--by Frederick Wilson Hawes, 1873-1950
ca. 1940

Note from Ace in 2002: The collection we call the "Milkcan Papers" included not only my grandfather Fred Hawes's narrative of his research, Our Family, by One of Us, but also research source material, correspondence with other researchers (usually distant kin), and officially reproduced documents. This page features only Grandpa's original narrative, with occasional footnote gloss commentaries of, usually, his daughter Mary Hawes Ashbrook made shortly after the posthumous discovery. The other parts of the Milkcan Papers are featured and cited at appropriate places on this Web site.

Now let's go to Grandpa Hawes's own words-- tongue-in-cheek Twainesque humor, doggerel, inveterate traditionalism, unabashed chauvinism, even jingoism (hey! this was written ca. 1940), and all. My only changes have been to correct a rare misspelling, insert a clarifying word or comma (identified with square brackets), or, to aid readability, break an occasional long paragraph into two or three.

So said the gladiators as they entered the arena and halted before the Roman Emperor. So say I as I present this genealogy to my kinsmen. They may not like the way I write it. They may criticize me, crucify me, bawl me out, and take away my tobacco. But here's the story of our forefathers, as I figure it ... without adding fame, concealing simplicity, or offering apologies.

And Edward begat Daniel,
And Daniel begat Hezekiah
And Hezekiah begat Hezekiah, Jr.,
And Hezekiah, Jr., begat David,
And David begat James,
And James begat our fathers and mothers.(1)

So there you are, as simple as that, right where you can go on keeping the books yourself. Of course, there was a lot more begatting, such as uncles, aunts and cousins, which it is always polite to be interested in; but, honestly, and biologically, none of them make a cussed bit of difference to us.

I'll give you the names of the wives each of these forefathers took unto himself, and the dates and places where all these things happened. Then I'll throw in some surplus language to make it look like I'm trying to give you a liberal deal, and call it a day.

Town records, Colonial Court Proceedings, Wills, Administration Papers and Gravestones are not great sources of humor. If the record seems dry at times, just remember I am dealing with facts, not hilarity. If I make this dull subject at all readable, I will surpass my expectations, for I will be writing of an age when predominant religion so often frowned on levity that anything striking our grandpaps as humorous, they sneaked out behind the woodshed to laugh. Besides, as I write I am not too lively myself.

It's getting so miseries attack my body some.
I spend so much time explaining. (I really do, by Gum.)
So everyone a-living for many miles around
Will be right up to date when my next ache is found.

Busy folks have time to wait
When they are buttonholed
To hear each new misery,
As it is duly polled.

There is no other interest,
In the busy life they live,
Than to hear about my miseries,
In the list I give.

The truth about us has-beens,
If truth is really told,
An old man is a nuisance
When his age gets old.

And he makes it more apparent
For everyone to see,
When he fusses with a type machine,
And writes geen-ol-gee.

My hair has turned to rusty gray,
Where some of it remains,
And adds a sort of dignity
To my aches and pains.

I'm getting some expansive
Down about the waist.
I'll write this stuff the best I can,
But not with too much haste.

I can make the story brief. So-and-so was born one day, married another day, had some children, died another day, and one of his kids continued the battle. Or I can go into enough detail to explain the lives of our ancestors, and the conditions ... what I can after so long a time. The danger of detail is that there will always be too much of it, and it increases as we go along. As a friend of mine said of his slender young squaw, "There ain't much to her now, but there will be when she spreads out."

To write a genealogy you must select a plan. You have already observed that I have selected the plan of some parties who have had considerable experience in telling posterity who is who. Like them I will talk some about what I am talking about, and some about what I am not talking about. When those parties got through, they had a book everybody claims to believe, and a few folks act like it. There may be a dozen other different plans, but I only know of two, and neither appeals to me.

There is the plan of spreading the names of your ancestors on a piece of paper and connecting them with straight lines, which no one can understand unless he knows the science of reading blueprints.

Then there is the old reliable hoax known as the family tree. All the family trees I have ever seen were copies, reported or manufactured by genealogists. They may have been true, or they may not. Certain things were alleged to be true, and you were expected to be polite enough to accept these statements without additional evidence. You smile, and simulate the same interest you are required by custom to show when you look at your Honey's Uncle Jedekiah in the family album. You can't get away.

In form, all these family trees bear a close resemblance to an enlarged gooseberry bush. On the main trunk is inscribed some such name as Elijah Sniddlewhacker, and on this same trunk about three feet above the ground, the first limb branches out. It is inscribed Dulcinea Deltoboso, or a similar name. From this beginning with Elijah and Dulcinea a myriad of twigs and limbs spring up and out in all directions, culminating in a very nice appearing bush, if the genealogist is handy with the pen, and the family birth rate furnishes sufficient material.

Now all of these branches, limbs and twigs bear names, male and female, dates of birth, and relationship to some preceding branch or limb. Now the additional wives and husbands that made all this multiplication possible appear from the ether, or somewhere else, and become attached to some solitary branch, thereby making future growth of the tree a certainty.

There may be some good reason for the design of such complicated family trees, like the hidden spring in a patent mousetrap; but, to me, it looks like adding some more work to a hard job. They are a lot of trouble to construct, probably cost too much, and there is no evidence on display to support them. To me, this latter is very important when one considers that ancestors are the only things humans will lie about more than fishing. Nobody ever heard of an ancestor who hadn't caught a bigger fish, shot more deer, and scalped more Indians than anybody else. Any kind of worthwhile ancestor would certainly have sense enough for that. Also, whoever heard of anybody being descended from a Tory?

Not being handy at drawing, I am making this genealogy without a family tree. In it is the evidence that will not be skipped, added to, covered up, or made to fit any individual. I'll give you such evidence as I have been able to accumulate, and you will have to fit yourself to it.

My interest in all this is purely historical. Very few persons can put on the nosebag with the reputation of their ancestors. We all have to stand on our own feet. But if we also wish to see how our old folks stood on theirs, I see no harm in it. Even a high-toned pig has a certificate describing his ancestry. It grieves me that some of you have no such paper, so I contribute this.

I'll probably forget genealogy, get on the cracker box, and make a number of speeches about other things that seem to affect our American birthright; but hang on, and if you live long enough, you will have read the most authentic history yet published of the male line of your family. Where I indulge in tradition, legend, rumor, opinion or imagination, you will know it. Where I state anything as a fact, you will know that, too, for with it I will give you the evidence. You, yourself, can judge what it is worth.

I regret this genealogy cannot be complete. I haven't the time to do more. Maybe someone else will take it up. A lot of fine men and women married into the Hawes family, and our women have married into other good families. It would be an interesting story; but to get a true account of all of them would be impossible for me.

Since the coming of our first ancestor to America, we have no cause to repeat the epigram of the well-known English poet who said:

"My ancient, but ignoble, blood
Has coursed through scoundrels 'err since the flood."

Rather, with pride, we look upon the part we've played.
It is no boast to call a spade a spade.
We've trained the ox and drove the plow,
And built ten thousand homes by now.
We've preached the word, and settled farms,
Kept stores, and borne arms.
No task to build this great free land
But what the Hawes have lent a hand.

I will not attempt to make this a complete history of the Hawes family ... all the small details of their lives. In Edward's will and Daniel's will, and among other records, there is evidence of their acquisition of lands in Wrentham and Dedham, Massachusetts, and of taking a leading part in the building of churches and schools, and performing other civic duties of progressive men building step by step civilization in the wilderness.

To add all this material will increase the number of words and add nothing substantial to the story.(2)

You will readily understand there were all the little incidents, both pleasing and perplexing, in the past that there are today. I have found and read a great many of them, and am handing on to you only such as will help you to form a true picture of your forefathers. I want you to see what manner of men they were, and form your own opinions as to the value of your heritage. They were sincere, deeply religious, honest, hard-working, healthy and unafraid.

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