Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered a wealth of geneological information in a book right in my father's house.
The book was published in 1901 and is entitled Jay County Indiana. It's a beautiful well worn, leather bound book. I looked at it and thought why on Earth does my father have a book on Jay County Indiana. He was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana so I thought, well, maybe he just happened upon it as an interesting antique.
I opened the book and in the inside cover I found pasted a newspaper obituary for Enoch B. Hartley. I knew Hartley was a family name on my grandmother's side. I quickly checked a family tree in a Bible I had taken from my dad's house and discovered that I was looking at the obituary of my great great grandfather. It was FULL of information about who he was, where he lived, the kind of person he was. I was nearly in tears. It was like I was MEETING him.
THEN, I realized that the names of his parents were also listed and that the entire book was of biographical sketches of prominent people who had lived in Jay County! My great-great-great grandparents were listed as well as my great-great-great-great grandparents!!! And not just their names!!! There are fascinating details of their lives and even some direct quotations!
I will be writing more about these people from whom I am descended. Probably bore you all to tears.
Among the most exciting facts I learned was that my great-great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Shanks fought in the, Revolutionary War. How cool is that?? He had come to America in 1765. Here is a quote: "Joseph Shanks was not in harmony with the British monarchy, which dislike he was too Irish to conceal, consequently the British stayed and Joseph Shanks left for America."
Now to those of you who are Irish I must ask. Did you smile just a little when reading those words "which dislike he was too Irish to conceal?" I know I did. But then, I'm his great-great-great-great granddaughter. I never met or even heard a relative speak of Joseph Shanks, but I know just what those words meant.
Have a great day.
(I just reread this and realized it's not clear why I smiled. I am NOT saying that I share my ancestor's dislike of the British. Only that I understand, and share, an inability to conceal my emotions. Don't want my friend Deb to think I hold any grudges against her nation:-)
4 comments:
I love geneology! It is very interesting to find where we come from and all the fun information. My grandma was amazing at it.
There are websites to help start family histories and trees.
One of my graetest treasures is the autobiography my grandma wrote of her life, along with family trees of the geneology work she had done in her life. We have one of the largest family history libraries in the entire world in Salt Lake City. You can access a lot of cool info here: www.familysearch.org.
It's a passtime I hope to have a little more time for as my little ones don't need me quite so much.
I would only be able to locate info on my father's side since my mother was adopted ...closed and very very tiny bit of info. I've already tried to get more to the bottom of it, but like my mom said..."Maybe I don't want to know!" LOL! Poor thing, but she was God's daughter and that is really what mattered to her and now I've just had to come to accept that, in that I mean that is going to be good enough for me and hey, maybe we'll get to meet some of those ancestors in Heaven! I hope so! :) Also, I just think you are one blessed lady to find such amazing things in your parent's home!
I had to laugh about the quote..isn't it more about being Irish (which I am that too) in that we either stand up for what we believe very strongly and are not all that quiet about it either..more than putting anyone down like the British in a general way, as you say! :) Its just about being Irish. :) Its an amazing trait.
I guess I hope to find more about my heritage on Dad's side too..one of these days..I know a little now, but maybe when there is more time.
PS Fort Wayne, IN hmm.... :)
Our Father Don is from there, as well. That city comes up alot and until I moved here, I'd never heard of it.
What a wonderful find! I'm so excited for you!
Very cool find! My grandfather - on my father's side - went to great lengths (before he died) to document our family tree, but I have never really sat down and read it - researched it. I need to do that someday soon.
Hope you are having a good week, Rosemary - see you soon - Kellan
Post a Comment