"Everyone comes from somewhere, everyone has roots... we didn't just appear out of nowhere, and that's why it's fascinating."
--Senior Librarian Adrienne (from MCPL's podcast)
So many people seemed to enjoy reading about Olney staff's captivating family stories in our last blog post. If you missed them, please check them out here, along with an MCPL podcast episode on the same subject.
Olney Library's resident genealogy enthusiast, Carol, has done so much research over the years that she's gathered multiple family stories. Given this, we're very happy to share another with you. This one goes even further along her family tree, back five generations! Thanks Carol, for letting us peer into its hidden branches as you uncover new details and clarify family myths. And her motivation for pursuing genealogy? "Just curiosity; I like detective work. It's the ultimate detective puzzle."
"Sarah's Chair"
The chair came with family history. I was a young adult about to be living on my own soon. I was looking for furniture-- functional, decorative-- anything to fill up space. My parents generously let me "shop" my childhood home. In the basement was a very simple green rocking chair.
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Sarah's rocking chair
in Carol's home |
My father hesitated. Yes, I could have the rocking chair, but I needed to know the story behind it and treat it accordingly (as in really delicately). The rocking chair had belonged to my great-great-great grandmother, Sarah Bush. Sarah would rock and worry in the chair while waiting for her husband to come home from the war. He was a Pennsylvania Volunteer Union soldier. He didn't come home. He was shot at Gettysburg. The story handed down in the family was that he was on "guard duty and he stuck his head out and got himself shot." Sounds a bit rough, but that's the story that was told.
I spent a summer sanding and sanding and re-sanding the many layers of paint on the chair. The paint was very thick and oil-based-- and it had clearly been painted a bazillion times.
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| Sarah's widow's pension paperwork |
Finally it was stripped and I put a glaze on the natural wood. It went in my living room. We didn't challenge the structural integrity of the old chair by sitting in it. Besides, something about it seemed to me that it was only Sarah's chair, and it was dedicated to her story of rocking, waiting, and worrying. I liked it when sunlight would shine on it, giving it a soft glow. I'd stare at it, thinking that it was so old but someone I was related to had touched it and I could touch it now. It made time seem inconsequential and irrelevant.
I made a few trips to Gettysburg just before before the rise of the internet. Searching for information on Sarah's husband, my great-great-great grandfather, Benjamin Bush. I wanted to locate his grave. Nothing. Dead ends.
Enter the genealogy/DNA explosion. I started with Heritage Quest. Checking census records, it became apparent that Sarah Bush had been married twice. At this point I had my DNA done with Ancestry and gained access to their databases. Plugging in all the information I had took me to family trees and military records that told a story different than the oral history handed down in my family.
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| A military record for Emanuel Moyer |
There were parts that were accurate. The chair was Sarah's and she would rock and wait and worry. But she wasn't waiting for Benjamin Bush. She was waiting for her first husband, Emanuel Moyer. And it is true he didn't come home. But he didn't die at Gettysburg. He made it through that battle. He died at the battle of Cold Harbor, in New Kent, Virginia, on June 27, 1864. He was on picket duty. The military records show he had just been promoted to sergeant one week before his death.
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The Bush family tombstone
in Pennsylvania |
I relayed all this to my father and cousins. I was so amazed that none had ever heard of Emanuel Moyer. No one knew that Sarah had had a first husband. She married Benjamin Bush (who also served in the war) in 1867. She had five children with Emanuel Moyer, one of whom was my great-great grandmother Justina. Justina married Emanuel Koppenhaver and had Vada Koppenhaver. She married William Gilbert and they had Dorothy, who gave birth to my father in 1935.
Benjamin Bush died in 1911 and Sarah died suddenly on April 16, 1914.
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To get started on your own genealogical journey, check out MCPL's genealogy resources. You may also find Senior Librarian Adrienne's story of her genealogical detective work interesting.Labels: History, Olney, Olney staff, Research
