Into the Unknown

I've been working on Larry's and my family trees for several years now. Actually it's turning out to be a lifelong project, since I keep getting distracted by side branches, and even twigs one side or the other. I have a tree for the Stevens family, the Fox family, the Frutiger family, the Foehner family, the Gregory family and now the Liddicote and Berg families.

 Some, including Larry would argue... who cares? They're dead, they're gone. That's very true. But I confess I am a puzzle fanatic, and this, as much as anything is a puzzle to be solved, another piece to put into the picture that makes up me. And I am continually amazed at what I find out when delving into family history.

Think about taking what's left of your family, getting on a boat in Germany or France and heading out across an ocean to a new world that you know very little about. Many of my German and Swiss ancestors did just that, headed for New Orleans, then up the Mississippi to St. Louis, before fanning out into Illinois to find farmland and start a new life. When they left their families in the Old World, they knew they were never going to see them again and may never even hear from them again. That took courage ... or desperation to make a better life for yourself and your children.

 My 9th great grandmother, Penelope Van Prinzen was given to a British man in marriage by her father a Dutch nobleman and then headed off with him to the new world. After their ship foundered of Sandy Hook, NJ the passengers struggled to shore only to be attacked by Indians. Penelope's first husband was hurt in the boat wreck and she stayed with him. Indians came and killed them and stripped them to skin but Penelope came to even though her skull was fractured and left shoulder hacked. She was cut across the abdomen and her bowels appeared and she kept them in with her hand. She continued in this condition for 7 days, taking shelter in a hollow tree and eating the excrescence of it. Then saw a deer with arrows sticking out and 2 Indians appeared, whom she hoped would put her out of her misery. One went to knock her on the head but the other, an elderly man, prevented him and throwing his match coat about her carried her to his wigwam and cured her of her wounds and bruises. After this the Indian took her to New York and made a present of her to her countrymen, viz. an Indian present, expecting 10 times the value in return. In NY Richard Stout married her. He was a native of England and of a good family and Penelope was in her 22nd year and he in his 40th. She bore him 7 sons and 3 daughters. Now that's one tough lady!

Larry's 2nd great grandfather Levi Ruggles left his home in Missouri to join the Union in the Civil War.  He was a bit of an opportunist to be sure, always looking out for himself.  He married a widow older than he with several children and there gained enough wealth to establish himself and become a noted architect/builder in Louisiana, Missouri.  By joining the Union Army, however, instead of the Confederate he was never able to return to his wife and the two children he had with her.  Louisiana was a hotbed of  Confederate supporters and he feared for his safety. He never divorced her either.  He just took a commission as an Indian Agent in Arizona after the war and married (becoming a bigamist) there to start a new family.  Levi became a member of the government in Arizona and was murdered in Florence, Arizona .. a town he founded, and a place he said had everything that crawls, bites and stings.

It's stories like these that keep me delving into the family tree.  Someday I might even get back to Adam and Eve.....