So it turns out that I’m related to President George Washington.
If you look at the family tree below, Pres. Washington is underlined. His great-aunt, Anne Washington married one Francis Wright. The Wright family line wends its way down to Jesse Woodrow Naff, my maternal grandfather.
A genealogy of Pres. Washington. Original available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/washington-the-writings-of-george-washington-vol-xiv-1798-1799
You can read about in the book The Washingtons. Volume 9: The Presidential Branch: Six Wright Lines by Justin Glenn. My granddad is on page 443. I guess that makes me and Pres. Washington distant cousins.
Jessie Woodrow Naff, my maternal grandfather
Anyway, this all started because I watched the movie Hacksaw Ridge — the story of Desmond Doss, the conscientious objector who won the Medal of Honor for saving 75 men — without even touching a gun.
Doss’s story reminded me of my granddad’s. He was a paratrooper medic who carried a gun but, because of of Brethren beliefs, refused to fire a shot. And he didn’t. For his entire five years of service. Here’s another excerpt from Glenn’s book — my mom is Betty Naff Mitchell.
When I googled Grandfather Naff, one thing led to another and I found out he was in Glenn’s book.
If you you share an interest in old-time history and martial arts you might like my Bobcat Martial Arts program. It’s Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble — the colonial and indigenous fighting methods and associated lifeways as practiced in North America during the Frontier period from 1607 to 1912. Learn more by clicking here.
Robert Mitchell Jr. 