Sorry for what happened to your ancestors, but they were on the wrong side. If you don't believe that, then you're on the wrong forum.
This is Free Republic, not the Loyalist Democracy.
If you dont understand that the American Revolution was a civil war then you dont know history...
Like the Civil War of 1861-65 there are several components that were present...
1/3 of the country were rebels (Patriots now)
1/3 were Loyalists
1/3 couldnt care less, didnt get involved or it wasnt happening in their back yard..
There was a lot of jealousy and envy going on as far as the lands that people owned and others wanted...
Like those Americans in the South 61-65, Loyalists also had their lands confiscated...
In NYC posters listing Persons of Suspect on trees and doors included not only real Loyalists but also any one who was disfavored and/or had some land that someone else could steal..
(This was copied 10 years later in France..)
Neighbors were turning in their lifelong friends and being rewarded with the land and houses and belongings gratis or for mere pennies on the pound..
Just like the carpetbaggers who could pick up great plantations in the South just for the price of the taxes...
My ancestors just happened to have moved out from NY to the Susquehanna River Valley (Wyoming Co) where the war was happening 3 years later...
They didnt start out as Loyalists ...they were forced to fight to get their lands back ...
They never did nor did 1000s of others...
The American Loyalists were not cowards...mine lived right on the frontier where you carried a gun to draw water from the well or river...
The British were no nicer to the Loyalists than the rebels were...
When men on the frontier were called out to fight the French and the Indians, after the fighting was over, they usually announce they were going home to plow and seed their fields or to harvest their crops and off they would go...they were not regular troops...
During the AR when the men wanted to go, they were shot by the British for treason and desertion..
Suddenly the rules were different...
As for cowards, during the winter of 1777 that Washington spent in Valley Forge...he had 12,000 men, 6,000 died of desease or deserted...more left than died...
Would you call those men cowards...they were not leaving to plant their fields or harvest crops..