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information he included in his book published in 1897 (by that time much of the information on current generations was out of date; Emory Love was married and had several children by then).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.