Ancestors & Family

This section pays tribute to the legacy of community engagement passed down by my ancestors of the 18th and 19th century in New England and Minnesota.

These initial stories are of ancestors on the Pillsbury side—mostly men, given who was allowed to make and write the history of that era.

The earlier profiles are drawn from a history of the first Pillsbury that emigrated from England in 1640 and his descendants, followed by a more recent book that my father co-authored with writer/editor Lori Sturdivant. The Pillsburys of Minnesota tells the histories of the family members who, after a start around Boston, moved first to villages in New Hampshire and then to Minnesota and what would become the Twin Cities.