Show OWN FOLKS' FOLKS LEGEND IS 15 OLD FAVORITE Real Really Y Survival of Lo Longing ging for Clan Identity Identify Here is s the favorite American legend legend leg end of ancestry There were three brothers of my family who came to this country one settled in sn say Massachusetts one on in New Now York and ond one In Virginia It Is fairly safe sate to say that seven out of or ten persons persona are firm believers ers of this Ic legend particularly those thos who their great great- are arc not able oble to tell who grandfathers were Now suppose we consider the likelihood like or unlikelihood of this legend brothers are arc First we note that the always three In number They are ore never two a much more likely hap- hap l. I. I 1 XV n n ever nt-nr nt fou our r nr nl or n fl Ave always en ng i VA A v. v n just three Now I is It likely that lint the out of oC ten pioneer ancestors of seven sc persons person were just three three thre brothers Secondly we note that these three settled settle In three C then widely separated colonies f separated separated widely not only In point of travel el hut but In social c customs characteristics and means of making a n living to say nothing of religious beliefs The unlikelihood of such stIch a step tep In seven en cases out of ten is clear when three brothers come crone over o now now now-If If they ever er do The They stick together and make for tor a n spot where there are arc others like them in calling Ih nl speech In customs In these fe days America Is If all nil one people ono one count country r and easy as to get et about In Rut But in those cIa lays days s 's there the indians In in- Indians were were no Americans except scattered settlements settlements settle settle- lIans there were ments of ar varying ln nationalities hundreds hundreds hun hun- I of miles apart And settlers then feared to go far fm not only because th they were new new- to the land but It wa wanew vas new to everybody e else So much for the likelihood or unlikelihood unlikelihood un un- likelihood of the legend Now for recorded recorded re re- re- re corded facts Henry II n. Stiles one of the most eminent of American genealogists puts It thus It Is perfectly wonder- wonder f 4 ri rul tv v. v I na o a t brothers brothers' I story I r has among I 3 people p i Yet t- t It Is Isnow Is Isnow isnow now an almost proven fact that among the thousands of early Immigrants of or orthe the Colonial period such cases could he be NIRil easily numbered on the fingers of or orone one pair pall of hands ITo how V did such tradition originate Doubtless in the nature of the human mind The mind of man mon must have ha an explanation for new facts Perhaps years ago some ome one In Massachusetts Massachusetts etts learned that there were people of his name In Virginia and possibly In New York Same name I Must he be some sonic of our folks folls I l lIt It Is that must be so stron strong In Its longing for tribal or clan Identity that II by the next neat generation became a n family tradition of fact For a n tribal or clan feeling has hns been one of mans man's stron strongest est characteristics for thousands of years jears ea rs And AmI the three Is but the old ages magic number with which man endows the unknown and the m mysterious from the three Wise Men en of the East Cast and the three of Gotham to the three and the 33 degrees In freemasonry Boston oston Globe |