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President's Message

To all BCGS members and friends:

I hope your summer is going well. Maybe it means trips to family locations to renew connections, to research local archives, or just to take a much needed break.

These days, I am thinking about new beginnings. Two days ago I brought home two 4 month old kittens to join my one cat household. They are adorable and so much fun to watch them make new discoveries.  Like any new mom, I am losing sleep over the kittens, Milo and Toby.  It was much easier when I was younger!

On August 6th our own Cathy Ivins, the DNA whisperer, will help us to FINALLY understand what all the fuss is about DNA. Cathy has a way of explaining it so ANYONE can understand it. So you have results and don't know what they mean or you are someone knowledgeable about DNA and want to know about the latest changes at Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, or 23andMe, Cathy has her ear to the ground for answers. So stop by on the August 6th and be enlightened.

Maybe it is time to actually start researching after educating yourself about genealogy. Begin researching a new branch of your tree. Buy a new piece of technology and do a task that's been waiting, like scanning those photos. How about reading Drew Smith's new book called Organize Your Genealogy and finally getting it all together. Blow out those cobwebs and start something new.

Mary C. Butash, President
Bucks County Genealogical Society
Join us for next meeting on 
Saturday, August 6, 2016
10:00 AM to 12:00 Noon

at the David Library of the American Revolution
1201 River Road, Washington Crossing, PA 
(Park behind the building and use the Conference Center entrance)
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Genetic Genealogy:  DNA for Newbies, 
Wannabes, and Crackerjacks

Presented by Cathy Ivins

The popularity of DNA analysis flourishes with witty television promotion, and affordable at-home kits. But the value to genealogists is more than just prediction of ethnicity. It can boost your family tree research, break through a brick wall, and help find biological families. It can confirm your findings obtained through traditional genealogy research, and even provide you personal health information. Our speaker will take us step by step in determining the right test and testing company for our needs, decoding the mysterious results, using third-party tools, and creating skeleton trees to link to our DNA as "cousin bait." (No science prerequisite required!) Whether you are a NEWBIE and need help understanding your results and what to do with them, a WANNABE curious what DNA can do for you, or a CRACKERJACK that can share your knowledge and experience during the program, we hope to see you August 6th. 

About the speaker:
Cathy Ivins is a charter member of BCGS as well as its Director of Publicity for the last three years. An Instructional Assistant for the Bristol Township School District by day, she has been researching her family history for over 12 years. Cathy completed the Practical Genetic Genealogy course at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, taught by CeCe Moore, Debbie Parker Wayne, and Blaine Bettinger, as well as Fundamentals of Forensic Genealogy, taught by Michael Ramage and other experts in the field. Cathy has benefited tremendously from DNA testing and hopes to encourage others to "give a spit!"
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The meeting is open to the public and reservations are not needed. Cost is $5 for members and $10 for non-members.
REFRESHMENTS ARE NEEDED!

I f you are willing to get coffee at the Dunkin' Donuts in Washington
Crossing, you will be reimbursed at the meeting.   If you bring munchkins, cookies, small muffins etc, your meeting fee will be discounted. 

Please contact Marilyn Cook (so that we don't have too many folks bringing coffee or refreshments) and to get directions.  Marilyn may be reached at 215-348-8956 or  [email protected]

One Man's Attempt at an Ancestral Deep Div e

While researching my mother's family history for a manuscript and video, I became intrigued with one of my triple great uncles. His name was General William Woods Averell and his life spanned most of the 19th Century.

Born on a small farm in western New York by pioneer parents, William later rose to become a Union general, a US diplomat and an inventor and entrepreneur. These varied careers allowed him to directly interact with many of the prominent people through most of the major events of his time.(1) But like so many of his generation and ours, his life and achievements were written more on an "Etch A Sketch" than in stone.

As people of his generation passed away, his earthly foot prints faded with them. Sixty years later his unpublished memoir was discovered in a carpet bag in an attic and was not published until 1978. When I retired from teaching in 2005, I re-read it more carefully and discovered that he had thirty boxes of personal papers stored at New York State Library in Albany. To the horror of my family, I instantly became a mad genealogist totally obsessed in a Tammy Hepps' ancestral "Deep Dive". (2)

Gen William W Averell 1832-1900
For the last decade, I have made a half dozen trips to Albany pouring over his estate, military, and business documents. He had saved almost everything he valued: a few autographed photos of prominent men, copies of speeches he had given, news clippings of his military and business successes, a number of Victorian calling cards and formal invitations. He also had lawyer briefs and notes for the biggest legal battle of his life.

The legal battle happened late in the century. After the Civil War, and his brief stint as a diplomat, He wanted to invent something that would prove useful and lucrative. He witnessed an experiment with asphalt. He saw its potential for paving streets and formed a company. After five years of exhausting and expensive experiments, he made it work. However, a real estate tycoon also saw its promise and weaseled his way into Averell's business. Within months, the General became bed ridden from an old war illness. The ruthless partner stole my uncle's patent, started his own company and made a fortune paving America. Averell took this partner to court, but the growing multimillionaire was able to keep him at bay for 15 years. Averell persisted and eventually won the case.  Averell's name is not mentioned in the history of asphalt, but there is enough evidence buried in his Albany papers to justify this history's revision. (3)

The most rewarding items found in Albany were hundreds of letters and five decades of his diaries. They were all in chronological order, but mostly in 19th Century handwritten  script. It was tedious work to decipher them and to save precious library time, I took digital pictures of those which held promise so I could de-code them more leisurely at home. 

After each Albany trip, I crisscrossed the country checking out every place he fought, worked or traveled. Countless treasures were discovered in many of these county libraries, historical societies and Civil War battle sites. His home county furnished obituaries of his entire family and biographical and historical information of people and places of his childhood. The county clerk and tax office allowed me to exactly locate his family homestead. Near his hidden home's foundation, I visited families whose ancestors were once Averell's neighbors with their own stories to tell. Just being there on top of the hill, which now bares his name, helped me understand why he always called this place his anchor.

I also found some wonderful material in known depositories. The Library at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, PA provided rich details on his military career. West Point archives in New York revealed every demerit he earned, every book he checked out of the library, and every course and legendary professor he had. It was fun to explore the Academy's Post Orders of his time. They were signed by Superintendent Colonel Robert E Lee. These Post Orders confirmed he was one of the four Academy cadet captains his last year but only for six months. Some of these previous captains were relieved when they were caught sneaking off post to drink and dine at the legendary tavern, Benny Havens.

Via the internet, I discovered that the University of Delaware had amazingly acquired two scrapbooks which helped me better understand my uncle's bachelor life while he resided in NYC. The books were made by one of the city's high society women. She had been brazenly accused of adultery by her well known husband who was in love with a younger woman. He sued her for divorce and the custody of all their children. His wife refused to play this Victorian game. Being a strong and independent women in her own right, she courageously risked certain economic and social suicide by counter suing him for adultery. The scrapbooks she made contained news clipping of both trials, letters of support from certain Roosevelts, twenty some calling cards form other New York socialites along with the crème de la crème of society acceptance, a lunch invitation from "The" Mrs. Astor.

The gentleman with whom she was accused of having an affair was no other than my dashing thirty-nine year old uncle, General William Woods Averell. He sat behind her at the trail and even arranged and paid for the Pinkerton Detective Agency to follow her husband.(4)
There is more to tell, but I believe I have already exceeded the limit suggested for this newsletter. I strongly recommend that if you ever come across a family member with personal papers stored at a depository, go for it. Each new source allows you to go deeper into another layer of your relative's character and personality. Your ancestor becomes a wonderful companion and your Best friend forever. If any of my research interests you, look for my book. However, I am having so much fun exploring this deep dive, it may be found unpublished in my attic long after I am gone.

By Ralph Rhodes, Retired teacher of American History at Council Rock H.S.

Ralph Rhodes' Footnotes

We found Ralph Rhodes' article so interesting and enjoyed the footnotes too. It was difficult to show them on the software that we use for our newsletter, so here they are.

[1] Averell had several charming private encounters with Winfield Scott, Robert E. Lee, Abe Lincoln and Cornelius Vanderbilt and many lesser known 19th century figures. (Railroad presidents, un-named senoritas of New Mexico, all safe PG rated encounters, Indian chiefs, many division level generals of the Union Army.)

[2] Deep Dive:  BCGS Meeting  May 2016 presenter Tammy Hepps ' "Ancestor Deep Dive" talk.
   
[3] Averell nearly went broke in this 15 year legal battle with a multimillionaire but persisted and eventually won a settlement for what would be 20 million dollars today. Averell died two years later. My grandfather got $2,000 of this and we don't know what happened to the rest.  His nieces however never married and rumors fly that they had a good time. Census records show they lived well in New York City in the 1920s.
 
[4] The woman who made the scrap books was Mrs. Teresa Viele, one of the first female authors of books on the frontier.  Her husband was General Viele who came from old New York family and submitted one of the first landscape plans for Central Park .There is no evidence that there was a real love affair with my uncle and Viele's wife though I am sure they were attracted to each other.  She ended up settling out of court getting custody of the youngest son while the husband got custody of the youngest daughter. Teresa moved to Paris with her son and soon presided over one of its literary salons. Her son became a famous French poet. Teresa came back to the United States and kidnapped her youngest daughter.  There is no evidence that Mrs Viele and my uncle ever met again. The husband married his younger lover. Both he and his new bride have their life sized sculptured images laying side by side in the biggest tomb on West Point. You can not miss it. It is huge pyramid. General Viele was fearful about being buried alive there. So he had an electric buzzer installed inside the tomb just in case. It was there for years but it was finally disconnected. Cadets would sneak into the tomb in the middle of the night and ring the buzzer, disturbing the sleep of the lone cemetery custodian.  You can't make this up.

COMPREHENSIVE CALENDAR OF EVENTS


The calendar is frequently updated and includes events from all over the country.  Be sure to check it every month to see what is happening. 

Here is the link:  

THE BCGS DATABASE 

This month our free, searchable database of Bucks County records has grown again! 
 
We have added over 6,000 names extracted from church records of Upper Tinicum Lutheran Church, Upper Black Eddy, PA, covering the period from 1883 to 1928, including baptisms, marriages, burials and memberships.  
 
Our database index now has a total of 338,912 Bucks County names, searchable by any combination of last name, first name, year, and location!  
 
Check the site on a regular basis to see what is new; here is the link:
  

10th Annual 
Bucks County Ancestry Fair
Saturday, November 12, 2016

This year the event will be held at Upper Bucks Campus of Bucks County Community College, One Hillendale Rd, Perkasie, PA.

Our Keynote speaker for this event will be Judy G. Russell, the Legal Genealogist.  Judy will provide two lectures in addition to the Keynote presentation. We are currently confirming seven additional lectures.

We need lots of help on the day of the event and it's not too early to volunteer. If you think you can spare an hour or two to help at the November event, please contact Peg Felter at  [email protected] .

Please watch future BCGS newsletters and  www.ancestryfair.org  for updates on this event. 

Are you a descendant of Eve Faulkner?

We received the following email from Barbara May on July 5th and were asked to pass it along.

"I had the opportunity to chat with a lady over the weekend who has ties and apparently a ton of information regarding the Faulkner and Ferrie families, if anyone is researching those lines. She is particularly interested in connecting with descendants of Eve Faulkner, (daughter of Thomas Faulkner and Mary Ferrie), who married Thomas Griffiths. She also has ties to the Blackburn family and to the Morgan family (of Captain Morgan fame). So if anyone has ties to these families, please let me know so I can hook you up with her. [email protected] "

BEGINNERS CORNER

Do you need help getting started with your research?  Click on the link to see


RESEARCH TIP

Are you doing some international searches on Google?  Google runs different search engines in different countries.  You won't get the same results from Google.com or Google.co.uk.  Look at this article from GenealogyInTime Magazine for more information:

Membership Fees for One Year Membership

 Individual:  $20          Dual/Household:  $35
                                         Organization: $75
 
Our membership fees help to pay for speakers, facility rental, website costs, insurance and more.  Membership in BCGS is on a rolling basis and lasts one year from the month you join. 

You don't have to have Bucks County ancestors to enjoy the benefits of membership!  Won't you join and help us continue to grow?

See a list of BCGS Member Benefits on our website: 

Join or renew by mail using our membership application/renewal form , on line on the Society's website via PayPal or by paying with cash or check at our next meeting.  And, we now have the ability to accept credit card payments at our monthly meetings!
 
If you have questions and to get access to the above discounts, contact Pat Gessner, VP-Membership at  [email protected]

Bucks County Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 826, Washington Crossing, PA 18977