Forsythe History The majority of our family's ancestors came from England during the Great Migration in the early to mid 1600s. Through them, we have connections to Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the Holy Land and Persia. Some of the most notable ancestors are King Alfred "the Great," William the Conqueror, Robert I King of France and Charlemagne. My favorite is Lady Gadgifu, who is better known in legend, as Lady Godiva. She did her part to lower taxes before the year 1057. The Forsythe side of the family came to America in the early 19th century from Armagh, Ireland. John R. Forsythe settled in Lisbon, St. Lawrence County, New York, with his wife Catherine and son George. John's grandson, John Dallas moved from Lisbon to Washtenaw County in 1864 and there met Mary Allen, whom he married in 1869. Mary is supposed to be related to Ethan Allen of the Green Mountain Boys, but I haven't been able to prove it. The Cawleys and Scofields lived in Morenci, Michigan and there did much to build the town during the 1800s. The following story, from the Lenawee County Record, 1903 Biographical Sketch, is about Silas Scofield, Franklin Forsythe's great grandfather. "Silas…was reared on a farm until he was about fifteen years of age. From the age of twelve years he worked the homestead on shares, and accumulated some $350, which he gave his father for the balance of his time until he attained his majority. The subject of this sketch left home to begin life for himself with five cents in his pocket, and engaged in clerking in the store of Buck & Norton in Plainsville, Lysander Township." Silas was an entrepreneur, had several patents, manufactured and sold furniture and was the town's undertaker. He worked hard all his life and had an excellent sense of money/business from the early age of twelve. The Winchells and Nortons came from England in the early 1600s and both families settled in Connecticut; the Winchells near Hartford and the Nortons near Branford. By 1873 the Winchells had moved to Ionia County, Michigan and the Nortons had moved to Hudson, Michigan. After graduating from the U of M medical school, George Winchell and Martha Norton were married and went back to Ionia where George was a physician and for one year, the city's mayor. Interesting similarities: both couples, George and Martha, and Louis and Susie met at the University of Michigan and both couples married on the 28th of June just one year apart. We, the Forsythe, Cawley, Winchell, and Norton descendents, have come from hard working, civic minded, honest folks. You can't ask for much more than that.