For those interested in John Hart, the signer...here is a website: www.stepping-stones.com/jhart.html I had heard that he was so hated for signing the Declaration of Independence he had to flee for his life, leaving a sick wife and about 10 children. When he later returned home, his wife had died and his children scattered. The website above tells more about him. =========================== ---------- > From: Rockne H. Johnson <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [HART-L] John Hart, the Signer > Date: Friday, April 23, 1999 8:19 PM > > H. is for Hart and I was raised with the family tradition that we were > descended from John Hart, signer of the Declaration of Independence. I > never asked for proof as I assumed that a tradition like that would never > be forgotten. So it came as a shock to me in 1992, at age 62, when I heard > that Aunt Ceil had her doubts. > > Lucile Nevison Philippi , of Alliance, Ohio, my mother's next to youngest > sister, produced a Nevison book in the late 1980's and a Hart book in the > early 1990's. > > Aunt Norma, the youngest of the seven sisters, sponsored a Nevison Reunion > near Alliance, Ohio, in September 1992. My wife and I attended and I > learned the source of Aunt Ceil's doubt of the John Hart connection. She > had bought a book, "John Hart; The Biography of a Signer of the Declaration > of Independance," The Pioneer Press, Newfane, Vermont, 1977, and the > author,Cleon H. Hammond, noted that there were Pennsylvania Hart families > which claimed descent but which were not so descended. Aunt Ceil figured > that ours was probably one of them. > > The day after the Reunion, Glennis and I drove our rented car to > Pennsylvania. Aunt Ceil has given us the address of her cousin Evelyn Hart > McClearn in Stoneboro. Neither Evelyn nor her daughter, who also dropped > in, had heard of the John Hart tradition. (They had heard that we were > descended from Sir Frances Drake, but that is another story.) > > With two strikes against the tradition, I took the John Hart biography back > to Honolulu and read it. I t contained many lists of descendants. It told > how everyone was named for someone in the family. I tablulated their first > names and compared them with the first names of our Harts, as contained in > Aunt Ceil's Hart book. The intersection of the two sets of names was hard > to find. Strike three! > > If that wasn't enough, James Hart, whom Aunt Ceil named as our earliest > known ancestor, was of such an age that, if descended, he would have had to > be a grandson of the signer. The grandchildren appeared to be well known > and there was no James among them. > > That was my introduction to genealogy. > > It was tough to take; I had thrived on this tradition. But abandoning > cherished myths is part of growing up. > > In the years since I have identified my real direct ancestors, all 134 of > them. I hope that my descendants will have more satisfaction in knowing > the real ones than I did in knowing the pretended one. > > Rock >