Pilgrims, Pioneers, and Cowboys

In the midst of all the interviews for my husband's father's family history book, I finished the book for his mother's side of the family.  I gave it the title Pilgrims, Pioneers, and Cowboys.

My husband's maternal grandfather Frank Ruby  (shown above with his horse, Frosty) was a rancher, or as his grandchildren preferred to think of him, a cowboy. He came from a long line of farmers and ranchers, dating back to the 1600s in Switzerland, where his ancestors were also ranchers.  In the early 1700s, the first Ruby ancestor came to America and settled in Pennsylvania.  A few decades later, the family migrated to Kentucky, early pioneers setting out  to find good farmland. Other ancestors settled in Ohio and Nebraska, and eventually Wyoming, where Frank  had his ranch.

Frank's mother, on the other hand, is a descendant of Mayflower passengers Francis Cooke, Stephen Hopkins and Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins.  These ancestors settled in Massachusetts, but eventually migrated to North Carolina and Ohio. 

The book contains many stories, pictures, maps and charts, and I hope the family enjoys getting to know the details that, prior to my genealogy research, they never knew about this very interesting family to which they belong.