My Darling Emma 1857

F or the family historians that have inherited a stack full of really old notes, receipts, letters and photos of your relatives, you know how exciting receiving these treasures can be! There is something special about putting a visual face to a name you've read over and over again in those late nights researching. I also find it kinda fun to see if you have any of the same characteristics of ancestors! Oh and I really like seeing their clothing and hairstyles too! In my "stack" of early 20th century family photos were 2 that have always stood out to me. Its 3 beautiful young sisters with a last name I'm not familiar with - Tanquary .  The Tanquary sisters photo taken before 1908 back says: "Children in group taken by Charles Hoffman" "Mollie, Lucy and Mildred Tanquary of Burnt Factory" was written on one of the photos and I took to the good ole world wide web to find out more about this trio and if or how they were related. Their farmer parents wer...

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! Mary signed her letter "Eva" 🥀   Mary Elizabeth Davis   🥀 (1834-1891) Next on the list of letter writers in my collection I want to tell yall about is Emma's Aunt Mary.  She   signed her letters " Eva" and sometimes signed off as  Aunt   Mary .  She married Emma’s maternal uncle  Issac Pidgeon (yes anotoher isaac)  in 1859 when she was 25 years old . I f you have been paying attention to  this blog  - 1857 was the year Emma  (my 2nd great grandma) was born... Aunt Mary  was the daughter of Joseph Harrison Davis  a Virginian farmer (1811-1872) and Sarah Matilda Windle (1814-1892.)  Mary  was the oldest out of the nine children in the Davis household.  Mary’s letters were written much later in her life, way past the days of her c...

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...