Me, again! Standing on my feet in front of the computer and, frankly, just ignoring all the aches and pains. There has been something that has been on my mind for a number of years regarding Grandma's little white cap. What little white cap? You know, the sort of a little ruffled cap perched on the back of the head and tied under the chin that the old(?) Mennonites wore. But here's the thing of it. Grandma wasn't a Mennonite. OK, here's the situation. Grandma was Katherine (ESHELMAN) BRYAN. Her parents were John ESHELMAN and Veronica/Fanny (__?__). Katherine was born in 1831 near Mastersonville, Mt. Joy(?) Twp., Lancaster Co. She descended from the Swiss immigrant Heinrich ESHELMAN (b 1707) and his wife Barbara KINDIG. The ESHELMAN family was certainly Mennonite (or Dunkards). However, by the time she married Edward BRYAN in 1852 it appears that she had become a Lutheran and in 1862 she was baptized as an adult in the Christ Evangelical Church in Elizabethtown, Lancaster Co. Well, to me it doesn't seem that she strayed ALL that far from the Mennonite faith. But here's what has been on my mind. I have a photograph (or a sketch) of her in her later years and there she is with that little white Mennonite cap on. Granted, she may have continued to wear it out of habit or because most of the local women wore such a cap. But I guess my REAL question over these years is was she EXCOMMUNICATED by the Mennonite Church because she married a Lutheran? Did she wear it because she was still a Mennonite at heart and refused to give up the Mennonite ways? And I guess the bottom line is--IF she had been excommunicated by the Mennonite Church, how did she feel about being officially severed from her church roots. In the eyes of the Mennonite Church and the Lutheran Church in those days, how did they view her and--in her own eyes--, how did she view herself in regard to her own personal beliefs in God? One thing is for certain. On my living room wall Katherine Eshelman Bryan still stares down at me with her little wire-rimmed glasses perched on her nose and with her hair, parted in the middle, pulled back underneath her little white cap. But do you know what? When I checked on that picture this very minute, I noticed a little sparkle in her eye that I had never seen before!! Now, I wonder how I could have ever overlooked such a twinkle!! vee ==== PENNA-DUTCH Mailing List ==== Forgot how to SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE? Send the appropriate one word message to PENNA-DUTCH-L-REQUEST@ROOTSWEB.COM