This blog will now feature a famous or notable person's family tree each week.

The renowned "father of our country" is usually extolled for his roles as general of the Revolutionary war and president of the new American republic. But what about his life before that? What experiences prepared him for those great responsibilities?

When he was only twenty years old, George Washington was appointed adjutant general of the Virginia Militia, which meant that he was responsible for training one quarter of the troops. He continued to move up the ranks of the militia, and in 1755 he was promoted to colonel and named commander of all Virginia forces.

Washington was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758. As a member of the Burgesses, he began to be involved in revolutionary activities. After the Townshend Acts were enacted by Parliament in 1767, he proposed that Virginia boycott English goods. The Acts were repealed in 1770, but then Parliament passed the Coercive Acts against Boston in 1774, as a reaction to the events of the Boston Tea Party. Washington regarded the Coercive Acts as an attack on American rights, and he attended the Second Continental Congress of 1775 dressed in his military uniform and ready for war. The newly-created colonial army needed a leader; John Adams nominated George Washington, and he was elected commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

View George Washington's Family Tree in Genealogy Browser