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Nancy Wayts Ayers
has forwarded a couple of links about DNA testing (Family
Tree DNA,
Genebase Bionet Builder, and a
BBC News article) that are quite fascinating! As you might
suspect, this is the genealogy research of the future, and it's quite
possible that we'll be able to locate relatives of the past and present
not by musty records, but by genetic tests!
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Normally, we don't
get much into subjects such as politics and religion on our website, but
there is no denying how fundamental these subjects were to our
ancestors. During a visit to the Lincoln burial site in
Springfield, Illinois, we happened across the gravesite of another
famous American located only a few hundred yards away: John L.
Lewis. We know of a number of Wayt family members who worked in
the West Virginia mines, and there's no doubt as to how influential John
L. Lewis was to their lives. We've compiled a nice
summary of Lewis' life along with some
photos of his gravesite.
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Margaret DeBolt
sent along another fine
newspaper article
from Joe Roxby. This is about local people serving in the armed
forces in Iraq.
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A rare,
handwritten history of the Strosnider
family from the archives of Margaret Wayt DeBolt.
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Margaret DeBolt
contributed a copy of an
old map of
West Pike Run Township in what is now Washington County, Pennsylvania
that shows where the 66 acres that Andrew Wayt purchased in 1797 is
located.
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Some interesting
trivia about West
Virginia contributed by Priscilla Winters Wear.
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Genealogy Musings from
the Internet. Short, but quite thought-provoking! (Normally,
I don't post unsolicited material directly from the Internet, but this
came from an unknown spammer to my personal email box.)
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JoAnn Riley McKey
compiled a
detailed summary
of the events of the lives of Andrew Wayt (~1738-1814), and his son,
Andrew. Contributed by Margaret Wayt DeBolt.
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Here's another
interesting
article
from Joe Roxby submitted by Margaret DeBolt.
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The surname Berisford / Beresford is quite common in the WV Panhandle area, so it is
not surprising that this family is linked to the Wayts (in our case,
through the Coffields, most directly). Margaret DeBolt has
contributed a few
detailed
letters from Worley Berisford (also a Yoho family member!) which
contain lots of interesting facts and notes about old West Virginia
life.
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Margaret DeBolt
contributed a concise little
history of the Vessels
family. Mary Elizabeth Vessels was the second wife of Dr. William
Davenport Wayt.
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William Davenport
Wayt and wife, Nancy Elizabeth Null were quite the letter writing team!
William had to leave his young family early on to travel to Cincinnati,
Ohio to attend medical school there. Margaret Wayt DeBolt has
contributed a set of
transcriptions of these original letters for our enjoyment.
Note: file size ~6MB. Scans of a few of the originals are
here.
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We all know that
hill folk can have their feuds! Here's a copy of
court summons papers
between David Armstrong and in-law John Wayt, courtesy of Margaret Wayt
DeBolt. Tip: use the rotate feature in your PDF Reader to
read the handwriting.
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Have you ever
wondered what all of those motifs on gravestones and mausoleum doors
were all about? Here's a concise little
table explaining the
tradition of the images.
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We've got a nice
collection of
articles
about the Allen family contributed by Margaret Wayt DeBolt.
Margaret's mother was Margaret Allen Wayt, wife of William Blaine Wayt.
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From the archives
of Margaret Wayt Debolt, we have an interesting set of
letters from her
half-uncle, Charles Dix Wayt to his wife, Margaret Strosnider Wayt.
These are scans of the actual documents and always fascinating to view.
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Here's a real
nice summary of the
lineage of our famous cousin, William 'Bill' Blass, courtesy of Belmont
County, Ohio researcher and historian, Skip Magyar (who has helped us immensely with our Keyser and Mellott family lines).
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Thanks to
Wooster Bertram "Bert" Wayt for our latest additions: three
interesting and quite important documents about the Iowa Wayts!
First, there is a nice genealogy of the
background and descendants of John and Sarah Negus Wayt.
Next, we have an overview of the Wayt
involvement in the history of Sac City, Iowa that includes a detailed
rundown of the Wayt connection with the Quakers, both in Pennsylvania
and in Indiana where Sarah Negus Wayt Sopher eventually settled.
Finally, there is an Appendix document
which includes some history and stories of the Iowa Wayts along with
numerous texts of obituaries.
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Prominent in one branch of the Wayt clan is the Strosnider family.
Here's a
letter from John
Strosnider to his sister, Maggie Strosnider, postmarked just two days
after she had married Charles Dix Wayt. (Courtesy archive of
Margaret Wayt DeBolt.)
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Here's an interesting old
letter to teacher James Sivert from one of his students.
(Courtesy archive of Margaret Wayt DeBolt.)
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Another nice newspaper article from cousin Joe Roxby about the annual
Ft. Henry days held at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, from The Wheeling
Intelligencer, 31 August 2006,
here. (larger
file, so please allow extra time for download)
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Wayt descendants featured in The Wheeling Intelligencer, 23
August 2006,
here.
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Over this past Labor Day weekend, the 100th anniversary of the West
Alexander, Pennsylvania Fair occurred. We've included a nice
little article
here
with a surprise inside!
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Nancy Wayts Ayers has
contributed a
fascinating article about the mathematical structure of
the family tree for mankind.
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Cousin Joe Roxby, a
descendant of William Davenport and Mary Vessels Wayt, had a nice
article published in the Pathfinder, a Wheeling area newspaper,
in January 2006, entitled "Good
Reading for Winter Evenings." (Thanks to Margaret DeBolt for
sending this one along.)
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We've posted an excellent
article in the 2 July 2006 edition of the Wheeling News-Register
about Lydia Boggs Shepherd the old
Shepherd mansion
in Elm Grove, West Virginia.
