*** " The history of a nation is best told in the lives of its people, and a people who
take no pride in their remote ancestors will never achieve anything noteworthy." ***

Welcome. I hope you find some information on our family tree that is helpful to you.
This tree is compiled of the work of many people who enjoy sharing their ancestry and
learning more about their past and present family. There are hundreds of our cousins
who wish to celebrate and embrace their history. They believe in sharing their
knowledge and are happy to assist me and others who contact me for help. We have some
amazing ancestors and also many amazing cousins in the current generations. I would
like to publicly thank those of you who have supported me and helped put this tree
together for us all to enjoy. I have no plans to write a book on any of this. I believe
in sharing our history and knowledge without charging for it. For anyone interested in
seeing who has helped, please look under the Home tab, then Sources. There are many
more, but the list I recently started will give you an idea of how many contribute to
help us all learn of our heritage.

The tree is only as accurate as the information I've received, so if you see any
errors, please email me and I will gladly fix them. I love meeting 'new' cousins and
sharing information. Email me and I'll be glad to help you out in any way I can. I am
adding to the tree daily, so check back often. The names of the living are blocked for
security reasons. The password option is only to see those names. If you need something
pertaining to the current living generation, please email me. Barb  bneson@yahoo.com
===================================
COPYRIGHT LAW
No one can claim originality in a fact. A person may discover a fact and
document it, but he has not created it. Census takers, for instance, don't
create the data that result from their work. They only write down the facts 
that they discover. Census data, therefore, can't be copyrighted because it's
not original. 

Since facts can't be original expression, the copyright of any work doesn't 
extend to the facts contained within it. This is a very important fundamental 
concept in genealogy, since genealogy so very much involves the pursuit, 
discovery, and collection of facts.
*************** 
THIS MEANS - YOU DO NOT OWN THE NAMES, DATES, ETC I USE ON THIS SITE EVEN IF
YOU ARE RELATED TO THEM. I AM RELATED TO EACH EVEN IF IT IS A DISTANT CONNECTION! 
AND IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO PUT THEM ON THE TREE EVEN IF I AM NOT RELATED! Those who are
not satisfied with the content of my pages should focus on the development of their own
family tree edited to meet their needs.
***************
Provided by Henry Burke, cousin and Historian

This Lett line comes from Maryland and comes from the union of Samuel Delaney Lett and
Jemima Banneker. Their children migrated through Pennsylvania to southeastern Ohio
Meigs Twp and thereafter Guernsey, Muskingum, Morgan and Belmont Co. The Lett
Settlement consisted of the Brown, Caliman, Clifford, Earley, Green, Guy, Harper, Lett,
Lucas, Pointer, Simpson, Stevens, and Tate families to name a few. It became known as
the "Lett Settlement " due to the fact that Lett family members outnumbered other
families in the settlement.
THE HISTORY OF THE Lett FAMILY:
This Lett family history can be traced back to 1683 to the arrival of their ancestor,
Molly Welsh, an English dairymaid, who had been falsely accused of a crime of theft.
Due to her ability to read she was spared a death sentence and was sent to the English
province of Maryland as an indentured servant.
After seven years Molly was freed and eventually purchased her own small farm in
Maryland. While she prospered she knew that she would need more help with her farm and
began to save money. Although Molly was opposed to slavery, her survival left her with
few options. Molly purchased two slaves and after a period of time freed both. She
eventually married one of them, who was named Bannaka, an African prince from the Wolof
Kingdom of Walo, located in Senegal.
Molly took her husbands name as her surname, which eventually became Banneker. The
couple had 4 daughters; the oldest of whom was also named Mary. Mary married a former
slave, who had converted to Christianity and changed his name to Robert and his wife's
last name. They had 5 children; 1 son and 4 daughters; Benjamin, Jemima, Julian, Minta
and Molly.
Benjamin Banneker is noted in United States history as the first African-American 'man
of Science', who among other accomplishments wrote an almanac, assisted in the
surveying of Washington D.C. and made the first clock in America. Benjamin's sister,
Jemima married Samuel Lett who was English and Native American, and of their 8
children, 7 migrated with their families and settled in Meigs Twp, Muskingum Co, Ohio,
which borders on Guernsey Co.
The Lett Settlement was a self-sustaining community of mixed race families; with the
Letts, Calimans and Guys, forming ties with each other through marriages and common
family backgrounds while living in Maryland and Virginia. Additionally it has been
documented that the Tate and Norman families also resided in Maryland and had a long
history of interactions with these families.
These families were pioneers in Ohio, in the areas of civil rights, education and voting.