Living free is much better than living with secrets, or in secret.
Witness the freedom celebrated and achieved by the LGBT community when those among them take their genes out of the closet.
Every family has secrets. Secrets are kept about everything, not just about who is gay or straight. The multitude of secrets a family keeps is never discovered. Usually, they are strictly enforced, whether by one or by many. Wherever secrets exist, harm exists also.
Usually, those who create, maintain, or propagate secrets, knowingly or unknowingly, rarely are aware of what harm they inflict. The harm is left for the victim of a secret to suffer, and if fortunate to discover.
Some secrets can inflict violence of a significant magnitude upon families and their members for generations, if not centuries as occurred among the family of Frank and Jesse James. This is particularly true about secrets that are taken to the grave.
For others, like this world-famous geneticist, the discovery can give humor, but, more importantly, answers, explanations, and his release from the family secret the world knew, but he didn’t.
Years later, yours truly still is quoted on my challenge to chopper celebrity Jesse Gregory James, aka Jesse James. I’m still waiting for his DNA profile. … See MoreSee Less
THE FIRST IMMIGRANT TO AMERICA OF OUR JAMES FAMILY . . .
Stray Leaves, our website below, now reaches back into the 17th century to bring you the story of our first immigrant, John James, in narrative form.
John’s story comes to us through original documents and seasoned source citations, which are also provided.
What John James Tells Us • He arrived at Jamestown. • He transported 10 indentured people. • He was rewarded with a land patent. • The location of his land can be visited today. • He and his neighbors comprised the important founding families of Virginia. • The location of origination of the James in the Old World, as Jesse James family historians say is Pembrokeshire, Wales is disputed and unproven. • The name identity of John’s wife as formerly stated by traditional genealogists is disproved. • John James arrived as an oligarch and royalist with no pretensions to democracy or self-rule. • Early James family wealth was accrued in the tobacco culture and by land speculation. • John and his family were followers of the Church of England. • His children and grandchildren remained savvy and street-wise, relating well with common people. • Generations beyond the grandchildren of John James produced significant diversity in America’s people and culture.
The first foothold of the James family in the New World was secured by John James, the Immigrant. John was born about 1623. Sometime before 1690, he died.