Stitches Thru Time: ancestors

No-no-no ... not the crazy kind of fruit! (Although my family tree has plenty of that.) The helpful kind. The kind that leads you to use an ancestor in your story.

Pictured here are Ellen and John Lewis, my great-great-grandparents. The photo was taken in 1908 on their 40th wedding anniversary and is still in our family 110 years later.

John was a Civil War vet who mustered into the Union forces as part of the Michigan 7th Cavalry (Yup! Custer's bunch.) on March 2, 1865. He was 18 years old.

The Michigan 7th Cavalry was engaged a few times after John mustered in, including:
Five Fork, VA, March 30 - April 1, 1865
Duck Pond Mills, VA, April 4, 1865
Sailor's Creek, VA, April 6, 1865
Appomattox Court House, VA, April 8-9, 1865
Even though we don't have any direct evidence that he was or wasn't involved in any of these engagements.

However, he was transferred west at the close of the Civil War to serve during the Plains Indian Wars. He survived, returned to Michigan, and sired the crop of ancestors that leads down to me.

My current work in progress involves a Civil War vet who I've decided knew my great-great-grandfather. How fun is that?!

Pegg Thomas lives on a hobby farm in Northern Michigan with Michael, her husband of *mumble* years. A life-long history geek, she writes “History with a Touch of Humor.” When not working or writing, Pegg can be found in her barn, her garden, her kitchen, or sitting at her spinning wheel creating yarn to turn into her signature wool shawls.

Follow her on Facebook or visit her at PeggThomas.com.

For a writer published in contemporary romance and devotionals, I love research and I’ve had some interesting experiences. I do have a historical trilogy based on old family stories in the works, and I’m a pretty good sleuth—shades of the days when Nancy Drew mysteries were my reading preference.

Free family history sites can be treasure troves of information. Two of my favorites are www.DeadFred.com and www.FindAGrave.com. DeadFred is a database of historical photographs, great for assisting with descriptions of characters and period clothing. FindAGrave includes personal stories and the epitaphs can be a story themselves. For historical newspaper research, www.news.google.com/newspapers, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/, and http://fultonhistory.com/ are great resources. Free sites like http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/, and http://www.castlegarden.org/ give information about immigrants. Revolutionary War and Civil War veterans are located at http://www.dar.org/national-society/genealogy and http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm, and there are many, many more.

In researching my North Dakota roots, a local genealogy society assigned a sweet elderly lady to my case. I asked about the hardware store in the now-ghost town where my great grandparents lived. In the meantime, my mom discovered a photograph of the store’s interior with my great grandfather at the counter. When my research helper asked a neighbor, she discovered he bought the building and moved it. She was standing in what had once been my great grandfather’s store.

While posting queries on genealogy message boards about another great grandfather’s murder, I met some distant cousins who came to visit, despite my husband’s warnings that they might be axe murderers. We located a book by Fredric Remington, the famed western artist and writer that includes sketches of my great grandfather sporting a bandage from being shot in a poker game.

I discovered an 11^th great grandfather who was the last man publicly beheaded on Tower Hill in London, a colonel in the War of 1812, two ancestors who served at Valley Forge, and a great uncle who gambled with Billy the Kid. Googling names from an old newspaper article led to finding my great uncle’s fiancée whose mother died in a flu epidemic. When they opened the grave to bury a child with her, there were fingernail marks on the coffin lid.

Research can be exciting when you have the right tools along with tenacity and patience. A personal touch might be just the thing for a sagging story middle and lead to some family fun along the way.

© Copyright by Norma Gail Thurston Holtman, February 9, 2014

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About the author:

Norma Gail is the author of the Christy Award nominated contemporary Christian romance, Land of My Dreams. A women’s Bible study leader for over 21 years, her devotionals and poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the Stitches Thru Time blog, and in “The Secret Place.” She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, and the New Mexico Christian Novelists. Norma is a former RN who lives in the mountains of New Mexico with her husband of 40 years. They have two adult children.

Connect with Norma:

Website: www.normagail.org

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Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbZIoC_JSE

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Book Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Land-My-Dreams-Norma-Gail/dp/1941103170