Alexander Love: What We Don't Know

The "brick wall" for descendants researching Alexander Love is his birth.  Who were his parents? Where was he born? On what date? What about the "5 Love brothers"? Other researchers have provided speculation or specific answers, but no solid evidence.

His parents? Looking at on-line family tree submissions to Ancestry and Family Search (LDS), James Love and Margaret Miller are the most popular. James, born in either county Tyrone or Antrim, Ireland in 1670, 1678 or 1684 and dying in Antrim or Lancaster, PA in 1721, 1751 or 1753. Margaret, all agree, was born in county Antrim in either 1688 or 1689 and died in Antrim in 1715, 1719 or 1751.  1715 is the most popular date of death which makes it pretty unlikely that she gave birth to Alexander in 1718. This just points out how error ridden most of the trees are and that the errors multiply as people add them to their own trees without doing any research of their own.  On Ancestry these submissions become "proof" for the information. Serious genealogists beware!

The discussions I have seen suggest James, John or Robert as the name of his father. One Robert often mentioned was born about 1679 possibly in County Antrim, IRE.  He came to America about 1700 and died in PA in 1741. His will named the children of his 3rd wife, but it is assumed he had children by his 2 earlier wives. It has been suggested that Alexander is one of these. If so, Alexander's birthplace would be Pennsylvania.  We submitted DNA to the Love family project. While they were processing the DNA, I received a letter giving names of direct descendants of this Robert to look for as a close match.  Unfortunately, we discovered our DNA was not a close match.

There is a John who arrived in PA in 1682 receiving a grant from William Penn.  I believe this John was a merchant from, Bristol England. If Alexander is Scots Irish as we have assumed, then this John would not be his father.  Also Alexander does not name a son John which would be very atypical for that time.*

I lean toward Alexander's father being a James.  He names his second son James.* Traditionally Alexander is thought to be the brother of James, "the weaver" who was born in Antrim about 1704, the eldest son of five. The direct descendant of this James is a close DNA match (at least a lot closer than the above Robert). Also, traditionally, the other brothers were John, born about 1705/6 who died in PA, William, born about 1710 who died in SC in 1780 as a direct result of his Loyalist sympathies and Robert, born 1716 who died in 1787 in SC. There is no proof, as yet, of this relationship.

Where was Alexander born? Some say Antrim, others PA. There is a DAR application which states PA and gives the date of 15 Jan 1718.  We hope to see documentation in the application that proves it. The only real evidence we have of the year of birth is from Alexander's grave marker.

So, how do we solve this mystery?  I assume that most or all of the obvious records have already been gone over by other researchers (that rare serious family historian plus a few descendants trying to fill out their DAR and SAR applications). It's always possible something was overlooked or some new papers have been discovered since the original research.

Since our Alexander hasn't shown up on a passenger list as far as we know, I would try searching any Philadelphia or New Castle, DE newspapers.  They often had shipping news about arriving ships. It might mean getting a list of arriving ships and then checking the departures from Ireland for any records on that end (Road Trip!!). 

Another possibility would be the Presbyterian church records, if they exist, from that time and place.  There were a few congregations in PA, one of which was Fagg's Manor on the Brandywine River.  John Love (1705/06) and James (1704) were deacons. Robert Love (1716 - 1787) was married on the "banks of the Brandywine". If these are Alexander's brothers, there is definitely a connection with Fagg's Manor, although Alexander moved west and was in York County by 1750.  Any old Presbyterian records are likely at Swarthmore College (Road Trip!).  Establishing when Alexander arrived in America would go a long way to answering the unknowns. Locating any early church records of baptisms and deaths would be a treasure. I guess the answer is:  Road Trip!

* Information on naming patterns will be addressed in a future post.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: JOHN VERNON CAIRNS

When he was living in Florida with J and J, I asked Grandpa-the-Great to tell me about his youth. This transcription is from a letter I received on 21 Feb 1989. 

                                                            1

"You asked me to jot down about my life on the farm and the red roadster We sold hickory nuts for 4.00, bushel, the ones cracked in qt jar for 4.00 also.  In Oct 1919 Mom, Dad, Alfred & me left for Cal. Dad made me plant potatoe which I sold before we left, so I wold have some spending money  We stopped at River Falls to see Dr. Rolla Cairns & also at Big Timber, Montana to see my uncle Carl & aunt Lena Schumann  then on to Portland Oregon.  We went on the St Paul railroad, it was electrified for going over the Mts. From Portland we took the Union Pacific to Alhambra Cal. Stayed until next summer & returned to Wis. We arrived there (CA) in Nov, 1919. Bought a Ford Touring car, pd 275.00 for it used  I think it was a 1916 model  When we left Cal sold it for more then we had for it. I drove it must of the time. Dad didn't care to drive in the city The reason we went Cal. was acct of mothers health. She had T.B. Drs thought the warm weather mite help her. They didn't know how to take of it then, as they do now. Dad got me a permit to drive as I was only 17  While there I got a job at a lumber yard, & drove truck. Excuse my writting and spelling, but I 86 yrs young

                                                              2

One weekend we drove up Mt Wilson about 1 mile high.  the brakes on the model T wore out, road was very winding and if you went off the road a drop of a half mile, the model T had brakes different than they do now day.  There were 3 bands that went around a transmission, which ran in oil.  One band for low speed, one for reverse and one for brake. I used the reverse as a brake to get down the mt. It worked real good. While in Cal I met a girl friend, we went to shows, & picnics on week end her mane was Peggy Thompson & her mother was spanish & her father a Norskie. We corresponed when we came back.  She had quit a crush on me. I thought a lot of her too. You will see her picture in the big album. The fall of 1920 I stared my senior year in High School. I had go only 2 months the year before, wanted to gruiduate with on old class, talked the Principal in to taking extra courses and going to Whitewater normal, the next summer so I could gruiduate my old class. make High school in 3 years with extra study. In our class play I had the leading part, "All on acct of Polly", I gave the book, I think. Class of 1921. In 1922 I met Mildred and courted her with the little Red Roadster. Mother died in 1923. More next time.

Grandpa Cairns
Hope this is what you wanted"

There wasn't "more next time" quite likely because I neglected to prompt him for more. I have seen the booklet (playbill?) of "All on Account of Polly" he speaks of, but not recently. I am not sure I have it. He had several photos of Peggy Thompson as well as letters from her. Grandma-the-Great didn't seem to mind having these momentos of "Jack's old girlfriend."

When transcribing there is always the urge to correct mistakes in grammar, spelling and punctuation but then it wouldn't be "in their own words", would it?.  I have put this down exactly as he wrote it although I think age, as he pointed out, was a factor in many of the errors. A younger J V would have had better spelling and punctuation, I think.

John Vernon Cairns
Graduation Photo
Mazomanie High School
June 3, 1921

"Canonball"
"The Little Red Roadster"
JVC taken April 6, 1924
MEC unk date (possibly the same day)

Courting
Jack Cairns and Mildred Rasmussen
Cairns Home in Mazomanie, WI
Saturday, Jan. 26, 1924

The "Passmore Book"

Genealogy being the quest that it is, sometimes you find a treasure.  The first item I found in the stacks of the Wisconsin State Historical Society was The Love Family Historical and Genealogy Quarterly published in the late 1950's.  It contained current information from subscribers along with some data that had been gathered by early Love genealogists in the pre-Internet days.  It was there I found mention of a two volume book called, Ancestors and Descendants of Andrew Moore, 1612 - 1897 by John Andrew Moore Passmore. The Treasure! 
   PassmoreV1 PassmoreV2

And there it was one row over. After Andrew Moore, there were several pages of information on Alexander Love who (we are so fortunate) married Andrew's daughter, Margaret/Margret Moore. Following Alexander and Margret (pp. 39 - 45) the generations were listed from Col. Andrew Love (pp. 59,94) to James Love (pp. 95,212) to Andrew Love (pp. 212,532) to James H. Love (pp. 532, 1052). And there, on page 1052 was "Emery F., b. 7-4-1862. P. O. Ford's Ferry, Ky." my great grandfather.  I couldn't believe my family's genealogy was right there in front of me. How lucky could I be, how easy is this?

Well, it was lucky. Not every novice genealogist has a starting point like Passmore's book. In the late 1800's John A. M. Passmore, another Andrew Moore descendant, started amassing information on his family. He wrote to Ireland to find Quaker records there. He had some family papers (including several letters written by Alexander Love to his brother-in-law James Moore, pp.40 - 42), but mostly he wrote letters to a lot of descendants to gather the names, dates and other information he included in his book published in 1897 (by that time much of the information on current generations was out of date; Emory Love was married and had several children by then).

Unfortunately, he did not include the sources of most of the material (which probably would have filled another volume).  He compiled the material as he received it, correcting obvious errors, and noted that some individuals had more information about them because their descendants sent more. Thus, we have a copy of Alexander's will, a family member's version of "the skirmish at Stallions" involving Andrew and his sister, Sarah (suggesting Andrew shot Sarah by mistake, but an eyewitness account by another member of the militia says the shot came from the rear of the house not in front where Andrew was), as well as a story about Andrew's death in Kentucky (here a source IS given as the Legend of Ford's Ferry, a work I have yet to locate) and the possibility that his son, Robert, avenged his death by killing James Ford (unlikely as Robert was dead by then). 

So even though information on individuals is uneven and stories handed down in the family may be inaccurate, the book is packed with enough material to give us a broad look at the Love lineage from Alexander to Emory/Emery plus a starting point for filling in missing data. It is a terrific resourse for keeping track of the various Love lines and I refer to it often.

The real treasure, I think, are Alexander's letters. They give us a more personal glimpse of who he was...learned, involved citizen, fervent expresser of the role of God in his life, affectionate family man, unafraid to express his opinion. It also gives us his signature. We are most fortunate that these few letters survived the one hundred or so years before Mr. Passmore shared them with us.  I would like to think they still exist in some archive and that it is possible to see them firsthand, but, if John Passmore willed his research papers to some public repository I have yet to locate it.

WESTERN KENTUCKY: A TRIP

Often, we rely on the internet to provide answers to our genealogy. While there are great resources on the web, the best information is still found by traveling to the areas where our ancestors lived and looking for records there.

The first week in March, I met with iLuv in Western Kentucky where our Loves had spent a century of their lives. Col. Andrew Love left SC and moved there with his family about 1804. Emory Franklin (Jeff) and family left for MO in 1904. 

We decided to begin our search at the library in Marion, where we checked out some local cemetery books. We looked through some folders with information found by other researchers. iLuv discovered that Andrew had established a "horse mill." We had to look it up...a horse powered mill...for milling flour perhaps?

iLuv will post about our adventure looking for the Wofford family cemetery. We also visited the Dunn Springs and Love Cemeteries and took the ferry across the Ohio River to Cave in Rock, IL to visit the notorious outlaw hideout.

 

For those of a certain age, think "Mike Fink and the River Pirates," except that the real outlaws were a nasty bunch who operated within spitting distance of lands owned by both the Loves and Woffords. Today the cave is part of a smallish park with picnic shelters. We have  photos of a Wofford family reunion that took place (probably late summer or fall of 1956) in the park. In this photo Grandma (Mary Adams) Love is near the front in a dark print dress: 

Grandpa (Tom Ed) Love is second from the left in front row:

  

The last photo looks like Wofford siblings and cousins:

 Cave-in-Rock today:

During the week, while iLuv was working, I visited the three county seats where I knew there would be records of our Loves and Woffords: Smithland in Livingston County, Marion in Crittenden County and Princeton in Caldwell County. When Andrew and family came to KY they settled in what was then Livingston but later became Crittenden. The early Wofford records are in Caldwell County.  I was able to find some of the land records in Smithland but will need to make another visit to get more. I did find a tax list of 1810 which shows Andrew was taxed for 27 horses (as well as 3 white adult males and 2  blacks over 16 with a total of 8 blacks) which is evidence of the horse mill, I believe.  He has 200 acres on Duck Creek and 500 acres on Piney Creek at that time. I made copies of any marriage records and wills I could locate. I have yet to find a record of Woffords buying land, but did find a couple of transactions selling land.

I discovered that going through old deed/will/marriage books is a tiring business especially when you have to lift the books onto a copy machine trying not to damage the old pages. But it wasn't all work and no play.  We ate some fine food and got a taste of the riverfront at Paducah and hiked in the Land Between the Lakes on a lovely spring day. 

On the way home, I made a slight detour to Murphysburo, IL to get information on our grandmother (my 3 x great), Elizabeth C. Foster who married James H. Love.  After James H. died in 1899 (buried Dunn Springs Cemetery, KY), she lived with several of her children who had moved to IL. She is buried just outside Murphysburo.

All in all, I accomplished a lot of what I had set out to do, but look forward to a return trip to discover more. It was great to share the thrill of the hunt with iLuv and we are anticipating having the opportunity to learn more about Alexander and Col. Andrew when we head to SC in July.

In Their Own Words: "Passing" by Uncle J

Genealogists crave first person accounts of what their ancestors said and did. Rarely, do we get this type of detailed insight into our ancestors' lives; a glimpse of who they were other than the standard birth, marriage, and death dates.

After discovering a few documents written by our ancestors, Auntie C and I came up with the idea for a new series of posts called "In Their Own Words." These posts will include letters, poems, and stories written by the dead as well as the living. Please contact either of us if you would like to contribute.

This inaugural story was written by Uncle J.

Passing

She's dead. That should be the end of the story right there. Its a contract we all sign at birth, a duty to be fulfilled. But no one dies until the memory slips from our collective conscience. Bits and pieces remain. Adopted quotes, mannerisms and rituals. Genetic tags are left showing in the smiles, hair and gait of those left to endure. Then there are scraps of personal possessions scattered to decay in their own sweet time.

I pick up the red covered notebook of recipes and thumb through them. Most are written in Janet's own hand, others cut from magazines or the backs of packages of grain and flour. For over 30 years I experienced these pages in my mouth or watched them spring from her hands. Now I can only digest them visually or recall the running commentary in her voice.

Recognizing a 3X5 card, with my mother's impatience all over it, titled, Gramma Love's Walnut-Date Cake, I pause. Condensed into 15 square inches, I find this great effort by three generations of unrelated women to remember. They conspire to the notion that this is the way you hook a Love.

Janet read the recipe silently, placing herself in rural southern Missouri, during the Great Depression. "These would have been Black Walnuts," She declares, "English Walnuts wouldn't be affordable if they were available at all."

She reads on, "the order you mix the ingredients isn't how they teach now. I bet your sister didn't follow the directions this way…she said it wasn't all that great. You have to follow the directions exactly the way it says." Then Janet looks over her glasses, "I think the soda reacts with the dates, otherwise there's not enough leavening here."

I can envision Gramma Love serving this cake up on a visit back home and my father commenting on how good her cooking was. My mother, thinking mechanically, that taste is about what you physically put into something, asked for the recipe. Gramma dutifully passed the recipe on but I'm sure she was wise to the art and realities of baking. In 18 years, I never recall my mother making this cake, Black Walnuts or no. Along enters Janet, a daughter of the south and keeper of memories. She instinctively understood how this recipe would make the perfect cake of necessity. Something her own ancestors would grow up on.

My mother is losing the memory of those days, so for her, Gramma Love has died indeed. Janet has passed too, yet lives for both of them in the creation of this tradition. As I passed the recipe off to my niece, April, the memory comes full circle, back to Loves. I have been left to make it myself several times over the past 3 years. Thanksgiving was our favorite occasion for this celebration of our ancestors. A seder of traditional foods honoring our connection in spite of time and demise.

I am hearing it now, "follow the instructions as they're written, don't mix it too much, pour the boiling water over the soda and chopped dates." I proceed, "oven set at 350, bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a broom straw can be stuck in and come out clean." And if it wasn't for one of the last things I would ever hear in her voice, to "bring the black walnuts," I guess I could let Janet die too.

 Note: bake in an 8 or 9" square pan.