John Fulton, of Scottish lineage, and his wife, Ann Boggs Fulton, had eight children. Six of their children emigrated about 1760 from Ireland to New England and shortly thereafter immigrated to what is now Colchester County, Nova Scotia. The six were: James Fulton (1739-1826); Thomas; Samuel (1745-1826); John; Francis (ca. 1753- 1838); and Sarah (d. ca. 1835) who married James Crawford. Descendants lived in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and elsewhere.

Robert Fulton (d. 1797) emigrated during or before 1751 from Ireland to Boston, Massachusetts, and married twice (once in Ireland). He was a surveyor, and later moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire. He was also a Tory, as were two of his sons, and in 1796 they immigrated to Sophiasburg, Upper Canada (near what is Picton, Ontario). His oldest son and other children remained in New England; their descendants and relatives lived in New England, New York, Florida and elsewhere. Most descendants and relatives of those two sons who immigrated with their father to Sophiasburg lived in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and elsewhere. Some of these immigrated to Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

In Feeling as a Foreign Language, Alice Fulton considers poetry's uncanny ability to access and recreate emotions so wayward they go unnamed. Fulton contemplates topics ranging from the intricacies of a rare genetic syndrome to fractals from the aesthetics of complexity theory to the need for "cultural incorrectness." Along the way, she falls in love with an outrageous 17th century poet, argues for a Dickinsonian tradition in American letters, and calls for a courageous poetics of inconvenient knowledge.