Investigating My Past

My family’s history and how my ancestors first came to the United States is very interesting.  My mother’s side of the family are descendants of the Hoopers, a family that originally founded part of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.   In the mid 1600’s, a man named Henry Hooper I was given a grant of money by the King of England to come to America and start a colony.  Henry Hooper I was my 10^th great grandfather.  The Hoopers were wealthy and influential sea merchants in England.  Henry Hooper I decided that the inlets of the Chesapeake Bay would be a good place to start his colony because he could easily get ships in and out of the area.  There were Native Americans already living there, so he traded blankets with them in exchange for about 100 acres of land on the Eastern Shore of what is now called Maryland. Later, he claimed another 400 acres for his colony.  He called the area Hooper’s Island, and it still exists today.  It is considered the oldest settled area in Dorchester County.    In 1658, Henry Hooper was appointed the Captain of the Militia and Justice of Calvert County.   The Hooper family was very respected and influential on the Eastern shore from the mid 1600’s through the early 1800’s.   They were very wealthy, and they owned slaves.  The first Hooper in my family line moved to Baltimore in 1806.  Every descendant from that point forward, including my grandmother, my mother, and me were born in the Baltimore area. 

As far as my family knows, all of my ancestors on both sides of my family have come from European countries.   Most of my ancestors on my mother’s side of the family came from Germany, Poland, or England.  We have the original paperwork from several of my ancestors that shows on which ships they entered the United States.  Many of my ancestors first entered the U.S. through Ellis Island in New York City.  It is very interesting to look at their naturalization papers and to realize that I am an American citizen because of these brave ancestors. 

We don’t know a whole lot about my father’s side of the family.  Most of his ancestors came from Italy or England.  We do know that the Bynions owned a pub in England and that they immigrated to the United States in the early 1800’s by coming through Canada. When they got to the United States, they settled in Baltimore and worked as lace makers.  My grandparents and my father were born and raised in the Baltimore area.