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

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.

Woah! What Was Going On? Part One

Sit a spell, because this is going to take a while explaining and I'm going to need a couple of swipes at it. I'm working on the fall issue of our family history newsletter and thought to tell the story of our ancestor, Nehemiah Newan(s) who was born in England and fought in the Revolutionary War.

Mom received a small book from Dad's Aunt Edith many years ago telling the life story of Nehemiah Newan and other ancestors. Aunt Edith, dear sweet lady that she was, entrusted the small volume to Mom saying that it "was the story of her (meaning Mom's) family" because Aunt Edith always considered Mom as good as any blood relative. Mom has kept that treasure now almost 50 years.

I copied the little book when I was recently in to see Mom and read it for the first time just last weekend. It tells a cinematic tale of the adventures and nobility of our ancestor. It's a really good story... maybe too good, I thought. Mom agreed. Was it the florid verbiage of the era in which it was written or was it more fabrication than fact? I'm hooked on the trail!

The book states that he died in the Revolutionary War. However, Mom had evidence that Nehemiah Newan removed to upstate New York and settled there on land granted to him for war service. I needed to go on Footnote.com and verify what I could.

After an hour or so I smelled something rotten. The book was dead wrong about his death in the war. What else was it wrong about?

So here's our mystery: the sweet little book says he died at York in the war. The NARA documents show him in upstate New York appearing before proper authorities at 70 years of age applying for a pension in 1818. Witnesses swear that he was known to them. Doesn't sound at all dead to me.

Where's the truth of the matter? And what about the book? More later... I need to go back on Footnote and double check a thing or two.

Aunt Edith Condry and her son Father John Condry, 1958