Family Writing –

Celebrating The Allen Gazette, 100 years old!

Susannah — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 17:16:40 +0000

I was researching this weekend and when I came upon my original copy of The Allen Gazette, I noted the date, 1917. It is 100 years old! This was written by my Great, Great, Great Grandparents and for my Grandchildren, it’s 5 Greats. I have one original copy that my Grandmother saved for me.

I am excited. My copy is 100 years old!

If you aren’t familiar, The Allen Gazette was written by the Allen Family as a family newspaper. All of it is written in sarcasm, which was apparently their base language. It is themed in dry witted humor with a tendency to mock the English language.It is am amazing peephole into their lives and voices. I consider this one of my greatest treasures entrusted to me. Few people have such resource into the personalities of their ancestors.

It you read the Gazette beginning to end, you gain a good insight into their personalities and playfulness with each other. Here is a link to the post containing the original typed version I provided here.

Best,

Susannah

The Original Allen Gazette

Writing the book

Susannah — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 04:24:20 +0000

Finally I am formatting the book I hope to write. Although I will provide documentation, I will abandon the well known version of formatted genealogy with lineages and dates. I intend on taking my gathered facts and research and instead write them out narratively.

Instead of sharing my enthusiasm, I have watched non-researchers stare blankly at gathered lineages. I have watched vacant stares trying desparately to connect to documents and files. I have come to face the truth. Unless you are a researcher, amatuer or not, the information falls on blind eyes and therefore, there is no way for the information to pass generation to generation. No one embraces it, and if they can’t embrace it, they won’t pass it on with enthusiasm.

What does pass through hands are stories and interesting tidbits of information. I am making this my platform. Armed with too many papers and documents. I plan to assemble the book my Grandmothers hoped that I would write.

So tonight I finally figured out a format. The book will be a history of me. It will be divided into parts, each stemming from one of my four grandparents;maternal grandmother’s line, paternal grandmother’s line,maternal grandfather’s line and paternal grandfather’s line.

I will tell the story of each history that lead me to my grandparent. I will write the story of the settlers, their where and who and what they did and the towns where they lived. It’s conclusion is how it all leads to each of my Grandparents.

I plan to self publish. I hope it is easy to read enough that the future generations will embrace its information. I can end the book with a chapter filled with documents and sources. I can add a page of addresses of homesites, statues and important documents.There can also be a chapter in the end with photographs of each grandparent and their home.But I am confident that it will be the narratives that will stay with each reader.

I feel better now in that I have a defined plan. I feel better that I have written the framework of chapter heads and the index page. As I writer, I feel it’s so much easier to concentrate and enjoy the writing, once I have the frame in place. I have a beginning. I love beginnings. They are filled with hope and enthusiasm.

Baileys

Susannah — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 22:29:16 +0000

Today I thought to do another round of paper diving within the Parker Family Bible published 1849. There are dozens of letters, newspaper clippings, and notes. My scanner is sooo achingly slow, it really removes the enthusiasm of scanning anything. But the responsibility of acquiring family papers is in their preservation.

Family history, if you have never done it, is painstakingly slow, you can spend years trying to validate one ancestor. Even with the gift of family papers, they have to be categorized and read in ancient 100 year old handwriting. You can spend decades trying to move forward. Knowing this, you may begin to understand how incredibly exciting it is to bump into a piece of paper that has a family genealogy written out for you.

It is a gift from your ancestors. It is work you now don’t have to do, or at the least work that has become incredibly easier to do. It is as if they are beside you, helping.

I found in newly acquired papers today a hand written account of the Bailey family. I had not been able to narrow down this clan. With so many paths to walk, trails to follow, it’s near impossible. But today I hold this paper that clears my way.

Previously,I could track family so far as Sally Bailey who was daughter to Jemima and Daniel Bailey in 1804 and then I got no further. There were too many choices and I was not able to prove anyone as the next generation. Todays gift offers me 7 more generations that take me to 1649 with names and dates. I am researching them tonight.

A great big Thank You to whoever wrote this out for me, decades before they even knew I would be coming.

My line..

Myself> Ruth Balentine b. 1939> Sara Kohler b.> Inez Vinton Allen b.1889> Mary Caroline Page b.1861> (see her name above)

Scanning Documents

Susannah — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 06:21:58 +0000

I have the original Allen Gazette, written by my family in 1917. I have planned to retype it into a PDF and load the link here on the blog. But in doing so, I lose the look of the original. But I also need it legible. I spent hours working on this balance, honestly hours.

in the end I decided to scan in all 20 pages. I added them in order onto the page here entitled The Original Allen Gazette. My hope is that people can save each page to their own computer to either read or print. This allows relatives to have their own copy.

Reading it over, I see an issue. It’s a recurrent issue all historians need to address. Who is everyone? I know Parker A. is Parker Allen, my great ,great uncle. But this could very quickly become the proverbial box of untitled photographs. I need to identify who each person is. This will also allow family members to know from whom they are related.

But at least for now, the original Allen Gazette is uploaded on this blog and available for reading. And as the title page states, Long Live The Allen Gazette!!! I bet they never thought it would live a near 100 years!

Read it here

Susannah

Ancestors Trails

Susannah — Tue, 27 May 2014 04:25:13 +0000

I run into a lot of people while researching. I hear lots of stories of people and their travels while searching for their roots. I, myself, have lots of grandparents found. I have hundreds of relatives on my charts. Except for a few Germans and a Spaniard, everyone else comes from England. I have not had reason to experience the genealogy travels that other have.

When my ancestors landed, it was always somewhere along the Massachusetts coastline. From there, they moved inland, again to actually few places; Plymouth/Bridgewater, Weymouth, Concord/Lexington, Salem and Gloucester, Quincy/Braintree.

I think until I came along, for 14 generations we landed and lived in Massachusetts. Well, except that my Grandparents left to retire in Maine. Two uncles left to find work elsewhere. Myself and a brother moved to live differently. Or as in moving to Vermont, I was actually looking to live closer to how my ancestors lived.

For all the ancestors I have found, I think it’s been relatively simple to find them. We came from England and landed on the Coast of New England. We went inland a bit and built homes and lived for over 12 generations. It’s a commonality that is playing out.

It could be boring except that it was in the beginnings of founding a new country. Building first homes means you are typically mentioned in the town history. You probably held a post. Political drama happened with few people as compared to now, so often we were there or nearby. I am lucky in this search.

Except for my Germans and the Spaniard. They are hard to track. I press onward.