Sons Of Liberty Connects Thirteen American Generations With Centuries of European Ancestry

Sons Of Liberty

Robert Mead’s family history follows 400 years of American stories against an ancestral background reaching into Normandy, England and Ireland.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Thirteen generations born in America anchor SONS OF LIBERTY, Robert Mead’s account of his family’s stories over the past 400 years. With America’s 250th anniversary providing a timely connection, the book approaches the country’s past through successive generations of one family. Its American focus sits within a broader ancestral history that Mead traces back 1,464 years, linking the family’s more recent stories to its European roots.

Four family lines give that history its geographic range.

The Mead heritage reaches back to Neustria, or Normandy, through Viking ancestry, while the Chaney line also leads to Normandy more than 1,100 years ago. The Whitehead branch extends 500 years into England’s past, and the McKernan branch reaches 200 years back to Ireland. Each surname marks a separate strand of the family history gathered in the book.

Among the account’s specific ancestral connections is the line through Mead’s paternal grandmother, Lettie Mae Chaney. Mead traces her ancestry back 1,162 years to the Viking warrior Rollo Hrolf Ragnvaldsson, identified in his account with Jutland, Nord-Trondelag, Norway. He places the Mead line’s connection to Normandy at 842 years. Those differing spans distinguish the branches rather than treating the family’s European background as a single shared point of origin.

Personal DNA information accompanies the ancestral tracing. Mead reports that his Ancestry.com results show a high percentage of Scandinavian influence, and his discussion of Nordic origins names Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. This contemporary account of inherited ancestry sits alongside the named relatives, places, and multigenerational connections that form the book’s historical scope. It adds another element to Mead’s examination of his family’s background without displacing the American stories at its center.

For history buffs, the book’s anniversary connection offers a family-centered approach to a national milestone. The 400-year span of its American stories reaches beyond the 250 years commemorated by the anniversary, giving readers a longer generational frame for considering the family’s place in America. Readers interested in genealogy can also follow the distinct lines connecting the American generations to Normandy, England, and Ireland.

For Mead, the guiding theme is his family’s presence at the forefront of history as it was being made. SONS OF LIBERTY brings that interest to a scale defined by relatives and generations, with thirteen American-born generations remaining its principal subject rather than the full sweep of the older ancestry.

“We also found it somewhat ironic that Ireland, where my mother’s McKernan ancestors came from, was one of the first countries to feel the wrath of the Vikings, who were my dad’s ancestors.”
— ROBERT MEAD

Robert Mead is the author of SONS OF LIBERTY. His family-history work encompasses the Mead, Chaney, Whitehead, and McKernan branches.

Available now. Contact the author for purchase information. For review copies, interview requests, or additional information, please contact:

Robert Mead
BrightKey PR
media@brightkeypr.com