Thomas Munson and the Great Puritan Migration.

Thomas Munson is my 8th great grandfather and he was in the Great Migration. There have been many Great Migrations in history but I am writing about the one that took place from 1620 to 1640 when 20,000 Puritans moved from England to New England. The Winthrop Fleet of 1630 consisted of eleven ships carrying 1000 people. The 20,000 consisted mostly of whole families, men, women, and children. The descendants of that original 20,000 now number 16 million Americans.

These were troubled times in England that led to the First English Civil War. Some New England Puritans returned to England to fight in that War.

The Puritans have had and are still having a very large effect on the country that we call the USA. They believed that they were a chosen people and had a manifest destiny to create a great country in America. This made it justified and necessary to vanquish the native population. They thought that every person had to reach salvation by reading the Bible, therefore a public school system was soon established to teach all people to read.

Thomas had a very interesting and historic life. Born in England in 1612, moved to New England as a young man, fought in Indian Wars, served in many civic duties in the establishment of Connecticut, and died in 1685.

It is hard to get through with Thomas and move on to my 7th and subsequent great grandfathers. Thomas and two other great grandfathers are buried in Connecticut, one is buried in New Jersey, and four are buried in Kentucky. I have much more data on Thomas than I have on my other great grandfathers.