It records the travels of the Merles from the Province of Aisne, France, where they had perpetuated their name by founding and naming the village of Merle before the year of 1600 A.D. In England they became Merrells, then Merrill. Many were commercial people, especially grocers. Today their descendants are scattered over the United States and southern Canada.

    The Belding side of this story started in a small village, Tottenham, England and a like village of Wimbothsam, England, when Robert Arthur Belding was born in the former in 1832 and Mary Alice Richer was born in the latter in 1837. Both places are now part of Greater London, England. The two emigrated to the New World, separately, but met later to marry and become the immediate ancestors of you children.

    Years ago Schweitzers lived in Germany, some of whom emigrated to Pennsylvania, U.S.A., where they became Switzers. About 1780 some moved to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, near Mt. Solon and Mt. Sidney, north of Staunton, Augusta County. Abraham III and Matilda Bryan Switzer led a wagon train west in 1854. They were your paternal great-grandparents.

    The Eastin story began about 1785 with Peter Todd and wife migrating from North Carolina to what is now the Bluegrass Ordnance Depot of the U.S. Army, near Lexington, KY. One granddaughter, Sarah Todd, later married Nicholas Eastin of Lexington and migrated with him to Indiana and Illinois. They were your paternal, maternal great-grandparents.

    We, Moms and Dad, are pleased to present this history to you and hope it will be cherished. To readers who are not Canadian, this country is celebrating its hundredth birthday in 1967. May we suggest this is our Centennial project?

Foreword

“These are my grandparents words as they wrote them to their children. In the interest of readability I’ve corrected spelling but otherwise it is an accurate transcript of the original. For those whose hearts beat faster at the prospect of perusing primary sources, the original document can be viewed here.”

c2008 Deep Roots & Twisted Branches

All Rights Reserved

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