I have 80 letters, poems, receipts, and indentures, involving three generations of four inter-related, 19th Century families. Children of Scots-Irish settlers in Fannettsburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, resettled as farm neighbours in Fountain Green Township, Hancock County, Illlinois in the mid 1830s. They founded the Presbyterian Church there to replace their beloved Lower Path Valley Presbyterian Church in Fannettsburg. They built the first schools and a new society in Hancock County, and together they now lie there in the "stone-free" soil of a rural Illinois cemetery. To this day, distant relatives back in Pennsylvania disbelieve that "stone-free" claim. These Illinois pioneers wrote letters to their Pennsylvania relatives. The earliest in the Pennsylvania collection is regional, however -- a front line report from a War of 1812 soldier. That writer was uncle to the teenaged girls who sent appeals for niceties to their Pennsylvania aunts from the wilds of the War of 1812 Bounty Lands in Illinois. These Pennsylvania-saved, pioneer letters began in 1837 and continued throughout the lives of the writers who gave accounts of pioneer hardships and fellowships as well as Gentile perspectives on the Mormon peiod, including the murders of Joseph and Hiram Smith in Carthage. The preservation of these letters in Pennsylvania for nearly 200 years seems a miracle. However, the Illinois settlers also prized the returning letters from Pennsylvania. Over successive decades, more were added -- love letters and accounts of Civil War war battles, Lincoln's funeral train, and Gen. George Armstrong Custer. The preservation of the Illinois collection seems another miracle. That these letters were even written, when most people were illiterate and signed documents with an X, is an amazement. Furthermore, the bulk of these letters were written by women who managed to acquire an education 100 years before women were allowed to vote. Perhaps the greatest miracle is that these two collections are now reunited! The families had become so distant in time and geography that the writers and their familial connections had been forgotten. Modern genealogy machines like rootsweb provided the necessary links. The Illinois collection had come to me because I was next in the family line. The Pennsylvania collection was given to me in 2006 with the instruction: "Write the book!" That instruction brings me to the last of the unlikelihoods that I believe compels me to that task -- I just happen to be something of a writer. I have published 300 magazine articles, two books of short stories, and several genealogies. (www.raventricks.com) I also just happen to be the only person who can reconstruct the relationships and tell something of the individual histories because of my lifelong fascination with history, particularly family history. The unlikelihoods of this combined collection make it incomparable. The contents are a historical bonanza. The collection must be published for the sake of the 13 souls before me who preserved these letters since 1812 for some purpose greater than themselves. All elements are in place for an epic book, save one -- a publisher who would work with me to create the most effective presentation. I live too far away (British Columbia, Canada) from the publication houses of Illinois and Pennsylvania to make effective, first-person appeals, my writing isn't known there, and my letters have failed to attract interest. There are urgencies. I am feeling my years; I don't have forever. Furthermore, soon I intend to pass this collection of 80 fragile letters to an eager university archive for future preservation and public access. Thus I ask subscribers for referrals to regional publishers of historical materials who have the means to give offer broad recognition for their books. Thank you. Barbara J. Shave

My McClintock family was in Hancock Co., IL. Do they happen to be mentioned in your collection? Thanks, Eileen [McClintock] VanAllman -------------------------------------------------- From: "Barb Shave" <bjshave@shaw.ca> Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 4:31 PM To: <PAFRANKL-L@rootsweb.com> Subject: [PAFRANKL] Collection of Pioneer Letters > I have 80 letters, poems, receipts, and indentures, involving three > generations of four inter-related, 19th Century families. Children of > Scots-Irish settlers in Fannettsburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, > resettled as farm neighbours in Fountain Green Township, Hancock County, > Illlinois in the mid 1830s. They founded the Presbyterian Church there to > replace their beloved Lower Path Valley Presbyterian Church in > Fannettsburg. They built the first schools and a new society in Hancock > County, and together they now lie there in the "stone-free" soil of a > rural Illinois cemetery. To this day, distant relatives back in > Pennsylvania disbelieve that "stone-free" claim. > > These Illinois pioneers wrote letters to their Pennsylvania relatives. The > earliest in the Pennsylvania collection is regional, however -- a front > line report from a War of 1812 soldier. That writer was uncle to the > teenaged girls who sent appeals for niceties to their Pennsylvania aunts > from the wilds of the War of 1812 Bounty Lands in Illinois. These > Pennsylvania-saved, pioneer letters began in 1837 and continued throughout > the lives of the writers who gave accounts of pioneer hardships and > fellowships as well as Gentile perspectives on the Mormon peiod, including > the murders of Joseph and Hiram Smith in Carthage. The preservation of > these letters in Pennsylvania for nearly 200 years seems a miracle. > > However, the Illinois settlers also prized the returning letters from > Pennsylvania. Over successive decades, more were added -- love letters > and accounts of Civil War war battles, Lincoln's funeral train, and Gen. > George Armstrong Custer. The preservation of the Illinois collection > seems another miracle. > > That these letters were even written, when most people were illiterate and > signed documents with an X, is an amazement. Furthermore, the bulk of > these letters were written by women who managed to acquire an education > 100 years before women were allowed to vote. > > Perhaps the greatest miracle is that these two collections are now > reunited! The families had become so distant in time and geography that > the writers and their familial connections had been forgotten. Modern > genealogy machines like rootsweb provided the necessary links. > > The Illinois collection had come to me because I was next in the family > line. The Pennsylvania collection was given to me in 2006 with the > instruction: "Write the book!" That instruction brings me to the last of > the unlikelihoods that I believe compels me to that task -- I just happen > to be something of a writer. I have published 300 magazine articles, two > books of short stories, and several genealogies. (www.raventricks.com) I > also just happen to be the only person who can reconstruct the > relationships and tell something of the individual histories because of my > lifelong fascination with history, particularly family history. > > The unlikelihoods of this combined collection make it incomparable. The > contents are a historical bonanza. The collection must be published for > the sake of the 13 souls before me who preserved these letters since 1812 > for some purpose greater than themselves. > > All elements are in place for an epic book, save one -- a publisher who > would work with me to create the most effective presentation. I live too > far away (British Columbia, Canada) from the publication houses of > Illinois and Pennsylvania to make effective, first-person appeals, my > writing isn't known there, and my letters have failed to attract interest. > There are urgencies. I am feeling my years; I don't have forever. > Furthermore, soon I intend to pass this collection of 80 fragile letters > to an eager university archive for future preservation and public access. > > Thus I ask subscribers for referrals to regional publishers of historical > materials who have the means to give offer broad recognition for their > books. > > Thank you. > > Barbara J. Shave > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PAFRANKL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I'm getting ready for a trip up to Franklin County this summer, so was trying to organize my family information for the RING and WALKER families, both of which came out of Washington County, MD. I knew of Andrew and his wife Nancy WALKER RING, and the following children: William (b 1793 MD), Margaret (born either MD or PA in 1796), Mary (1800 PA), Eliza Jane (1803 PA, my ancestory), Andrew (1808 Pa) and James Walker RING. But info was scarce and hard-to-find. I got very little from my hard work. The brief (unsourced) info I got from a distant relative pointed to the Presbyterian faith. So this week, I began looking at the churches in Franklin County. I found a listing of Fendrick Library databases. No RINGs. Bah. Then I got creative. I looked through all of the Rs. And guess what. Andrew RINY. Imagine transcribing handwriting and it's easy to imagine that a G and a Y could look alike. I had a date of April 1840 for his death, the church record had April 6 1840! And the age was right! Score! Next, on the the baptisms. No RING, nothing in the Rs. But - I checked KING. Why did I search KING? I've found through experience that those transcribing the rarer RING often think it is KING, and the R and the K are often mixed up. And there were baptisms! On Dec 5 1813, Nancy KING (her husband didn't join the church until the 1830s) had three children baptized, Mary, Eliza and Andrew. Eliza! My ancestor! One year later, James Walker KING. Definitely the right family. One of Nancy's grandchildren later had James Walker as his first two names, and circumstantial evidence (land records in MD) are pointing to James WALKER as Nancy's probable father (to be proven.) So thinking outside of the box worked for me. I will look at the microfilm/book of the records if they are available as I'd like to see them myself, but I'm happy with what I found. Heck, I'm delighted. The only other thing I wanted from the RING family is a marriage between 1824-1829 of Eliza Jane RING and William KEMP, which remains elusive. I can now concentrate more on the WALKERs when I come up there, which will be trickier, as it's a more common name and there are WALKERs there who aren't related to mine. Sorting them out will be a challenge. So think outside of the box, especially when it comes to transcriptions. I'm very grateful to those who do them. I know how hard it can be, as I volunteer for the LDS indexing project. Bonz