The Greer Family Tree Goes back To Pocahontas and Daniel Boone

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January 14, 2023- by Steven E. Greer

I mentioned recently that I have been so estranged from my father’s side of the family that I had forgotten I have a cousin my same age, with my same name, and other similar traits. I reached out to him recently to see if he had learned of my father’s death. We have been talking.

I told him that I was interested in trying to do a genealogy search of our family. He said that he had already done that.

My cousin traced the Greer lineage back to 1490 where they lived in Dumfries, Scotland for at least 150-years. I looked at satellite images and was pleased to see that it is still very rural. I have to visit.

Around 1700, John Greer came to American and settled in Baltimore. I wonder why they left. I think that living conditions were pretty bad in the UK.

So, the Greers have been here since the Revolutionary War. They clearly survived the fighting of the multiple wars because I am alive.

I have a new sense of appreciation for my ancestors and their fate. It allowed me to exist.

My great grandfather was born in 1865 in Kentucky. Daniel Boone helped people move past the barrier of the Appalachians by discovering the Cumberland gap. He was one of 16 kids.

I asked him if there were any big-shots or famous people. There are.

Sally Boone, the wife of Daniel Boone, is one of our direct grandmothers.

I also learned this. John Rolfe was a settler at Jamestown. He married Pocahontas. He was the first person to cultivate tobacco. He is one of my direct grandfathers (In Disney’s film about Pocahontas, actor Billy Zane played my grandfather). Boy, I really have to meet Elizabeth Warren now. Maybe I am related to her (sarcasm).

I don’t think any of my relatives in Kentucky served for the Confederacy. That was a border state and none of them had plantations. They fought for the Union.

That is where my own history comes in. I am the first Greer to be an Ohioan. I learned recently how many of the greatest generals and presidents came from Ohio. It is why Ohio State was one of the first to have a good football team in the 1800’s.

How am I just now learning all of this?

I have known a little bit more about my mother’s side of the family. My great grandfather, A.W. Bryan, was the Dean of the Iowa dental school. I have a picture of him. We look a lot alike.

I have also heard that one of my direct grandfathers was the first governor of the state of Connecticut.

A cousin of my great grandfather was William Jennings Bryan. He was the Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. My grandmother’s maiden name is Bryan.

So, it seems that the snooty academic side of me comes from my mother. The adventurous frontiersmen comes from my father. I’m a combination of bat-shit-crazy frontiersmen and scholars.

Of note, it is not the genetics that give me certain traits. After three generations, the shared genes are negligible. It is the culture that is transferred from one generation to the other. Humans are unique in evolution. By creating language and books, we pass on information just like DNA does (see essay here).