The 10th
President of the United States has a grandson still living in 2020! President John Tyler [1790-1862] served as President from 1841-1845. Vice President John Tyler
became President after William Henry Harrison’s death only one month into his presidency.
While President, John married for the second time at age 54 to twenty four year
old Julia Gardiner. President Tyler only served on term then moved he and Julia
moved back to Virginia.1 John and Julia had seven children:
David
Gardiner Tyler [12 Jul 1846 - 5 Sep 1927]
John Alexander Tyler Jr [7 Apr 1848 - 1 Sep 1883]
Julia Tyler [25 Dec 1849 - 8 May 1871]
Lachlan Tyler [2 Dec 1851 - 26 Jan 1902] Lyon Gardiner Tyler [24 Aug 1853 -12 Feb 1935]
Robert Fitzwalter Tyler [12 Mar 1856 - 31 Dec 1927]
Margaret Pearl Tyler [20 Jun 1860 -30 Jun 1947]2
President
Tyler died in 1862 when Lyon was only eight. Like his father Lyon married twice.
First to Anne Tucker, then at age 70, to Sue Ruffin. Lyon and Sue had three
children:
Lyon
Gardiner Jr. [3 Jan 1925 – 26 Sep 2020] Harrison Ruffin Tyler [ 1928 - ] Henry Tyler [18 Jan 1930 - 26 Jan 1930]3
Little
Harrison was only seven when his father Lyon Sr died, his mother passed away when
he was 25. Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and great-grandfather,
Harrison graduated from William and Mary in 1949 with an engineering degree. Cool
side note, Harrison’s great-grandfather Virginia Governor John Tyler4
was college roommates with Thomas Jefferson. Father, Lyon Sr did not attend William
and Mary however was the college’s President for 34 years from 1888 to1919.
Back to current day, Harrison’s brotherLyon
Gardiner Tyler Jr recently passed away in September 20205, leaving Harrison,
at age 91, the last of President Tyler’s grandchildren still living.
A new series by one of my favorite authors Sheila Connolly, a little mystery, a little history and a little genealogy. The heroine of the series Kate Hamilton is a hotelier in Baltimore when a childhood friend asks her to help "save" their hometown. Sheila paints a picture of a small town who's best days may be behind it unless it can be re-imagined. The old 1800 mansion the town recently acquired figures prominently in Kate's revitalization plan for the town and her life.
Best yet, my favorite character Nell Pratt and the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society from Sheila's Museum Mysteries series is called upon to help sort out some historical finds at the Henry Barton estate. Whether the treasures inside the estate will be enough to save the town only future books will tell.
Unfortunately, Kate and the police first have to solve who killed Kate's high school nemesis at the Barton estate.
American
women are leaders securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity
which create a fair and just society for all. Daughters are vibrant, active
women who are passionate about community service, preserving history, educating
children, as well as honoring and supporting those who serve our nation. Members
share and celebrate the women who inspire us at Roxbury Township Free Public
Library 103 Main St, Succasunna, NJ on March 12 at 10:15am.
Honor those who inspired you by sharing their
story
Ferro-Monte Chapter meetings are held on the 2nd Saturday of the
month from October - May. Prospective members are always welcome. If you have
an interest in learning about your family tree, we can help you; maybe we can
even find a Patriot among your leaves. For information the Ferro Monte Chapter:
like us at Facebook.com/FerroMonteChapterNSDAR,
visit our website ferromontedar.org
or email NJDARFerroMonte@aol.com.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was
founded in 1890 to promote patriotism, preserve American history, and support
better education for our nation's children. Its members are descended from the
patriots who won American independence during the Revolutionary War. With more
than 165,000 members in approximately 3,000 chapters worldwide, DAR is one of
the world's largest and most active service organizations. To learn more about
the work of today's DAR, visit DAR.org.
Jacob Shoenfelt II was born 9 Sep 1792, near Hagerstown, Maryland
and died in his 91st year on 14 Apr 1884. His parents, Jacob the 1st
and Elizabeth Baker Shoenfelt settled on land given them by Jacob I’s father
William Shanefelt, near Woodberry, Bedford County in the spring of 1796. According
to a 1946 Altoona Mirror article, the land William purchased has remained in
family hands for 166 years. Jacob I with
the help of Jacob II built the family home there (now known as Taylor Twp,
Blair County) in 1812. The family of eight were of the German Reformed faith and
although Jacob I became a Dunkard preacher later in life, Jacob II remained
with the German Reformed. Of hardy German stock, Jacob II did not learn to read
or speak English until he was an adult.
Jacob and Elizabeth Marks celebrated the arrival of daughter
Elizabeth in 1802. Betsy grew up in Huntingdon Boro. She married Jacob II at an
early age. They raised their family of thirteen (Henry, Joseph, Elizabeth,
George, Sarah, Jacob, Andrew, Isaac, Mary, Susan, John, Harriet and James) on
the Plum Creek farm. The family resided in Woodbury in 1846 when Blair county was formed and in 1856 when their section of Woodbury became Taylor Twp. Jacob II out lived his wife Elizabeth and his
children: daughters Elizabeth, Sarah, Harriet and sons Issac and James.
While Jacob was primarily a farmer in his later years. As a
young man he was a wagoner transporting pig iron from Maria Forge to Pittsburgh
before the construction of highways.
Jacob Shoenfelt voted for our 4th President James Madison thru the 20th President James Garfield
In the last few years of his life he became a favorite
subject of the Altoona Tribune. In a profile celebrating his 90th
birthday, the interviewer reports that Jacob II “voted for James Madison for
President and voted at every presidential election since casting his vote for
General Garfield for president in 1880. He only missed voting at two elections
ever since he voted. He was a Federalist, Whig, American and Republican, always
true to his party. He is a hale old man, and bids fair to be a centenarian. The
lustre of his eyes is not bedimmed and he reads and writes without the use of
glasses. He never used a pair of spectacles in his life. His memory is
remarkably good and it is pleasing to hear him relate incidents and occurrences
of long ago, speaking of the kind and charitable disposition of some of the
early settlers of the Cove.” The Shoenfelts are purportedly buried in the Snowberger
Cemetery in East Sharpsburg, PA.
Once again the Recorder papers have written a great article on the festival and the One Community, One Book (OCOB) initiative. Attention all book clubs: Morristown Festival of Books gearing up for second year - New Jersey Hills: Madison Eagle News: The Morristown Festival of Books’ “One Community One Book” has made its choice for summer reading leading up to this fall's festival: The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken by Laura Schenone. We hope you read the book and participate in the OCOB events on June 10, August 27 and attend the Morristown Festival of Books on October 2-3. Books can be purchased at words and The Bookworm or your local library.
At least it is free for six months... if you enter and win the Geneblogger contest. Oh how I'd love to win since the email in my inbox right after the contest announcement, was Ancestry.com announcing it is time for my subscription renewal. So if not me, why not you? Deadline to enter is May Day.
This Western Union Telegram has been in a Ritts scrapbook for years.
Original Text Messaging
The message sent to my Nana has been a mystery for over 20 years. Who was this Aunt that passed away? Nana had eight Aunts, but none of their death dates matched up. There is also a hand written note we think was written by my Aunt Maybelle identifying the deceased as her great-great Aunt. This didn't seem right since that generation seemed to have died in the mid 1800s. The key to solving this puzzle came from the recent release from the Pennsylvania Archives to Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania Death Certificates for up to 1944 were added in June. Those green leaves from the TV ads have been popping up on my tree. Today a leaf popped up on my Nana's grand aunt Elizabeth Metzger Paul. The hint was her death certificate and guess when she passed away... Aug 22, 1934. Finally we had our answer! Thank you Great-Great Aunt Elizabeth (she really is my 2nd Great Aunt) for solving this mystery. May you rest in peace.
I have recently found some old family photos and I don't know a soul. The ultimate goal of course will be to identify the people in the pictures. Unfortunately I'm not even sure what years most of the pictures were taken. So I ask for my costume and fashionista friends to enlighten me what time period these fashions were, well, in fashion.
The Hudson Family circa 1869 L-R Elizabeth, William Alexander Hudson holding William Jr, Eliza Metzker Hudson holding Isaac
The latest snow storm in New Jersey, gave me the opportunity to play with a new to me feature in Ancestry.com, the Story. Story takes the information you have entered about a person and creates a chronological historical picture book. Now if Ancestry took all the timeline entries I made on Eliza and included them in the story view, I would have been ecstatic. It's unclear how Ancestry decides what goes in the timeline besides, census information. It looks like if there is an Ancestry.com source then it appears on the timeline. Other entries being included seems to be a crap shoot. All pictures attached to the ancestors file get uploaded, so you can create your own entries. There are severe limitations with the picture file in my opinion since it will only let you use a picture once. I add children's births to a mother's timeline so I need to use the "it's a boy/girl" multiple times. Ancestry is also erratic when pulling descriptions from the timeline view to the story view. Net result, instead of having a well rounded story on the first take, I had to re-create the majority of events before Eliza's story could be told. My final pet peeve of the story view is it can't be saved as an infographic, only as a web link. If anyone has figured out how to save the story view to an infographic, please let me know. For the moment at least if you would like to learn about my 2nd great-grandma Eliza Metzker who married William Alexander Hudson in 1866, you will have to use this story link. Update, the above story links no longer work. Now called LifeStory it can be printed or saved as a pdf. Eliza Metzker Hudson's Life Story
Anne Hutchinson was a
trailblazer. As expected of anyone who carves out a new way, her life was never
easy. She was the daughter of an English minister, well versed in the Bible and
the Church of England. After her father’s death, her spiritual journey led her to
the teachings of John Cotton. Anne felt compelled to follow her preacher to the
New World. In 1634, Anne and her family arrived in Boston where she quickly
drew the ire of John Winthrop and the Puritans that governed the Massachusetts
Bay Colony. Anne began holding gatherings in her home to discuss the
individual’s intuition as a means of reaching God and salvation, rather than
the observance of institutionalized beliefs and the precepts of ministers. Winthrop
and the Puritans accused Anne and her followers of antinomianism—the view that
God’s grace has freed the Christian from the need to observe established moral
precepts. After three years of animosity with claims and counter claims by both
groups, Anne was put on trial for her offenses. She and her followers were
banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The banished which
included, the Hutchinson family, William Coddington, John Briggs and John
Clarke fled south to Rhode Island. In Rhode Island Mrs. Hutchinson and her
friends founded the towns of Portsmouth and Newport. The group signed the
Portsmouth Compact which established a new independent colony with non-sectarian
governance. It has been called the first instrument for governing as a true
democracy. Alas, true democracy is never easy. Political strife amid the
community created a rift with some of the group settling Newport. During this
time, William Coddington, the original Governor of Portsmouth, moved to
Newport. Will Hutchinson, Anne’s husband became the new Governor of Portsmouth.
Eventually, the two groups worked out their differences and reunited.
After her husband's death and
amid threats from John Winthrop of Massachusetts taking over Rhode Island, Anne
felt compelled to move totally outside the reach of Winthrop moving further
south to the lands of the Dutch. In recounting Thomas Cornell’s trek to New
York, Henry Crapo explains, "There can be no question that he was loyal to
the distinguished exile, since after the death of her husband in 1642 he and
his family went with her to Manhattan and there again attempted to start a
settlement. It was in the autumn of 1642 that Anne Hutchinson, Thomas Cornell, John
Throckmorton, and others with their families, removed to Manhattan 'neare a
place called by seamen Hell Gate,' a designation which seemed most appropriate
to the Boston divines. Governor Winthrop was evidently interested in following
their fortunes since in 1642 he notes, 'Mr. Throckmorton and Mr. Cornell,
established with buildings, etc., in neighboring plantations under the Dutch.'
The Dutch government, in
fact, granted Thomas Cornell and his associates some thirty-five families in
all, permission to settle 'within the limits of the jurisdiction of their High
Mightinesses to reside there in peace.' In 1643, Cornell and Throckmorton
procured a survey and map of the country they had taken up which was about
eleven miles from New Amsterdam.”1
Anne Hutchinson, had a friendly
relationship with the Narragansett people in Rhode Island. When settling in New
Netherland she assumed she would establish the same type of relationship with the
Siwanoy. Anne and her followers had been friendly to Siwanoy but following
their mistreatment by the Dutch, the tribe retaliated against New Netherland
colony in a series of incidents known as Kieft's War. A tribal elder visited
with the Hutchinsons and Cornell families warning them that Chief Wampage was
planning to attack them. Thomas Cornell took the warning to heed, removing his
family from the area. Anne Hutchinson maintained her belief that she had
nothing to fear from the Siwanoy and with her family remained on their farm.“The Siwanoy warriors
stampeded into the tiny settlement above Pelham Bay, prepared to burn down
every house. The Siwanoy chief, Wampage, who had sent a warning, expected to
find no settlers present. But at one house the men in animal skins encountered
several children, young men and women, and a woman past middle age. One Siwanoy
indicated that the Hutchinsons should restrain the family's dogs. Without
apparent fear, one of the family tied up the dogs. As quickly as possible, the
Siwanoy seized and scalped Francis Hutchinson, William Collins, several
servants, the two Annes (mother and daughter), and the younger
children—William, Katherine, Mary, and Zuriel.”2
Anne Hutchinson is a key
figure in the development of religious freedom in England's American colonies.
Her legacy is one of freedom of religion, the right to free assembly and
women's rights. She has been called the
most famous, or infamous, English woman in colonial American history.
[1] Henry Howland Crapo,
Certain Comeoverers, 2 Vol. (New Bedford, Mass.: 1912), 1:235, of 235-41
[2] LaPlante, Eve (2004).
American Jezebel, the Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman who Defied
the Puritans. San Francisco: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-056233-1. Pg 237
Old Tax Assessment and Census lists are coveted by genealogists. They are a great way to mine information about our ancestors. US Censuses from 1850 to date are pretty easy to follow, all the family is listed with information of interest to the government for that particular decade. Before 1850, the information provided takes a bit more sleuthing to decipher what was collected. This is why I'm SO excited about a website I just stumbled upon Mother Bedford's Tax Assessment Returns.
First off, Mother Bedford refers to Bedford County Pennsylvania. Bedford County was once a huge mother of a county, but as time has gone by, several other counties have be formed from towns that originally were a part of Bedford. Pretty much all of my ancestral lines spent at least some time in Mother Bedford so it is particularly helpful that this site shares such useful information.
While I have been doing my genealogy for a few years, I am in no way an expert. I knew enough to collect early american tax records when I found them, but I haven't quite figured out what all the information means. Tax Assessments include names and value of property. Individuals were listed on the early tax assessment returns
in one of four categories: Resident, Freeman, Inmate, and Non-Resident. (Women rarely own property. Upon their husband's death, his property transferred to his oldest son. Occasionally you may find a Resident listing a Widow Smith., indicating there was no male to leave the property too.)
Resident: Married man who owns property and resides on property
Freeman: Single man who owns property and resides on property
Inmate: Any man who rents property he resides on
Non-Resident: Any property owner who does not reside on said property
Thank You Mother Bedford! The definition of Freeman helped me narrow down the marriage window of my 2nd great-grandparents Mary Shoenfelt & John Ritts. Taylor Twp was formed in 1856. At that time a list was published of all land owners. John Ritts is listed as a Freeman, while his father Thomas was a Resident. John therefore was married sometime after June 1856 and before September 1857. And Mother explained the inmate code! It's nice to know my ancestor wasn't a criminal. Now if I could remember which ancestor had this notation on their tax record I'd be totally psyched. Since I don't and I don't want to forget the definition when I finally find him, I've written this blog.
Happy New Year! The ball has dropped, the party is over. The time has come to set goals for the coming year. One goal for me is easy: a commitment to read 100 books this year. I set and achieved this goal for the past few years. It is so easy to do. To double the fun, I create a post on Shelfari.com group 50 Book Challenge. Once I reach 50, I move on to the 100 Book Challenge group. Then I start to read. Cozy mystery and family history are my current favorite topics. Audio is my top choice for cozy mysteries and best sellers. My Audible.com wish list is long and growing. I'm happy to see that their list of cozy authors is growing as well. The Roxbury Library is helping feed my appetite as well. Besides their audio selections available via Overdrive, they have added another option: One Click Digital. Both of these sites will also allow e-book borrowing with your library card. When I have run out of audio choices, my next format choice is e-book. I've got a nook for the pool, a nook for reading by the fire and a tablet for reading on the go. The last one can also read Kindle books. I finally broke down and downloaded the app after I found a great new site Book Bub for free e-books. No this is not a site that cheats authors out of royalties. This site will send you an email alerting you to free book deals being offered by Amazon, B&N and others.
Keeping with my fiscal conservation in regard to reading, Google Books offers up a wide array of family histories that I tap into as I do my family tree. It is amazing how many genealogy books have been digitized by Google and others. It is exciting to find documentation of my connection to generations 6, 7, 8 back. It's even neater to find my grandpa in a book on a revolutionary patriots Alexander Alexander and Bancroft Woodcock. The number 100 seems daunting at the beginning of the year. I look forward to the challenge of reading that many different books. Besides if it really gets tough, I can always read some kiddie books to my nephew to catch up.
Genealogy bloggers tend to reserve Wednesday for stories about children who past to soon. Today I'm expanding it a bit to include a mother, Mary Burket, and her children. Life was tough in rural Pennsylvania in the late 1800s. Hopewell, Pennsylvania was primarily a farming community. Early to bed, early to rise; few of the modern day farm conveniences existed then. Families literally lived and died with the crops.
Life expectancy at that time was only about 45 years old. Unfortunately, children dying young was not uncommon. Two of Mary's siblings (Leonard & Hannah) died before she was 10 and one, Daniel, died before she was born. In 1855, John & Elizabeth Brown Burket (my 3rd great-grandparents) welcomed their 12th child into the world. According to the census in 1870 she was the only child living at home, while going to school. That census record shows at 14, she could not write. The 1880 census does not show her inability to write. Whether the question was asked or assumed, the census taker believed Mary had learned to write. Her father had by 1870 retired and had turned the farming duties over to her brother Samuel (my 2nd great-grandpa) who had set up his own house on the farmstead. In 1871, John T Burket passed away at the ripe old age of 64 after tasking Samuel to take care of mother and 15 year old sister. Mary married a local boy, Walter Cessna and they set about raising a family in Hopewell as well. August 1874 brought their first child, Elizabeth. By the 1880 census, Elizabeth had a brother and sister to keep her company. Mary and Walter had two more children who lived well into adulthood; David and Earnie May. With the joy came sorrow as well. Mary gave birth to stillborn twins 1886. The Cessna's last child, Glenn, was born on April 30, 1895. It was a difficult birth for both mother and child. Mary lingered 15 days after giving birth, before passing away on May 15th at age 39. Her son Glenn didn't live to see his 3 month birthday. Unlike today with 24/7 social media it is difficult to track the happy and joyous events in an ancestors life. I'm sure Mary had many happy events, but the recorded memories are of loss and a life cut short. Mary and her young children are buried in the Cessna Piper Road Cemetery.
Ancestry.com released it's new DNA results! My Christmas present last year were Ancestry DNA tests for my dad & I. I've been doing research into my family history for a number of years so I was excited to see what doors would be opened using DNA. AncestryDNA maps ethnicity going back multiple generations. My dad's original results were in line with my research. My original results were odd in they showed no Western European DNA, but a lot of Eastern European and Scandinavian. My research which goes back to 1600-1700s on most lines have 0% or the latter two regions. When Ancestry announced it was expanding it's testing and reworked it's maps based on further research advancements I eagerly awaited the results. I'm not a scientist so see them for the explanation. I'm just happy that the new results make far more sense both in terms of being my father's daughter and my own family research.
Now I have a new mystery to solve; who were my ancestors from the Iberian Peninsula and how far back am I going to have to travel to find them?
Yesterday I attended the internment of my cousin's husband at Arlington National Cemetery. This is not the first family member who has been laid to rest on this hallowed ground. My uncle (USN) joined his wife in 2010, and there is at least one other known to me.
Dad at John Armstrong's Grave
The history of Arlington itself is interesting. The mansion was originally built by the grandson of President George Washington. It became the residence of Robert E Lee after his marriage to the grandson's daughter. Arlington House as it was known, was confiscated by the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War. On June 15, 1864 Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs appropriated the property as a military cemetery. Sixteen days later Private John Armstrong died in a Washington DC hospital of gunshot wounds received in battle. He was one of the first soldiers buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Wednesday’s Child in the genealogy world is a time to
recognize our ancestors who passed far too young. Given the hard life of our
ancestors in the 18th and 19th and even the early20th
centuries there is no surprise that life spans were far shorter than they are
today. Vital records (birth/death records) weren’t officially recorded by the
government in most parts of the country until sometime during the 1900s. Before 1850 the US
census only listed the head of household, so it is easy to see why finding
information on minor children of the time is difficult. Oftentimes the only
record of their life is their headstone. So in honor of those whom much is
unknown in my own family tree, let me introduce:
Birth 1 Jun 1874 in Hopewell, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, USA
Death 1 Dec 1876 in Blair, Pennsylvania, USAEmanuel was the youngest of 5 children born to William Alexander Hudson and Eliza Metzger. His father died a mere 10 months after Emanuel was born. He is buried in the Mennonite Cemetery in Martinsburg, PA alongside his mum.
Catherine E Ritts – Age 1
Birth 15 Oct 1906 in Antis, Blair, Pennsylvania, USA
Death 25 Jul 1907 in Antis, Blair, Pennsylvania, USA Catherine was only the 2nd daughter born to Harry & Lizzie Ritts. The Ritts clan numbered 11 with 9 boys and my nana surviving to adulthood. Catherine's remains lie with her parents, grandpa, and a few brothers in the Antis Cemetery.
Margaret Levenia Campbell – Age 11
Birth 17 Mar 1878 in Buckner, Louisa, Virginia, USA
Death 4 Mar 1890 in Altoona, Blair, Pennsylvania, USA
Maggie C, the eleven year old daughter of Henry J and Tressie Campbell died on
Tuesday morning at 20 minutes to 2:00 of pneumonia, super induced by grip and
asthma combined. Her demise is a great blow to her parents, she being the
youngest daughter. Stevens Mortuary, Altoona, PA 1883-1910, p 31, Campbell,
Maggie d 3/4/1890 St Marys; a 11 yrs; d/o Henry & Theresa Campbell; r. 2516
Oak Ave*
* Bakers's Mansion, Altoona
Tribune, March 6, 1890, Thursday
Cambria County was and is a rural farming area in western
Pennsylvania where my paternal grandmother’s family comes from. Her grand-uncles
Daniel and Henry Krise were coopers on a local farm before the War Between the
States. Young and idealistic the brother’s
joined the Union Army weeks after the firing on Fort Sumter in April of 1861.
As members of the Pennsylvania Reserves Infantry they went to Virginia to fight
in the Peninsular Campaign.
The Peninsular Campaign was led by Gen. George McClellan its
purpose; to capture the Confederate capitol of Richmond. The largest of the
Seven Day Battles, Gaines’ Mill was one of the most vicious of the war and the
only obvious victory by the Confederates during the peninsula campaign. The
battle began midday on June 27, 1862. At the start of the battle General
Stonewall Jackson was to bring his men to back up General Lee in the battle.
When Jackson didn’t arrive on time the confederates were forced to delay their
assault. The tide of battle turned when General Jackson’s troops arrived. Disjointed,
disorganized, and companies crushed, the battle became a desperate struggle for
the Union forces. By sunset the battle raged so fierce the smoke enveloped the Colonel
Gallagher’s Pennsylvania 11th Reserves and Colonel Simpson’s New
Jersey 4th obliterating their view of the Union pullback until they
were surrounded by the Confederates. From the report of General McCall “The
situation of these two brave regiments , which so nobly maintained their ground
after all had retired, was now hopeless; their retreat was entirely cut off by
the increasing force of the enemy, who were still advancing, and they were
forced to surrender.” Over 600 soldiers in
the Pennsylvania 11th Reserves captured among them were the Krise brother’s
Henry and Daniel.
The non-commissioned soldiers captured during the Peninsular
Campaign including those at Gaines Mill were sent to Belle Isle at the end of
June. Like the notorious Andersonville prison, conditions were deplorable. By mid-July
Belle Isle held over 10,000 prisoners of war, the prison was only meant to hold
3,000. Prisoners including Henry and Daniel were filthy, covered in vermin and
starved. Gratefully for their incarceration was brief. Henry & Daniel were
amongst the first wave of prisoners exchanged in August of 1862. Both continued
the fight for the preservation of the Union. Daniel re-enlisted joining and died
during the war in 1864. He is buried in Alexandria Cemetery. Henry was shot in
the face at South Mountain and discharged. It’s believed Henry died of his
wounds at home in 1867.
My nephew often complains that history is boring, that it isn’t relatable to the present. Tonight I have proof that his hypothesis is wrong. And that the proof involves his family past and present.
The first story that touched me was about the early 1864 furlough of the regiment (pg 156). That trip took the regiment by train from Pittsburgh to Altoona and finally home to Pottsville. What struck me about this trip was the history of these locations for my family. This John came to America from the Isle of Mann in 1838 settling in Pottsville to work as a miner prior to the war. My 2nd great-grandpa, Michael Armstrong, and his son Edward Lewis also worked the mines until Edward left the area to work on the railroad in Altoona. If this was my John Armstrong, he would have left for the war when Michael was 7 and he was dead by the time Michael was 11. He never would have met my great-grandpa Edward or my grandfather or father whom both born in Altoona. He would never know how the tracks he traveled on his last trip home would 87 years later take his great-great grandson on the reverse trip from Altoona to Pittsburgh where my father met my mother.
At this point in time the only facts I know about John’s time in the war are about his final battle at the Spotsylvania Courthouse in May of 1864. Private John Armstrong was wounded by gunshot on May 12th in Spotsylvania, sent to a backline hospital in Washington DC where he succumbed to his wounds on July 1, 1864. He was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
On the day Private John Armstrong was mortally wounded, another soldier Comrade John Morrisey had a premonition he would not survive the day (pgs 178-179). Morrisey turned to his friend Sgt William Wells beseeching him to relay a message to his sister Mary that he died facing the enemy. As the battle commenced, Comrade John Morrisey was shot through the head. During a lull in the battle, Sgt Wells buried his friend. Later during the war, Sgt Wells was injured and sent to a hospital in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania where John’s sister Mary Morrisey found him. Sgt Wells shared with Mary Morrisey her brother’s last words. This story gave me chills when I realized not only that John Morrisey and Private John Armstrong fought in a battle on the same day that ultimately killed them both, but the hospital where Sgt Wells and Mary Morrisey met was the same hospital where I born... Can anyone say small world.
In my search for tips on researching my family history I found an interesting group, GeneaBloggers. Among the advice offered is a challenge to record our own memories for future descendants. I am intrigued by their 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin which is a series of weekly blogging ideas. This week’s prompt is RESTAURANTS.
I immediately thought of Burger King. As a treat a couple times a year, my mom would pack my brother & my best friend’s family into the car for the trip to Burger King. Car rides with the two families always meant something fun was in store. This BK was the first fast food restaurant in the area, so it was a novel experience for us kids. We would each get to step up to the counter and order what we wanted. This alone was huge! I realize the current generation expects that mom to fix different meals for each kid, but with the moms my friends & I grew up with, we ate what they made that night… and we ate it all, end of discussion. Our choice was the amount of fuss we put up before eating the brussel sprouts, too much fuss & no dessert. After we all ordered and gotten our crowns, we’d get our bag of food & head back home to eat. I don’t ever remember eating at the restaurant; instead all us kids would eat out on the porch back at home.
We moved from Blue Bell when I was still in elementary school, so my geographical memory is that of a child. I can give you directions from my house to: school, church, and Burger King. A few years ago we were passing through Blue Bell and there was a need for a bathroom break. Without having been in the area for decades I was able to direct the driver right to this Burger King. My aunt has moved to the area and lives a bit passed the BK, so now when I drive by, I smile. What is was your favorite restaurant as a kid?
