Christine Broderick Emmanuel's Blog
January 23, 2025
A Poetic Rendering
The Westcott Story
America’s Longest Journey
Across the tides of time they sailed,
From distant shores, their hopes unveiled.
The Westcotts came with steadfast grace,
To carve their path in a wild, new place.
Four hundred years, a storied line,
Fourteen generations etched in time.
Through trials steep and skies storm-wrought,
Their faith unshaken, their battles fought.
The 17th century bore their dream,
To forge a life on fields unseen.
A family bound by toil and prayer,
With courage thick as frontier air.
The venerated Westcott name,
Burned bright like stars, a guiding flame.
Fathers, mothers, children, kin,
From hardship rose the strength within.
They tilled the earth, they felled the trees,
They stitched their lives in history’s weave.
Their voices echo, clear and true,
Immortal souls with work to do.
For every step, they paid the toll,
Yet time has polished their eternal role.
Not just a family, brave and rare,
But builders of a nation’s share.
And here we stand, their living thread,
With tales of triumph still unsaid.
A lineage rich with sweat and stone,
Their strength and faith now ours to own.
The Westcott story, bold and vast,
Speaks to the present of its past.
A journey wrought with grit and glory,
America's song, the Westcott Story.
ChatGPT's AI-generated synopsis.
America’s Longest Journey
Across the tides of time they sailed,
From distant shores, their hopes unveiled.
The Westcotts came with steadfast grace,
To carve their path in a wild, new place.
Four hundred years, a storied line,
Fourteen generations etched in time.
Through trials steep and skies storm-wrought,
Their faith unshaken, their battles fought.
The 17th century bore their dream,
To forge a life on fields unseen.
A family bound by toil and prayer,
With courage thick as frontier air.
The venerated Westcott name,
Burned bright like stars, a guiding flame.
Fathers, mothers, children, kin,
From hardship rose the strength within.
They tilled the earth, they felled the trees,
They stitched their lives in history’s weave.
Their voices echo, clear and true,
Immortal souls with work to do.
For every step, they paid the toll,
Yet time has polished their eternal role.
Not just a family, brave and rare,
But builders of a nation’s share.
And here we stand, their living thread,
With tales of triumph still unsaid.
A lineage rich with sweat and stone,
Their strength and faith now ours to own.
The Westcott story, bold and vast,
Speaks to the present of its past.
A journey wrought with grit and glory,
America's song, the Westcott Story.
ChatGPT's AI-generated synopsis.
Do I know you? Are we related?
In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term “connector.” By having a foot in many different worlds, connectors have the effect of widening their circle while bringing people together.
Upon reading The Tipping Point when released in 2000, a nephew pegged me as a connector. I’d not previously thought of myself that way, but I freely acknowledged my inclination. In truth, the relationships I have cultivated over decades yield affirmations of belonging. I cherish my friendship circles as vital to my wellbeing, casting off feelings of loneliness and insecurity that periodically seep into the crevices of my psyche.
Connectedness and belonging have the beneficial effect of opening up my world, much like a captivating book that expands my knowledge, understanding, imagination, and empathy. I love learning people’s stories, their experiences, discoveries, and the lessons I learn from them. I also love those instances when I find out we’re somehow connected.
“Six degrees of separation” often feels like “two degrees” in my world, especially as a resident of small-town Pensacola, Florida. A case in point—in the course of writing the story of my family following America’s course across 400 years and 14 generations, I made an uncanny discovery:
Tracing a genealogical thread to my nine-times great-grandparents Simon and Isabel Sackett, I learned that they were among the first colonists to settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, upon emigrating from England. The surreal connection to my friend and neighbor Marsha Stanton came from bringing up the topic of my book—The Westcott Story—in a conversation with her sister. Chris said that their many-times great-grandparents the Sacketts were some of the first to settle in Cambridge in the timeframe of the early-1700s. Not so fast. How could that be if my Sackett relatives settled there in 1630? Together wading through my ancestral records, we quickly determined that in fact, Marsha, Chris, and I descend from Simon and Isabel Sackett who made the arduous journey across the Atlantic in 1630. We're blood relatives! The break in our shared lineage came with their sons—Simon Sackett II (1630-1659) is my eight-times great-grandfather; his brother John is theirs.
For me personally, The Westcott Story evokes a multigenerational sense of wonder, connection, and belonging as the circles ripple exponentially. By the numbers, I “memorialize” 1,535 distinct individuals who give life to this narrative. Among them, I claim 175 as my lineal ascendants. In total, 342 of those referenced in the chronicle share my family’s direct lineage; another 655 distant relatives share ancestry as extended family members. Sequenced by generation, the complete listing is accessible as a downloadable “People Index” PDF published on my website at www.ChristineBEmmanuel.com. It includes a description of how each person fits in as a family member, distant relative, or noted non-relative.
With an innate sense of curiosity, as a connector I wonder who among the people featured in my family’s story you happen to know. How might we relate—aside from our connection as fellow Americans?
Upon reading The Tipping Point when released in 2000, a nephew pegged me as a connector. I’d not previously thought of myself that way, but I freely acknowledged my inclination. In truth, the relationships I have cultivated over decades yield affirmations of belonging. I cherish my friendship circles as vital to my wellbeing, casting off feelings of loneliness and insecurity that periodically seep into the crevices of my psyche.
Connectedness and belonging have the beneficial effect of opening up my world, much like a captivating book that expands my knowledge, understanding, imagination, and empathy. I love learning people’s stories, their experiences, discoveries, and the lessons I learn from them. I also love those instances when I find out we’re somehow connected.
“Six degrees of separation” often feels like “two degrees” in my world, especially as a resident of small-town Pensacola, Florida. A case in point—in the course of writing the story of my family following America’s course across 400 years and 14 generations, I made an uncanny discovery:
Tracing a genealogical thread to my nine-times great-grandparents Simon and Isabel Sackett, I learned that they were among the first colonists to settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, upon emigrating from England. The surreal connection to my friend and neighbor Marsha Stanton came from bringing up the topic of my book—The Westcott Story—in a conversation with her sister. Chris said that their many-times great-grandparents the Sacketts were some of the first to settle in Cambridge in the timeframe of the early-1700s. Not so fast. How could that be if my Sackett relatives settled there in 1630? Together wading through my ancestral records, we quickly determined that in fact, Marsha, Chris, and I descend from Simon and Isabel Sackett who made the arduous journey across the Atlantic in 1630. We're blood relatives! The break in our shared lineage came with their sons—Simon Sackett II (1630-1659) is my eight-times great-grandfather; his brother John is theirs.
For me personally, The Westcott Story evokes a multigenerational sense of wonder, connection, and belonging as the circles ripple exponentially. By the numbers, I “memorialize” 1,535 distinct individuals who give life to this narrative. Among them, I claim 175 as my lineal ascendants. In total, 342 of those referenced in the chronicle share my family’s direct lineage; another 655 distant relatives share ancestry as extended family members. Sequenced by generation, the complete listing is accessible as a downloadable “People Index” PDF published on my website at www.ChristineBEmmanuel.com. It includes a description of how each person fits in as a family member, distant relative, or noted non-relative.
With an innate sense of curiosity, as a connector I wonder who among the people featured in my family’s story you happen to know. How might we relate—aside from our connection as fellow Americans?
What Resonates for Me as Author of The Westcott Story
The Westcott Story carries deep significance for me as a post-retirement passion project that is likely to survive the test of time.
While acquiring knowledge about the people whose stories comprise this two-volume set, the dimension of time came into sharp focus as a crucial element. Grasping where and when my forebears' lives unfolded in history provided a sense of time’s passage. Context brought clarity to their circumstances and a valuable perspective in my quest to understand our past . . . and theirs.
Though fleeting, the lives of these characters coursing through time aroused my curiosity and triggered an emotional response. Just imagine.
The people featured in The Westcott Story are my kin, virtually all of whom through the first nine generations in America I discovered by pure happenstance. Had I not connected with a particular unknown caller in mid-2020 . . . had I not agreed to Susie Newcomb’s request to accept her late husband’s family archives (and mine!) for safekeeping . . . had she not delivered posthaste the wellspring for my perusal, I would likely have gone to my grave with scant knowledge of my extraordinarily rich maternal lineage.
The providential call led Susie to “gift” me the fascinating family lore I found in four boxes dropped at my doorstep, much of it sourced from expansive and richly detailed genealogical studies dating as far back as 1886. Just imagine if someone appearing out of nowhere opened a window into your ancestral history, requiring of you nothing more than stepping outside your front door!
I’d venture to say most of us couldn’t reliably trace our lineage much beyond five generations. Before 2020, I fell into this camp. With varying levels of detail, most ancestry companies reportedly offer a view of between five and seven generations. The vast collection Susie shared put me in relatively close touch with my kinsfolk across 14 generations in America—indeed 22 generations considering the seven traced to England as far back as the High Middle Ages with the birth of my 17-times great-grandfather John de Westcote in 1234.
I was born and raised into a patriarchal, Irish Catholic family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the seventh of nine children. Before beginning my research into the Westcott line, I identified as Irish and Scottish principally, owing to my paternal and maternal grandfathers, respectively. I acknowledged my paternal grandmother’s English heritage absent any real insight, but my deep-seated English roots stemming from my maternal grandmother’s Westcott lineage surfaced as a welcome revelation. Uncovering a rather strong German strain entrenched in the Reformed faith was equally revelatory.
The Westcott Story brought me in touch with the part of me that is neither Irish nor Scottish. The part defined as English, and to a lesser extent German and French, molded my thinking about who I am and who I now more proudly claim to be. This pride comes from understanding through traced ancestry the values, skills, and character traits my siblings and I share with our mother’s forebears. The proverbial “apple does not fall from the tree” took on special meaning as I learned a great deal about these ancestors and the observable traits that carry forward in our family across living generations.
Discovery of my more fully-rounded genetic identity aside, the historical context that sets in place my family’s story invites thinking about our shared American heritage. I credit Susie Newcomb with inspiring me to weave history into the storyline with intention.
Susie fully grasped the significance of her husband’s exceptional maternal family line and the indelible mark left by our mutual forebears. She made it her steadfast goal to ensure preservation of the Westcott archives. As well, upon the passing of her husband in 1999, Susie resolved to spark the imagination of her young grandchildren—Michaela and Miles—by exposing them to the exploits of some of their storied ancestors. In more than one trip, the three traveled from northern California to Mount Vernon, Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey, for the experience of learning “from whence” their people came. Her pursuit and her passion for historical context lit a spark in me as well.
Without knowing anything about the cast of characters featured in The Westcott Story before tackling the subject one generation at a time, I began to wonder what it would be like to live history in their time. What role did they play in the making of history? With whom did our ancestors rub shoulders among historical figures? How were their livelihoods influenced by historical developments? What might we learn from their brushes with history? I found the answers by digging into our family’s genealogical records and American history simultaneously.
In truth, I did not enjoy history in my formative years as a student. The rote learning of dates in history without meaningful context did little to stimulate the senses. As a consequence, I did not retain nearly as much information as I would have liked to become knowledgeable on the subject. The weaving of history into the storyline of the Westcotts changed that. I learned so much in the research and writing, and I became fascinated by the interplay.
My relatives made their mark in the company of monarchs, theologians, Native American chiefs, Founding Fathers, U.S. presidents, military leaders, statesmen, and a host of other notable figures. The families asserted influence in six of the Thirteen Colonies—Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They displayed their might in America’s emerging wars—Indian wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the World Wars among them. Even as some became entangled in witchcraft, piracy, duels, espionage, defamation, and perjury, they gained prominence as civic, business, community, political, and military leaders.
For me, the beauty of The Westcott Story comes not only from learning ‘from whence we came’ as a family but also historically as a nation. As now various subjects arise in the historical realm in print, on film, and via social media, I have numerous reference points stemming from my family’s archival collection across centuries that yield far greater interest than ever before.
From a historical perspective, I believe family and national heritage are vital concepts in the sense of identity, connectedness, and belonging. Knowing the origins of who we are grounds us. The insight helps us to better understand ourselves and brings us in closer touch with the world around us.
I hope the book informs, inspires, and entertains readers as much as it did me in the writing. It was a distinct privilege to unearth and subsequently document the stories of family members on the side of my mother—the part that collectively defines my English, German, French, and American heritage. Telling their stories renders them immortal souls!
While acquiring knowledge about the people whose stories comprise this two-volume set, the dimension of time came into sharp focus as a crucial element. Grasping where and when my forebears' lives unfolded in history provided a sense of time’s passage. Context brought clarity to their circumstances and a valuable perspective in my quest to understand our past . . . and theirs.
Though fleeting, the lives of these characters coursing through time aroused my curiosity and triggered an emotional response. Just imagine.
The people featured in The Westcott Story are my kin, virtually all of whom through the first nine generations in America I discovered by pure happenstance. Had I not connected with a particular unknown caller in mid-2020 . . . had I not agreed to Susie Newcomb’s request to accept her late husband’s family archives (and mine!) for safekeeping . . . had she not delivered posthaste the wellspring for my perusal, I would likely have gone to my grave with scant knowledge of my extraordinarily rich maternal lineage.
The providential call led Susie to “gift” me the fascinating family lore I found in four boxes dropped at my doorstep, much of it sourced from expansive and richly detailed genealogical studies dating as far back as 1886. Just imagine if someone appearing out of nowhere opened a window into your ancestral history, requiring of you nothing more than stepping outside your front door!
I’d venture to say most of us couldn’t reliably trace our lineage much beyond five generations. Before 2020, I fell into this camp. With varying levels of detail, most ancestry companies reportedly offer a view of between five and seven generations. The vast collection Susie shared put me in relatively close touch with my kinsfolk across 14 generations in America—indeed 22 generations considering the seven traced to England as far back as the High Middle Ages with the birth of my 17-times great-grandfather John de Westcote in 1234.
I was born and raised into a patriarchal, Irish Catholic family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the seventh of nine children. Before beginning my research into the Westcott line, I identified as Irish and Scottish principally, owing to my paternal and maternal grandfathers, respectively. I acknowledged my paternal grandmother’s English heritage absent any real insight, but my deep-seated English roots stemming from my maternal grandmother’s Westcott lineage surfaced as a welcome revelation. Uncovering a rather strong German strain entrenched in the Reformed faith was equally revelatory.
The Westcott Story brought me in touch with the part of me that is neither Irish nor Scottish. The part defined as English, and to a lesser extent German and French, molded my thinking about who I am and who I now more proudly claim to be. This pride comes from understanding through traced ancestry the values, skills, and character traits my siblings and I share with our mother’s forebears. The proverbial “apple does not fall from the tree” took on special meaning as I learned a great deal about these ancestors and the observable traits that carry forward in our family across living generations.
Discovery of my more fully-rounded genetic identity aside, the historical context that sets in place my family’s story invites thinking about our shared American heritage. I credit Susie Newcomb with inspiring me to weave history into the storyline with intention.
Susie fully grasped the significance of her husband’s exceptional maternal family line and the indelible mark left by our mutual forebears. She made it her steadfast goal to ensure preservation of the Westcott archives. As well, upon the passing of her husband in 1999, Susie resolved to spark the imagination of her young grandchildren—Michaela and Miles—by exposing them to the exploits of some of their storied ancestors. In more than one trip, the three traveled from northern California to Mount Vernon, Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey, for the experience of learning “from whence” their people came. Her pursuit and her passion for historical context lit a spark in me as well.
Without knowing anything about the cast of characters featured in The Westcott Story before tackling the subject one generation at a time, I began to wonder what it would be like to live history in their time. What role did they play in the making of history? With whom did our ancestors rub shoulders among historical figures? How were their livelihoods influenced by historical developments? What might we learn from their brushes with history? I found the answers by digging into our family’s genealogical records and American history simultaneously.
In truth, I did not enjoy history in my formative years as a student. The rote learning of dates in history without meaningful context did little to stimulate the senses. As a consequence, I did not retain nearly as much information as I would have liked to become knowledgeable on the subject. The weaving of history into the storyline of the Westcotts changed that. I learned so much in the research and writing, and I became fascinated by the interplay.
My relatives made their mark in the company of monarchs, theologians, Native American chiefs, Founding Fathers, U.S. presidents, military leaders, statesmen, and a host of other notable figures. The families asserted influence in six of the Thirteen Colonies—Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They displayed their might in America’s emerging wars—Indian wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the World Wars among them. Even as some became entangled in witchcraft, piracy, duels, espionage, defamation, and perjury, they gained prominence as civic, business, community, political, and military leaders.
For me, the beauty of The Westcott Story comes not only from learning ‘from whence we came’ as a family but also historically as a nation. As now various subjects arise in the historical realm in print, on film, and via social media, I have numerous reference points stemming from my family’s archival collection across centuries that yield far greater interest than ever before.
From a historical perspective, I believe family and national heritage are vital concepts in the sense of identity, connectedness, and belonging. Knowing the origins of who we are grounds us. The insight helps us to better understand ourselves and brings us in closer touch with the world around us.
I hope the book informs, inspires, and entertains readers as much as it did me in the writing. It was a distinct privilege to unearth and subsequently document the stories of family members on the side of my mother—the part that collectively defines my English, German, French, and American heritage. Telling their stories renders them immortal souls!
What Compelled Me to Write The Westcott Story
I did not set out to write my family’s story. Rather, the story found me.
Four overflowing boxes landed on my doorstep from a distant relative I’d not even heard of before mid-2020. The treasure trove came from Susie Hester Newcomb of Walnut Creek, California, widow of William Adrian Newcomb—a first cousin of my mother. The Westcott family lore included a detailed pedigree chart, genealogical books, newspaper articles, immigration records, Wills, letters and photographs preserved in archival sleeves, scrapbooks, art work, poetry, diaries, baby books, obituaries, and so much more about my maternal ancestral lineage dating as far back as America’s colonization—and before, to mid-13th century “Old England.”
The only thing I knew to do with the vast collection of ancestral records was to begin writing. And write I did!
Earlier in the same month I received the four overflowing boxes from Susie Newcomb, I completed a “retirement” project working with prominent Pensacola businessman H. Britt Landrum, Jr. as editor of his memoir. I had worked closely with Mr. Landrum—remotely—over the course of 17 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 5, 2020, he released Working a Better Way: A 50 Year History of LandrumHR. The inopportune timing proved highly disappointing for Mr. Landrum and me as the world over insulated itself in shut-down mode. Yet I found the experience—my first as editor of a published work—exhilarating. I absorbed myself in Mr. Landrum’s “rags to riches” story and became enthralled to learn how this humble man with a social work background managed to build a 50-year-old business from the ground up with resounding success. Tangentially, I discovered a creative outlet in my newfound role as Mr. Landrum’s editor.
What on earth was I to do with the ancestral records that appeared at my doorstep? I reasoned that it would take an inordinate about of time to digitize the collection in benefit to living Westcott descendants in my lineage—something I was loathe to do. The only natural course that came to me was to begin writing. I followed the author’s path with but two aims—(1) write the story generationally beginning with my nine-times great “G9” grandfather Richard Westcott who arrived in America from England in the mid-1630s; and (2) weave American history into the thread as it played out in the lives of my ancestors and contemporaries.
I endeavored to write well, without judgment, and to guide readers with a natural, informational flow. To personalize the narrative, I opted to approach the subject in the active voice with a first-person point of view such that it would resonate with the Westcotts’ living progeny—my Broderick siblings and Gordon and Guy first cousins and their offspring. I wanted the story to be personal and educational—especially in benefit to the younger generations who on the whole know relatively little of our nation’s history. However, I hadn’t anticipated the sheer entertainment value I quickly uncovered in the Westcotts’ richly-textured fabric. As you will discover when reading Volumes I and II cover-to-cover without the temptation to jump ahead, I made fascinating discoveries as I peeled the layers one at a time across 14 generations and 400 years.
I uncovered deep insights about my remarkable ancestry but also about human nature, and history, and the circle of life. And yes, genetics. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity, the experience, and the knowledge gained in the process of researching and writing our story. It is America’s story as much as it is my own.
Our story. America’s story. We’re still making history!
Four overflowing boxes landed on my doorstep from a distant relative I’d not even heard of before mid-2020. The treasure trove came from Susie Hester Newcomb of Walnut Creek, California, widow of William Adrian Newcomb—a first cousin of my mother. The Westcott family lore included a detailed pedigree chart, genealogical books, newspaper articles, immigration records, Wills, letters and photographs preserved in archival sleeves, scrapbooks, art work, poetry, diaries, baby books, obituaries, and so much more about my maternal ancestral lineage dating as far back as America’s colonization—and before, to mid-13th century “Old England.”
The only thing I knew to do with the vast collection of ancestral records was to begin writing. And write I did!
Earlier in the same month I received the four overflowing boxes from Susie Newcomb, I completed a “retirement” project working with prominent Pensacola businessman H. Britt Landrum, Jr. as editor of his memoir. I had worked closely with Mr. Landrum—remotely—over the course of 17 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 5, 2020, he released Working a Better Way: A 50 Year History of LandrumHR. The inopportune timing proved highly disappointing for Mr. Landrum and me as the world over insulated itself in shut-down mode. Yet I found the experience—my first as editor of a published work—exhilarating. I absorbed myself in Mr. Landrum’s “rags to riches” story and became enthralled to learn how this humble man with a social work background managed to build a 50-year-old business from the ground up with resounding success. Tangentially, I discovered a creative outlet in my newfound role as Mr. Landrum’s editor.
What on earth was I to do with the ancestral records that appeared at my doorstep? I reasoned that it would take an inordinate about of time to digitize the collection in benefit to living Westcott descendants in my lineage—something I was loathe to do. The only natural course that came to me was to begin writing. I followed the author’s path with but two aims—(1) write the story generationally beginning with my nine-times great “G9” grandfather Richard Westcott who arrived in America from England in the mid-1630s; and (2) weave American history into the thread as it played out in the lives of my ancestors and contemporaries.
I endeavored to write well, without judgment, and to guide readers with a natural, informational flow. To personalize the narrative, I opted to approach the subject in the active voice with a first-person point of view such that it would resonate with the Westcotts’ living progeny—my Broderick siblings and Gordon and Guy first cousins and their offspring. I wanted the story to be personal and educational—especially in benefit to the younger generations who on the whole know relatively little of our nation’s history. However, I hadn’t anticipated the sheer entertainment value I quickly uncovered in the Westcotts’ richly-textured fabric. As you will discover when reading Volumes I and II cover-to-cover without the temptation to jump ahead, I made fascinating discoveries as I peeled the layers one at a time across 14 generations and 400 years.
I uncovered deep insights about my remarkable ancestry but also about human nature, and history, and the circle of life. And yes, genetics. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity, the experience, and the knowledge gained in the process of researching and writing our story. It is America’s story as much as it is my own.
Our story. America’s story. We’re still making history!
