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.