Who We Are

IRONBRANCHES is a collaborative genealogical and historic project that uses the union of William Ramsay Ferris Sr. and Mary Robb Ferris as a starting point and anchor for a much broader and more inclusive family history that sits now mainly in the United States but had its origins in Europe and beyond.

Caroline and Bob in Vermont.

We say "collaborative" as the contributors are many both living and passed.  Direct attribution is difficult because by giving the work an author per se we ignore that records assembled by the late William Ramsay Jr., Caroline Robb Hall (above), or Robert Morris Ferris (above) were built on the work of others such as Edna Robb Settles, Joseph Gales Ramsay, or Morris Patterson Ferris.  And all of this past generation's work was informed by family narratives, genealogical histories and those who took the time to write family names in Bibles, mention relatives in wills and letters or cut their names in stone.  In a sense all mentioned on this site contributed to this work.

IRONBRANCHES also embraces the idea that families are often made up of multiple, frequently conflicting elements like a generally inflexible, hard metal and living, growing tissues that bend to winds and survive.  Families are made stronger by the presence of both these features.  It is what makes us interesting.