Hello RAGAN-ROOTERs! This letter is a private email to my cousin Danny (John Daniel RAGAN), so don't read it. Just kidding ;-) Danny & I are discussing some family things and I thought you might find something interesting here. (Or you might be able to help us in some way.) Or you might just want to delete this whole thing and go about your business... whateveer. Danny, I have a little time before church so I thought I'd jot a few lines to you. I may have to finish later, but here goes. Thanks for making the photocopy of the article in that biography book. I'll be looking forward to getting it. Sorry I had to ask you to do that, but I believe that's what the SAR requires for proof. It's what they call 'secondary' proof. For the first 3 generations I need 'primary' proofs, like birth/death certificates ...etc. After that a 'secondary' proof is alright. My brother Brad just got a copy of William Henry RAGAN's death certificate for me, but under father it lists 'unknown'. Rats! So it looks like the article in that book will be the only proof I'll have that Isaiah RAGAN was William Henry's father. I now have mine, my dad's and my grandfather's birth certificates (primary proofs). And that article will tie William Henry to Isaiah RAGAN. The next step is to prove that Isaiah belonged to William RAGAN & Mary LEEPER. And that article should also do that. Of course we know it has her maiden name misspelled in the article as LEPER, but I think I can get around that by showing that William & Mary lived close to several LEEPER families in the different census'. And, of course, we can also show Isaiah in their household in the 1850 Guernsey Co., OH census and the 1860 Hardin Co., IL census records. The next step is to prove that Mary was the dau of Alexander LEEPER who was the son of Lt. Samuel LEEPER, officer in the Revolutionary War. Our cousin Edna has sent me some of that information already. I think I'll be able to now make all my links successfully. And once I've done that (and they've accepted it) it'll be published by the SAR and become what they call an 'established' lineage. Then anyone in the future, like you, your siblings, your children, or grandchildren, who wish to become a member of the SAR or DAR can do it by proving their lineage back to Isaiah RAGAN. And that should be an easy task for them. I'm curious about something Danny ... do you have a copy of your g-grandfather's death certificate? I wonder if whoever gave his info knew that his father was Isaiah. If Isaiah appears on John L. RAGAN's death certificate, then that might be some more proof for my application, since we know that William Henry and John L. were brothers. I figure that William Henry, and all the other children, were so young when Isaiah died that they knew very little about him. William Henry would have been abt 5yrs 8 mo, John L. - 4 yrs 3 1/2 mo, Nerissa - 1yr 6 1/2 mo and Mollie was just a baby. They never knew their dad, probably had only vague memories of him. Hence they probably never talked about him to their children. So our family heritage was almost lost in that generation. What a tragedy that would've been! Another gap we seem to have in our family is between William (ca 1795-bef 1880) and his father. Although I do *really* believe that his father was Reason RAGAN/REAGAN, I just can't seem to prove it yet. Donald REAGAN has looked at this link for me and has given his opinion that it most certainly *is* correct, but there just doesn't seem to be any actual 'proofs' to show. This should be a lesson to you & I about how important it is to pass our family history down to our children and grandchildren. I really want them to know their heritage. That's one of the reasons I've been printing out booklets on our family and giving it to family members. Everytime one of my siblings has a new child I'll do an Ahnentafel Report on that child and give it to their parents. Maybe somehow one of these reports will be available for some future relative to use for their own research one day. Perhaps it will be found in an old trunk tucked away in someone's attic. Not only have I done this for relatives, but I've also printed and given booklets to some libraries. I've given some to our local library, the Huntsville Public Library, and the Allen County Library in Ft Wayne Indiana. Have you ever been to that one in Ft. Wayne? As they would say around here "That's a Good 'un." They say it's about the best, second only to what the LDS have in Salt Lake City, UT. Of course I've also founded/moderated/sponsored the RAGAN-ROOTS email discussion group for the past several years. And that's been a real good experience for me. I've met many *very* nice people through this group. (Of course what would you expect to find among a group of RAGAN descendants? ;-) I've gotten a real good feeling being able to help others find their RAGAN/RAGIN/RAGON/REGAN/REAGAN (...etc.) roots. Plus I've been able to build and maintain our shared database (which I hope will be available for many years to come). Sometimes I have people contact me saying things like "I hear that you're 'The Main RAGAN Authority' and would like to know ...". Perhaps I have become "The Authority" here, but I still get a bit embarrased when they say that. Of course this database would not have been possible without the input of all our cousins/subscribers who have contributed to it. And I thank them all! This database really belongs to them and their descendants. I also started the RAGAN Family Web page at <http://www.genforum.com/ragan/> a couple years ago. And it now has several pages of information/inquiries posted about all variations of our surname. And that site has put many people in touch with one another, and our RAGAN-ROOTS group too. Well Danny I started thsi note/letter to you this morning and it's now getting close to 9:30pm. Of course I haven't been working on steady since then. After church Terry & I went to the local elementery school for lunch. They had a $5 lunch for a fund raiser and to let the public look over their new library/hi-tech multi-media room. And it was really nice! The kids will really get some nice 'hand-on' training with that new addition. Unfortunately a lot of them probably don't have computers in their homes. The only reason the school was able to afford the new room is because of so many low income families living in this area. They were able to get a 'two-fer-one' matching grant. They put up $8,000 and got $24,000 worth of hardware & software. Like I said it's a real nice set-up. So we got a cheap lunch and also helped the school with their fundraiser. After lunch we came home for awhile, relaxed a bit, I typed some more on this note to you (it's now starting to look like a book :). Then we went to the studio and picked up some equipment and went to Scottsboro to cover a family reunion at 4:00. We photographed a big family group and then did several breakdowns of different individual family portraits. It was a beautiful place to work. It was right on the Tennessee River, there were mountains, trees and the river in the background. Just a great place for outdoor portraits. Plus we had quite a few clouds, which gave us a lot of nice soft light to work under. Overcast skies are the absolute *best* for outdoor portraits. You know Danny, I really enjoy doing these family groups. Since discovering that family portrait of Isaiah & Mariah a few years ago I realize just how important it is to have an occasional family portrait done. You just never know where one of those photographs will end up. It also showed me (NOW HEAR THIS!) just how important it is to write on the back of your prints just who it is you're looking at. If it weren't for the fact that someone somwhere down the line had written Mariah's name on her individual photo we wouldn't have known who that family group was. And as far as I know those two original photos which my aunt had were the only ones left of that family. Since you didn't have a copy of it and our cousin Edna didn't either. I'm sure glad I was able to borrow it from Aunt Grace and make everyone copies. Now we'll always know what they looked like. I have an 8x10 of it hanging right above my computer. It hangs next to the rubbings I did of their headstones a few years ago when visiting you (I had them framed too). Well I'm kind of wondering off here. I started to tell you about our day didn't I? After covering the family reunion Terry & I went to the chinese restaurant in Scottsboro (we love that food :). I'm still full and it's now getting close to 10:00. My blood sugar will probably be outta site tonight. That reminds me of something else. As we record our family histories I think we should remember to record all medical information. Like my grandfather RAMER developed something called Percicious Anemia a few years before death, my father has high blood pressure, my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis ca 1967, my brother Bradley & I developed diabetes at pretty young ages. Someday this info may prove important to our descendants. So let's tell them about it! Anyway after dinner we came back to the studio and unloaded our equipment, came home and picked up that copy of land records from the Illinois State Archives (a copy of which I already sent you). Then I took Terry to the church for choir practice, dropped her off and went over to my dad's house to visit him & June. They just returned today from a nice trip to Alaska. They were gone the whole month. They went to Michigan, visited some family, then flew to Alsaka. They spent a couple weeks playing the tourist role there and then took a cruise ship back. Sounded like they had a nice time. That is except for the fact that they both got a bit sick coming bacl on the ship. Dad developed pnemonia and is still under the weather a bit, but feeling better now. June did all the driving coming home. She a tough one. I couldn't have done that and I'm about 20 yrs younger then her. She's a "Good 'un" alright! I think dad enjoyed seeing those land records that our cousin Edna sent me. He has always wondered where his middle name came from and that certainly was proof. Now we wonder where Isaac Lason MARTIN's middle name came from. Well he was born in Tennessee (Bedford Co., we think), so now a search for the surname LASSON/LASON begins. (And Edna is already working on that.) It just has to be the maiden name of his mother or grandmother I think. Sometimes the clues come slowly don't they? Now I have another thing I want to discuss with you. It's that RAGON Family Cemetery we're looking for in Hardin Co., IL. As you know I found that note in the courthouse a couple years back that it had no longer existed because vandals had broken off the headstones ...etc. Well we now know, from discussions with people on the HardinCo discussion list that, the only ones noted buried there were Jeremiah RAGAN (no dates) and Thomas KINNEY (Died March 13, 1892). And we know that the only reason they were noted is because they were Civil War soldiers. Whatcha wanna bet that was our own family's cemetery? I plan to send Janette a note that I firmly believe the cemetery should be listed as RAGAN family, not RAGON. And I plan to tell her that I would be willing to bet that William RAGAN & Mary LEEPER/RAGAN are also buried there. It just *has* to be our family's cemetery since Jeremiah was one of their children. No doubt in my mind about that! And I wonder who this Thomas KINNEY was. Was he a close friend of the family or perhaps he was married to one of William & Mary's daughters that we haven't yet been able to track down? Any ideas here? I did a little searching today and found him in the 1880 Hardin Co. census. He was a 40yr old white male living in Rose Clare Pct. in the household of a Julius PUSHMAN. He was listed as a border, working as laborer, b. in Ireland as were his parents. At this point in time I don't know what happened to William & Mary's daughters Margaret, Nancy or Rachel E. RAGAN. Rachel was still at home with her mother in the 1880 census, William had passed away before the census was taken on 24 Jun 1880. I am now pretty sure that Eliza married Warren WILSON, I've located her in the 1870 census. I got this clue from the two grandsons (John CAMPBELL & Alexander WILSON) living with Mary & Rachel in the 1880 census. So we do know that one of the daughters must have been married to a CAMPBELL, another a WILSON. And maybe one married this Thomas KENNY. Hmmm... Boy it sure gets distressing to find that a courthouse has burned (in our case twice). :-( And wouldn't it be nice to have access to the 1890 census? That would sure help. Getting back to the cemetery ... Janette says that it's located at: S 1/2 SE 1/4 Sec. 30, T 12 S, R 8 E. (I wonder how hard that would be to find? I'll bet the courthouse could help us there.) And she said that: "The cemetery is in Rosiclare probably somewhere on the Bernard Hurford property according to the coordinance." (sic) Now how can we locate this Bernard Hurford? Is he still around? Does he have a phone? Could you check on that for me? I'll be glad to make the call. And if he does tell us that there's an old cemetery on his property, and we can go take a look, would you like to meet me there some weekend? I'd gladly make a trip to look it over. Since some Civil War group has stated they were buried there I wonder if they might have left a marker of some kind, like they did for Jeremiah's brother Alexander RAGAN who is buried at the Stone Church Cemetery. Hmmm... whatcha think cuz? Are we getting closer? It would sure be nice to find that site, locate the old broken headstones and find William & Mary's names. I'd like to look into this further. And soon because I understand that Janette is working on an update to the old cemetery book published back between 1970-80. The Hardin Co., IL Historical Society needs any information by December of this year. It would sure be nice to be able to give them some more info on our ancestors final resting place. Well I need to get to bed Danny. I have to be in Chattanooga early tomorrow morning for some tests and blood work. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to send a cc of this letter to our RAGAN-ROOTS group, because I realized as I wrote it that someone there might get some pointers or help hearing how we track our family. Perhaps someone may offer us some suggestions (like "shut up Machael, you idiot"!). And some may 'Unsubscribe' from the list because I ramble so much ;-). Oh well, their loss I guess. So what if I'm a little crazy? I'm a RAGAN ain't I? I wish I could afford to retire. Then I could devote more time to tracking our roots. (Anyone wanna buy a photography studio?;-) Gotta go! Bye-bye. Michael W. RAGAN ============= RAGAN-ROOTS List Pervert ============ School days are the best days of your life...provided your children are old enough to go. ============ In a message dated 8/29/99 9:09:24 AM, [email protected] writes: >>Danny, > >> > >>Look what I just rcvd. Do you suppose we could find it now? > >> > >>Later Cuz! > >> > >>Michael > >>Hi Michael! I have your photocopy of Mariah. I'll get it in the mail. > >The Ragon cemetary was listed as 2 graves that no longer existed. The > >amount of info and sheer number of books overwhelmed me when I went to >the > >geneology library here in town. > >Still no luck on LACY. :-( Gotta go-getting ready for church. Danny