In the 1990s mother was able to trace her family back to the 1740s.
At least one member served in the Revolutionary war, and the family percolated through Maryland W Virginia and ended up farming in Missouri then ranching in Colorado. My blue collar family lived in an old farmhouse so while we had some history and the genealogy we did not have any shiny social credentials. (Mother did not have a particularly rich wardrobe either.)
What Mother did love was her mother.'s (my grandmother's) stories of growing up on a ranch, and then a town, in NE Colorado.
“My blue collar family lived in an old farmhouse so while we had some history and the genealogy we did not have any shiny social credentials.”
That was us, too.
Grandmother on my mother’s side of the family maiden name Gladden got into the genealogy deal with some of her sisters.
They went way back, to the 1600’s to their ancestor that came to the New World from England...he had a lot of mouths feed... 21 children!!
Not surprising for those days though.