I hope to leave what I have found for family and others with the hopes they'll enjoy it as much as I have.

In life we moved a lot around the USA in younger years following my fathers job as an Electrical Engineer. It let me see a lot of this great country and I really enjoyed history and geography in school.

When in the west I worked agricultural jobs "making hay" and livestock. In the east I saddled horses at $0.10/horse at one riding stable.

I have a Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M in Rangeland Ecology and Management and did Masters work studying Toxic plants and later Geographical Information System (GIS).

In the late 60's I enlisted in the US Army as a Salvage Diver in Port Construction and Transportation companies traveling the USA.

I ranched in Kenya, East Africa for the better part of thirteen years, met my wife (a research scientist in cattle disease) and started a family there. When we returned to the USA we took position at TX A&M in veterinary research and vegetation management. Later we moved to Washington State for veterinary research in plants poisonous to livestock and trace mineral deficiency as a computer lab instructor in a Field Investigation Unit.

Now retired I'm writing stories and trying to kill genealogical devils.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by ES Motteram at registration.