My sister sent me a link to a new website for the State of West Virginia.
"Thanks, now I won't get anything of real value done for the rest of the day!" I told her.
There was a wealth of historical information to be found there.
In just over an hour, I downloaded Marriage "Contracts" and licenses all the way back to my
ggg Grandfather and Grandmother, in 1808.
The listings by the county clerk in the registers for that year were also there.
I learned that in olden days, it was indeed a contract between the groom to be, and his father in law, or the eldest living brother. The contract was with the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the name of the current governor.
The price of said contract? $150.00, serious money in that day.
Instead of receiving a Dowry, as it was in the old country the young husband had to do this in order to show that he was financially stable enough to support the woman.
If he hadn't been working long enough to save the cash, he didn't walk the man's little girl down the aisle, so to speak.
The ages listed on the license normally reflected that.
My ggg grandfather Joshua Harvey was 23, Sarah Swope, the matriarch of my direct line was only sixteen.
Their son James S. Harvey (my fathers name sake) was 22, his bride Eliza Cummins was
only 17. It took a young man that long to save that amount of money in order to marry.
As time marched on, and the contract was now only a marriage license the age of the woman advanced.
In fact, my grandmother Ollie Pearl Garten was 23, and my Pa Pa was only 22!
My great grandmother Louisa Baumgardner Harvey was very young at marriage though.
She was only 30 when she died after a difficult child birth. The child did not survive either.
My great Aunt Liza was only twelve at the time, and she helped with my granddad, who was six, and with his little brother Hobart who was one until she herself married at the age of seventeen.
My great grandfather never remarried, which tells me a lot about his love for his young wife.
It was commonplace for a man to quickly remarry in that day, especially when he had young children.
He raised the boys with the help of his married daughter, and later served as Sheriff in Monroe County. He died just before my father was born in 1921, living to see most of his grandchildren.
Seeing the flowing, formal cursive handwriting on these documents, with the names, ages and witnesses from the family of people I've heard about, and in some cases known as elderly was awesome.
I know the exact dates now of all of their nuptials.
One can easily imagine them as hopeful, excited youngsters, eager to set out on their own, much as we all have done.
Sarah and Joshua had seventeen children who survived to adult hood.
There were several sets of twins.
Most of them lived through the Civil War. Indeed, the men fought in it.
They were both blessed with a long life, even by today's standards.
I once met an elderly gentleman when I was in High School in 1970.
His name was Richard Harvey, and he and my Grandfather were third cousins.
He was a veritable wealth of information, lucid, articulate and engaging.
He remembers as a child meeting James S. Harvey, he knew my ggrandfather John S. Harvey well, and also knew several of his great Aunts and Uncles as very elderly people.
Joshua and Sarah's children and grandchildren!
Some of them were still living early in the twentieth century.
My dad told me later that he was 99 years old when I talked to him!
I have since confirmed everything he told me in his oral family history.
These recent documents added to my paper trail of documentation too.
Ah, but I love family detective work!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
We'll see you soon, son.
There are too many memories to elucidate here from our week in "E-Town" KY.
We went out to help our son prepare for deployment, and to see he and his fellow soldiers off.
They are now in Afghanistan, after a week long process of travel.
Pictures tell the story better than I can.
Mom sewing his scripture hanky before we left home.
Fun at Big Boy. We don't have them back home.
Packing 0ver 400# of gear and personals, in four rucks made for around 300.
Last drive in his car for awhile.
Oh, by the way soldier, you also carry your rifle and this 30# SatCom radio with you!
Loading the BM'r.
Stacking the gear for loading in the vans.
Drawing weapons, and wait wait wait!
Sad goodbyes from many families.
Attention to orders!
Let's get on with the mission.
Loading the bus.
A mom waits until the bus is out of sight.
What it's all about.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The Beach in December.
Here are the promised pictures taken on Oak Island in October.
Guest Photographer, my sister.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Enough is Enough!
Quietly, during the month of October over sixty of the new full body scanners were placed in operation at airports all over the United States.
Surprised air travelers who were pulled out of the security lines at random were given a choice.
Submit to a scanning device that virtually strips you naked and subjects you to a dose of radiation, or allow a total stranger to grope you in areas that only your spouse or doctor is normally allowed.
Needless to say, the reaction coming from law abiding citizens that have been subjected to a procedure normally used only to admit convicted felons to a Federal penitentiary has been one of outrage.
I do have a great deal of cynicism over hearsay incidents related in the media, both broadcast, print and internet.
But there are far too many reports coming back from all over this previously free nation of ours to discount them all.
Women being groped. Young children, even stroller babies being touched in areas their parents have told them to never let anyone touch them.
People being ejected from airports for protesting this outrageous violation of our Constitutional Rights.
"Well, it's to protect you from terrorists!" we are told.
In other words, bleat like the good sheep that you are and do as you're told.
It started when some fool walked on a airplane with a fuse stuck out of his shoe.
Now all of us have been standing in our stocking feet in line like lemmings since then.
Women, children, babies, the elderly, Catholic Sisters who have taken a vow of modesty and chastity. No one is being spared this public humiliation.
Even the pilots and flight crew have to undergo this ridiculous process.
People who fly for a living, for whom the increased exposure to radiation is a very real threat.
I don't recall any of the airliners hijacked on 9/11 being flown by women. Or children.
Or senior citizens. Or Nuns.
But we can't single people out for questioning. That's profiling!
They complain, and the politicians cave in.
But when We The People say we've had enough, we're told, and I quote Janet Nepolitano here in summary, "Scan or Hand!" Or don't fly.
Fine. We won't fly, if we have any other choice.
The airlines are already operating on a thin profit margin since 9/11.
They cannot survive by relying solely on business travelers who have no choice but to fly.
And as for Big Brother's claim that is is an inescapable necessity to safeguard our flights?
Total, complete and utter HOGWASH!
If any Nation is at risk for airborne terrorism, it is Israel.
Do they have any of these intrusive methods for making certain their El Al flights are safe?
None of them.
And they are the safest airline in the world with which to travel.
Get your act together, Secretary Nepolitano and the Federal Government in general.
Maybe if you were forced to fly coach, as you should anyway and were singled out every single time for your "Enhanced Pat-down" grope-fest you would change your tune.
The rest of us are starting to say NO! en masse.
Enough is enough!
Surprised air travelers who were pulled out of the security lines at random were given a choice.
Submit to a scanning device that virtually strips you naked and subjects you to a dose of radiation, or allow a total stranger to grope you in areas that only your spouse or doctor is normally allowed.
Needless to say, the reaction coming from law abiding citizens that have been subjected to a procedure normally used only to admit convicted felons to a Federal penitentiary has been one of outrage.
I do have a great deal of cynicism over hearsay incidents related in the media, both broadcast, print and internet.
But there are far too many reports coming back from all over this previously free nation of ours to discount them all.
Women being groped. Young children, even stroller babies being touched in areas their parents have told them to never let anyone touch them.
People being ejected from airports for protesting this outrageous violation of our Constitutional Rights.
"Well, it's to protect you from terrorists!" we are told.
In other words, bleat like the good sheep that you are and do as you're told.
It started when some fool walked on a airplane with a fuse stuck out of his shoe.
Now all of us have been standing in our stocking feet in line like lemmings since then.
Women, children, babies, the elderly, Catholic Sisters who have taken a vow of modesty and chastity. No one is being spared this public humiliation.
Even the pilots and flight crew have to undergo this ridiculous process.
People who fly for a living, for whom the increased exposure to radiation is a very real threat.
I don't recall any of the airliners hijacked on 9/11 being flown by women. Or children.
Or senior citizens. Or Nuns.
But we can't single people out for questioning. That's profiling!
They complain, and the politicians cave in.
But when We The People say we've had enough, we're told, and I quote Janet Nepolitano here in summary, "Scan or Hand!" Or don't fly.
Fine. We won't fly, if we have any other choice.
The airlines are already operating on a thin profit margin since 9/11.
They cannot survive by relying solely on business travelers who have no choice but to fly.
And as for Big Brother's claim that is is an inescapable necessity to safeguard our flights?
Total, complete and utter HOGWASH!
If any Nation is at risk for airborne terrorism, it is Israel.
Do they have any of these intrusive methods for making certain their El Al flights are safe?
None of them.
And they are the safest airline in the world with which to travel.
Get your act together, Secretary Nepolitano and the Federal Government in general.
Maybe if you were forced to fly coach, as you should anyway and were singled out every single time for your "Enhanced Pat-down" grope-fest you would change your tune.
The rest of us are starting to say NO! en masse.
Enough is enough!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
It's a healthy thing.
Yesterday, the Vox Populi was heard.
We didn't speak softly either, we roared!
And I want to caution the National Republican Party leadership.
This wasn't because of you, this was in spite of you!
Grass roots conservatives all across the fruited plain are frustrated, and yes angry at their increasingly out of touch, arrogant and power hungry Federal Government.
(A footnote here, most Americans are conservative when it comes to fiscal matters, National defense, and a reverence for the Constitution and our Heritage of freedom.)
They are mad at both parties, but since the Democrats have controlled Congress for four years, and held the White House for two they were held accountable yesterday.
Not only have they made little to no improvement in our National condition, things have gotten markedly worse since they took back the keys to the kingdom.
The Republicans shared a similar fate in both 2006 and 2008.
My earnest prayer is that our quick reaction to bad government at the polls is permanent.
If you don't listen to us, and enact legislation and National Policy that is in our best interests, we'll fire you all come election day!
I think the Republicans finally 'get it.'
The so-called Tea Party is simply grass roots voters holding the Republican party, and the Federal Government accountable.
There is no true 'party' in the political sense. No leadership at the national level, no layers upon layers of 'good ol' boy and girl' fat to wade through.
But, I think the RNC now understands that there could indeed have been a formal Tea Party.
Running their own candidates, and taking all of the true Reagan conservatives out of the G.O.P.
That would have given the Democrats another two years of control, and would have rendered the Republican party permanent third party status.
That's right, third in a three way race.
The political newcomers and outsiders were able to work with the RNC, to some degree.
In some case, like the CT, CA and probably Washington Senate races they fell short.
But the Tea Party movement is the reason the G.O.P. now controls the Peoples House by the widest margin of gain since 1932.
Here in our district, Renee Elmers, a political novice and a nurse by trade has beaten long time Congressman Bob "Who are you?" Etheridge.
And she did it with little money, and virtually no support from the RNC.
Etheridge has yet to concede, he probably can't believe we actually voted his sorry behind out of office.
And the Senate is virtually deadlocked, which I regard as a blessing.
Now those idiots on both sides of the aisle will have to work with each other.
And they had better listen to us, or another bucket load of them will be out on the street in two years.
I am ecstatic to see We The People once again make their wishes known.
The Vox Populi rules!
We didn't speak softly either, we roared!
And I want to caution the National Republican Party leadership.
This wasn't because of you, this was in spite of you!
Grass roots conservatives all across the fruited plain are frustrated, and yes angry at their increasingly out of touch, arrogant and power hungry Federal Government.
(A footnote here, most Americans are conservative when it comes to fiscal matters, National defense, and a reverence for the Constitution and our Heritage of freedom.)
They are mad at both parties, but since the Democrats have controlled Congress for four years, and held the White House for two they were held accountable yesterday.
Not only have they made little to no improvement in our National condition, things have gotten markedly worse since they took back the keys to the kingdom.
The Republicans shared a similar fate in both 2006 and 2008.
My earnest prayer is that our quick reaction to bad government at the polls is permanent.
If you don't listen to us, and enact legislation and National Policy that is in our best interests, we'll fire you all come election day!
I think the Republicans finally 'get it.'
The so-called Tea Party is simply grass roots voters holding the Republican party, and the Federal Government accountable.
There is no true 'party' in the political sense. No leadership at the national level, no layers upon layers of 'good ol' boy and girl' fat to wade through.
But, I think the RNC now understands that there could indeed have been a formal Tea Party.
Running their own candidates, and taking all of the true Reagan conservatives out of the G.O.P.
That would have given the Democrats another two years of control, and would have rendered the Republican party permanent third party status.
That's right, third in a three way race.
The political newcomers and outsiders were able to work with the RNC, to some degree.
In some case, like the CT, CA and probably Washington Senate races they fell short.
But the Tea Party movement is the reason the G.O.P. now controls the Peoples House by the widest margin of gain since 1932.
Here in our district, Renee Elmers, a political novice and a nurse by trade has beaten long time Congressman Bob "Who are you?" Etheridge.
And she did it with little money, and virtually no support from the RNC.
Etheridge has yet to concede, he probably can't believe we actually voted his sorry behind out of office.
And the Senate is virtually deadlocked, which I regard as a blessing.
Now those idiots on both sides of the aisle will have to work with each other.
And they had better listen to us, or another bucket load of them will be out on the street in two years.
I am ecstatic to see We The People once again make their wishes known.
The Vox Populi rules!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Too much happening in October.
Starting with my Birthday (I'm not 'old' yet, but I can see it from here. Scary!)
and moving on to our time with Kendra and my sister, it's been a busy month.
I'll post some pix soon from Oak Island.
Two memories will stick forever, both involving the two crazy Wheeler sisters.
Tuesday night as I stood on the balcony observing my sister, and the two above mentioned nutty sisters allegedly enjoying the sunset over the ocean
(a footnote here, Oak Island is uniquely situated so that you can see the effects of the sunrise on the water, and also the sunset in the evening. Very unusual!)
I witnessed the Wheeler twins suddenly walk out into the surf.
Fully clothed.
And those of you who know them are correct, they kept right on going into the deep water.
I could hear their shrieking laughter even from a distance over the roar of the surf.
The next evening they went in wearing bathing suits.
Again I heard piercing screams and raucous laughter.
I found out the cause later.
The little tassles that hung from my beloved's bathing suit must have looked yummy to a rather large fish, apparently a Blue Fish.
It kept pulling and tugging on her suit.
When she noticed it she screamed, and then said fish swam right between Kendra's legs, invoking ear shattering screams from her as well.
A rapid discussion ensued "Should we get out of the water, or should we risk it and stay?"
Wheelers of course tread where Angels do not dare, and they stayed.
My sister calmly informed them "It was probably a bait fish. You know, the kind that attract Sharks and other predator fish. Dusk is their feeding time."
"Whaaaaaaaaaaa!" was their mutual reaction.
A great time was had by all.
and moving on to our time with Kendra and my sister, it's been a busy month.
I'll post some pix soon from Oak Island.
Two memories will stick forever, both involving the two crazy Wheeler sisters.
Tuesday night as I stood on the balcony observing my sister, and the two above mentioned nutty sisters allegedly enjoying the sunset over the ocean
(a footnote here, Oak Island is uniquely situated so that you can see the effects of the sunrise on the water, and also the sunset in the evening. Very unusual!)
I witnessed the Wheeler twins suddenly walk out into the surf.
Fully clothed.
And those of you who know them are correct, they kept right on going into the deep water.
I could hear their shrieking laughter even from a distance over the roar of the surf.
The next evening they went in wearing bathing suits.
Again I heard piercing screams and raucous laughter.
I found out the cause later.
The little tassles that hung from my beloved's bathing suit must have looked yummy to a rather large fish, apparently a Blue Fish.
It kept pulling and tugging on her suit.
When she noticed it she screamed, and then said fish swam right between Kendra's legs, invoking ear shattering screams from her as well.
A rapid discussion ensued "Should we get out of the water, or should we risk it and stay?"
Wheelers of course tread where Angels do not dare, and they stayed.
My sister calmly informed them "It was probably a bait fish. You know, the kind that attract Sharks and other predator fish. Dusk is their feeding time."
"Whaaaaaaaaaaa!" was their mutual reaction.
A great time was had by all.
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