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I first became interested in genealogy when I was about twelve. It was then that my paternal grandmother first introduced me to a book entitled Genealogy of the Fell Family in America Descended from Joseph Fell. This book, which was published in 1891, included my grandfather, Charles McConnell Lightburn. I was struck by the time span covered by the book—nearly three hundred years—and was fascinated by the fact that all of the people in that book were related to one another and to me either by blood or marriage! My grandmother later gave me that book, and it became the first book in my genealogical library. My grandfather and my great-aunt Mary told me that their father had fought for the North during the Civil War by the side of his older brother, who was a brigadier general. This fascinated me. They also told me that there was a town in West Virginia called Lightburn. I couldn’t wait to find it on a map! My own genealogical research did not begin until the late 1970s when I requested the Civil War records of my great grandfather, Calvin Luther Lightburn, and his brothers from the National Archives. During the 1980s, I continued my research, albeit at a very low level of activity. It was not until the early 1990s when I moved to the Washington, DC, area that I became intensively involved in—some might even say addicted to—genealogy. The resources in the Washington, DC, area are extensive, and I ended up spending many happy (and sometimes frustrating) hours conducting research in the National Archives, Library of Congress, and the library of the Daughters of the American Revolution. By 1999, I had amassed a great deal of genealogical information, most of which was stuffed in cardboard boxes. I was encouraged to put what I had on paper by Faye M. (Brown) Lightburn, who had published her book, Revolutionary Soldier Samuel Brown and Some of his Family in 1993. So after attending several related sessions at the National Genealogical Society Conference in the States, which was held that year in Providence, Rhode Island, I finally screwed up my courage and plunged in. I published the original book in 2003. This book is the second and probably last edition.
This is both a chilling, yet gripping, saga of a noble people; warriors in the fight for Scottish Freedom; and leaders and followers of the Religious Reformation in Scotland. They were the Calvinists, followers of John Knox, determined to institute the reforms flowing from the Reformation in the 1500's. They fought valiantly despite persecution and massacre. They bravely signed the National Covenant of Scotland, and many became known as Covenanters. Hunted down like wild animals, many decided to make the short sea journey of 20 miles across the channel from southwestern Scotland to the Province of Ulster, Northern Ireland, which had been opened up to English and Scottish settlers in the early 1600's. While the Scottish, English, and some Huguenot settlers flourished in the Province of Ulster, Northern Ireland, the 'grin of the wolf' was not long in planning a tortuous massacre in order to exterminate all Protestants in the Province of Ulster, Northern Ireland. What followed was so horrific as to be scarcely fit for the printed page. Yet the Massacres of 1641 and 1688-91 are described in detail. Finally, with discrimination in their midst, unjust laws legislated against them, treated as second class citizens, many Scottish, English, and Huguenot settlers decided a greater destiny lay across the Atlantic where others seeking religious and civil liberties had preceded them. Their sojourn in Ulster, Northern Ireland had been a bitter disappointment. This bitterness against their British landlords carried over to America. The Scots from Ulster became the backbone of the American Revolutionary War. When Washington was in his deepest despair at Valley Forge, The Ulster Scots were with him. The story of the Boyd Family begins in Scotland, carries over to Northern Ireland, and follows them to the frontier of all the colonies in America. It could be the story of thousands of Scots who all experienced the same pilgrimage and endured the same hardships and sufferings.