My grandmother told us that we were descended of Increase Mather (father of Cotton Mather - from the Salem Witchcraft Trials infamy - though she always made a point of saying that we were not descended from Cotton). We have an extensive genealogy and it shows that my ancestors have fought (and some died) in every conflict since before the Revolutionary War. I was brought up with it. My parents served, my uncle in Vietnam, my grandfather and his brothers in WWII, my great grandfather and his brother in WWI... you get the idea.
