Last Night's Reading

Last night I began reading South Boston: My Home Town by Thomas H. O'Connor (New ed. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1994). I got distracted when I got to page 13 because I spotted a familiar surname. The author was describing Fort Independence which was built on what had formerly been known as Castle Island out in the Boston Harbor. He was telling that the bastions had been named for several men. One of those men was Henry Dearborn of New Hampshire, secretary of war under Thomas Jefferson. I knew that there was a very strong chance that this man was related to me as most of us are descended from Godfrey Dearborn; however, I wasn't sure how closely related we were. When I went into my genealogical database, I discovered that I had only entered and documented my research on direct line ancestors and their children on this family. I went back and looked at some sources that, while not documented, are generally regarded as accurate and discovered that this Henry Dearborn is my third cousin six times removed. You just never know what you are going to find. Now, I want to go visit the Dearborn bastion at Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston.