Notes on Our Genealogy

Alice Simons (1861-1960) was the mother of Bertha Simons Jackson, who was the mother of Marshall Jackson, my grandfather. So she was Marshall Jackson's grandmother, and my second great-grandmother. In 1954 she went on a road trip with her sister Addie to visit their ailing sister Tommie (born Mary Thomas Morris), and the local paper wrote up a story on them. This story gives a sense, however brief, of the personality and humor of these women who often look so stern in old-time photos. This was in the The Times of Shreveport, Louisiana on October 10, 1954. THREE SISTERS whose ages total 269 years and whose spirits are the equal of any teenager's are gather together for the first time in three years. From left to right are Mrs. Addie Coleman, 86, of Memphis, Tenn.; Mrs. Tommie Knight, 90, of 831 Dudley Dr., whom the others came see upon hearing news of her illness, and Mrs. Alice Simons, 93, of Paducah, Ky., who insists she looks and feels no older than the younger memb...

John Jacob Trier was born in 1838, fought in the Civil War, and was last heard of somewhere in Europe during World War I. He led an unsettled life but was the subject of some candid and piercing portraits, of the man and of his household. John Jacob and Mary Lorena (Ames) Trier. Probably taken around 1878. Let's situate John Jacob Trier in the family tree. My grandmother Helen Greenock Jackson's mother was Flora Rebman Greenock. Her mother was Sarah Trier Rebman. John Jacob Trier was her brother, and therefore my third great uncle. Nancy Quaid had this to say about him: Jake left home when he was very young and only came home to visit for a short time now then when he was broke. Buzzie (Adolph Rebman, John Jacob Trier's nephew) didn't know if he ever married. The 1860 census, taken June 1st, finds Trier still living with his family in Northfield, Illinois. He is a 21-year-old middle child with 10 siblings, in a deeply religious household. Three months later we ...

There was a man named Charlie who was born in 1861 and died in 1951. Strictly speaking he was not related to me, but my grandfather Marshall Jackson knew him as his father. Beyond that, it gets complicated. Charles Albion Edgerly. Also Charles Henry Jackson. 1940s. Sylvester Edgerly (1820-1887) Charles Albion Edgerly was born in Barnstead, New Hampshire in 1861, to Sylvester and Sarah Edgerly. Sylvester and Sarah had 10 children, and Charles was their second child by that name. The couple's oldest child Charles Henry Edgerly had died at the age of 7 in 1854. The Edgerly family had lived and farmed in New Hampshire for generations. Sylvester's grandfather Samuel, for example, was born in New Hampshire in 1765. It's likely they go even further back, but the records are sketchy. The Marriage of Libbie McRae and Charles Edgerly, the last couple listed here. In November 1886 Charles married Elizabeth Ada McRae in Massachusetts. Libbie McRae was born in Pri...

Joseph Greenock (1790-?), my fourth great-grandfather, had a long and distinguished military career in the Napoleonic era, the time of Richard Sharpe and Horatio Hornblower . My great-grandfather John Greenock believed that the official records somehow omitted 15 years of Joseph's service, not to mention four missing engagements that Joseph himself complained about. Quoting The Greenock Record : I never learned anything of our Great Grandfathers private life but am reasonable sure that there was a separation or as you term it a skeleton in the closet. On receiving his medal and bars he in anger returned it to the medal department saying if you cannot give me the four bars for other engagements I do not want it he never saw it again for on its return he had passed on 1848. The medal and its bars are of silver and is known as The “Victoria,” inscribed on the rim Joseph Greenock 94th Foot, time of service 1793-1814. The bars are inscribed as follows. Toulouse. Orthes. Nive. Nivel...

Genealogy is a mental condition that makes you pay attention to long-dead ancestors at the expense of the family around you. I appear to have caught it from my mom , and she got it from her grandfather . I intend to use this site to share some of what they and I have learned. To avoid publishing anything sensitive I'm going to leave out all my living relatives, and instead focus on my grandparents and their ancestors. So let's meet them. Arthur and Mildred (Spicka) Quaid, Helen (Greenock) and Marshall Jackson, in December 1953 I think this may be the only photograph I have with all four of my grandparents, and as you might guess this was taken at my parents' wedding reception in December 1953, at Surma's Restaurant in Chicago. From left to right: Arthur Emmet Aloysius Quaid (1908-1996) was the son Irish immigrants. They married in Canada before moving to Chicago to raise their family. Mildred Ann Spicka (1908-1980) was the daughter of Bohemian immigrants...

The Greenock Record The Greenock Record was written by John Greenock (1870-1947) over many years late in his life. This version is dated 1942, but I have a similar version from 1939 in the form of a 19-page letter to his cousin Jim. My Mom was under the impression that he had placed a version of this story in the Newberry Library in 1946, in keeping with the intention he mentions in this version. John Greenock wrote with lovely, clear handwriting but nearly inscrutable punctuation. This version was transcribed by me, so I'll include photographs of the pages so you can check its accuracy. In the composition book itself this story has no title, but in his letters Greenock referred to it as "The Greenock Record" or often just "The Record", so I'm using that title here. Property of D.P. Morley [Dorothy Pearl, John's daughter] 8.25.42 Hugo de Grenok. Origin Gael, 1296. The Greenock Family in the United States, prior to 1779. The Redpath-...