Generations mean so much to Vermonters...

In my direct male line was a sailor from the Mayflower who stayed and worked in the pilgrim's colony their first winter then sailed back to England. He moved to Virginia sometime before 1640 as an indentured servant to wealthy Quaker settlers and later married a Native American woman.

On my mom's side the family's time in America goes back to coastal Connecticut in the 1630s. There's a book about the family and their home is part of a historic district.

But in Vermont if you had family here by 1900 it makes you special.

Does anyone care? Should they?