My Dear Aunt Martha by Barbara J. Shave

MY DEAR AUNT MARTHA by Barbara J. Shave

QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION

Among the McConnell Papers is a rare, first-person account of tensions with Mormon neighbors, which escalated into the mob murder of that religion's founder, Joseph Smith (1805 to 1844). Mary Emma's Illinois relatives wrote some of the last letters of the combined collection.

Pg. xiv

My passion was always history, particularly family history. I believe that we are the composite of those who went before us in values as well as genetics. An understanding of our heritage gives us a better sense of our own place and purpose within the continuum.

Pg. xv

In the 17th century, they emigrated from the Scotland's lowlands to Plantation of Ulster (present Northern Ireland), in the 18th century, they relocated to Pennsylvania in the New World where they worshipped in the same church, and in the 19th century, they moved in tandem to where the new state of Illinois met the Mississippi River. Because of isolation in their successive frontier communities, inter marriage was the norm and the necessity. First-cousin marriages were common. Furthermore, couples produced huge families and gave their children plain names in tribute to other plain-named kin. In consequence of the intermarriages and repetitious naming, it is now exceedingly difficult to distinguish which James did what to whom.

Pg. xvi

Aunt Martha McConnell Walker (1801 to 1871)

Robert Connell (1818 - 1894)

John Denny Walker (1825 - 1892)

Alexander Walker Jr (1814 - 1879)

Colonel Thomas Geddes (1805 - 1892)