I’m trying to do two things at once. Only two you say? Well, then, only two to write about. Cousin Pam and I are working on our Davis line. Make that ONE of the Davis lines in our
family. We have two of those, both in
Virginia. Did you know that Davis might
as well be Smith or Jones? I think we’re
more determined this time to find the clues.
We do have some good leads and promising correspondence initiated with
researchers. Can you believe we’re back
to letter-writing to discover our family?
My other current Serious Project is to whittle my library to fewer
than two-hundred books. I will need to
move one of these days soon, and it would be better if I didn’t have so much to
cart around.
It shouldn’t be so hard to let go of books. They’re stories put to paper that at some
point in my life have meant a good deal to me.
The trick is to find out if they still do, which really requires reading
them again - each one. If they are still
resonant, they stay.
The other trick to a book earning keeping-status is whether or not
I could ever find it again, if I decided in future years that I needed to hear
that story one more time. The libraries
these days often disgorge from their shelves the most wonderful older books to
make room for general faddish printings or just pure garbage. I wish they would leave the pop philosophy,
politics, health crazes, etc, for bookstores to fend off on people (I love you,
book smiths!), and spend their money instead on books that will “stand the test
of time”.
Here’s why I love old books.
Bess Streeter Aldrich. I’m
starting, again, “Song of Years”, printed in 1939, and this is part of her
opening chapter:
The author is describing a pathway . . .
"But if the corn is high you must come to the second gate before you can see the tall white tombstones,the close-clipped grass of the plots, and the graveled paths that lie between.
Here rest those first settlers.
It is a place of utter peace. . . . But though there is a deep peace about them now, almost can you hear their loud laughter that this is so. They would tell you that peace may be here at the end of the trail, but there was very little at the end of that other one which led westward from Dubuque.
Because they who lie here are all connected by blood or marriage or neighborhood ties, the life of one in its bare outlines is the life of all."
I can read that section over and over; it makes such an impression
in my mind. It’s the core of genealogy.
I can hardly wait to re-read this one. I guess it has earned a place in the
bookcase.
I’m going to add here a bit of the record of Abel Davis of
Maryland, of Monongalia Co, Virginia (he was long-gone before it became West
Virginia), of Champaign Co, Ohio, and finally of White Co, Indiana. If this trail sounds familiar, please let me
hear from you (address in right panel, under the flowers). There are a lot more
guesses and probabilities in my file for Abel, but these are the things we are now
pretty sure of.
~~~~~I've come back to take Abel away. He is on a separate posting.~~~~~~
