The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: PA
Qualifying Service: Private / Patriotic Service
Author: David C. Dew
Robert Giffen was born in 1743 at Kildavee, Kintyre, Scotland. He married Mary Bane in Scotland. Surviving an ocean voyage of seven weeks, he migrated to America in 1777 settling at Big Spring, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and became a staunch supporter of the American cause during the Revolution. After the Revolution, in 1787, Robert Giffen, moved his family over the Allegheny Mountains to become one of the early settlers in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). In what was then wild and woolly wilderness, Robert Giffen built a cabin and put in a "patch of corn". Robert Giffen became a charter member of the Old Tent Presbyterian Congregation and became an Elder of its first session. The area Robert Giffen and his family settled in was, for a number of years, subject to raids of hostile Native Americans. Robert Giffen died August 17, 1829 at age 86, and he and his wife, Mary, are buried in the Old Tent Cemetery (now known as Peter's Run cemetery) six miles east of Wheeling. Their graves are still marked.
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Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
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