Marianne Muse

Ancestors

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== Biography == See Sources below.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by M Muse at registration:

The Muse family I am descended from began with a John Muse (Mewes, etc) in Tidewater Virginia in 1660's. Land acquisition and other documents are found which establish his presence and his homestead there along the Potomac right between what are now the Robert E. Lee and the George Washington national parks. There is, I believe, no proof yet of exactly which Muse or Mewes in England was the father of this Muse in America. There are several candidates, according to several genealogists. My own guess--which I am less and less sure of-- is that he was perhaps a descendant of a French Huguenot family who settled on the English mainland or in one of the territorial or Channel islands, and that he was therefore born in English territory friendly to Huguenots, in 1633; and in his early thirties, perhaps earlier, he came to the Colony of Virginia. Some of our respected family historians, though, say that he came from England, and that's all we know.

One of our family histories handed down to us mentions papers that were lost in the family movements across the country. These papers were supposed to have linked the Muse family somehow with the return of Charles II to throne in 1660, and with the General George Monck who helped to plan and then to implement Charles' re-entry, from the Netherlands, thence to Jersey, the stopping point where he had been kept under protection; and then from Dover where Charles II was met by Monck and escorted by Monck's soldiers into London. If there is any truth to this family story of connection between Monck and a John Muse ancestor, then perhaps the family memory relates to the Peter Mews who was acquainted, probably through Royalist connections, and through comradeship in the Dutch wars of the 1660's, with Monck. Peter Mews was one of the delegates to the Peace Treaty meetings of 1667 in Breda, in the Netherlands, where Monck also would have been in attendance.

Or it is possible that the Muses who were parent of our John Muse (Jean Mews?) , were, in 1600's, on the Isle of Jersey or had come with the retinue of Charles II to Jersey where many Huguenot families had settled. Huguenots often occupied these Channel islands before moving on to other permanent settlements, and there was a De la Muce family of Huguenots, for instance, who followed this pattern of settlement. Though my ancestor John Muse was a person of only moderate means, any retainer of a prominent family, in that time, might identify himself with the name of the estate to which he was attached.

Of course the Muse family is only one ripple on the surface of the ancestral sea, and just one I am interested in because of the long history that can, in many places, be traced. I also come from Rabuns in VA, then NC, then GA, then Alabama. I love to research them also. I descend from Powells of VA, SC, GA, and so on. Apselia Powell born 1774 is an ancestor I would love to have more records of; I have her will naming her Rabun grandchildren in Alabama. I have enjoyed, also, researching my Glascock ancestry, etc--all these people in the Tidewater area who moved further inland into NC and then often went to GA too.

I was born in Montgomery, AL to parents who had the post-WWII middle-class integrity; my father and my mother were both music majors in colleges where they graduated in the mid 1930's. My father served as an officer in WWII. I graduated from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. I finished a graduate program, also, at Tulane; I was at one time a teacher of English literature. I did further study to strengthen my music education, and I have most recently taught vocal arts.

I love singing; cultivating roses; raising my cats; teaching voice; playing piano; reading history; reading archaeology, and many other activities.

I have lived in Alabama, then from 1960 onward to 1985, in New Orleans, LA, then from 1985 onward, in California.