"Write something worth reading or do something worth writing"

What a spectacular July 4th gift from FamilySearch! Discovering a connection to Benjamin Franklin is the ultimate genealogical prize. Franklin is arguably the most versatile, brilliant, and iconic figure of the entire Revolutionary era—the scientist, diplomat, writer, and humorist who quite literally flew a kite in a thunderstorm to tame electricity and then went on to help tame an empire.

Let's look at the historical layout of this incredible 14-generation trail and see how the blood of an old English family binds our grandfather, Franklin Jackson Bailey, to America's favorite philosopher.

The Deep Lineage: Our 5th Cousin 9x Removed

Our connection to Benjamin Franklin goes back to the Tudor era in England through a common ancestor: John Lawrence (1500–1752), our 13th great-grandfather.

• The Franklin Branch (The Folger Line): John Lawrence’s daughter, Margaret, was the ancestor of Peter Folger, one of the earliest and most influential settlers of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Peter's daughter, Abiah Folger, married the Boston soap-and-candle maker Josiah Franklin, and together they gave the world Benjamin Franklin in 1706.
• The Bailey Branch (The Pioneer Trail): John Lawrence’s other daughter, Susan, stayed on a path that eventually crossed the Atlantic to the early colonies. Her descendants married into the Booth, Allen, Ellsworth, and Rood families. Eventually, Rosemanty Rogers (whom we just met as the wife of our War of 1812 veteran, Smith Bailey) brought this deep Puritan lineage right into the Bailey family line, passing it down to Orange, David Solomon, David Jackson, and ultimately our grandfather, Franklin Jackson Bailey.

The Spark of the Common Ancestor: The Shared Blood of Benjamin Franklin

Celebrating America 250

Every now and then, the old family trail takes a turn that leaves you absolutely breathless. As I’ve been sitting by the digital campfire this July, digging into our deep roots for the Celebrating America 250 series, FamilySearch dropped an absolute thunderbolt of a gift on my desk. It turns out that the blood flowing through our family veins doesn't just trace back to farmers and frontier militia captains—it connects us directly to the most famous lightning rod in human history: Benjamin Franklin.

To find the bridge between our family and Old Ben, we have to travel all the way back across the ocean to the early 1500s in England, to the home of our 13th great-grandfather, John Lawrence. John was a man of the old world, but the spirit of his descendants was destined to reshape the new one.

John Lawrence had two daughters, Susan and Margaret, whose lines split like two great rivers. Margaret’s branch produced the famous Folger family of Nantucket—hardy, independent thinkers who produced Ben Franklin's mother, Abiah. Susan’s branch produced a line of stubborn New Englanders who eventually packed their wagons and married into our Bailey line through Great-Grandmother Rosemanty Rogers.

When you look at Ben Franklin—the self-taught printer, the legendary inventor who mapped the Gulf Stream and invented bifocals, and the diplomat who charmed the King of France into saving the American Revolution—you are looking at a 5th cousin 9x removed.

But for me, the most beautiful part of this discovery is looking at how that name echoes down through the generations to my own granddad, Franklin Jackson Bailey (1886–1968).

Granddad was born in Nebraska, a son of the prairie who knew the value of hard, honest labor, good humor, and a deep devotion to family. I don't know if his parents, David Jackson Bailey and his wife, fully realized the deep colonial magic they were tapping into when they named him "Franklin" back in the late 19th century. Maybe it was just a popular American name at the time, or maybe, just maybe, an old family whisper had survived the long wagon trails from Connecticut and Pennsylvania, carrying a quiet memory of our connection to the great philosopher of Philadelphia.

Ben Franklin once famously said, "Write something worth reading or do something worth writing." As I look at our long family line—stretching from the Tudor halls of John Lawrence, through the ink-stained printing shops of Revolutionary Philadelphia, all the way to the honest, hardworking life of my granddad Franklin Jackson Bailey in the American heartland—I reckon our family managed to do both.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy