Beginning with the second generation, our family endured a century of winner-take-all violence—a struggle for survival, awash in suffering. Our ancestors lived and died in battle with Nipmuc, Wampanoag, and Narragansett natives whose lands they occupied and whose ways they threatened. Seven family members perished in these clashes. One was hailed as a hero. Another tried to enslave an Indian girl. Still another was taken captive. Violence remained a fact of family life, flaring and fading, touching five generations, until the children of the children of the children of the first conflict—and their children too—grew up to fight in the American Revolution, risking their lives for independence.

​

The first four posts relate to the Fairbanks family, my mom's side of the family. The next two relate to the Travises, my dad's family.​ Both sides lead to me—and to you.

​