Storeys in county for reunion; book will tell their story By BARRY CLEVELAND Of The Times Staff And now, to paraphrase broadcaster and columnist Paul Harvey, you'll know the rest of the Storeys. Pardon the play on words, please. But Californian Betty Storey is hard at work on a genealogy of the Storey families who have been in White County for nearly two centuries. Storey, a retired airline flight attendant who now teaches English in China, has spent more than two decades researching the family of her late husband--and she hopes to publish a combined genealogy and history of the Storeys within six months. Storey, a San Francisco native who now lives in the Sacramento area, is in White County this week and will take part this weekend in a national reunion of descendants of George Storey Jr. and his nephew, Robert Storey, who settled here before Illinois was a state. Some other out-of-state members of the far-flung family are expected to arrive as early as Friday. Many will spend Saturday touring the county, viewing the home sites of Storeys of days gone by and the cemeteries where many Storey pioneers are buried. They plan to attend church together on Sunday and to enjoy an all-day outdoor reunion and picnic at the John and Louise Storey home near Enfield on Monday, Labor Day. Storey was married to Richard Warren Storey, a White County native who was the son of the late Hobart Orlan and Grace (Smith) Storey, White County natives who took their family to the Long Beach, Calif. area in 1939. Her husband, a commercial pilot, died in 1964, and she said she wanted her four daughters to know something of their Storey heritage. Problem was, she said Wednesday, because of the blending of families associated with early deaths of parents, the surviving family members in California knew little about the history of the Storeys. And so, after doing a bit of research in the '70s, Storey packed up her car in 1980 and began a cross-country journey. She visited places important to the history of her own family (the Morgans) and that of her husband. In the years since that time, her research into the histories of the Storeys (and associated families such as the Cusics, Elders, Millers, Brocketts, Douglases, Dagleys and Veatches) have taken her across the United States and to the British Isles. She visited County Cavan, Ireland, which John Storey left in 1723 to migrate to Pennsylvania. She visited the Brockett manor home near London and the Veatch castle near Edinburgh, Scotland, while in the British Isles. And photos of those sites will be featured in the upcoming book. But back to the Storey story. George Storey was born to John Storey and his wife in 1725 in Lancaster County, Pa. The family belonged to the Donegal Presbyterian Church, which apparently moved en masse first to Staunton, Va. and then, years later, to what was then the 96th District (later Union County), S.C., where they settled in Fair Forest. About 1809, some of the Storeys (George Jr. and his family, and a nephew, Robert) and many friends and neighbors decided to move west. Gathering for a week on the old Revolutionary War battlefield of Cowpens, near Spartanburg, S.C., the group headed north, to Cumberland Gap. Delayed for a time because of the presence of hostile Indians, they built a fort at Campbell Station. Then they proceeded across the Gap and into what was then "The West." Some of the group peeled off and settled in Kentucky, others in Tennessee. But many persevered and crossed the Ohio into Illinois Territory. Records show that the Storeys purchased ground in White County between 1814 and 1818. And in some cases, their descendants own and occupy the old homesteads. Back to the present--almost. In 1980, Betty Storey visited with Storey descendants in the Spartanburg area (including some who still own the 100-plus acres granted by King George III of Britain in 1750 to their ancestor, George Storey). She was told that a genealogy had been compiled in 1955 of the families of the Storeys who had stayed behind when the 1809 exodus began. And the South Carolinians had always wondered "what became of the other Storeys" (George Jr. and Robert). Similarly, she said, some of the White County Storeys she had spoken with had not known of their Carolina heritage--and relatives. When she began thinking of doing a Storey book (she has done one about the Morgans), she originally intended to incorporate all of the Storeys. But it quickly became clear that the task would be too great, so she decided to concentrate on the Storeys and relatives who came to White County two centuries ago. Storey (whose late husband actually descended from both White County lines of the family) said George Jr. "brought a flock of kids" with him to White County, while Robert was unmarried at the time. And there were many marriages along the long trail to the new home in Illinois, she said. The years since, of course, have swollen the long roll of Storey descendants into the thousands. Half of Storey's upcoming book (and by the way, she uses the "Storey" spelling, though some family members have dropped the "e") will consist of detailed data, a classic genealogy, filled with names and dates (she estimates it will include 4,500 names). It will also include information on the areas where the family has lived, as well as information about associated and allied families. But the rest will be a bit different. "The idea is to use the people in the database as a vehicle to walk through history," said Storey. "I've traced the family from the 1500s to modern times." The hard work has been done, she said. "The writing will be the easy part," after the long, arduous task of gathering names, dates and places. She hopes to publish the hardbound book (her last one ran up to about 600 pages, and this one may be comparable) early next year. After that, she'll probably return to her "real job" of teaching school in a Chinese city near Hong Kong. She took a year off to finish the Storey book. Storey can be contacted this weekend at the reunion (or by calling Walter Storey). Her address, phone number and e-mail address: Betty Storey 8034 Peppermint Court Citrus Heights, CA 95610 916-723-1177 betzstorey@prodigy.net