My Darling Emma 1857

Rachel Louisa Steer (1825-1896) Photo from The Waterford Foundation, Inc T here is only one single letter from her in my collection of heirloom handwritten correspondences.   Miss Steer here took me quite some time to figure out who she was and how she fit into the puzzle of this project! If you're new here -long story short- I inherited a few hundred 19th century letters mostly addressed to my grandfather's grandma named Emma born in 1857. I have been transcribing these letters since April 2025. Each blog entry is about a letter writer in the collection. Welcome to "My Darling Emma 1857!" Rachel Steer  and her   solo letter had no cover (envelope) BUT on the back had the name of Emma's much older half sister Rebecca Ann Keeler . This letter was signed “ Lucy R Schooley ” and I hadn't come by that last name before in my 20+ year genealogy research or in this letter collection. But a fter some late night snooping, I came to realize Lucy Schooley WAS Rache...

Welcome to... My Darling Emma 1857 If you are NEW HERE be sure to read the beginning of the journey I am on transcribing my family's 19th century letter collection! The Pidgeon surname in my letter collection are from Emma’s maternal side of the family tree. Emma’s mother, Susan Garretson Pidgeon  was the daughter of Issac E. Pidgeon, a farmer (1791-1879) and Mary Saunders (1790-1872) who resided in Fredrick   C ounty , Virginia . Emma's grandpa Issac  was born in York , Pennsylvania to a well known  Quaker family who would eventually relocate to Virginia . At some point, it seems grandpa  Issac's  parents left the church as I did not continue to see them mentioned in Meeting minutes AND grandpa  Issac  himself  is buried in a Methodist cemetery...      I should add a note here that Emma herself IS buried in a Quaker cemetery - Hopewell Friends Burial Grounds in Clear Brook, Virginia to be exact, but she had marr...

Welcome to... My Darling Emma 1857 If you are NEW HERE be sure to read the beginning of the journey I am on transcribing my family's 19th century letter collection! O nce in a while... correspondences come with little surprises, a poem, a drawing, a flower from one's garden, a photo, newspaper clippings or maybe even small fabric pieces. My 19th century family letters have all of the above. All are pretty neat in their own way.    This drawing was done for Emma by her (older by 3 years) niece Nellie Keeler .   This stamp drawing was by Nellie Keeler.      The flowers are over 150 years old and still intact… dry, brown, brittle and unidentifiable, but surprisingly still intact. There was also a lot of newspaper clippings, obituaries mostly, a few religious articles and cartoons. All were in great condition. an unidentified dried flower that was in a letter A Sunday School Convention ribbon from M. E. Church in Winchester, Va. dated 1912. Found among the l...

Welcome to... My Darling Emma 1857 I ’m starting this Blog (just as they are intended) to document my journey on a LARGE project that I began almost a year ago - I am transcribing 19th century family heirloom letters. Exciting right!?! Do I know anything about transcribing documents? No. Can I read cursive writing? Yes. Can I read 19th cursive writing? Eh. Why am I transcribing 19 century family heirloom letters? Simple, I thought they would help me in my (on & off hobby of 25+ years) genealogical research… BUT what I found in them was something much MUCH MUCH more than adding another “branch” on an internet tree! I have a hard time explaining what these letters are all about as each letter writer had their own journey and essentially their own  unique story to tell AND there are DOZENS of said letter writers within this collection. They pen of their day-to-day lives in the mid/late 1800s, family deaths, sickness, dating, marriage, kids, divorce (uncommon but it happen...