All families are grafted from two branches. Where these branches meet you find one family tree. Then the one family tree is grafted together with another branch to make another family. And before long, especially with a big family, you have a full bush. It is not really a tree, because out of one graft can come many lines, unless you are an only child.
My fathers was the graft of the Hannigan and Donohue branches. The Hannigan clan initially settled in North New York City, the area that now constitutes the Bronx. The Donohue clan settled in the area between Hyde Park, Dedham and Milton Massachusetts – an area that would be designated as Readville. Through years of researching, both surnames have been butchered in their spelling. This makes it hard to establish an ancestral lineage.
My mother was a graft of the Clark and Ratliff branches. While the family originally settled in Virginia, they moved across the country to settle in Adair County, Missouri and raise their families. They became prominent land owners and farmers, spending their lives working the land to produce a crop and raise livestock. There is a lot of history and stories have been made as these families are grafted together.
I am a graft of the Hannigan and Clark branches. Not only me, but my siblings. As a military dependent from my birth, my life has been affiliated with traveling around the world. Some as a military dependent and some as a member of the military.
So the story goes on. Each branch grafted to another to form a new portion of the tree (or bush). These are our stories.