The Gen Project

While in the early part of the 1800’s we saw needlework memorializing ancestors, by the late part of the century, more personal forms of meorialization had become the vogue as memorial jewelry became the fashion. Hair bracelets, made from woven strands of family members’ hair became extremely popular.

Mourning Bracelet

Though I don’t know who made the bracelet shown above, I do know that it came from my maternal grandmother’s side and probably had its origins in Cumberland county. This particular bracelet also includes some pieces of hair in the locket itself.

Mourning Bracelet Detail

The workmanship and time that must have gone into making a bracelet like this is rather amazing and it is a shame that many of them were salvaged years later for the precious metals used in the fastenings. They are a beautiful, if rather unique, form of expression.

I wonder how may have come across relatives that we wish we hadn’t found. I was browsing through the archives of an old New Jersey paper and came across the story from 1892 of a girl named Lizzie Peak who was murdered on her way home one night by a jealous suitor named Wesley Warner. Out of curiosity, I checked some of the online family trees to see what other might know about Wesley and though there are several listings for him, not one mentions the interesting fact that he was executed in 1894 for Lizzie’s murder. There was plenty of news coverage of the trial and all sorts of other interesting facts came to light as well. For starters, Lizzie had a brother, Barclay, who was sent to prison a few years earlier for killing his would-be sweetheart, Katie Anderson, who just happened to also be his cousin. Lizzie also had a sister, Amanda, who had been married to Clarence Warner, brother of Wesley. At the time that Wesley killed Lizzlie, he had a wife , Ellen Hannon, and four children that he had previously deserted, and it appears that Ellen may have had a sister who was married to one of Wesley’s brothers. Got a scorecard? Straightening out these family lines could be a real challenge!

So far, I’ve determined that Wesley’s parents were Hezekiah Warner and Rebecca Jane Vandegrift and the parents of Lizzie Peak were Rebecca and Joseph Peak. One of the many articles related to the two murders stated that the mother (Rebecca) of Lizzie (and Barclay) was the aunt of Katie Anderson, so perhaps Katie’s mother (Joanna) was Rebecca’s sister. Another article mentions Mrs. Frank Powell, a sister-in-law to Wesley Warner. At some point, I hope to tie all these various folks together.

Back in the old days, as they say, the bulk of genealogy research was done by writing letters and visitng historical societies, so the diligent researcher did not expect to get answers right away. Now, with the advent of the internet as a major tool, in many cases, the answers are already out there, just waiting for us to find them in a web search. Sometimes, however, we still need to have patience to wait for the little details to come through.

Years ago, whe I first started researching my father’s side of the family, I was stuck at his paternal grandfather and could not seem to get any further, so I posted a query about him and hoped that somewhere, someone knew something about him. Several years later, an answer came through - a distant cousin found my query and had all the information I needed to finally place my great-grandfather in the right group. Once I had a few of the pieces in place, the rest came together easily. I cannot stress enough how useful it can be to post a query to track down elusive information. The answers may take awhile to appear, but it can be well worth the wait!

I recently transcribed and posted on the Berks County site the wedding certificate for my parents who were married at Reading Exeter United Friends Meeting. A bit of a challenge to read at times, but it helped that I also had the Bride’s Book that my mother kept as a record of the event. Since this little book includes the listing of gifts received and their donors, it makes for some rather interesting reading when tracking down the source of various family pieces. Among other things given to the couple was a set of Wedgwood Argyle china, which I remember well as Mom’s good china when I was growing up. I believe the set was given to my brother when he married, as Mom had started collecting Haviland china by then.

The Argyle pattern is actually a subset of the Wedgwood Patrician pattern, which Mom’s mother used for her good china, so it was probably a natural choice for her.

Of course, in that day, brides also tended to pick a silver pattern to go along with their good china; Mom’s was International’s 1810 pattern, a very simple pattern. It was used daily at home growing up as she never did like using stainless.

Sometimes, for many different reasons, family trees end up including ancestors that don’t really belong there and stories told at family gatherings include phrases like “according to tradition” or “supposedly”. What this kind of wording usually translates to is “we haven’t actually done the reseach, but this is someone who sounds like an interesting ancestor, so we’ll claim him”. Most of the time, the would-be ancestor served in the Revolutionary War, or came over on the Mayflower, or founded a town, or descended from royalty. Take your pick, the variations are numerous, but they all come down to the same basic problem - a lack of research coupled with a desire to have a famous, or sometimes infamous, ancestor.

As researchers into our family roots, we have more tools than ever to help untangle the mysteries of the past, but all too many choose instead to accept the family legends as gospel truth. Date to be different - do your research diligently and cite your sources properly. You may not win any applause from your own family, but future researchers will most certainly appreciate your work!