Mary's Famous Relatives


   * Indicates a Signer of The
Declaration of Independence
Fifty members of Congress signed the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776 in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
  ** Indicates a Mayflower passenger.
 *** Indicates a United States President.
**** Indicates British Isles Royalty. 

  

 
Mary L. Foess
Second-Grade Teacher
2001-'02 school year
Townsend North School
Vassar, MI 48768
Final Year of Teaching

 
Legg/Legge
Coat of Arms
England

 
Waple/Walpole/Waples
Coat of Arms
England and Ireland

 
Kidwell
Coat of Arms
Wales

Mary's Kidwell ancestors' castle
 in south Wales - -
over 1,000 years old

Near town center Dyfed, south Wales  SN 409 070
All photographs copyright

©by Jeffrey L. Thomas

Mary's Surprises


1. Mary's allied kinship ties to her older twin adoptive brothers - - an unexpected shock

2. Mary's American Indian ancestry (Piscataway and Powhatan tribes)

3. Mary's discovery that there existed an Armenian Archives in Watertown, Massachusetts

4. Mary is descended from some of the very first settlers from the British Isles who came to the Virginias, along with a few who came to Maryland and Massachusetts.

5. One of Mary's ancestors, her gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-great grandfather, John Kidwell (born 1635, England; died 1725, Fairfax County, Virginia), worked as a laborer on George Washington's grandfather's plantation, called  the Mount Vernon estate, which overlooks the Potamac River. Lawrence Washington (son of their immigrant forebearer, John Washington), was born in 1659, Fairfax County, Virginia. He died in 1743, Fairfax County, Virginia.

6. Mary's discovery of two direct line ancestors, Revolutionary War veterans, Fortunatus H. Legg, and son, William Legg (the grandson of Fortunatus and son of William, Walter A. Legg - - War of 1812 veteran)

7. Mary's surprise that her petition to unseal her adoption file from Montgomery County Circuit Court, in Rockville, Maryland, was honored (attorney free)

8. Mary's discovery that her Armenian surname, Movsisian, means "son of Moses" (God revealed Moses' identity once he was an adult)

9. Mary's discovery that Armenians were the first to accept Christianity (301 A.D.) and are one of the oldest known civilizations in recorded history

10. Mary's discovery that her grandfather, Manoog Movsisian, was one of the four founding fathers of the very first Armenian Apostolic Church in the Midwest (Chicago, Illinois)

11. Mary's discovery that her father, Percy Waple Legg, had an older paternal half sister who was given up for adoption shortly after birth (It was he who searched and found her.) Mary possesses the photo of a family reunion to welcome Lena Legg back to her kinship ties from Fauquier County, Virginia. The Marshall, Virginia, picnic unraveled the truth: Lena was adopted by an Italian family from Washington D.C., with secrecy surrounding her blood ties to the Leggs. The existence of Mary's father's older sister was revealed to Mary by her ninety-five year old great aunt, Ruth E. (Legg) Wines of Marshall, Virginia, on the telephone. This truth had been kept "under wraps" for an unknown reason by the Legg family! 

12. Mary's discovery that the gravesite one foot away from her adoptive family's McCallum's cemetry plots (four generations) in the tiny Oak Grove Cemetry on a rural, gravel road, near Howell, MI, was the final resting place of the Legg family of Michigan
This surname is extremely rare, almost nonexistent anywhere in the Midwest. Mary had visited her adoptive grandparents' and great grandparents' tombstones yearly since the age of three. The coincidence that their final resting place was twelve inches apart from each other's was unbelievable. The odds that this would occur were off the charts!

13.  Mary's discovery that her Armenian ancestors came from the Cradle of Civilization, slightly north of the Tigris/Euphrates River Valley area

14. Mary's discovery that her adoptive father, Lt. Commander David D. Letts, U.S. Navy, Department of War/Pentagon, drove over the George Washington Bridge in Washington, D.C., each day on the way to his work during the World War II years - - 1942 through 1948 (post-war period) The policeman directing traffic there each day was my biological father, Officer Percy Waple Legg. My two fathers saw each other daily, yet neither had any knowledge of the other one's identity or what role each played in my life - - past/present/future. This odd alliance, one which was ongoing, was not yet realized by either man. 

15. Mary's discovery that she was descended from the very earliest settlers from the British Isles, ones who came to the Virginia and Maryland areas in the late 1500's and early 1600's on the big ships

16. Two female, third cousins of Mary called the editor of The Armenian Weekly, Ms. Mimi Parseghian, after reading the July 3, 1986, edition re: "'Letters to the Editor." I had sent a lengthy account of my newly discovered Armenian identity/heritage. Being extremely curious, each cousin inquired as to what the actual Armenian surname was of the lady who had authored that nonfiction letter from Vassar, Michigan. Though their request for the information was not honored during the telephone conversation, it would be five years later that all three ladies - - the two cousins, and Mary, experienced a reunion with each other in the greater Chicago, Illinois area. This coincidence tops any or all other ones put together that fell in Mary's path re: "the strange odyssey of an Armenian girl." What are the chances that Mary's discovery of her allied family ties would reach out to these SAME ladies? Mary would also discover the blood tie of her grandmother to THEIR grandfather, both of whom escaped from the Armenian Genocide.

17. When Mary went to visit her adoptive aunt, Gladys Ula McCallum, in September of 2002, she found her mother's older sister (Gladys) to be age 99 and in good health. Living in a senior citizen's facility in Florida, Mary's Aunt Gladys had admitted one family secret kept "under wraps' by the McCallum family for about seventy years. The second secret, one kept for thirty-five years, slipped out, as well, from a friend of Mary's aunt, during the very same trip to Florida. Mary found out that her adoptive mother's family, the McCallums, had been hiding the fact that two babies had been born into the family, ones whom no one knew about except for the very immediate family - - all of whom were, by then, deceased, except for Gladys. Mary's question was simple: why were these children, unknown to any extended family members, kept a secret? The question would forever be unanswered. Both, in all likelihood, are still living in Michigan and in Ontario.