It is with great sadness that I pass along the news of Mary Spencer Betts (daughter of Howard and Mary White Spencer) has left us to join Bill and Kerry. She had been fighting cancer for about a year and wasn’t expected to be with us until Thanksgiving 2019, but was able to survive an additional two months. May she rest in peace. Service details are not available at this time.
Stones River Battlefield in Peril
Descendants of John Wesley Duart and Joseph Shoemaker, this is for you. Our ancestors of the PA Co. C, 7th Cavalry, fought in the Battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro, TN near Shelbysville, TN. Joseph Shoemaker fell from his horse, was severely injured and continued to have issues with his badly, broken arm for the remainder of his life. He was a young man, so you can understand the sacrifice he made during the Civil War, living with this disability, as a farmer with restricted use of the arm for the rest of his life.
Forty two acres of the battlefield are being sold, probably for yet another shopping mall and with the American Battlefield Trust we can save this land. This organization continues to preserve our historic places for the generations to come, so that we do not repeat history. If you are so inclined to help preserve the battlefield where John and Joseph fought, please go on their website https://www.battlefields.org and donate today.
If you would like to know more about John Wesley Duart and Joseph Shoemaker, I have ordered their pension files from the National Archives. John’s is minimal, however I have 400 pages for Joseph. Very interesting reading, to say the least.
Christian Eby – Revolutionary War Patriot
My granddaughter, Kali Martin, approached me about joining the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. I was elated that one of the younger generation was interested in joining a group in which I am so involve. It didn’t take long for me to get started on her application. I started with the most interesting ancestor, John Slaymaker, that I knew was related. The Slaymaker home is still occupied and is known as White Chimneys, Lancaster County, PA.
The Slaymakers are well known in Lancaster County, so what could be so hard to prove this ancestor. Ah, but for some punctuation, it was not accepted. The only proof that I found connecting the dots to the correct line was an Orphan’s Court record that names all the children and grandchildren, but used no commas to delineate who belonged to whom. Instead of beating my head against the wall to find another document, I took the easy route and found another ancestor.
This time, I researched the Eby’s, another familiar name in Lancaster County. Plenty of Eby’s, so one of them had to provide service or pay taxes in support of the revolution. Without too much effort I was able to prove that Christian Eby was a Private in the Revolutionary War and is also eligible as a patriot for paying the Pennsylvania supply tax in 1779. It is also her grandfather’s middle name. Wahooo! Kali Martin, Junior Member NSDAR. I hope she gets as much out of being a part of the largest, wholly owned and operated by women organization, as I have. So many women who have God, Home and Country as their service motto. We have almost 200,000 members and hope to reach our goal of 250,000 members by the time the United States celebrates our 250th anniversary.
New Book to be released.
Looking for Living Charles Family Members of Pennsylvania
I am working on a project for the Hiram Charles family of Lancaster County, PA and would like to hear from any members who are willing to provide a DNA sample for family research. Depending on your family relationship, a DNA kit may be provided.
This project will use Autosomal DNA, so you won’t be excluded because of gender. The results may be uploaded to GedMatch, but would not be identified with any of your information.
For further questions about this project, send an email through this website.
Thank you,
Deborah
Shirley Brown RIP
We had a wonderful Brown reunion on the mountain at Shirley Brown’s cabin, this year. Great food, fun and fellowship. It is now with sadness that I share the passing of Shirley this month, September 19, 2018. She was getting ready to go camping and passed away. It is hard to believe when we were all together just a couple of weeks ago. Just a reminder to make every minute count and tell the people around you how much they mean to you while you can.
Rest in peace, Shirley, keeper of the Brown family party.
George Eckert and Samuel Milliken/Milligan
On the hunt for more Revolutionary War ancestors after my visit to Yorktown, VA. I have now submitted two more on the White side of the family. They are George Eckert and Samuel Milliken/Milligan. Now the wait is on for the year it will take before they are reviewed by NSDAR. In the meantime, I’m trying to find a woman in my ancestry that may have assisted in the Rev. War. Always a feather in your cap if you have one of the ladies proven.
Yorktown is a wonderful place to visit. They have an American Revolution of Yorktown Museum that is worth the trip. They have an encampment that is very interesting. This includes a kitchen, medical facility, supply hut and very knowledgeable staff.
Inside of the museum there are many artifacts and movies. Both are helpful in following the war. This is a State of Virginia museum. Kudos to Virginia for such a wonderful asset. The museum is designed with many areas that flow one into another and they seem to go on forever. It is truly an amazing place to visit.
The battlefield at Yorktown is also very interesting. Suggestion – don’t try to drive your motorhome around the battlefield. We found a couple of areas we couldn’t access because of the bulk of this RV even though it is small by comparison to most. We saw the redoubts taken by the Patriots, the digs that the soldiers did in the middle of the night to surprise the British, the National Cemetery, the Yorktown Victory Monument, and lots of wildlife.
The Moore House is especially nice. It is fully restored and historically is the home where the terms of agreement of surrender were worked out. It is not the house where the British signed the agreement. Still worth the visit if you like old homes.
Frank and Lydia (Buckwalter) Hershey Family Reunion Aug. 26, 2018
The Frank and Lydia (Buckwalter) Hershey family reunion will be held at Paradise Community Park on August 26th, 2018, Pavilion #2, starting at 1:00 pm. The park is located on Londonvale Road off Rt. 30 in Paradise, Lancaster Co., PA. Bring a large dish to pass, table service, lawn chairs and drink. Share your family updates and pictures.
There is a playground, baseball, basketball and tennis available, but bring your own equipment.
If you have any questions, reply to this website. We look forward to continuing this long tradition of Hersheys gathering in Paradise.
John Sanford & Harriett (McCarty) Brown Family Reunion Aug. 12, 2018
It’s that time of the year again when the Browns gather at Shirley Brown’s Oak Knoll cabin on Carnright Mountain Rd, Troy, PA. The Brown reunion is the descendants of John Sanford and Harriett (McCarty) Brown. This year it will be on Aug. 12th starting at Noon. Bring a large dish to pass, drinks and/or a dessert. I know the Browns are all good cooks, so I am looking forward to the wide variety of foods.
Bring your family updates and invite those who just never get around to coming to this annual event. Bring a lawn chair and any lawn games your children like to play. The kids have fun in the woods, just running around the mountain, but would also enjoy a game with their cousins.
The children of John and Harriett are as follows: Effie, Delbert, Allen, Bertha Cook, Lucetta, Elizabeth Bown, Charles, Clarkson, and Francis. If you are descended from any of these children, you are invited.
If you have questions about the reunion, you can leave a message on this blog.
Connecting with Family
This was a special week of White family connecting. Cousin Tim White, from California, called and we had a lovely discussion about our family. Probably the last time I saw him was in the 1960’s when we were visiting Great Uncle Tom White, my grandfather’s brother, in Harrisburg. I’m hoping to catch up with him next time he is in PA and show him where our family grew up, married, had children and are buried, starting with the Gailey-White cemetery in Marysville.
I also got a note from Cousin Lesley Padgett Austin that James Hooker III passed away November 5th and also that his mother, Ann passed away in April of this year. We were in Colorado Springs a couple of years ago and had a lovely lunch with James and Deborah. So glad we take advantage of these opportunities while we are traveling to catch up with relatives.
Mom and I met the Spencer’s in Malvern for lunch this week. What a wonderful visit with Bob, Phil and Mary (Betts), and Sid Baglini. Bob is the oldest of the Alex and Mary Ella (Hess) White grandchildren at 97 years. Still very active as are his siblings. We had a wonderful time reminiscing about visiting “The Farm”, meaning a trip for the Spencer’s to Snedekerville, PA. Growing up in Sned, we always were excited for the Philadelphia cousins to visit and spent much of our time exploring the hills and bringing in the cows.
My nephew, Jeffrey Carroll, also came for a visit and to spend some time with Grandma White. Now living in Lockport, NY it is quite a trip, but we are thankful for the time he makes to visit with Mom. She is a good hostess and so proud of her new digs in Elizabethtown at the Masonic Village.
At this time of the year with, Christmas closing in on us, family is THE most important things in our lives. Here’s hoping this new year will bring us more family visits.