I've tried to transcribe the letter of my great grandmother,Betsy Sharpe Walker, who traveled from Quebec to England in the summer of 1897. My grandmother would have been 9 that year and Betsy who traveled with her husband, Edward, would have been 44. Edward had just celebrated his 50th birthday in June. In that summer of 1897 Edward and Betsy had been married 27 years and were the parents to 8 living children, the youngest being only 4 years old.
From the pages that have survived it's clear that there are some missing and it's been somewhat difficult to figure out the order.
But the following is a paragraph from that letter:
7th - I heard the steamer going early and very glad I was I got up early took a saltwater bath at 6 o'clock and after dressing went up on Deck and directly in front on the port side saw the most magnificent view that seldom falls to the lot of man directly in front were several large icebergs, immense affairs they were and behind them the Labrador coast and the Laurentian range in the distance on the starboard iceberg with Newfoundland in the rear. I returned to the state room at once to acquaint Mr. Walker of the . . . .
There's clearly more to that paragraph & like many handwritten letters punctuation is scattered at best.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The Beginning
For the past few years I’ve become interested in the family tree – at least the tree for my four siblings and me. I’ve tried to be interested in my husband’s and therefore my children’s, but it hasn’t caught my attention the way my own has. When I started, I knew one branch of my father’s tree had been heavily researched.
When I think of my heritage I think of my parents’ lineage – to state the obvious – the facts of my four grandparents. On my mother’s side we were told her father’s family had come to America to fight for the British as German Hessians. As the story went, they were apparently lost for years in the hills of West Virginia. From my research there isn’t much truth in that story. There is some indication that the family of her grandmother on her father’s side may have been here since the Revolution, but so far I haven’t seen any indication of them being hessians. I’ve begun to believe they might have been Tories.
As to the side that is documented and has its own web page that would be my father’s mother’s side – the side we as children weren’t that impressed with. Guess we should have been because they can document their lineage back to at least two families on the Mayflower and perhaps more. More than one of my father’s ancestors fought in the civil war and one lost his life. My father’s grandmother was about 3 or 4 when her father died during the war. Growing up I always had the impression my father’s parents felt lower socially than my mother’s. But if social status was determined by length of time one’s relatives had lived in America, they would have been much higher. My mother’s mother was a first generation American – both her parents emigrated from England in 1870. One side of her father’s family migrated here only a generation earlier. Of course, they do have that Tory problem, too.
When I think of my heritage I think of my parents’ lineage – to state the obvious – the facts of my four grandparents. On my mother’s side we were told her father’s family had come to America to fight for the British as German Hessians. As the story went, they were apparently lost for years in the hills of West Virginia. From my research there isn’t much truth in that story. There is some indication that the family of her grandmother on her father’s side may have been here since the Revolution, but so far I haven’t seen any indication of them being hessians. I’ve begun to believe they might have been Tories.
As to the side that is documented and has its own web page that would be my father’s mother’s side – the side we as children weren’t that impressed with. Guess we should have been because they can document their lineage back to at least two families on the Mayflower and perhaps more. More than one of my father’s ancestors fought in the civil war and one lost his life. My father’s grandmother was about 3 or 4 when her father died during the war. Growing up I always had the impression my father’s parents felt lower socially than my mother’s. But if social status was determined by length of time one’s relatives had lived in America, they would have been much higher. My mother’s mother was a first generation American – both her parents emigrated from England in 1870. One side of her father’s family migrated here only a generation earlier. Of course, they do have that Tory problem, too.
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