Song Stories

Follow the journey below while listening to each song.

TIME LINE

Nothing

600 Million Years Ago, the first amoeba appeared. After it split, the first half lived. Amoebas have infinite life spans. So the original amoeba may still be alive.

3.7 million years ago – Little Foot, most complete hominin skeleton – located in South Africa

160,000 years ago – Partial skull of Denisovan found in China dated this old

64,000 years ago – oldest Neanderthal cave painting

Bones

300 kya to 250 kya – First African peoples.

40,000 BCE – Native Americans.

24,000 BCE – 11,300 – Last Glacial Maximum (Ice Age) in North America.

8,000 BCE – Lenape Tribe – New Jersey

2,000 BCE Beginning of Spanish culture.

1314 BCE – Moses and the Ten Commandments. Timeline of Jewish History

374 BCE – Confucianism.

10,000 BCE – Beginning of continuous homo sapiens in England. First Britons | Natural History Museum

862 CE – Russian culture.

1185 – Giolber de Totehille. Early Tuttle in England. Tuttle History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

1532 – 1534 – Henrician Reformation in England, Henry VIII. Anglican Church established. English Reformation

1562 – 1621 – Calvin minister – Andrew Willett. Willett History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

1635 – Planter – Puritan ancestors arrive in New Haven, CT

Hart Island

13.8 billion years ago – Big Bang

4.5 Million years ago – Ardi, (believed to be female) – the first Hominin skeletal remains was found in Ethiopia

Denisovans other groups…ghost lineage

Bones

340 kya – Homo Sapiens.

Earliest art

220 kya – First African people migrate.

26,000 BCE – Neanderthals extinction estimated.

14,000 BCE Native South American peoples in Chile.

3,500 BCE – Slave trading in Sumer in Mesopotamia. History of Slavery

1600 BCE – Chinese culture.

411 BCE – Buddhism.

33 A.D. – Creation of Christianity

Early Anglo-Saxon history (410–660) History of Anglo- Saxon England.

1060 CE – Early Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England. Burwell History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

1517 – Reformation – Luther published the 95 Theses, Edict of Worms (schism), 1521.

1559 – Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559, Puritans returned to England from exile in Europe. Beginning of Puritanism in England. Puritans – Wikipedia

1619 – American slave trading and slave holding begins.

1624 – The Dutch established New Amsterdam.

1664 – British take over New Amsterdam and rename it New York.

1729 – Carolina Province officially split into North and South Carolina when the crown took it over.

1775 CE – Zachariah Burwell signs Articles of Association in Philadelphia, PA.

1786 – 1787 – Shays’ Rebellion.

1807 CE – Marinus Willett (1740 – 1830) – Mayor of New York, NY

1811 CE – German Coast Uprising, slave revolt in New Orleans.

1846 CE – 1848 – CE Mexican-American War

1898 – Spanish-American War:

Clinton Edward Bell – contracted a disease in the war, died 1900, age 22.

April 1, 1917 – Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russians surrender World War I.

January 1918 – Red Army founded to fight the White Russians. (White Army)

1941 – 1945 – World War II (United States)

Sidney Joshua Kalmanowitz (Kaye) – Captain, Medical Administrative Corps, discharged November 15, 1946.

G.C. Courtney Navy.

Rufus Gwyn – Courtney line – Navy

Mary Ivey Courtney – Courtney line–1942 – Lieutenant WAVES

Marcus Vincent Courtney — Lieutenant. Army Air Forces, B-24 Pilot, January 1943 – June 6, 1944, killed in action.

Magruder H. Tuttle — Captain in the Navy, senior officer at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Long history in the navy.

Major Henry “Harry” W. Burwell. October 1942 – December 1945. Lieutenant Colonel.

Cmdr. George “Ernest” Burwell, Jr. Navy pilot, anti-submarine flying boat.

James Bell Burwell – Brigadier General, pilot. 1937

Henry Warren Burwell II – enlisted before the war started. Navy. Petty Officer First Class.

Clyde Morton Burwell. 1928 – United States Cavalry, then reserve officer. Active duty. Cannibalize airplanes for parts.

Floyd Norvel Blackwell, Jr – Courtney line by marriage – Navy.

George Ernest “Buster” Burwell III — Hospital Apprentice, First Class, 6/10/43 to 5/17/46

1950 – 1953 – The Korean War.

Clyde Morton Burwell. Colonel in the Air Force.

Magruder Hill Tuttle (see above.)

Sam Austin Hartley – Courtney line.

Lloyd Williams.

1663 – The Carolina Province was officially founded by eight Lord Proprietors.

1665 CE – Thomas Willett – First Mayor of the City of New York.

1756 CE – 1763 CE French & Indian War aka the Seven Years War.

Noah Tuttle served 1757.

1776 CE to 1783 CE – Revolutionary War

Lucius Tuttle served 1776 – 1777.

Isaiah Tuttle served in the 3rd New Jersey Regiment, “The Jersey Blues,” dates.not known, but he got a Revolutionary War pension.

Zachariah Burwell, Sr. served in the 2nd New York Regiment, 1778 – 1779.

Zachariah Burwell, Jr. died at the Battle of Cowpens, 1781.

Robert Bell – served 1777 – 1784 1st North Carolina Division.

Jordan Sellers – guard duty in SC, till 1783.

1791 – 1794 – Whiskey Rebellion.

Zacharia Burwell, Sr. – with Washington’s troops to quell the Whiskey Rebellion.

1807 CE – Launch of Fulton’s first steamboat in New York. Went to Albany from the East Side, then up the Hudson.

1812 – 1815 – War of 1812

Benjamin Eli Burwell – July 23, 1813 – August 1, 1813.

1861 CE — 1865 CE – American Civil War

Benedict Marcus Tuttle – 1st Regiment, North Carolina Cavalry Company

James Courtney – volunteered for the Confederacy at 50 years old.

Andrew Hull Courtney – lost a leg at Gettysburg.

1863 – Ellen’s great great uncle Andrew Hull Courtney lost his leg at Gettysburg fighting for the Confederacy.

Henry Clay (Uncle Clay) Courtney –Enlisted July 15, 1861, killed at Spotsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864.

1864 – Ellen’s great great uncle Henry Clay Courtney was killed at Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia, fighting for the Confederacy.

Alonzo Etheridge Bell – Captured at Fort Hatteras, 1861. Kept a diary as POW.

Kenneth Raynor Bell – sergeant, 32nd NC Infantry Regiment, the Lenoir Braves.

1914 – 1918 – First World War. (1917 – 1918 United States, 1914-1917 Russia):

Isaak Chertok-Chertoff – Tsarist army.

George Ernest Burwell – Navy pilot.

Robey Keener Courtney (“Boodle”) 1917 – 1919 5th Marine Regiment, wounded at Belleau Wood. PTSD.

November 7, 1917 – Bolsheviks take power in Russia.

RTR

1947 – The Russian Tea Room

1955 – 1975 – Vietnam War.

Magruder Hill Tuttle (see above.) Also see newspaper clipping from September 1957 (no date on clipping) when he was assigned command of USS Philippine Sea (CVS-47).

Harry Courtney Tuttle. Chief Warrant Officer, helicopter pilot.

Robert Ervin Tuttle – Death – 8 May 1968, Quang Nam, Vietnam.

We all come from somewhere. Our own past swirls around us, fog like, mysterious, unknowable. The deeper we get into the telling of our own tales the more the past tugs, nips and bites.

All my life I looked forward, but in my late fifties I found myself looking back to the stories that made my world and the worlds of my ancestors. This is our project, Old Bones Odyssey. Like my Puritan ancestors who arrived in the colonies in 1635 on a ship called The Planter, we’re embarking on an odyssey. Like my Russian Jewish grandparents who came through Ellis Island in the late nineteenth century, we’re setting sail for parts unknown. We’re exploring American history through a small portal that takes us into my genetic and philosophical family tree. Each of us comes from a fascinating jumble of people. Each life traces a map that leads us to today.

Our aim is discovery. To gain a deeper understanding of our world and our country right now.

VOLUME ONE

Old Bones Odyssey

We’re creating a different kind of family tree: a philosophical one, made of ideas, thoughts, beliefs; accepted, rejected, swallowed whole, discarded, maintained, nourished and destroyed.

Of love found, simmering hatreds, adoration, ancient feuds, hidden desires, religious wars, long buried resentments, deep seated enmities, loyalty, transcendence, harsh disappointment, disillusionment and hope.

We’re all made up of philosophical family trees with ideas dangling off the branches. Call it a Thought Tree, an Idea Tree, a Dreams Lost And Found Tree. The beliefs of my ancestors are intriguing to me. The good ideas. The bad ideas. How they lived and what traces are left in the family I knew growing up. What vestiges of these ideas are still running through the laws and minds of our country creating the context of our current version of America.

REPAIR WITH GOLD

LISTEN NOW

THESE WALLS ARE ALIVE

LISTEN NOW

OLD BONES ODYSSEY

LISTEN NOW

GHOST LINEAGE

LISTEN NOW

The Whole New Universe

Where does a story begin? Like an endless matryoshka doll. Wherever we start we want to know what came before.

THE BIG BANG

Coming Soon

AMOEBA

Coming Soon

NEANDER VALLEY

Coming Soon

Seekers Songs

It’s the toss of a coin. How your life plays out. Adventure, ruin, comfort, hunger. Wild seas, deep deserts, cruel cities, new worlds.

These seekers’ songs are stories of leaving home, being on the run, longing for a new home, a safe place where you can rest your weary soul. And keep your children safe.