#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 32 At the Library: The Autobiography of Gustavus Weems

 

So, I have always been a fan of libraries.  Even as a child, I could happily while away an afternoon among the books. As a genealogist, of course I love searching for family history treasures, and I make it a point to visit the local library whenever I am on a genealogy trip.  

My very best library discovery, however, was close to home at the University of Maryland library.  They hold a large collection of Weems family papers and among them is a 330-page hand-written autobiography of my cousin, Gustavus Weems. When I found that listing in the library catalog, I knew it was gold. I had to see it. Besides giving details of his family, his autobiography provides a fascinating look at life in Anne Arundel County MD in the late 18th and early 19th century. It was so fascinating that I paid for the library to make me a copy that I could bring home and study at leisure. (Weems-Reynolds Family papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries. http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/1310 Accessed July 27, 2022.)

Gustavus Weems, referred to in his narrative as Gusta, was the grandson of David Weems, the Scots immigrant (my 7X-great-grandfather), and the second of seven children of David Weems and Margaret Harrison, born in 1779 at Marshes' Seat in southern Anne Arundel County MD. The map below shows the area where Marshes' Seat was located.

David Weems children, Gusta's siblings, were:

*David 1778: went to sea about 1800 and was impressed by the British.  The last the family heard from him was about 1814. 

*Gusta 1779: more on him later

*Rachel 1780: married Jesse Ewell and had three children with him--David Weems, Mary Frances, and Margaret Ewell.  Rachel died in Anne Arundel County in 1817.

*Sydney Bedolf 1782: never married.  Gusta comments in 1851 that she was blind and crippled. She outlived the rest of the family, and it was she who erected a memorial to her family at St. James Parish in Anne Arundel County. 

*Captain George 1784: one of the founders of the famed Weems Steamship Line, about which I have previously written. Married Sarah Sutton and had six children with her: Margaret, Thomas Sutton, Mason Loch, Gustavus, Theodore Mason, and George William Weems. He died in 1853 in Anne Arundel County.

*Theodore 1786: died in Baltimore in 1817, shortly before his intended marriage and just a few weeks after his sister Rachel.

*Mason 1789: Not married. Drowned in 1811 after he fell overboard on a return trip from Baltimore.

Gusta and his siblings were raised as Methodists. Although his mother was a Catholic, she "gave up her priest for Jesus, and I think she done well," in her son's words. In any case, it was an orderly and prayerful household, according to Gustavus. His father was strict and "his rules had to be kept and orders obeyed or our backs paid for it. . . .We were brought up in the fear of God, and faithful admonitions, and taught to love God and all mankind, to keep holy all the commandments, not allowed to use bad words or sinful expressions. . . .We loved to oblige and feared to displease, for here was the ruling and governing principle with parents and children."

David Weems, like many in the Weems family, made a living from the sea, running a shipyard, which he owned in partnership with his brother-in-law, Thomas Morton. 

However, as Gusta reports, his father was in considerable debt, due to a number of misfortunes such as lightning striking and destroying one of his ships and some cheating on the part of his business partners. "God had smitten him Job-like." David had to borrow money from his brother William (a ship's captain) to keep the business afloat.  So, there was not much money to spare in the David Weems household.

There being no school near them in Anne Arundel County, Gusta and his brother David went to live with their childless Aunt and Uncle Susannah and Thomas Morton in Montgomery County so they could attend school there. Gusta was apparently quite a prankster, and he delighted in describing the jokes he played on his aunt and uncle, his schoolmasters and his fellow scholars. Since these tricks

sometimes involved tripping people or jumping out to scare them, or throwing dust in their eyes, I'm not sure everyone else saw the humor that Gusta seemed to enjoy. (He never seemed to get over this love of tricks because he describes these throughout his story.)

His tricks must have gotten him in trouble, because his academic career involved switching schools frequently.  Even Gusta acknowledges that "his little innocent playful tricks kept me back from learning as much and as fast as I ought, together with the short time at each school, so that after all, I had but little education and knew as much about languages as a cow would." 

Gusta was put to work on the family farm, but desperately wanted to run away to sea. His parents persuaded him to stay and promised to open a small store that he could manage, and so he agreed to stay. After about three years on the farm, he ventured into commerce, opening a general store. "No more a plough boy, but a merchant." He immediately felt his lack of real education and set about buying books to improve his reading and math skills.  He particularly relied on a copy of Lord Chesterfield's letters to help him improve his manners. He also cites his uncle, Parson Mason Loch Weems, the famous biographer of George Washington, as an important influence and follows a schedule somewhat like that of Benjamin Franklin, rising early in the morning to read and study, and eating very abstemiously. 

His business prospered, but most of the money he made went to paying back his father's loan to Uncle William (who turns out to be quite a villain in Gusta's story and eventually comes to a very bad end!). I have previously written about Uncle William Weems.  

In the end, Gusta acknowledges, his hard upbringing strengthened him and led him to a righteous life, as opposed to his relatives "those lazy Harrisons and bragging Weems (his Uncle William)."  Our father, Gusta says, "brought us up right and my brother George and myself have brought our children up in the same way." If he had had his own will, he says, he "should have gone to the dogs with the Harrisons and the Weems." 

Rejected Suitor

When he was about 18, Gusta says that he was beginning to feel very big among the girls."I have ever
and anon loved the Dear Creatures." He considered girls, "the most refined, pleasant and improving company." He describes his unsuccessful first romance with Miss Rebecca Lane, who was quite willing to marry him provided that he would join the Methodist Church.  Alas! Gusta said, that would not work since "she was too good to leave her church and I was too bad to go into it." A second marriage proposal to his cousin Sophia Weems also came to naught. Yet another marriage possibility was turned down because Gusta refused to convert to Catholicism. And another father refused him because he didn't want his daughter to marry a merchant. Picky, picky, picky!

Parson Weems

When he turned 21, about 1800, Gusta set off to visit his Virginia relatives and stayed with his uncle, Parson Weems.  While he was there, he met a number of members of the Ewell family (Parson Weems' wife, Frances, Gusta's aunt, was a Ewell.) and became engaged to Miss Fanny Ewell, a cousin of his aunt Frances.  But yet again, his romance was foiled, this time by his wicked uncle William, who had married Miss Fanny's older sister, Ann Ewell. Uncle William told Col. Ewell that he should by no means allow his daughter to marry his spendthrift nephew Gusta, and Fanny obediently called off the engagement. Gusta never really forgave Uncle William for this final insult. 

After several other false starts at engagement, Gusta moved his store to Calvert County and finally did get married to a local girl, Dorcas Gray, the orphaned daughter of George and Jeanette Gray, who lived at the house where he boarded. He says that he was first attracted to her because she was able to pleat the ruffles on his shirt so well. (Apparently, he was quite the clothes horse in those days!) 

But to be fair, he also admired her "amiableness," so on a rainy day when he wasn't doing much business at the store, he decided to go up to her guardian's house and propose marriage. Gusta said the whole neighborhood was amazed that "so moral and fine a girl" would marry such a "frolicsome and wild fellow, so full of fun and devilment."  Indeed, Gusta said he was surprised himself that she accepted. Later, he acknowledged her as "the instrument in the hands of God of saving my soul." 

They were married a few weeks later in October 1806, when Gusta was 27 years old and Dorcas 20.  More than 100 people attended the wedding, leading Gusta to say "Good Lord, Madam.  Are you kin to all of Calvert County?" 

Gusta and Dorcas had seven children together, four of whom lived to adulthood. 

*Margaret, 1807, named after her grandmother, died in infancy.

*David Gustavus 1809.  Married first his cousin Rachel Weems.  Married second Martha Richardson and had fifteen children with her.

*Jane Dorcas, 1812.  Married Dr. John Fletcher Petherbridge and had nine children with him.

*George Gray, 1815. Died young.

*George Gray, 1817.  Died young.

*Rachel Thomason, 1821.  Married Dr. Thomas Reynolds and had two children with him.

*Theodore Mason, 1822.  Married Eleanor Stanforth and had one child with her. 

Gusta served in the Calvert County militia during the War of 1812 under Captain Mackall.

Gusta's mother Margaret Harrison Weems died when Gusta was a teenager.  His father David died in 1820, while Gustavus was serving in the Maryland Legislature in Annapolis. Gustavus reports that he hurried from Annapolis to his father's bedside as soon as he got the news but arrived a few minutes too late to see his father before he died. 

Dorcas Gray Weems died in 1839 and is buried at St. Mark's Chapel in Tracy's Landing, near the Weems family residence.

Discussing Gustavus Weems, Charles Petherbridge described him this way:

Your grandfather Weems was a man of very commanding appearance.  His very presence inspired respect--tall, stout, and well-formed, a fine person.  He was a great lover of the flute, his favorite tunes to play on it "Hail Columbia" and "Star Spangled Banner." 

I should also note another debt owed by family historians to dear Gusta.  It was he who kept up all the entries in the Weems family Bible.  He carefully added the dates of births, deaths and marriages that we depend on for so much information about his family.

Gustavus Weems died in 1852, at Marshes' Seat, a year after finishing his Autobiography, at the age of 73. He is buried beside his wife. 

It took me many years to get through reading Gusta's story.  The copy is sometimes faint, the handwriting is often difficult, and the spelling is idiosyncratic, to say the least. But the effort was totally worth it. Gusta is a fascinating character whose story deserves to be told for its own sake. I can't begin to do it justice in the short space I have here. His store of local gossip and legend, plus his pungent observations about his family and neighbors, and his strong opinions about how life should be lived provide an absolutely unique take on life in Anne Arundel County.  Someday, I hope that I can transcribe his entire book and get it published somewhere because it deserves to be better known.

#52Ancestors Week 25 Same Name: Anne Hill

#52 Ancestors Week 25 Same Name: Anne Hill

I am named after my great-great grandmother, Regina Anne Hill.  Actually, I always hated my name, Anne Hill, the Hill part anyway, growing up.  It got me the nickname HillBilly, which I really hated.

However, later in life, when I was more interested in family history, I was rather pleased to be named after an ancestor, not to mention it was my mother's name also--Anne, not Hill.

So, Mary Regina Anne Hill was the daughter of Captain Alexander Penn Hill and Mary Elizabeth Childs.  She was born 2 February 1858 in the Nottingham District of Prince George's County MD, the sixth of nine children, a large and very Catholic family.  She grew up at Moss Side, the property her father had inherited from his father, Joseph Benedict Hill.

Sarah Elizabeth Hill (1846-1935) married Thomas Sprigg Blandford.

Samuel Childs Hill (1848-1928) married Mary Elizabeth Bowie.

Joseph Benedict Hill (1850-c. 1930) married Mary Hill.

Peter Henry Hill (1852-1893) married Nora Mary Young.

Mary Hester Hill (1854-1904)

Alexander Penn Hill Jr. (1860-1915) married Mary Catherine Munro

Emily Riddle Hill (1862-1959) married George Washington Young

Robert E. Lee Hill (1863-1934)

On 28 October 1878, Regina married John Kostka Summers, the oldest son of John Francis Summers and Eliza Ann Gwynn, neighbors of the Hills in Prince George's County.

Regina Anne Hill and John Kostka Summers had 15 children, of which my grandfather, Paul Francis, was the 12th.  The children included a set of twins, Joseph Mary and Mary Joseph.

John Kostka Summers Jr.  (1880-1943) married Benedicta Gannon.
John Lamar Summers (1879-1899)  drowned in the Patuxent River
Marie Emily Louise Summers (1882-1898)
Alexander Hill Summers (1883-1918)
Joseph Mary Summers (1885-1963)
Mary Joseph Summers (1885-1965) Sister Mary Ange
Eliza Mary Summers (1888-1980) married William August Dorr
Regina Agnes Summers (1889-1968) married Edward Payson Springer Jr.
Gretchen Summers (1891-1953) married Joseph Summerfield Perry
Mildred Elizabeth Summers (1892-1980) married Bernard Kummer
Dorothy Lucile Summers (1894-1945)  married James Heath Dodge
Paul Francis Summers (1895-1970) married Theresa Evalina Sasscer
Olin Jerome Summers (1897-1898)
Emily Ruth Summers (1899-1996) married Charles Henry Adams McPherson
Michael Jerome Summers (1902-1967)

The picture below shows the Summers family about 1910 at their home in Westwood, Prince George's County MD.  My grandfather Paul is in the center of the photo between his parents.

The picture below shows John Kostka Summers and Mary Regina Anne Hill celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in 1928.  My mother, Anne, is sitting on the ground in front of her grandfather, age about 3 years old. My grandfather Paul Summers is standing behind Sr. Ange holding his son on his shoulder.

Regina Anne Hill Summers died at her home 6 June 1932 and is buried in St. Peter's Cemetery in Waldorf MD.  Her husband, John Koskta Summers died 2 March 1941 and is also buried in St. Peter's.

I know very little about my namesake, but I do have an inheritance from her, a set of wine glasses that belonged to Anne gifted to me by her daughter-in-law, my grandmother.  I wrote about them here. 

#52Ancestors Week 4 Invitation to Dinner: Lois Gongo Evans Vernon

#52Ancestors: Week 4

While I have many family members who seem to be interesting characters and would probably be interesting dinner guests, one person from the family tree that I would really love to meet is Lois Gongo.  Lois, the daughter of Anthony Gongo and Faith (Wilson?), was born around 1660, probably in Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois is not a direct ancestor of mine; she is something like the mother--in-law of my 8th great-uncle. (Lois's granddaughter married into the Scrivener family, which is what brought her to my attention.) What makes Lois so interesting to me is that she was apparently a feminist long before feminism became a thing.

Lois married first Lewis Evans, a Welshman like her father, about 1674.  Lois and Lewis had four daughters: Catherine, Elizabeth, Sarah and Ann Evans. 

Catherine married first John Clark and second William Thornbury and died about 1768 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Elizabeth married first Francis Anktill and second Moses Faudry. She died about 1762 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Sarah married Samuel Griffith, with whom she had eight children.
Ann married Benjamin Battee and had two daughters with him.

After Lewis's death about 1690, Lois married secondly Christopher Vernon, a fairly well-to-do landowner from an old British family in Hertfordshire, who had emigrated to Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois and Christopher had five children: Ephraim, William, Lois, Thomas and Ann Vernon, recorded in the records of St. James Parish, Anne Arundel County MD.

Christopher Vernon died in England in 1724 and here is where the story gets really interesting.  Christopher was apparently a very unhappy man.  He left a will in England, which does not mention his wife and children.  He leaves his estate to aunts, nieces, nephews and other relatives.

Curious, yes?  However, back in MD, there is an earlier handwritten will, apparently never recorded that explains the will in England.  In the earlier document, Christopher castigates Lois as "stubborn and brutish" and  claims he was never really married to her since she absolutely refused to say the words "honor and obey"  when she married Christopher. (Imagine that in 1691!)  Further, he claims that Lois tried to poison him.  Likewise, he is furious that his daughter Ann married against his wishes.  And the document is full of complaints about his other family members.

The one person he seems like is his step-daughter Elizabeth Evans Anktill, beside whom he wishes to be buried and whom he wishes to be his executrix.  Christopher then apparently left for England where he proceeded to give away all his property in England so that Lois could never get her hands on it. Elizabeth did attempt to probate the earlier will, but the courts threw it out because the later English will was already on file.

Lois seems to have made out all right in the long run.  She had property from her first husband, Lewis Evans.  She made over property to her son Thomas Vernon in 1738 and died in Anne Arundel County in 1739.

So, Lois is definitely someone I would like to have a conversation with to get her side of the story.

#52Ancestors Week3: Longevity Theresa Evalina Wallis

#52Ancestors

This week's challenge focuses on longevity.  The longest-lived of my direct ancestors was my maternal great-grandmother, Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer.   She was born in Kent County MD on 28 December 1874 and died 25 March 1964 in Owings Mills, Baltimore County MD at the age of 90. (I should note, however, that my own mother is still going strong at 93, so I think she will eventually hold the longevity record!)

Eva Wallis was born the same year as poet Robert Frost, industrialist John D. Rockefeller, and magician Harry Houdini.  She grew up in the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland, close to where Harriett Tubman helped the Underground Railroad move slaves to freedom. Ulysses S. Grant was president, following the death of Millard Fillmore.  James Black Groom from Cecil County was the Governor of Maryland. The Wallises came from Quaker roots and were not slave holders.

Eva Wallis was the 8th of the 13 children of Francis Adolphus Wallis and Mary Georgianna Willson. She was a school teacher and met her husband, Thomas Reverdy Sasscer, when she was teaching at a small one-room school in Prince George's County and boarded with Mr. Sasscer, a farmer whose home was across the road from the school.  (Not to worry about any impropriety there because Reverdy's unmarried sister, Mary Loretto Sasscer, was living with her brother as his housekeeper.) Reverdy Sasscer, the son of John William Sasscer and Julia Ann Gibbons of Prince George's County MD,  was some 20 years older than his bride when they married in December 1894 at Sacred Heart Church in Chestertown, Kent County MD.  This picture shows Eva in her wedding outfit. According to the newspaper account of the wedding, it was a gown of tan henrietta cloth with gloves and hat to match.

By the time of her marriage in 1894, Maryland was moving away from its rural roots and becoming more industrialized, although Prince George's County, where Eva raised her family was still mostly farmland, supplying wheat, corn, potatoes, fruits and vegetables for the nation's capital.  Tobacco fields still covered significant areas of the county.

Reverdy and Eva had four children:  Francis Wallis (1895), Eunice Loretto (1897), Theresa Evalina, my grandmother, (1898), and Clarence DeSales (1900).   The Sasscers grew up on a tobacco farm at Breezy Hill and attended the one-room school across the road, where, incidentally, Clarence later met his wife, Madge, who was the teacher there.

Thomas Reverdy Sasscer died in 1920 at the age of 68, so Eva spent the last 44 years of her life as a widow, running the farm with her sons and happily enjoying her brood of 16 grandchildren. It was my mother, Anne, who gave Eva the name by which she was known in the family--Dama--Anne's attempt to say "Grandma."  In her later years, Dama often spent the winters in Florida and my mother, who was her oldest grandchild,  remembers trips to Florida with her grandmother as a teenager.  Dama was very proud of her family heritage and was a member of the DAR and other patriotic societies.  

My memories of my great-grandmother center around the annual family Christmas parties that were always held at Dama's home, Breezy Hill.  It was there that I would see my numerous aunts and uncles, great-aunts and great uncles and dozens of cousins.  I remember her as a very elegant woman. The picture below shows her in 1951 with two of her great-grandchildren at a Christmas party. 

At the time of Eva's death in 1964, J. Millard Tawes, an Eastern Shore native, was governor of Maryland and Lyndon Johnson was initiating the Great Society, amid increasing calls for more minority rights. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge had opened up Eva's native Eastern Shore to greater tourism and Ocean City became a boom town.  The Beatles made their famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Both Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer and Thomas Reverdy Sasscer are buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County MD, along with many of their ancestors and descendants. 

#52Ancestors Week 2: Favorite Photo The Romance of Frank Scrivener and Lib Dent

It's so hard to choose a favorite photo from among all the family photos I have accumulated over the years, but I think I would have to go with this charming picture of my grandparents, Frank Scrivener and Elizabeth (Lib) Dent. Of course, I only knew them when they were much older, so I have always loved this fascinating glimpse of their youth.

The picture is not dated, but I think it was taken shortly before their marriage in 1924.  The clothes certainly seem to fit that time period.  My grandmother definitely has the flapper look going.  (And isn't she gorgeous?) Frank seems to be going for the Great Gatsby look.  Look at that natty bow tie!  I am not sure where the picture was taken, but perhaps it was in St. Mary's County at Lib's family home.  It does seem to be a rural rather than an urban location judging by the porch and flowers in the background.

Frank was the only child of Frank Scrivener and Louise Gwynn (see #52Ancestors Week 1), born in Baltimore in August 1900.  He attended Loyola College High School, where he played baseball, and enlisted in the Navy in WWI.  He was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Air Station, where he acquired quite a reputation as a quarterback on the football team.  Family legend has it that he even played a game against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame while he was at Great Lakes.  After his discharge, he got a job with the Maryland State Roads Commission, where he worked for the rest of this life.

Lib was the daughter of John Marshall Dent and Mary Peterson Turner, born in Oakley, St. Mary's County MD in 1902, the third of their four children. She was born Ida Elizabeth Dent (named after her grandmother)  but she never liked the name Ida and never used it.  Lib attended St. Mary's Female Seminary in St. Mary's County and taught school in Prince George's County MD after her graduation.  Here she met Frank, who travelled around the state inspecting roads as part of his job.  Apparently Frank would often hang around the school where Lib was teaching, whistling outside her classroom window, and would sometimes delight her students by telling them that class was dismissed.  (No word on how the principal felt about this!)

Lib and Frank were married at St. Mary's Church in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County MD on June 20, 1924, coincidentally just a few months after my maternal grandparents, Paul Summers and Evalina Sasscer, were married at the same church in April 1924. Twenty-three years later, my parents were married at the same church.

Lib and Frank had six children: Frank, Bill, Jack, Reds, Keene, and Bob, and raised them in Baltimore and St. Mary's County through the Great Depression.  Frank was fortunate to have a state job that enabled him to support his family.

The picture above suggests a loving and romantic relationship between Lib and Frank and from everything I know about them, that remained true throughout their lives.  I inherited one of the many loving notes that Lib wrote to her husband over the course of their long marriage.

Frank died in 1980 and Lib in 1987.  They are buried in New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore, next to Frank's parents. 

#52Ancestors Week 1: My Start in Genealogy

#52Ancestors
Week 1: Start

I have decided to work on the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge.  The prompt for this first week is "Start," so I have decided to write about what got me started doing genealogy.

It was my grandfather, Frank Scrivener. Sometime in the late 70's, he cleaned out his basement and came up with a box of family history materials from his mother, Louise Gywnn Scrivener.  He asked me if I would like to have them and I said yes.  From then on, I was hooked on genealogy.

My great-grandmother, Louise Gwynn, was really into family history.  She was a Regent of the DAR and belonged to several genealogy-based societies like the Pilgrims of St. Mary's, which she helped to found.  She had done a lot of research including many visits to the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis.  The box that my grandfather gave me included several notebooks full of her genealogy research.  But perhaps more importantly, Louise Gwynn was a saver.  The box also contained her scrapbooks where she had carefully pasted stories of her family members, marriages, deaths, graduations, you name it.  Even now, 50 years later, I still go back every now and then and look over the scrapbooks and I often find some detail that I previously overlooked or did not previously realize the significance.

Now, some of my great-grandmother's conclusions about family history were incorrect.  It took me many years of my own research at the Archives to find more accurate information, but I would not have started down that path if Louise Gwynn had not been there first.

Now a little about Louise Gwynn.  Louise Carmelite Keene Gwynn was born in Brooklyn NY in 1872 and died in Baltimore MD in 1946, although most of her early life was spent in Spartanburg SC where the Gwynns settled after the Civil War.  She was the third child, second daughter, of Captain Andrew Jackson Gwynn (wounded at Gettysburg) and Marie Louise Keene, both native Marylanders. She had three younger brothers and a younger sister.  I never met her as she died before I was born, but my parents and aunts and uncles say she was quite a force to be reckoned with.  According to them, I resemble her somewhat in temperament. :-)

The lavalier she is wearing in this picture is a family heirloom, worn by several generations of Scrivener brides (including me) at their weddings. 

She attended Mt. St. Agnes College in Baltimore and throughout her life she was a fierce advocate for women's education.  Louise Gwynn married Frank Phillip Scrivener Sr. in 1899 at her sister's residence in Prince George's County MD.  Her brother, Msgr. Andrew Keene Gwynn, officiated.   Louise and Frank settled in Baltimore where Frank worked as an accountant.  They had one son, Frank Phillip Scrivener Jr. born in 1900.  He attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and enlisted in the Navy during WWI. 

Louise was always involved in one civic project or another, charitable work and even politics.  After women got the right to vote, Louise was one of the first women to run for office, a seat on the Democratic State Central Committee.

When Frank retired, the couple moved to Upper Marlborough in Prince George's County near Louise's sister Effie.  Louise ran a small lending library from her home.  Her six grandchildren, including my father, often spent the summers with their grandparents, and this actually led to my father meeting my mother whose family attended the same church.

So, thank you, Louise Gwynn, for many, many happy hours of genealogy research.