A Christmas Letter in 1960

In June of 1960, USMC Major Robert G Scribner was away from his family and 4-months into a remote duty tour to Iwakuni, Japan.  Bob and Ann wrote each other letters daily, and their letters were mostly about missing each other and about their children – Bobby (10 yrs), Jane (7 yrs), Jeff (4 yrs) and David (1 yr).  Bob fretted knowing that Ann had her hands full with four young children back home in Yuma, Arizona.

That year, Bob assumed responsibility for buying all of the Christmas gifts needed for not only the children and Ann, but also for Bob’s mother, and Ann’s parents, as well as three in-law families including nieces and nephews.  Ann and the children had recently traveled to Norfolk, Virginia in December to spend the holidays with her parents, Charles & Nina Hughes. 

Below is Bob’s letter to Ann written on Christmas Day in 1960.  It is longer than most, but gives a window into that time for the Scribner family…

Below is the photo mentioned above that Ann sent to Bob as his Christmas gift in 1960 while he was away from the family.

Merry Christmas to you all from me in this year of 2022, sixty-two years later!

*  *  *  *  *

Notes:

The military career of Robert G Scribner was the subject of an earlier blog in May 2020.  And his ranching career will be the subject of a blog post that I am planning for later this year.  My next blog post will be about the Scribner family time in Japan when everyone joined Bob in 1961.

Key Individuals:

     Robert Gordon Scribner  (1923 – 2006)

     Ann Hart Hughes Scribner  (1921 – 2006)               

- Jane Scribner McCrary

 

Augustine Bearse – a controversial immigrant story

There has been much controversy about the life of Augustine Bearse, one of our earliest immigrants who arrived in New England in 1638.  Often referred to as Austin Bearse, he was born about 1618 in Longstock, Hampshire, England.  [Note that Bearse, the most common version used in the family line, and Bearce are both used in various genealogy references.  I will use the name both ways at times in this article.]

The name of Augustine Bearce first appears on the shipping manifest of the ship, Confidence of London, sailed from Southhampton, England and arrived in Plymouth on April 24, 1638.  The ship’s manifest lists Augustine Bearce, aged 20, along with 84 passengers on this voyage to the New World.  It is believed that the ship’s passengers were predominately family groups of Puritans leaving political conflict and persecution in England.

We know that Augustine Bearse settled in Barnstable, Massachusetts on Cape Cod and about 30 miles south of Plymouth with a company of settlers led by Rev John Lathrop.  Lathrop was originally ordained with the Church of England.  However in 1623, he renounced his orders and adopted more Independent Congregationalist and Puritan beliefs.  His reformed ideas were considered heretical and after several years of imprisonment for his preachings, Rev Lathrop left for the New World to escape further persecution in England. 

Rev John Lathrop is considered the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.  And Augustine was the first person named on record of those who joined Rev Lathrop’s church when it was established in Barnstable in 1643.  The early church records note him as a “freeman” and a “Goodman”.  Augustine’s wife joined the church in 1650 as the church register records her as “the wife of Brother Berce”.  Augustine was a farmer and successfully raised enough to feed his large family of eleven children – the first six of which were girls!  He also served Barnstable as a grand juror in 1653 and again in 1662; and he was a surveyor of highways in 1674.

An early book written in 1888 titled Barnstable Families notes of Augustine Bearse that “He appears to have been very exact in the performance of his religious duties, causing his children to be baptized on the Sabbath next following day of their birth” and that “He was one of the very few against whom no complaint was ever made:  a fact which speaks well for his character as a man and a citizen.”  Thus, Augustine Bearse appears to have been a highly regarded member of both his church and the community of Barnstable.  However, while Augustine appears to have been highly regarded by his fellow settlers, records also show that the Bearse family kept Indian slaves, usurped Indian lands, and fought in the Indian wars – behavior that was not uncommon in those times.

Some genealogies cite the wife of Augustine Bearse as Mary, with her last name unknown.  One possible theory about Mary is that on the original ship manifest Augustine’s name is listed immediately under the names of Martha Wilder of Shiplocke, Oxford, England and Mary who is noted as her daughter, but without an age or her last name recorded.  It is also notable that Austin’s first child was named Mary, and his second child was Martha.

Now, there is an alternative discussion of Augustine Bearse that was first introduced in the 1930’s.  In 1933, a man named Franklin Ele-watum Bearce applied with the State Commissioner of Indian Rights and Claims for benefits as an Indian in the state of Connecticut.  For provenance, Franklin provided a document that he had written called Who Our Forefathers Really Were where Franklin claimed that the wife of Augustine Bearse was Mary “Little Dove” Hyanno, an Indian princess.  While the commission couldn’t either prove or disprove his genealogy as provided in his narrative, they accepted his statement as an authentic and legal declaration of his lineage, and approved his benefit claim. 

Franklin asserted that he based his claim of Indian ancestry and his version of his family history almost 300 years prior on his own personal knowledge “handed down from generation to generation by my ancestors and imparted to me by word of mouth by my grand father, Henery Bearce” and also on information included in an original diary of Zerviah Newcomb, the wife of Josiah Bearse, a grandson of Augustine Bearse.  Franklin wrote that the diary was titled A True Chronicle of the Bearse Family.  However, Franklin did not provide either the diary or a copy of it with his claim – and there is no record of the diary’s existence other than as stated in his claim.

According to Franklin Bearce’s manifest, Augustine Bearse was persecuted in England because of his Romany or Gypsy heritage.  And for some minor infraction of English law, he was deported to the colonies.  Franklin claimed that Augustine Bearse was the only prisoner allocated to the Barnstable colony after his arrival.

Franklin maintained that no Puritan daughter would marry a gypsy because of religious and racial prejudices.  Augustine instead married Mary “Little Dove” Hyanno, daughter of John Hyanno, a full-blooded Wampanoag Indian, and son of the Sachem Ihyannough who befriended the Pilgrims on their first arrival.  He claimed that they were married in a traditional Indian ceremony at her village.  Franklin described Mary Hyanno as a “flaming-haired Mattachee princess.”  He also noted that Augustine Bearse was given good land in Barnstable by his wife’s grandfather.

Franklin E Bearce’s manuscript and theories gained widespread attention after a 1935 article was published in a magazine called the Utah Genealogical Magazine which detailed Franklin’s version of the Bearse history.  However later in 1939, Franklin’s genealogy was disputed in a well-respected publication titled The American Genealogist.  

There is no actual evidence that tells us whether Augustine Bearse had a Romany or an English heritage.  And we don’t really know if he made the voyage to escape religious or ethnic persecution, if he was deported as a prisoner or if he chose to make the voyage himself.  And last we don’t really know who Augustine married – the daughter of Martha Wilder, an Indian princess, or someone else entirely.  Because of the lack of original documentation or other sources to back up his claims, many genealogical historians refer to Franklin’s version of the Augustine Bearse genealogy as lacking credibility and most certainly contrived solely to obtain rights and benefits as an American Indian. 

Augustine was prominent in both the church and local governance and his children married into the best families in Barnstable and Yarmouth.  Critics of Franklin’s story maintain that it is absurd to believe that respected Puritan families would hold him in high regard and also allow their children to marry his children if he was a deported criminal Gypsy married to an Indian woman. 

I have mentioned this before, but it is good to remind you that simply because something was printed in a book or even handwritten in a bible, manuscript, journal or on a piece of paper, that doesn’t necessarily make it true and accurate.  A historian or researcher will always want to find verification or supporting documentation whenever possible.

*  *  *  *  * 

Key Individuals:

Augustine/Austin Bearse/Bearce (1618 – 1686)

Wife or wives:  unknown, possibly Mary ?

            James Bearse (1660 – 1728) [Augustine’s youngest son & our ancestor] m. Experience Howland (1669 – 1728)

           

Notes:

1)  If you refer to my earlier post, A Mayflower Connection or not [posted on October 3, 2020] and also the follow-up in the Notes of Overboard on the Mayflower [posted on November 15, 2021], you will see that our line to the Mayflower runs through Experience Howland.  Experience married James Bearse, the youngest son of Augustine/Austin Bearse, the immigrant.

2)  I wonder… if Augustine Bearse’s wife was a full-blooded Wampanoag Indian, then would American Indian ethnicity show up in the results of a DNA test for a descendent 350 years later?  I did an Ancestry DNA test several years ago, and there is no indication that I have any American Indian ethnicity in my results. 

Others have also thought about this, as I found a web page online seeking yDNA samples from direct male descendants of Augustine Bearse to test for Romany heritage, and also seeking mtDNA samples from direct female descendants to test for Native American heritage.  To date, testing results indicate that Augustine was not of Romany descent, and his wife was not Native American.

 Jane Scribner McCrary

The Roberts Siblings

One of my great grandmothers was Jane Roberts who married Luke Hughes in Shiloh, Camden County, North Carolina in 1881.  Her parents were Thomas Linton Roberts and Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts of Camden County, North Carolina [see the blog post, Struck By Lightning, November 30, 2021].  I was named after Jane who was my mother’s grandmother.

Jane had eight siblings, and six of the Roberts siblings lived into the 1900’s – three girls, Jane, Elizabeth/Betty, and Jestine and three boys, Thomas, George and James.

The six Roberts siblings lived long lives with four of them remaining in North Carolina, and two of them moving to Norfolk County in Virginia at some point. However they were near enough to remain in close contact all of their life.

The siblings’ details are noted below:

Jane Roberts (1861 – 1933) married Luke Hughes.

Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts (1863 – 1941) married Henry Clay Miller.

Jestine Morrisette Roberts (1869 – 1940) married James Depolian Sawyer.

Thomas Marcellus Roberts (1872 – 1945) married Leonoa Sanderlin.

George Lewis Roberts (1875 – 1950) married Annie Sawyer Leary.

James Monroe Roberts 91878 – 1962) married Charlotte Perkins.

Jane was the oldest, and the first of the six Roberts siblings to die.  She died in 1933.  However, before that time and around 1930, the Roberts siblings all gathered in Shawboro, North Carolina at the residence of James Monroe Roberts and his family for a Roberts Family Reunion and photo.

*  *  *  *  *

Key Individuals:

     Thomas Linton Roberts  (1830 – 1881)

     Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts  (1834 – 1896)

             Nancy Roberts  (1855 – 1876)

             Polly Roberts  (1858 – 1875)

             Jane Roberts   (1861 – 1933)

             Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts  (1863-1941)

             Martha P Roberts  (1866 – 1875)

             Jestine Morrisette Roberts  (1869 – 1940)

             Thomas Marcellus Roberts  (1872 – 1945)

             George Lewis Roberts  (1875 – 1950)

             James Monroe Roberts  (1878 – 1962)

Notes:

1)  I have a listing of the attendees as they appear in the Roberts Family Reunion photo, and will be happy to share if anyone is interested.  My grandparents, mother and aunt are in the top row, and Jane & Luke Hughes are on the far left end.

2)  I have received comments from a few of my family blog readers that there are far more blog posts about Dad’s side of the family than Mom’s side.  And, yes, that is true.  It isn’t by design though; it is simply a matter of me having more original family information available for Dad’s side.  Also when researching the lines on both sides, I have found that there are just more public records and documentation available for the Scribner lines than for the Hughes side.  I think the reason for that difference is primarily because of both wealth and location.  Mom’s ancestors don’t appear to have been large landowners which allowed many families to create wealth.  And paper trails are also easiest to follow in the more populated New England area.  Many of Mom’s ancestors were located in southern rural areas where documents were often not kept or did not survive over time.

But for now, these last two blogs were about Mom’s side of the family.  And I do have another couple planned before I am finished that will be about the Harts, Mom’s great grandparents.

- Jane Scribner McCrary

The Morrisettes of North Carolina

My mother’s side of our family tree finds most of her known relatives through her father’s line in Virginia and North Carolina.  One branch of that family tree, the Morrisette family, appears to have arrived in the Virginia area before 1700.  This is the line of one of my mother’s great grandmothers, Elizabeth Morrisette, 1834-1896.

 

Elizabeth’s paternal line traces back to Thomas Morrisett who was born in 1675 in either England, Scotland or France.  Some suspect that Thomas was part of a French Huguenot family and that he lived in Scotland prior to his journey to the Colonies. Most of my information comes from the family genealogy book, The Morrisettes of North Carolina and Other Southern States written in 1972 by Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse. 

It is believed that Thomas Morrisett (1675-1768) arrived in Princess Anne County, Virginia in 1695 with the John Randolph Expedition.  However, there is no manifest or documentation found for a John Randolph Expedition, so we can’t verify that information.   However, the Virginia Randolph's arrived before 1650 beginning with William Randolph, and one of his 5 sons was named John.  The Randolph's were very wealthy landowners raising tobacco and it is reasonable that the Randolph family sponsored many voyages between England and Virginia and possibly at least one led by John Randolph, a son of William Randolph.

 

It is thought that Thomas Morrisett, supposedly a French Huguenot, arrived in Virginia in 1695.  And that he had a twin brother, Pierre/Peter, who arrived in 1700 with a group of French Huguenots that started a settlement known as Mannikintown in Virginia.

Most of what is known about Thomas Morrisett, the emigrant, was obtained from an old Morrisette family bible.  According to Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse, the original Morrisett family bible burned in 1875, and the bible entries were soon thereafter re-created from memory in a new bible to try and capture the early Morrisett information.  According to Ms. Shannonhouse’s book, the second bible records begin with:

Thomas Morrisett, born in Esicks County, Scotland, May 1, 1675; emigrated to this country with the John Roldolph [sic] expedition in 1695; settled in Princess Ann [sic] County, Virginia, near Cape Henry; died June 1, 1768, age 93 years.  Thomas married Mary A Wade, the daughter of Magen Wade, who was born March 15, 1679 in Scots County, England; arrived in 1690; married May 8, 1698; and died March 5, 1775.

The original Thomas Morrisett home site was said to be located in Back Bay, Virginia.  Thomas and Mary had 3 sons, and it is believed that our Morrisett line is through their youngest son, Thomas Morrisett II (1702-1774).  According to Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse: 

“Cap'n Tom was a mariner, and traveled on a boat that did business with ports in the West Indies, and on occasion, they put into port at Indiantown Creek, which is located on the border of present-day Camden and Currituck Counties.  In those days, it was a thriving, deep water port.  At any rate, he is supposed to have fallen in love with a pretty red-haired girl named Hannah Cason.  Some stories say that Hannah's mother was an Indian and her father a Scotsman named Peter Cason.  One story says that Thomas never married the beautiful Hannah, but her children by him were given his name.  Other stories say he did marry her.  All of them agree that she had twin sons by him, named Pater [Peter] and Cason Morrisette.  One story goes on to say that he went back to sea, leaving her a chest full of gold coins and that he never returned.  He is supposed to have been lost at sea or killed by pirates."

One of Hannah Cason’s great granddaughters said that Thomas was referred to as “the Frenchman” and she remembers her great grandmother as a very old woman called “Granny Hannah”, and in her later years Hannah lived with her great grandson, Philip Morrisette (Elizabeth Morrisette’s father), at the Morrisette home known as “Populars” in Sandy Hook.  It is said that Hannah Cason lived to be over 100 years old.

I must note that there has not been any historical documentation found so far that specifically names our Thomas Morrisett or even his son, Thomas Morrisett II.  And the book on the Morrisette family history written by Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse is not a documented or verified source.  Many regard the information included in her book as unproven or even questionable. Feel free to call or email me if you want any further discussion on this topic. 

The earliest Morrisett documentation found in the area does include a Pierre Morriset among a group of about 500 French Huguenot emigrants that arrived aboard three ships that left Southhampton, England in July 1700.  The passenger named Pierre Morriset, a single man, was aboard the ship Mary and Ann, the first of the three ships to arrive at the mouth of the James River in Virginia.  A later ship named the Peter and Anthony arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in September 1700, and the passenger list for that ship included Jean Maricet, with no wife or family, but there is no indication if he was related to the earlier Pierre Morriset. 

According to Ms. Shannonhouse, the Pierre Morriset who arrived in 1700 is the twin brother of our Thomas Morriset who she believes arrived earlier in 1695.  Again, there is no recorded documentation for Thomas’ arrival, just family lore and an early family bible. 

The next recorded documentation found for a Morriset in our line is a North Carolina land grant record showing that acreage was granted to Peter Morrisett (1728 – 1803) on July 9, 1760 in Currituck County, North Carolina. 

Several months ago I wrote a series of blog posts about several of my ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary War.  All of the individuals noted in those 3 blog posts were on my father’s side of the family and lived in the northeast.  I was pleased when I recently realized that I had missed an ancestor who was on my mother’s Morrisette side of the family and also fought in the Revolutionary War.  

Documentation shows that this Peter Morrisette enlisted as a Patriot on May 21, 1778 as a corporal in the 10^th Carolina Regiment assigned to Carter’s company; and he also served in the 6^th Carolina Regiment commanded by Col Gideon Lamb during the Revolutionary War.  In 1820, after his death, Peter Morrisette was issued a Revolutionary land warrant for acreage for his service.  The land was granted in the name of his heirs.

A Peter Morrisett is found in the 1790 Census for Camden County, North Carolina.  The census shows his family of four included 2 adult males, 1 adult female, 1 male child, and one slave.  In the 1800 census a Peter Morrisette family was in Currituck County and had 1 adult male, 1 adult female, 5 children under 16, with no slaves.  It is probable that these two censuses refer to Peter Morrisette, the eldest son of Thomas Morrisett II and Hannah Cason, or his son, also named Peter Morrisette.  Unfortunately, these early census records only list the name of the head of household.

*  *  *  *  * 

Individuals:

 

Thomas Morrisett  (1675 – 1768) m. Mary Ann Wade Morrisett (1679 – 1775)

Thomas Morrisett II (1702 – 1774) m. Hannah Cason (1703 – aft. 1803)

                        Peter Morrisett  (1728 – 1803) m. Alis/Alice D’auge 

                                    Peter Morrisett II (1750 – 1820) m. Chloe Hutchins

                                                Philip Morrisette (1790 – 1837) m. Jane Garrett

                                                            Elizabeth Morrisette  (1834 – 1896)

 

Notes:

1)  Elizabeth Morrisette (1834-1896), noted above, had an interesting life and you can find more information on Elizabeth at my blog post Struck by Lightning, posted on November 30, 2021.

2)  I noted several years ago in the Introduction to this blog that I first became interested in gathering our family history information in the late 1970’s.  In the spring of 1979, I took a trip with my mother to visit some of her relatives in Virginia and North Carolina.  On that trip, I started asking questions and gathering information about my mother’s ancestors. 

One of my mother’s cousins, Esther Rippard Bradshaw, with a love for our family genealogy, offered to share her information with me – and I was hooked.  Esther copied many of her family sheet pages (it was a time before we used the computer for our genealogy!) from her files that related to my family line. Esther and my mother were both granddaughters of Luke Hughes & Jane Roberts Hughes.  

Esther also showed me a paperbound typewritten book titled “The Morrisettes of North Carolina and Other Southern States” written in 1972 by Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse and told me that was the source for a great deal of information on our family Morrisette line.  Regrettably, she told me that it was no longer in print and the only copies that she knew of belonged to family members.

After I got home to New Mexico, I decided to write Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse to inquire about her book.  Edna answered my letter, and she told me that there truly were no more copies available; however I was delighted when she mailed me copies of the pages from her own book that linked to my family line.  Those pages even had some of her handwritten notes on them! 

Ms. Shannonhouse died in 1995, and her son later authorized a reprinting of her book in 2006 by the Family Research Society of Northeastern North Carolina.  So there are now more copies to be found of this book. 

I’ll state again, however, that because much of her early Morrisette information is family lore and not verified with documentation, many historians remain skeptical as to the accuracy of some of Ms. Shannonhouse’s facts and assumptions. 

 – Jane Scribner McCrary

More Early Family Genealogy Sources

In my last blog post, I discussed how amazing it is when you have old family genealogies available to you to use in building your family tree.  The genealogies can be original documents or published material.  Another prized source of family information can be old letters, photos and other miscellaneous documents that have been kept in the family.

One interesting and unusual item that has been retained in our family is a Bill of Sale for an ownership interest in the clipper ship, John Clark of Baltimore dated September 23, 1857.  I first mentioned this document in my blog, The Tale of Captain Hale, posted May 29, 2021.   The Bill of Sale of a Vessel is a very large document measuring 17” X 21 ½” in size.  It was a printed form that was prepared in Baltimore using the legal terms of a bill of sale and providing blanks to fill in the specifics of the sale of a vessel.  It begins…

“Know all Men by these Presents that I, Philip M Hale of the City of Baltimore, State of Maryland owner of one-eighth of the Ship or vessel called the “John Clark” of Baltimore as per Register – as well as further owner of an Interest in one eighth of said Ship by agreement made with Mssrs Cooper & Butler the reputed owners of one fourth as per Register for and in consideration of the sum of Fourteen Thousand dollars current money of the United States to me in hand paid at the time of perfection of these presents by Mary Dickinson of the City of Baltimore, aforesaid the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, have granted, bargained, sold, assigned, transferred and set over, and by these presents do the said one eighth of said Ship “John Clark” owned by me as per Register as well also any further Interest which I at present or hereafter may have in and to the said Ship together with a like proportion of her Masts, Yards, Sails, Riggin, Anchors, Cables, Boats, Tackle, Apparel and Appertenances, as she now is and more particularly described in a Certificate of Registry granted her at the Port of Baltimore…”

Look at that signature!  There are not any letters or other information that have been passed down telling us why Philip M Hale transferred or sold his interest in the ship John Clark to Mary Dickinson who was his mother-in-law.  Most probably, Philip needed money or possibly he was using his interest in the ship to repay a loan from her.

In 1856, Philip M Hale became the Captain and a partial owner of the new ship John Clark of Baltimore on her maiden voyage.  The ship sailed to Liverpool on that first voyage.  Unfortunately after leaving Liverpool, on the return voyage to Baltimore, the ship sailed into a hurricane and lost the main topsail and the foretop mast. The damage to the ship undoubtedly created an economic expense for the owners, either reducing or eliminating their profit on the voyage.

Only a year later in 1857, Philip transferred or sold his ownership share in the John Clark to his mother-in-law.  And I believe that 1858 was Capt Hale's final year with the John Clark.  By then it appears that there were problems with Philip’s career and marriage as well as drinking and financial problems; also the advent of the Civil War was on the horizon. 

 

Another collection of original documents that have been retained in our family is a group of letters that David Bill Dickinson (my 3^rd great grandfather) had saved.  He wrote regarding his memories of his father and family with the goal of trying to obtain a Revolutionary War widow’s pension for his mother referencing his father’s service and the fact that his father, Nathaniel Dickinson, was captured and imprisoned by the British.  The pension request was eventually declined.  David worked on the claim between 1835-1842 which was after his mother had already died.  Unfortunately, I don't actually know what year she died.  The petition asked for compensation for the years that David financially took care of his mother and sisters’ expenses without benefit of a Revolutionary pension for his father.  David's efforts ended when he submitted a Petition to Congress in 1842, but it was also declined.

The letters that David B Dickinson retained were handwritten copies that he had made of letters that he sent and received from a lawyer that was assisting him, his letters to and from Jonathan Brooks, Jr (his uncle), and other letters from individuals that had known his father and could verify his Revolutionary service.  I expect that David kept the file for his reference. Below from that grouping is a summary of Nathaniel's service that was written by Jonathan Brooks, Jr.

Finally, realize that its not necessary to have original documents that have been passed down in your family.  Alternatively, you can gather copies of original documents in your quest for information.  The most common copies of documents that you should work to find are birth and death certificates, marriage documents, obituaries and newspaper articles.  Just don’t forget that you will need to record or document your source, i.e. where you got them, for your files.

I look for ALL of the documentation that I can find because I don’t want to end up only with names and birth, marriage and death dates on my family tree.  I want to learn as much as possible about my ancestors that will enable me to envision the stories of their lives to include the good and the bad, and the happy and the sad.

*  *  *  *  *

Key Individuals:

     Philip Moore Hale  (1807 – 1870)

     David Bill Dickinson  (1798 – 1846)

 – Jane Scribner McCrary

Early Family Genealogy Sources

One of the most prized sources of family genealogical information is written material that has been passed down through the family.  These types of sources often include family notes or letters.  While this type of information is usually assumed to be accurate, you must always remember that it is only as good as the knowledge, memory or resource of the author who recorded it years, or even a century earlier.

We are lucky in that we have at least three of these types of informational sources that are specific to our family and give information on earlier generations on our family tree.  They include handwritten pages in the family bible known as the Hale Bible; notes that were recorded in a journal by Deacon David W Scribner probably in the late 1800’s; and a family genealogy document about the Hall family that was prepared specifically for Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner by Harry M Chapman in 1897.

P M Hale Bible – The bible known in our family as the Hale Bible was published in New York in 1846.  It is very large and heavy and is inscribed inside with the text, “a sacred token from Philip M Hale to Mary Ann B Hale”.   Philip and Mary were married in 1835 however the bible would have been purchased sometime between 1846 and 1860.  It has now been passed down in our family for four generations.

 

As in many large bibles, the Hale Bible has pages for recording births, marriages and deaths, and information has been added on many of those pages.

 

Because I have an original document signed by Philip M Hale, I can see that the marriage information in the bible for Philip M Hale and Mary Ann B Dickinson was actually written by Philip M Hale.  The Hale family bible also includes a few cherished items that were kept in the bible such as the 1876 marriage certificate for David A Scribner & Virginia A Hale.

Also included in the bible are a couple of obituary news clippings and a photo.  There is a newspaper obituary for Mary A B Dickinson Hale (the wife of P M Hale) who died in 1880; the obituary for one of her sons, David D Hale, who died in 1894; and a photo that is noted on the back as “Sis Mary”.  I believe the photo is of Mary Rogers Summerville Hale who died in 1866 at the age of 29 years, and that it was labeled as “Sis Mary” by Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner.

One of the types of genealogical documents mentioned above is handwritten recordings of family records.  There is a sheet that is tucked into the Hale Bible that is a page of notes about the Rogers family.  The mother of the original owner of the bible, Mary A B Dickinson Hale, was a Rogers.  Mary’s grandparents were Capt John Rogers and Hannah Smith, and the topic of my previous blog post.  They were married in 1782.

Journal written by Deacon David W Scribner – An accounting that was included in a personal journal written by Deacon David W Scribner was seven pages of detailed information beginning with a page titled “Family Record of My Great Grandfather’s Children”.  David W Scribner lived until 1890 and died at 94 years of age, so we know that he wrote down this family information in his journal in the 1800’s.  David’s great grandfather was Edward Scribner (1696-1756), and David began his record with the list of that Edward’s children.  

The compiled John Hall & Mary Parker of Maryland genealogy – One early genealogy document specific to our family is a family tree that was prepared for Virginia A Hale Scribner in 1897.  It tracked her Hale family back to early colonial years and the arrival of John Hall (1624 – 1660) in America. 

John Hall arrived from England in 1640, and during his life he became a substantial land owner in the Chesapeake Bay area [see the January 15, 2021 blog, Legacy of Enslavement].   His son, also named John Hall (1658 – 1737) held the important offices of High Sheriff of Baltimore County in 1692, and the governmental offices of a Deputy Commissioner.  He was also a delegate to the General Assembly of Maryland from Baltimore County.

The genealogy, titled the “Descendants of John Hall and Mary Parker of Maryland” written by Harry M Chapman, takes Virginia’s ancestry back to both of those early ancestors. 

There was a great deal of interest in the early 1900’s in heraldry groups.  Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the General Society of Mayflower Descendants are examples of such groups.  Virginia was a long-time member of a group called the Kin of Colonials, and she was also a member of the Society of Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century.  To join such groups Virginia needed to provide something that traced her line back to colonial times. 

Harry M Chapman prepared the Hall family genealogy for Virginia with the purpose of documenting her line for membership in lineage societies.  The document is comprised of fifteen legal-sized handwritten pages covering eight generations beginning with John Hall & Mary Parker and ending with Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner.

 

Harry Melville Chapman, the author of the genealogy, was also a distant cousin to Virginia.  Both Virginia and Harry were great grandchildren of Aquila Hall & Ann Tolley Hall.  Harry may have already gathered much of the information on the Hall family for his own interests and membership in lineage societies, as I have found that he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. 

Please remember when working with most documents, you should always double check with other sources, if available, as not everything written down is necessarily correct.  I have worked with Chapman’s Hall genealogy document quite a bit in doing my own research over the years, and I have discovered a few errors.  I found one entry that gave a man’s marriage date that was only twelve years after his birth date, thus the marriage date or birth date, or both, are incorrect.  I also discovered that Mr. Chapman had incorrectly noted Virginia’s 2^nd & 3^rd great grandparents.  The correct lineage is actually only slightly different and through siblings in the same Hall family line, thus the corrected path still goes back to John Hall and Mary Parker, just not exactly on the route as noted in Chapman’s family tree.

*  *  *  *  *

 

Key Individuals:

     Philip Moore Hale  (1807 – 1870)

     Mary Ann Brown Dickinson Hale  (1816 – 1880)

 

     Captain John Rogers  (1760 – 1796)

     Hannah Smith Rogers  (1760 – 1845)

 

     Deacon David Scribner  (1795 – 1890)

     Islethera Howland Scribner  (1802 – 1843) 

 

     Capt David Alba Scribner  (1840 – 1911)

     Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner  (1848 – 1940)

 

Notes:

1)  It is possible that you can find records owned by others that intersect your family line and take you to earlier generations.  I found a DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) document that indicated that DAR had at one time reviewed and accepted the family bible records for Aquila Hall and Ann Tolley Hall, my 4^th great grandparents.  In 2010, I wrote to the DAR office in Washington D.C. and requested a copy of that document.  In response, the DAR sent me copy from their files of a 1939 typed transcription of entries that were said to have been written in a bible that had originally belonged to Aquila and Ann Hall.  Aquila and Ann were both born in the mid-1700’s in Baltimore County.  The bible that the 1939 DAR transcription was taken from was at that time owned by Harry Melville Chapman who died in 1946.  I wonder who holds that Hall family bible today? 

2)  Other sources that have proven helpful are published genealogies.  I have been able to find links for individuals in our family tree in the following genealogy books:  The Book of Snedekers, A Simple Outline of the Descendants of Focke Jansz of the Netherlands, The Wentworth Genealogy, The Morrisettes of North Carolina, James Rogers of New London CT, A Genealogy of the Ricker Family and the Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England.  You simply need to determine where our tree links into the surname genealogy, usually by marriage. 

And last, there are printed materials that are not specifically genealogies that can also be useful in digging out family information.  One that comes to mind is the The Diary Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut 1711 – 1758.  If you enjoy writing, you might want to consider starting your own personal diary or journal, and possibly decades or centuries from now it will be prized by one of your descendants as a tale of your time in history!

3)  Be aware that simply because something was printed in a book or even handwritten in a bible, journal or on a piece of paper, that doesn’t necessarily make it true and accurate.  A historian or researcher will always want to find verification documentation whenever possible.

 – Jane Scribner McCrary