THE DEMAREST LEGACY

The Demarest Legacy begins with a mystery: a father who never spoke of his past, a grandfather whose childhood was hidden behind institutional walls, and ancestors whose names had vanished from memory. Determined to reclaim what had been lost, Kenneth L. DeMarest follows a trail of evidence across continents and centuries - from medieval Picardy to Huguenot exile, from Dutch homesteads along the Hackensack to the rugged frontier of Sussex County, and from a Civil War prison camp to the industrial streets of Paterson.
What emerges is a story of faith under fire, migration in search of survival, early deaths that reshaped generations, and a silence that echoed for more than a century.
Through wills, land deeds, church registers, military files, cemetery surveys, and long‑forgotten obituaries, DeMarest restores a lineage nearly erased by time. This is the story of refugees, settlers, farmers, soldiers, widows, and working‑class families whose lives were rarely recorded - yet whose choices shaped the world that followed.
A sweeping, deeply human journey across a millennium - and a testament to the power of one person's determination to remember.