52 Ancestors in 52 weeks promt for the week of July 1.

So. Starting in the middle of the year.  This week's prompt is Independent....Hmmmm....
Who was independent?
Let's start with the first Witter to hit the American shores.
His name was William Witter.  He and his family arrived sometime between 1628 and 1638.  the dates vary because while we know he was in Massachusetts, we can't find or agree on a ship or when they arrived. 
He lived in  Swampscott, near Lynn, Massachusetts and was one of those people who seemed to not make waves or  go against the powers that be until....1642. .When he was first brought up on charges of being against infant Baptism. 
He continued in his faith and then in 1651..

 http://www.baptists.net/history/2011/09/chapter-19-persecutions-in-america

Independent?  He had to be to be a Baptist among Puritans.  He set the stage for the rest of the Witter clan of being their own person in spite of current thinking. 

..and here we go...

Genealogy.  Started as an "I wonder where my Irish ancestors came from?" to an almost all out obsession.