Some One Asked: Why'd You Get Into Genealogy?

Well, for me it was two separate things that got me started. 

First a  binder of papers families had filled out and returned to one of my grandmother's brothers had my great grandparents and three of their children buried in three different cemeteries.

I wanted to find them for my grandmother before she passed away. 

I started checking out the cemeteries when I went by. One in particular had lost it's records to a chapel fire so I had to hoof it all over the cemetery! 

They, of course, were in one of the last sections I could look in and all together. 

I'm not sure if it was this excitement I had at finding them or his finding Find a Grave first but my husband and I started looking for my ancestors at a Quaker cemetery. 

 This quest for my relatives and the ability to fill requests for FAG fueled a common love for genealogy between us. 

I do confess though, I know I was driven by an underlying motive. Years ago my Grandmother had said the girls in our family could be DARS, Daughters of the American Revolution. Both she and my Mom wanted to do the process but never got to it.

I was told it was through a particular person so I began searching for this person only to find, eventually, this was not the correct person but that they had identified him by his given and middle name. I needed to find an ancestor with a different last name. 

Holy cow, there were so many people with this name in my family...and to confuse me more I had two different lines that followed a Robert to James to Finley generational progression that I kept getting confused. 

When you find one wonderful, hard to find answer it always leads to a dozen more questions.

We have been doing our genealogy for years now and know it will never be done...but it sure is fun doing the research and filling in the blanks.

What got you started in genealogy? 

Owning Up To Your Family's Past

Owning Up To Your Family's Past

Being relating in multiple ways.

 My maternal grandmother was always telling me, "...we're related to ..". I wanted to hear it but she usually did so when I was driving and interacting with my car seated  little one in my Grandmother's car car that required more than the usual attention to drive. She and my "Pap" had bought it and even though it was very difficult to steer she was keeping it! It just wasn't conducive to writing it all down. When we were at home we both were usually busy doing other daily things.

Anyway, when I was young I remember my (Great)Aunt Gladys and her husband, Uncle Bill coming to visit.  They were both ministers and missionaries. They were always dressed in their 'Sunday clothes'. 

 Aunt Gladys was my Grandpa, Pap's, sister but their last name was Cochenour. Hmmm that name was from my mother's other side...not my Pap's side. 

I'd walk up to Uncle Bill and start a conversation and tell him we were probably related and he'd shrug it off. It made me feel 'warm and fuzzy' that we could be related by family to Uncle Bill and to Aunt Gladys. 

He may have indicated he 'was not related to his wife, Aunt Gladys' in response  but I know time and time again I would try to explain to him it was on his side not Aunt Gladys' so he wasn't married to his cousin.

He just didn't want to hear it. 

To get to the point Uncle Bill was related to us , he was my third cousin twice removed. To make it even more complex he's related to me again; his grandmother is my first cousin four times removed.  So Uncle Bill was related to me three different ways, through his wife by marriage, his 2nd great grandfather and his grandmother. Whew...

Do you have any multiple relationships in your family? 

Surname Saturday: "Indian Captures and Murders" was the title!

Indian Captures and Murders Western Pennsylvania Frontier

Insomnia and the love of history and genealogy drives my husband to do online research late into the night. When he finds something really exciting he actually wakes me to tell me! I'm usually equally as excited with his finds and this one really sticks with me.

Let me first say that all my life I've wanted to move to the Ligonier, Pennsylvania area. Why? I just felt drawn to it. Pennsylvania is the Keystone State. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is where Ben Franklin lived and where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Here in PA the Founding Fathers made the decisions to move to independence.
Many early settlers were Quakers that came here to Pennsylvania to seek two things they could not achieve in Europe;  religious freedom and land that would be theirs. In our search for our ancestors we have found many of mine were in fact Quakers. Ligonier was the first Fort  west of the Allegheny mountains on the way to Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh, PA. It was the gateway west for "pioneers" over those hard to cross mountains. For more info on Fort Ligonier see: http://fortligonier.org/

To get back to the Indian captures and murders: Nick, my husband, came upstairs with startling news one night about one of my ancestors we knew about but never heard this exact story before.

It appears as though my fifth great grandfather, James Means had come to Fort Ligonier with his family in 1777 to seek protection from the Indian allies of the British. He would have been about 12 years old. We knew he had a sister that was killed by the Indians but not any details.

This new info gave us stark details.

Four children, two were children of Robert Reed and two were children of Robert and Elizabeth Means. James and Rebecca Means along with Martha Ann and George Reed were headed out to pick berries in a clearing near the fort during the summer of 1778.

The story goes: "On their way and just as they ascended the hill on the other side of the Loyalhanna, the young men, who were walking ahead, met Major William McDowell, who was on horseback, coming toward the fort. At that instant, the whole party was fired upon by Indians lying behind a log. Young Reed fell dead, and McDowell's rifle was splintered by a bullet which glanced and wounded him in the hand. Young Means ran back to protect the girls, who had started to run to the fort. He was captured. The Indians soon caught Miss Means and tomahawked her; but Miss Reed succeeded in outdistancing her pursuers as she fled toward the fort."
"The garrison hearing the firing,a relief party"..."met Miss Reed a short distance from the fort," ..."conducted her to safety while the others proceeded to the scene of the firing, where they found the lifeless bodies of Reed and Miss Means."*
"Three years later young Means returned from his captivity and reported that the warrior who had chased Miss Reed was renowned as an athlete among the Indians, but had lost his prestige on account of his failure to catch the "white squaw".
James Means went on to marry my fifth great grandmother Rebecca McGrew a Quaker that was known for breaking Quaker rules by dancing! They went on to have 16 children!
What a happy ending!
Now I know my connection with Ligonier may have something to do with my ancestry!

Thank you for sharing your time with us.

If you would like more info on this area and Indian situation check out our blog on Col. Pomerroy who was the commander of Fort Ligonier at the time of my anscestors plight!

http://restinginwestmoreland.blogspot.com/2011/07/lt-col-pomeroy-more-info-on.html

http://fortligonier.org/

*"Pennsylvania In The Revolution, Fort Ligonier and It's Times. by C. Hale Sipe, Telegraph Press, Harrisburg, PA., 1932.