Why is genealogy important?

In reading The Old Free State, by Landon Bell, I came across an introductory chapter to the lineages of important people in the history of Lunenburg, Virginia.  These important people include the names in our family tree, such as Allen and Neblett.  In this chapter, there was a discourse on genealogists - why do we care about the history of our family?  Is it a matter of pride or conceit?  I've often wondered how others view my interest in our family tree... these passages put it in perspective:

A quote from Daniel Webster:

There may be, and there often is, indeed, a regard for ancestry, which nourishes only a weak pride; as there is also a care for posterity, which only disguises an habitual avarice, or hides the workings of a low and groveling vanity. But there is also a moral and philosophical respect for our ancestors, which elevates the character and improves the heart. Next to the sense of religious duty and moral feeling, I hardly know what should bear with stronger obligation on a liberal and enlightened mind, than a consciousness of alliance with excellence which has departed; and a consciousness, too, that in its acts and conduct, and even in it sentiments, it may be actively operating on the happiness of those who come after it.

The author expounds, quoting Col. Thomas L. Crittendon:

If the traditions of the people of Virginia, and of Lunenburg, and their devotion to principles, and their respect for the best and governmental institutions, in their struggles for religious and political freedom and for liberty, be not worthy of veneration, then why should people strive to transmit blessings to posterity? And if those who in the past have struggled to assure a better condition of society are worthy to be honored for their efforts, their sacrifices and their accomplishments, what is more appropriate than to preserve their names and their lineages that their descendants to the remotest time may know the facts, and preserve them in grateful remembrance.

It is not only for the memories of those departed, mentioned herein, that the service of preserving their names from oblivion is performed. For them it is a service of affection and a veneration, but the service to their memories is insignificant compared to the benefits conferred upon future generations. "Since the world began, no people have ever reason to power or splendor who have not cherished and striven to perpetuate the memory of their great men...."

 I am amazed at our links to some of the famous people in our ancestry, but I am also invested in it for the stories.  We may not all be considered great men or women, but our stories certainly can be a source of enlightenment and entertainment.

Research can be tedious

Sometimes, genealogy research means sifting page by page through many obscure documents, some of them faded or handwritten and very difficult to read; others more than a thousand pages long.  A rare nugget of priceless information makes it all worthwhile.

I am currently going through a 1277-page publication called, The Old Free State: a contribution to the history of Lunenburg County and Southside Virginia.  Sounds fascinating, right?  Not something I would have picked up for pleasure reading, but it is the most intimate account of the early history of Virginia that I have ever read, covering the time from Jamestown to the modern age.  Our ancestors consorted with the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. The Allen name goes back to Jamestown. I am about halfway through this document after hours at the computer.  I can only endure about a half hour at a time, so it may take days to wade through.

On another browser page, I am downloading a publication called, "Historical and Genealogical Miscellany: Early Settlers of New Jersey and Their Descendants, Vol. III" by John E. Stillwell, M. D.  In a cursory preview, I almost immediately found a couple of priceless nuggets about one of our family founders, Thomas Applegate, who came to American from Norfolkshire, England.  Those Applegates seemed to have issues with fiery tempers and loose tongues!  For instance:

His wife, Elizabeth Applegate, seems to haye been one of the unfortunate persons who suffered from the ecclesiastical tyranny of that puritanical age, for she was "censured to stand with her tongue in a cleft stick for swearing, reviling and railing." 

 In another instance, Thomas Applegate, was sued for slander by another one of our ancestors, Nicholas Stillwell (from a completely different branch of the family tree):

Xicholas Stiilwell, of Grayesend, sued him for slander in saying that if his, (Stillwell's) debts were paid he would have but little left.

Sometimes I learn something that has nothing to do with our family, like the fact that John Randolph and Nathaniel Macon (for whom the Methodist college was named) were not professed Christians.  And that U. S. Grant was a slave owner who never released his slaves until forced to by the Emancipation Proclamation.  (You may have known this, but I did not).

So, this is what I am doing when I am not adding anything to our family tree.  Slogging through the mire.

Motivation

Got some much-needed and appreciated encouragement today.  Sometimes there are roadblocks in this solitary journey, and it's easy to walk away from it for a while.  Today my niece told me how she loves reading the blog, and my nephew told me that he used our family tree to find baby names.  That was thrilling.  It is all the gratification I need to keep going.

Genealogy Roadshow

Love this show... on a whim I applied to be on it.  I told the story of my orphaned grandmother and the problem of finding her parents.  Here is the reply I finally got months later:

Hello from the Genealogy Roadshow Team!

We appreciate you taking the time to apply for this season of Genealogy Roadshow. Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of stories we can tell, we will not be able to move forward with your story. There are many reasons why a story doesn't make it on our show. Even though you won't be taping with us, your questions and family history are still very important. We encourage you to keep researching!

Oh well.  

Getting in deep

I broke down finally and bought the Family Tree Maker software.  I have wondered why people would need software when Ancestry does it all for you.  Yesterday I asked another serious genealogy researcher that question.  Her reasoning was... it puts your family records in your own hands in case the website goes down or they start charging exorbitant fees.  It makes it possible to continue working on the family tree even when internet is not available.  It keeps your information private until you are ready to post it on Ancestry, thus allowing you to do all the necessary verification first. I hadn't thought of any of that but it made sense.

The Family Tree Maker software downloaded all of my records from Ancestry, and automatically syncs with my online records. It gives a more comprehensive display of the information on one screen.  It can print out a large number of different reports which may come in handy.  Ancestry prints reports but is more limited.

I've found that the more ways you can look at your information, the easier it is to spot inconsistencies and inaccuracies.  Right away, I was able to see that one of my links was incorrect because I could see the birth and death dates for two generations on the same page. I have had trouble seeing the media and documents that are posted on Ancestry - that might be a major limitation, but I am still working through it.

John Dillingham,

This is a published account of the life of my 3X great grandfather, John Dilllingham, 1773-1861 (father-in-law of the first Calvin Crofford).  There is much written about him - he was quite a character and influential in settling the Liberty Township in Indiana.  He lived through many hardships at sea and on land, including tragic encounters with Indians which cost the lives of some of his family.  His life spanned 88 years and covered territory from New England to Indiana.

                      BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN DILLINGHAM

by Amos Felt, for “The Fire Lands Pioneer,” presented in June, 1867, and               appearing in their journal for June, 1867, on pages 70 -- 73.
 John Dillingham and his family were among the early settlers of the Fire Lands.  Where he was born I do not recollect, but I think that he said in Rhode Island, and that his father’s family were formerly from the vicinity of Cape Cod.  He had two or three brothers and a sister or two.  He lost his mother when quite young, and his father married a Quakeress for his second wife.Early in life he took to the ocean, intending to follow the water, but when about seventeen years of age the brig on which he was went to Lisbon for salt, and on her return trip met with adverse winds and calms, so that they were more than double the time that they intended.  Their store of provisions was exhausted and they were about casting lots to see who should be food for the rest, when they discovered a vessel; but she did not heed their signal of distress.  They soon after saw land, and another vessel came to their relief, enabling them to get into harbor, which was Hartford, Conn., I think. After making a few more voyages he quit the sea, and before he was twenty-one years of age he married Clarissa Olcott, of East Hartford, Conn., by whom he had six children, namely, Henry, Clarissa, Betsey, Sally, Fanny, and Polly, all of whom are dead; and the dust of two of them is mingled with that of the Fire lands.Within a year after his marriage he enlisted as third Sergeant under a Captain Miles, who was recruiting for General Wayne’s army, to fight the Indians.  His Captain retained him for some time in the recruiting service before he joined his regiment, which was somewhere on or near the Ohio River.  He serve his time out under General Wayne, but was not in the battle of the Falling timbers, being detailed to guard the Maumee River to attack the Indians.Many were his hairbreadth escapes while he was in the service.  He used to relate to me the following:  At one time he was detailed to carry dispatches from some post between Cincinnati, and where General Wayne was encamped the winter before the war closed, and on his return, a little before sunset, he passed an old dry tree that had fallen and was on fire.  He concluded that it was the work of the Indians and that it was not safe to stop there for the night, so he pursued his journey.  In about a mile he met six or seven men that were on their way to Wayne’s camp.  They inquired if there was any fire or chance to make any.  He told them there was one about a mile ahead of them, and they beset him hard to turn about and go and stay with them that night.  He told them he did not consider it safe and that it was a plan of the Indians to decoy some one, that they might murder him.  They only laughed at him and he put ahead until it was about dark, then left the trail and put off to one side, dug away the snow and made a hole in the ground, got some dry wood and made a little fire, took his blanket and covered himself so as not to have an light seen, and sitting, slept what he could.  The next day he arrived at his post safe.  In a few days he heard of those men being killed by the Indians that night by that fire.
After Mr. Dillingham had served his time out and got his discharge, he returned to his family in Connecticut, but after working in one place and another, some of the time by-the-day, he concluded that Connecticut was not the best place for him.  He took his little family and started for the far West.  He made a stand in the town of Stafford, between Leroy and Batavia, Genesee County, New York, where he lived until 1809.  He then moved to Ashtabula County, in this State [Ohio] then to Mentor, Geauga County, thence to Tinker’s Creek, near Cleveland.  Here he buried his first wife[i] and two of his daughters, Clarissa and Polly, having buried his third daughter, Sally, in Stafford.
He married Hannah Hicox, of Cleveland, for his second wife.  She bore him fourteen or fifteen children, among whom were Sally, Ann, John, Hannah, Betsey, King, Esther, Olcott and Comfort.  They had three births that were twins.  The most of the children died in infancy and I never knew their names.When the war of 1812 broke out Mr. Dillingham was living on Tinker’s Creek, and he either volunteered or came as a substitute to Camp Avery.  After staying there some five or six weeks, his son Henry became dissatisfied with living at home with a step-mother, came out to see him and prevailed on him and his Captain to let him serve out his father’s time.In the Spring (that is 1813) he moved to Bloomingville, and there kept a kind of log tavern, and he and Henry carried the mail from Cleveland to Camp Seneca, where Gen. Harrison was encamped.Now let me digress to relate a few incidents connected with those times.  Soon after Major Croghan beat the British and Indians off from Fort Stephenson, now Fremont, the Indians divided into two small bands of some two or three hundred each, and roamed through different sections of the country.  One party made for Bloomingville, where there was a small settlement that had been posted up in a blockhouse.  It stood on the opposite side of the road from the old brick building, built by a company that styled themselves the Commercial Bank of Sandusky Bay.  The inhabitants thought there was no danger, and had mostly left the blockhouse and gone to their homes.  It seems to me that there was a hand of Providence in their escaping the tomahawk and scalping knife.Two men, John Paxton and Seth Harrington, both good hunters took it into their heads to go to a deer lick soon after the battle at Fort Stephenson.  The lick was situated somewhere near the road then leading from Huron through Bloomingville to Lower Sandusky, and some distance West.  Some time past the middle of the afternoon they mounted their horses and started.  The road ran some of the way across prairie and other places on ridges.  As they went off the prairie onto the ridge, some two miles from the blockhouse, they discovered a few Indians coming onto the other end of the ridge.  Paxton drew his rifle to fire, but Harrington caught it and told him not to, for there were more behind them, and that they were intending to attack the settlement.  They wheeled their horses and made for the blockhouse, and rallied the settlers as soon as possible.  By that means the settlement was saved.One more incident of this affair and I will resume my narrative.  A Mrs. Wood, a widow, sister of Captain Harrington, as he was always called (for they elected him their Captain that night,) after carrying in what wood and water she might want, went upstairs and brought down a one-tined pitchfork, which she said she was going to fight the Indians with, if they attacked them while the Captain drilled the men.  She took her post with them, with her one tined pitchfork.Mr. Dillingham took the mail to carry from Cleveland to Camp Seneca, where General Harrison was encamped.  Colonel Proctor, the British commandant at Malden, was desirous of getting hold of Harrison’s dispatches, to get some clue of this intentions, and had offered the Indians a large reward if they would take the mail and bring it to him.  General Harrison was aware of their intentions and frequently sent out detachments from Colonel Ball’s squadron of mounted riflemen, to clear them from the mail route.  At one time they came upon fourteen of fifteen Indians secreted in a thicket of hazel brush, and killed all but one, who broke through the horsemen, and as they fired at him, fell over an old log and pretended to be dead, by that means getting away.  At another time they killed nine.  This I had from Henry Dillingham, who carried the mail part of the time instead of his father, and saw the Indians after they were killed.About the close of the war Mr. Dillingham bought a farm a little below the head of Cold Creek, where Mr. Petingill built a gristmill afterward.  In the Fall of 1815 he bought of John Beatty two hundred acres of land, lying in 3rd section of Perkins Township, on Pike Creek, about half way between Bloomingville and Sandusky City.  Here he made considerable improvement, but finding that Beatty’s title to the land was not good, he exchanged with him for land in the first section of Norwalk Township, where he lived from October 1819 until June 1836.  He sold the latter tract to Mr. Chas. Jackson, and moved to Porter Co., Indiana, with most of his family, and there he died some four or five years ago, aged about ninety, his wire having died some two years before him.Henry Dillingham married Amanda Page, and began a farm on Pike Creek, the next lot south of his father’s.  After living on it a year he sold out to a man by the name of Rodgers, who let it go back to Mr. Beatty.  He moved to his father-in-law’s and stayed a year, then back to Pike Creek in March, and lived there until the 1^st of October, 1819, then to the first section of Norwalk, where he lived, I think, about two years.  He then moved to Ridgefield and made the first beginning in what is called the Webb settlement, where he lived until 1837, when he sold to a man by the name of Baldwin, who afterwards sold to Daniel Ruggles.  In June 1839, he moved to Porter County, Ind., where he died, in January 1850.  They had six children born on the Fire Lands, namely, Harriet, Rebecca, Adelia, Clarissa, Lyman, and one that died and was buried on the farm in Ridgefield. Betsey Dillingham, the second daughter of John Dillingham, died the 28^th of July, 1818, on Pike Creek, and was buried on her father’s farm, on a ridge the east side of the creek, where there were four others buried – a man and his son, Clark by name, in one grave.  The other two were Titus Allen, a son of Justes Allen, aged about fifteen, and an infant child of Zina Rhoads.  The last time I was there the graves were not to be found.  The farm had been divided and the ridge had been built on, near where the graves had been.Fanny, the fourth daughter of Mr. Dillingham, was married Amos Felt, the writer of this article, October 7^th, 1819, by Julius House, Esq. They were the first couple that he married.  She died May 26^th, 1840, aged 37 years, 1 month and 9 days.  She had eight children.  Three died young, and two have since followed her – Almira, the wife of Wesley Laylin, and Julia R., the wife of J. C. Waggoner.Sally, the eldest child of Mr. Dillingham by his second wife, married Edward Cole, of Bronson.  They moved to Porter County, Indiana, in 1837, where they still remain, and, it is said, have accumulated a large property.Mr. Dillingham was a very stirring, active man, a great lover of handsome cattle – red and brindle being his favorite colors.  But he was a poor feeder and quite often lost much stock.  He was rather of a roving mind for one that married so young.  I once asked him how he came to quit a sailor’s life.  He said that his education was poor, that he could never rise above a common sailor, and that, he thought, was rather a low calling for him.He was rather quick and passionate, yet free-hearted in company and full of life.  From the days of President Jackson to the end of his life he was a rank Democrat.

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[i] In the book “The Descendants of Thomas Olcott” Clarissa is said to have died May 13^th, 1809, in Manchester, Connecticut.  “The Descendants of Thomas Olcott,” by Goodwin, Nathaniel Case Tiffany; Burnham Press, Hartford, CT 1845.

Halloween Night on Newport Avenue

Last night, while Trick-or-Treating with my two eldest sons and granddaughter, I happened upon an older gentleman sitting in a plastic chair in front of the house where my father lived as a teenager.  The man was nice, but not terribly impressed with my story, however he let me take a picture from on the porch.  It was a haunting moment for me.

4306 Newport Avenue