I AM AN AMERICAN

Whenever I am asked my nationality, I always say, "American." The typical response is, "Well, yeah, we are all American. I mean, where is your family from?"

My family is from America. I'm not Irish American, or German American, or Swedish American. I am American. English-Irish-Scottish-Welsh-German-Swedish-Dutch 14th generation American.

My first ancestor came to America in the first half of the 1600s. Richard Stout settled in Salem, Mass. in mid-1630s. From there, he moved to Gravesend, NY.

His future wife, Penelope Kent Van Princes, came to America in 1639. She was born in 1622 in Holland and came to America with her first husband on their honeymoon. On the passage over, her husband got sick. The voyage ended when then were shipwrecked on the Jersey Shore (at Sandy Hook). The rest of the passengers travelled on to safety, but Penelope's husband was too sick, so she stayed behind with him.

According to legend, the Indians came, killed her husband, scalped her and left her for dead. She was reportedly disemboweled and crawled to safety in a hollowed out tree where she subsisted off maple sap for days until she was rescued by other indians (Kind Navesink/Leni Lenape Indians). These "Good Samaritan" indians took her back to their camp, nursed her back to health and allowed her to live among them — as an equal.

From what I understand, Penelope lived with the Indians in what is now Monmonth County, NJ, for about a year. At that time, her people came back for her. The Old Indian who saved her life asked her if she wanted to stay with the Indians who treated her so well or go back with her own people, who basically left her for dead. She missed her culture and her religion, so she went with them back to Gravesend.

Years later, she returned to Monmonth County where she and her second husband, Richard Stout, are said to have purchased property from the Indians and co-existed peacefully with them. (I don't know if that is really a fact, or just legend.) My family has pretty much stayed in New Jersey ever since.

I am 14th Generation American. My family tree has some interesting people on it: Abe Lincoln (sixth cousin, fourth removed), John Bowne (author of the Flushing Remonstrance, which was later taken nearly word for word as the Freedom of Religion doctrine of the Bill of Rights), and revolutionary war general, Mad Anthony Wayne. (But I think my coolest ancestor is my Great Aunt Carol, who was a Roxyette, the dance troupe precursor to the famous Rockettes.)

I am the 14th generation of my family born in America.

I AM AN AMERICAN.