Writer's Block

It's been two months since I've added anything to this blog. It's not from a lack of material -- it's from too much material! For sixteen days in September, Bill and I traveled to Ireland and Scotland including a visit to the Ryan ancestral home of Pallas Green, County Limerick. I could post pictures and write forever about our trip!


Shortly before we left, I ordered four Civil War Pension Records from the National Archives. I've discovered that we have six ancestors in our direct line that served on the Union side in the Civil War. I already knew about Britton Wainright, my gg-grandfather on the Jones side. You can read about him in earlier posts. Two of his brother-in-laws in the Darby family also served.

On the Ryan/von der Heide side of the family, Fred Wocker, Victor Becker and Charles Gross all served. I found out that a display in the James A. Ramage Civil War Museum in Ft. Wright, KY and the Waldschmidt Museum in Remington, OH both have displays that include listings with Fred Wocker listed on them. Mike Ryan met us at the Ramage Museum and brought a sword that had belonged to Victor Becker. Victor was the uncle of Rose Gross Ryan and is a gg-uncle to my generation. Charles Gross, a gg-grandfather, became quite ill during his service in the Civil War and was discharged due to his illness. He later was committed to Longview and died a young man. He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.

I found two cousins through Ancestry.com -- Betty Arnett and Barbara Pharo. Both are cousins on the Jones side of the family. Betty had priceless pictures and copies from her mother's family bible that confirmed much of what I had written earlier. Included was a picture of Britton Wainright's widow and three children. (I recently submitted an article to the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal about Britton's story and got it published -- including Betty's priceless picture).

Barbara and I share the same gg-grandfather, Thomas Probert. We shared research on our Mt. Sterling family. Earlier this week we visited Mt. Sterling and stayed in a wonderful, historic B&B, the Patten Everett House, that is worth the visit in itself. I've discovered some real gems about Lucy Probert Cronin, mother of Norine.


So that's my list -- each one worth a post. It's hard to keep track of all of our beloved ancestors who have proved to have such great stories. I've got to make a choice.

My plan is to write what I know about the von der Heides, taking us back to our ancestral home in Germany. From there -- we'll see . . .