New Version of Turth or Dare: Document That Folklore!

See that tab up top? The one that says, "Ancestral History of Thomas F. Myers"? Right, that's it. Take a look. It's a privately published book by one of my uncles, sister to my 4th great grandmother Mary Myers, produced about 1900. There's a lot of names, dates, and place in it and Mom and I have found it to be surprisingly accurate. There is one glaring error but Thomas F. Myers had no way of know that his Revolutionary War hero and great grandfather, Nehemiah Newans, did not die at the Battle of Yorktown but lived a long and happy life... elsewhere, and without his wife and son. But otherwise he was a dandy scholar of the history of our family.

So, just the other afternoon, I got to thinking that maybe there were details in that little book I'd overlooked or dismissed as folklore. Maybe I should go back and catalog the myriad details on those pages of his about the ancestors in my direct line. Make a list or a chart or something and see what could be seen. There's a lot there and with time - a lot of it - and a research log to track where I went, maybe more could be found. And that's what I've been doing, and  have to say, this is going to take a LOT of time!!

So here it is. The chart that will hopefully show truth through documentation, if I can find that documentation. The right hand column is where I'll track findings so it's practically empty now.

Hey, and let me know if you have any missing pieces or can elaborate on any events, dates or places. Thanks!!

"Ancestral History of Thomas F. Myers" Fact Check

Person	Text	Finding
Miss Kepplinger	Family came from Holland. Religious persecution. Lutheran.   During war, drove cart that seemed to have butter and eggs but had had sacks of powder, through lines. Was searched but told to pass.
Miss Kepplinger’s Mother   Given Cory Kepplinger	Sister to Col. Corry.   Made sheep skin shoes for soldiers.	Her maiden name was Cory. This is the correct spelling as per Wikipedia.
Col. Corry / Cory	French & Indian and Rev. fame.   Town of Corry PA was named for him.	Town is Corry but founders name was Cory. Wiki.
Mrs. Macelvaine	Sister to Miss Kepplinger’s mother	Her maiden name was Cory too.
Mr. Koontz	Miss Kepplinger’s uncle.   Owner Colonial Hotel of York PA. Continental Congress was held here after run out of Philadelphia.
Father Mr. Kepplinger	Ground all wheat for soldiers at Valley Forge.   Had a salt works on the Patapsco river where Baltimore now stands.   The company was known as Beason, Kepplinger & Magoun.   They conveyed salt to Beasontown, now Uniontown.	Uniontown was Beesontown, Founded by Henry Beeson, 1776. Wiki.
Father, Mother, and servants	Attended to and fed soldiers in their barn.
Thomas Newan	War of 1812   Maryland Volunteers Capt. Steiners Company Col. Stoners Regiment
Mary Knough	Wife of Thomas Newins
Peggy Datsbaugh Bartgis	Mary Knough’s sister. Same mother but different fathers.   Married Matthew Bartgis
Matthew Bartgis	Mayor of Frederick for years after Lt. Gov. of MD.   1st man to carry mail from Frederick to Winchester and from Winchester to Georgetown.   1750, organized the mail service in America.   First to print a nsp at Winchester VA and Frederick MD/
James Bartgis	Son of Matthew and Peggy   Mayor of Frederick
Hiram Bartgis	Son of Matthew and Peggy   Sheriff of Frederick
Peggy Bartgiss Father Mr. Datsbaugh	Member of the House of Burgess   Carried an effigy of King George through the streets of Frederick & burned it in 1763.
Indian Fighter
Peter Myers	Helped build Ft Frederick in 1756.   Served in Rev. War: Battle of Brandywine Wounded at Battle of Monmouth
Mary Hughes	Wife of Peter Myers.   They had 5 children: Betsy Nancy John William Jacob, served in 1812	Most trees show Hibbs.
Jacob Myers	Born in Tanneytown MD 1789   Died Cumberland 7 Feb 1852   Served in 1812   Sheriff of Frederick County.   Stage agent for Sto?? ??tokes stage line from Frederick to Morgantown.   Afterward transferred to Cumberland.

 

Mary Myers Eckhart 1837-1909

The URL for this post is:

Sentimental Sunday: The Family Treasure That Always Gets Me

 

 

There was a moment when I understood in a very visceral way the importance of saving family history and felt the great depth of sorrow at the loss of it. On one hand, I’d never missed the heirlooms that might have gone to others in the family after someone passed. I just figured that someone else was more entitled to them than I. My cousins have grandmother’s aprons and that’s great because they love them. I rest easy knowing that my other grandmother’s china is in her glass cabinet and is living with other cousins who has grand kids. Wonderful! All of those beloved objects are still cherished.

But I just about lost it when I heard that Aunt Edith’s son threw out all of her papers! My guts tied themselves in a knot, and that felt awful. My sense of loss was deep and anger followed.

I don’t know where I get off being in a twist about Aunt Edith’s son dumping her stuff. He lived with her, he took care of her and was entitled to do as he pleased. And it wasn’t as though Aunt Edith didn’t have control over the disposition of her possessions as she had her wits about her and other children to whom she could bequeath her treasures, such that they were. I wasn’t even that close to her. Maybe I saw her two or three times in my life. And she’s not my direct aunt; she’s my Dad’s aunt, and my grand aunt. So we were just not that close because she lived in Miami and we lived in Cleveland. Where do I get off being that upset?

I’ll tell you where. If Aunt Edith hadn’t given my Mom a truly treasured book containing the story of the Myers line back to the Revolutionary War and beyond to a man known simply as Indian Fighter Myers, I’d not know about Nehemiah Newens, my fifth great grandfather. I wouldn’t have known his story and the story of his son and his son’s family and most important, his life’s story from Derbyshire, England, on to the Revolutionary War, and finally all the way to the frontier in upstate New York.

I can’t help but wonder what else might have been thrown out over the centuries, treasures that ended up unceremoniously at the town dump, or burned in the old trash fire behind the house. Sometimes on a cold and rainy afternoon I grieve for those lost mementos and feel sad for the ancestors’ faces staring out from old photos whose names are unknown.

I just simply want to do better and capture what can be collected now so as to preserve it for anyone who might care down the line.

Aunt Edith Kelly Condry, front right.

My grandfather John "Lee" Kelly in the middel of the back row.

(1891 - ????)

 

For another story about lost treasures and one that was saved in part, watch this video, "Leo Beachy: A Legacy Nearly Lost." It's the story of a truly gifted photographer in Western Maryland who lived and worked for year in relative obscurity, just now being recognized as one of the greats, and how his legacy was almost completely lost!

Sentimental Sunday is a lovely topic from Geneabloggers , and I thank them for this blogging prompt!

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/sentimental-sunday-family-treasure-that.html

Surname Saturday: Myers (With One "e")

Many bloggers use Surname Saturday as a blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. It's giving me a total genealogy work out and with summer swimsuit season coming... oh never mind. But it's the same thing, kinda, because as I go through the weeks the holes and errors present themselves. Plus, and because Mom did 99.9% of the work on the tree, it is my opportunity to work my way through her accumulated data and gain an even deeper familiarity with it.

This week we continue through Generation 5, taking the women one by one, and now it's time to view what we know about Mary Myers' ancestry. She has an interesting pedigree and I'll flesh out most of it for you even though to do so means reaching out on a branch or two. See, one of the aspects of doing this exercise that tickles me is trying to give you a more detailed picture of who these people were, and are to me.

So let's get on with it! Here's Mary Myers and her ancestors. And this week I'm putting parenthesis around the years for clarity. At first I did and then I didn't, but now I think I do.

1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly (1916 - 2007)
3. Virginia Williams, that's Mom, living and loving it!

4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly (1892 - 1969)
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly (1894 - 1985)

8. Francis Patrick Kelly (1854 - 1923)
9. Christiana Eckhart (1861 - 1932)

18. John Eckhart (1831 - 1917)

19. Mary Myers Eckhart (1837 - 1909)
To see the post on the Eckhart line visit here.
John Eckhart was born 5 Nov 1831 in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland and died 5 Mar 1917 in the same place. He married Mary Myers on 22 Apr 1859 in Allegany County, Maryland. She was his second wife whom he wed after Rebecca O'Brien died in 1856. He came from a long landed family with an interesting past and would have been known to all who lived in the town named for his ancestor, Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland.
Mary Myers was born 20 Mar 1837 in Frederick County, Maryland and died 30 Oct 1909 in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland. Her father, Jacob was transferred to Cumberland and it was likely there that John and Mary met and were wed. In the 1860 US census he's working as a railroad hand and living in Lonaconing, Allegheny, Maryland. In the 1880 census he and the family at living in Eckhart, now called Eckhart Mines, and working as a miner, and that would be coal miner. My GGM Christiana Eckhart, has made an appearance and is 18. (Right, I can't find them in the 1870 census, a task on the to do list.) He stays in the same place until his death in 1917. John outlived Mary as she died in 1909.
They had the following children:
9. Christiana Eckhart (1861 - 1932)
Maggie L. Eckhart (1864 - ????). She married William Rechter.
Rachael Eckhart (1865 - 1940), who married Thomas W. Gracie, and then at his passing in 1909 in a horrible mining accident, she married Robert Strathan.
John Thomas Eckhart (1867 -1917). He married Rachael Pengilly.
Mary Catherine Eckhart (1868 - ????).

38. Jacob Myers (1789 - 1852)
39. Christiana Newans (1811 - 1865)
They had these children:
Margaret Myers (1835 - ????)
19. Mary Myers Eckhart (1837 - 1909)
Chrissie Myers ( about 1840 - ????)
Thomas F. Myers (1841 - before 1920)
Laura Myers (1845 - ????)
Now that you can see the line-up of kids, here's something about Thomas F. Myers, and you can read the book he most likely wrote himself and had published on the tab above, The Ancestral History of Thomas F. Myers. Thomas was the brother of Mary Myers Eckhart. This little book has been proven to have errors but those mistakes were not known to Thomas F. Myers at the time he had it printed. I just reread it more closely and plucked out even more clues to the Myers line. It all needs to be investigated, to be sure, but I'll tell you what it says.
About Jacob Myers:
* Served in the War of 1812
* At 9 years of age, shook George Washington's hand when Jacob told Washington where an old soldier lived.
* Was the sheriff of Frederick County, Maryland.
* Was the stage agent for a stage line (named but illegible to me due to paper burn) that ran from Frederick to Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland.
* He was transferred to Cumberland.
As I say, it all needs to be investigated, but this was Thomas F. and Mary's father so there's a basis for him knowing.

And now the information gets a little sketchy. What I'm going to include here comes from the book printed by Thomas F. Myers and needs to be proven, but what the hey, let's live on the wild side! Notice that I have no numbers for these as they have not yet been posted to Mom's Big Tree because we don't know for sure.

Peter Myers (???? - 1825)
Mary Hughes or possibly Hibbs (???? - ????)
I went ahead and posted this information on Mom's Ancestry Big Tree as a test, just to see what leaves would pop up. That's why I added Hibbs as a surname for Peter's wife. Told ya' this was sketchy.
Here's what The Ancestral History of Thomas F. Myers recorded about Peter.
About Peter Myers:
* Peter is the one son who made his escape during the Indian massacre (see below).
* Was "bound out" as a servant when parents were killed.
* Became a tailor early on.
* Was a scout and Indian fighter.
* Helped build Fort Frederick in Maryland.
* Served in the Revolutionary War in the Maryland Line.
* Wounded at the Battle of Brandywine.
* Wounded again at the Battle of Monmouth.
* In old age, lost his fortune after the money from the sale of his farm proved worthless.
* Died penniless.
Wow! That's a lot of real juicy information right there ready for research. But it needs to be checked out real well. Much work for later.

"Indian Fighter" Myers (????-????)
Unknown wife
Are you ready? Here's what The Ancestral History of Thomas F. Myers had to say about Indian Fighter Myers who was Thomas' GGF.
* His tract of land was shown on old charts and maps as a "manor".
* Fought the Indians in the Wyoming Valley in the "Indian War".
* Killed seven Indians in a fight to the death with a double sided axe.
* The Indians offered a "ransom" for him dead or alive. (Bounty?)
* His wife was a "half-breed Indian" of the Shawnee tribe.
* During an Indian raid, his house was surrounded. His family, except for Peter, was killed and "Indian Fighter" was bound as a prisoner and later killed.
* Peter "made his escape" during this episode and hid in the brush and thus saved.
Gosh, Grandma Kelly always told me I was descended from an Indian princess;) Well she did, but no one ever took that seriously. And I guess that now that I have my DNA results back, which you can see here and below, neither do I. If the story was that the wife of "Indian Fighter" was Sub-Saharan African I think we'd have a match. But maybe she was:)

As you can see, the last two generation are very dramatic but do need checking! That will be fun.

9. Christiana Eckhart (1861 - 1932)

18. John Eckhart (1831 - 1917)

19. Mary Myers Eckhart (1837 - 1909)

23and Me Ancestry by Composition Report for me.

No Indian Princess. Too bad, Grandma Kelly.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/surname-saturday-myers-with-one-e.html

Before the Introduction

If you've been following along here you'll know that I'm taking a shot at writing a family history book, a narrative of the major family lines going back as far as I can manage based on the excellent work and research Mom has done. I want to capture on paper what is known at the moment for those who come later, knowing full well that this will be an imperfect work, always in progress.

While getting a running start at the Introduction I felt the need to write a short piece that might set up the overall why and wherefore of the effort in an effort to explain myself. A Prologue was needed. So here it is. If it amuses you, let me know what you think. All feedback is appreciated, not just complements. You can post as a comment or email me at dianew858@hotmail.com

Prologue 

There was a moment when I understood in a very visceral way the importance of saving family history and felt the great depth of sorrow at the loss of it. On one hand, I’d never missed the heirlooms that might have gone to others in the family after someone passed. I just figured that someone else was more entitled to them than I. My cousins have grandmother’s aprons and that’s great because they love them. I rest easy knowing that my other grandmother’s china in in her glass case is living with other cousins who have the grand kids. Wonderful!

But I just about lost it when I heard that Aunt Edith’s son threw out all of her old photos and papers! My guts tied themselves in a knot, and that felt awful. My sense of loss was deep and anger followed.

I don’t know where I get off being in a twist about Aunt Edith’s son dumping her stuff. He lived with her; he took care of her and was entitled to do as he pleased. And it wasn’t as though Aunt Edith didn’t have control over the disposition of her possessions as she had her wits about her and other children to whom she could bequeath her treasures. I wasn’t even that close to her. Maybe I saw her two or three times in my life. And she’s not my aunt; she’s my Dad’s aunt. So we were not that close. Where do I get off being that upset?

I tell you where. If Aunt Edith hadn’t given my Mother a truly treasured book containing the story of the Myers line back to the Revolutionary War and beyond to a man known simply as Indian Fighter Myers, I’d not know about Nehemiah Newans, my fifth great grandfather. I wouldn’t have known his story and the story of his son and his son’s family and most important, his life’s story from Derbyshire, England, on to the Revolutionary War, and finally all the way to the frontier in upstate New York.

I can’t help but wonder what else might have been thrown out over the centuries, treasures that ended up unceremoniously at the town dump, or burned in a trash fire behind the house. Sometimes on a cold and rainy afternoon I grieve for those lost mementos and feel sad for the ancestors’ faces staring out from old photos whose names are unknown.

I just simply want to do better and capture what can be collected now so as to preserve it for anyone who might care down the line.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/12/before-introduction.html

A Peek Behind the Curtain of Time

I just love that little book Aunt Edith gave Mom in the 1950s, "Ancestral History of Thomas F. Myers." It's provided clues to all manner of family history mysteries and I go back to it often and find new stuff. (Find a copy in one of the tabs at the top of this page.)

The funny and strange thing of it is that Aunt Edith was Dad's auntie. She had four sons, but somehow she decided to give the original printed book to my Mom and not one of her sons. I always thought it a tad unusual but who am I to question the wisdom of the ancestors... she surely had her reasons.

As the years passed, Mom got super interested in genealogy and started the slow and painstaking process of finding all of the over 60,000 people on our tree... yup, your read it right, 60 thousand! So the Myers book has been safely stored in its original envelope in Mom's file all this time. Safe.

I always wondered at the immense good fortune that Mom has what might be the only original copy of that book! Recently, found Cousin Molly in Florida who has a photo copy of the text portion of the book but that's the only other one "in captivity."

And also recently was in touch with one of Aunt Edith's sons, Cousin Joe, and his lovely wife, Eileen, also living in Florida. Then I started to feel bad that maybe Aunt Edith should have kept the book for her sons and their sons. But I have to now say, NEVER second guess the ancestors! Listen to this.

Joe emailed this story of his family and I've copied what he wrote about Aunt Edith and her papers:
"And when my brother, Mike, was living with mother, when she died in l965, he gathered up all the papers that she had, and burned them."

WOW! Thank you Aunt Edith and your wisdom to know who to give that book to so that it could be preserved!

The Kelly Family about 1910.

Aunt Edith with son, about 1938.