Americans celebrate July 4th with fireworks, parades, barbecues, and gatherings with family and friends.  Let us all take a moment to honor all those men and women who sacrificed their livelihoods and lives to gain independence from England's control and unfair taxation.My Wood family heeded the call to action the day after the British fired on the Concord Massachusetts Militia on April 18, 1775.  Direct descendant Daniel Wood, aged 18, and older brother Ezekiel, aged 21, lived near Springfield, Massachusetts, and joined thousands of other Massachusetts men racing by horse or foot to protect Boston from invasion.  On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, comprised of representatives of the 13 American colonies, adopted the Declaration of Independence of Independence.  http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document     The Declaration summarized the American colonists' motivations for seeking independence and declared themselves an independent nation, thus separating from England's rule.With war against the British a near certainty, Stephen and Daniel Wood previously enlisted March 17, 1775, as  Minuteman in Colonel Tupper's Regiment…