I am a very new immigrant, but I do have one American relative David Salisbury Franks, who was an American Revolutionary War minor player (and my direct ancestor).
He had the misfortunte of being an aide to Benedict Arnold, and so was slimed by association.
He was cleared of all charges, and, in fact given an apology and a small pension.
It was still ugly, they were broke, so one of his sons went to France and started my maternal line there.
He had several kids, so I have distant cousins running all over America.
My grandmother had Col. Franks “Society of the Cincinnati” paperwork that was signed by George Washington, but the Nazis stole it when they had to flee.
Welcome to the US! And how cool to have a Revolutionary War-period ancestor. My family’s residence here dates back no farther than the late 1800s as far as I can tell.
That sucks. Those bastards stole and destroyed so much history. I hate that so much valuable and interesting, for the world as a whole, or just familial, history has been lost forever because a relatively few nut jobs. And I’m not just talking about the Nazis.