Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1897-01-20
HUNTING UP ONES ANCESTORS.
How Two Sons of the Revolution Estab-
lished Their Claims to Society.

have lost their gfeat-grandfathers and
now are engaged IN search for them.
1t never seems to have occurred to the
pioneers that any of their descendants
would take a particle of interest in their
family relations with people in the old
lands, or that they would have no natur.
al means of obtaining the information
in regard to those people which was
Familiarity contained in the heads of the
pioneers themselves, but which those
worthless neither took the trouble TO
write down nor to communicate verbally
to their children. They either thought
that the matter was of no Importance,
or they thought nothing at all about 1t.
At any rate, while some persons in the
United States know much about their
ancestors, even to remote degree the
majority of our people whose families
have been in the country for four or
five generations know little or nothing
about those who have gone before them.
This is especially true of those whose
grandfathers removed from the early
settlements along the Atlantic coasts into
the interior. In such cases little is hand
ed down except the name of the great
grandfather and the place in which ne
lived.
We have a shrewd idea that some of the
old pigeons did not care to keep up any
cordial relations with their friends on the
other side of the ocean; also that some of
lnSM WcIG uOl 50 very plOuQ VI lhCAi-
selves as to create much anxiety in re-
gard to the transmission of their fame to
posterity. For some reason 1t has come
to pass that the amount of information of
this kind in the possession OF many per-
sons Is about this-that the great-grand-
father was William JONES' and that he
lived near Boston during the revolution
airy war; or that the ancestor was John
Stuff, who lived in Berks county, Penn
sylvania, at the same period. This may
appear to be a very slender hold upon
the past for one who is anxious to con-
meet himself by more detail with the early
days, but 1t Is all that many persons have.
Since the celebration of the centennial
of our Declaration of Independence, in
1876 there has been, as everybody knows,
a marked revival of interest in ancestors
among our people; and this has been
greatly stimulated by the societies which
are based upon revolutionary or colonial
pedigrees. So many, who heretofore have
known nothing about their genealogy
except that John Stuff who lived at the
time of the revolutionary war; in Berks
county Pennsylvania, was their great
grandfather, are now anXiously inqulring
as to what kind of q man John was, AMI
whether he was mighty man of war or
not. The attempt to run down all pos
sible information is quickly and earnestly
begun
The first step in the chase is to make
inquiries among all the older relatives.
memories, and to fish up scraps of knowl-
edge bit by bit from the depths; but they
always vouchsafe the information that
such an aunt or uncle, who died twenty
years ago, knew all about these things;
that they themselves had never taken
much interest in the matter, but had
heard that aunt or unc& talk by the hour
of the family traditions, although the
facts had passed out of memory now;
that If the nearer had only conversed
with who had hpan dead twpn-
ty years (the nearer was probably only
five years of age at the date of the de-
cease, and it is doubtful if the converse
tion would have profited him), he would
know all about it, Then he Is given the
addresses of all the living relations in all
parts of the United States, and is directed
to write to them.
BY prolonged and varied correspond
ence the inquirer is able to gather up
some scattered facts. He learns that
John Stuff not only lived in Berks coun-
ty but that the particular part of it in
which he had his habitat was Billsville;
also that he was blacksmith by trade,
and consequently every day found some
thing attempted and something done, on
days when he worked a ALL that he was
a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and
that he was accustomed in his old age to-
tell wonderful stories about the battles of
Germantown and Brandywine, and that
he received some land from the state Of
Pennsylvania for his military services.
Thus matters begun to look a little more
definite to the seeker after ancestors.
But as he has already expended some
money, in the way of postage stamps.
and has also spent considerable time and
labor upon letter-writing. he feels that
he must get more result than this. There
fore he determines to make a further in
vestment in railroad fare, and to visit
the said Billsville and learn still more
about John Stuff After considerable in
uuiry in that hamlet he learns the loca-
ton of the tomb of the old gentleman,
and pays 1T visit, carefully copying the
Inscription. He hunts up the farm upon
which his ancestor lived, and Is permit
ted to examine the parchment patent
which conveyed the acres to the old SOL
der, although the present owners look at
him as If he were engaged In an attempt
to discover some flaw in their title to the
property. He visits the court house and
makes note of such illusions to his an
cestors as may be contained in old doc
uments there. He makes purchase of
copy of the history of the county. Then
he goes and takes dinner with some re-
mote connection, who is also a descend
ant of the said John Stuff.
When he gets back to the city he or
ders a copy of the history of the state,
and then begins to ransack his two books.
BY this time he has become an enthusi-
asst about his subject, and feels that the
one thing worth doing in all this world
is to learn all about John, and the less
he can find the more anxious he is, and
, the more important the matter seems
The subject being in his mind constant
", Ire talks about it to many people, and
by and by some one suggests that he
should write to the state librarian, and
also to the war department in Washing
ton. for more information. From the
state librarian he obtains typed letter
giving a brief statement as TO the record
of John, the name of his captain, his COM
pany regiment and time of service.
From Washington he obtains courteous
reply stating that the said Johns name
does not appear among their papers, but
that the revolutionary records in their
offices are very incomplete, and that the
non-appearance of Johns name therein Is
no proof that he was not soldier. The
advice is also given to write to the state
librarians which has already been done.
Then some one ventures the suggestion
that he should search the colonial re-
cords. Acting upon this, he goes into
a public library and spends considerable
time making notes of the illusions to
John, which he finds to be not numerous
nor long.
Next he sits back and reflects upon all