Dora, What an interesting story you have been able to pluck from a few tax records & family that cared deeply from their roots! That's what's interesting about genealogy, the varied results ya find from digging. I am descended from Pottery workers, whom didn't have much, but have a wonderfully loving family! Ya survive with love & struggling together, but ya do that with any family staying together! I have discovered that my Coleman's were PAdutch-Merriman surnames, as well as Davis. Perhaps Reeher from Germany also! interestingly enough for me, I had a great uncle keep a deed & some tax records with some military papers from WWI, & somehow they ended up in some records of his brother, that happened to be my grandfather Coleman, & so have them in my possession now! I am still trying to determine if this land is part of the Raccoon State Park located in that area of Beaver county, PA! A big challenge! Ya have any idea who I should speak to? I guess the state Archives?! I will figure it out. Did you say those Davis's from Chester county, PA? I have some Davis's that supposedly came from Wales & settled somewhere, on a farm, I assume in Western PA somewhere. The man, Joseph Davis, was born in Wales in 1860 & had a son born in PA in 1880 & another son, Harry born sometime, but haven't been able so far to find anything more about Harry though know more things about his sons & daughter, than him, so far! I managed to find out about Harry through tracking down his daughter, some years ago, & listening to the struggling of her father in the pottery industry Of Eastern OH, Columbiana County, in the early 1900's. Happy Hunting, Cathy Raber, FL -----Original Message----- From: Dora Smith <tiggernut_48@yahoo.com> To: PADUTCHgenONLY-L@rootsweb.com <PADUTCHgenONLY-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Sunday, April 02, 2000 12:44 AM Subject: [PaDgo] the importance of tax and census records >My father and mother both believed, having >depression, and families that ran from that >heritage and were also depressed, that their >ancestors were dirt farmers. Imagine my father's >surprise on learning that his ancestors included >community leaders, Germantown founders, religious >leaders - and farmers of HUGE, prosperous, >Pennsylvania-Dutch farms, with mills, forges, you >name it! > >But my father actually had one dirt poor ancestor >with a little farm. Shortly before 1790, John >and Isabella Smith came from Ireland - with the >clothes on their backs. They were hired off the >docks, perhaps as indentured servants, by a local >large dairy farmer who also owned slaves, and was >a particularly evangelical sort of Baptist. Must >have been a nice guy. No records of that exist - >except that in 1890, two free servants, a man and >a woman, are found on John Davis's property. >Along with the slaves. I didn't until that >minute know this guy who was actually the father >of teh "kindly farmer and justice of the peace" >who took the Smith couple in, owned slaves. One >of two or three people in that part of Chester >County who did. We know taht from the census, >too. This is teh first record of the Smiths in >this country. Could have been a different couple >- except that in 1798 the Smiths, who arrived in >this country with teh clothes on their backs, >purchased a 29 1/2 acre farm, which was tiny for >that part of Chester County where a small farm >had a hundred acres and quite a number had a >thousand - and they paid cash for this farm. The >deed tells us this. How the Smiths must have >worked and scraped for that money. > >Now, the little article their grandson >contributed to a biographical encyclopedia, his >father having been a Delaware state legislator as >well as owning nearly 1000 acres himself, >described John and Isabella as "dividing their >labor between the loom and the plough", as well >as being Presbyterian. To my family, this meant >they were farmers from Ireland. I realized this >meant they were Scotch-Irish and probably if it >was described that way labor slanted toward the >loom, particularly since the Smiths travelled 12 >miles every Sunday to the Presbyterian church >when other churches were closer. > >Well, now the tax records enter the picture. >John Smith was a weaver by trade; he paid as much >in taxes for his loom as for his land, his one >cow and one horse, and it was worth atleast as >much as his land. Can you imagine that one horse >hauling the two parents and seven children in the >wagon 12 miles to church every Sunday? It had >better have been a Clysdale! He had one of those >huge manual looms that one finds in histories of >weaving. > >The house where they lived, which John Smith >himself built, there having been no home on the >land when they bought it as a piece cut off from >another, larger parcel of land, has been built >around and on top of and still stands. The >current owner told me that they needed to do some >work on it and they excavated it. Under the >original portion of the house was a kind of half >cellar - with the remains of a fireplace and >chimney in one corner. John and Isabella Smith >bought that farm in October of 1798. They had a >one-year old son and a new-born baby. They spent >their first winter building that little log cabin >- and while they were building it, they lived in >that half cellar with the temporary fireplace in >the corner. > >About five years after he bought the farm, John >Smith apparently took out a mortgage against his >farm for $200 - and he may never have paid on the >interest either. In 1831, someone who probably >was the son of the man who made him the loan >foreclosed on the farm; he took out a judgement >against the farm for the $200 and the interest. >Another successful son of John Smith's bought the >farm; and the following year he sold it out of >the family for the judgement and whatever. > >Well, the descendants of John Smith so far as I >know have been honest and decent people and well >educated when they could manage to be, how did >this story happen? > >Well, because so many of my father's ancestors >were weavers, which is something we know time and >time again from those privacy-invading tax >records, sometimes quite successful weavers on >top of being large scale farmers, millers and >raisers of sheep, I have a small interest in >weaving, so I did a little reading about it. >Even tried my hand at spinning. It seems the >first industrial textile operations in >southeastern Pennsylvania got going right about >1830, and the price of woven textiles abruptly >plunged, and village weavers like John Smith were >quite suddenly unable to make a living, and were >ruined. Those factories were built in New >Garden, only a few miles from where John Smith >lived. > >So an entire touching family story emerges from a >few records and artifacts. John Smith takes on >human dimensions. My mother's New England family >actually kept very good records of a names and >dates and peoples' occupations and where they >lived and what land they owned sort - and as far >as I've been able to learn they completely lacked >the human dimensions that have emerged on my >father's people. > >Yours, >Dora Smith > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. >http://im.yahoo.com > >______________________________