Looking to The Past for Future Inspiration: How I Found Mary Dyer in my Family Tree.
For a very long time, I have enjoyed delving into my family history on Ancestry.com. Although the cost was prohibitive, I continued to try and keep my subscription current. Recently due to the increased cost of absolutely everything, I have turned my account off. I did enjoy researching the information found. I choose the maternal side of my family and found that we go very far back into the history of our nation. We are related to Samuel Mann, who was one of the first graduates of Harvard University. Several generations later one of his descendants, William Wallace Mann fought for the Union during the Civil War. On my paternal side of the family, I found the most interesting connections with the history of our nation. My 9th Great Grandmother is Mary Dyer. I found her story fascinating. I remember hearing about her husband, Captain William Dyer in school, never realizing he was my 9th Great Grandfather. He went on to be one of the early settlers of the colony of Rhode Island. The following is a paper I wrote for a college history class about Mary Dyer. Her contributions to the establishment of religious freedom in America cannot be understated. We are built on a concept of freedom. The freedom to believe what we wish to believe, to live as we want to live. She lived long before the Constitution or the Revolutionary War…
