Notes on Our Genealogy

From " A New Description of the Shyres of Lothian and  Linlitquo ”, by Timothy Pont, circa 1610.   My fourth-great-grandfather Joseph Greenock lived in Linlithgow, the principal town of the county of West Lothian in Scotland. Linlithgow sits between Edinburgh and Glasgow. In the old Celtic language used in Scotland before Gaelic the name means “Lake in the Damp Hollow”. The name refers to the lake that forms the town’s northern border, which today has the reduplicative name Linlithgow Loch. The town itself was originally referred to as just Lithgow, and is the source of that surname. Linlithgow Coat of Arms An alternative story is based on a false Gaelic etymology that gives it the elements “lake black hound”. This goes back to a legend of a man sentenced to starve on an island in the lake. His black greyhound loyally swam to the island daily to bring his master food, so they chained up the dog, too. This legend informs the burgh’s coat of arms, and explains the nam...

Bacon. In your heart of hearts, you always knew it would come down to bacon. Back in Limerick, back in time, my family was in the pig trade. My great-great grandfather Charles Quaid (1840-1900) was a pig buyer, and so were his sons, and their sons. Not every one of them, it’s true, but it was definitely a pig buying family. Limerick was, for a time, famous for its Limerick Ham . The city boasted several major producers, one of which was J. Matterson and Sons. I’m no expert on the subject, but I think I’m on firm ground when I say that the production of bacon depends on a steady supply of pigs. Somebody raises a pig, then somebody turns it into breakfast. The Quaids weren’t either of those two; they were the middlemen, travelling around the countryside buying up choice pigs at fairs and markets. Pig buying was a culture, a lifestyle, and for some reason it passed from father to son. Yes, always to sons. Charles Quaid (1840-1900) and Mary Nealon Quaid (1840-1917) had ten children. Of the...

The story goes that William Hearn Simons and Alice Dora Morris met at a dance in Lovelaceville, Kentucky , and were married in the spring of 1880. William was 25, Alice was 18, and they were my great-great-grandparents. They were also the first of my ancestors on the Shelton line to be photographed. William Hearn Simons and Alice Morris Simons, circa 1900 What’s Going On? What was happening around 1880 when William and Alice are entering adulthood? Eleven-year-old  John Greenock arrived in Chicago with his mom, joining his father who had already been there a couple of years. Jacob Rebman and Sarah Ann Trier had a baby named Flora in Northbrook, Illinois. The United States was recovering from The Panic of 1873 . Down in Tombstone, there was a gunfight in the empty lot behind the O.K. Corral. Fonso won the 6th running of the Kentucky Derby. Wagon Train to Texas In the 1880 Census, the newlyweds were living with William's uncle William G Hearn in Ballard County . Alice was an orpha...

Cinthelia Ann Hearn and William Louis Simons must have known each other their whole lives. They were both born around 1830 in rural Todd County, Kentucky, and grew up in intertwined families who likely saw each other in church every Sunday. Cinthelia’s grandfather Asher Shelton had officiated the wedding of William’s parents, and the wedding of William’s uncle, too. When William’s father died in 1845 the Hearns and Sheltons may have attended the funeral. In the 1850 Census, taken in June, the two families were living next door to each other. In August of that year, William swore out a Marriage Bond to get a license. The other individual on the bond is the amusingly named Hugh Bonar Wilkins, William’s brother-in-law. I found it interesting that the bond was still for 50 pounds, not dollars. Three days later, on August 15, 1850, Cinthelia and William were married. Cinthelia was eligible for marriage for the straightforward reason that she was over 18. William must have been a little und...

 Elizabeth Sarah Shelton was the last Shelton ancestor of mine to actually carry that name. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister, born in Kentucky about 1808. When she was a young girl her older sister Magdalene married John C. Hearn, and a few years later Elizabeth married John’s brother William. They lived their lives as a farming family in Kentucky, and they were my fourth great-grandparents. What’s going on? What was happening as Elizabeth and William began their adult lives in around 1830? The town of Chicago was organized, population 200. Saa-lute ! Joseph Smith published The Book of Mormon , then got tarred and feathered in Ohio. Zerobabel Gay died in Tennessee, only about 70 miles away from Elizabeth and William. Nat Turner was arrested and executed in Virginia. Joseph Greenock retired from the British Army and was making shoes. England ramped up opium sales in China . Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle. Newlyweds George and Maria Trier, my third great-grandpare...

 Asher Shelton was born near present-day Stuart, Virginia on the eve of the Revolutionary War. He died 80 years later with the Civil War looming. What’s Happening? What’s going on as Asher and Mary began their adult life around 1800? John Adams. the second President, had just passed the anti-immigrant Alien and Sedition Acts . We are approaching “ Your Obedient Servant ”. The Second Great Awakening swept across the American frontier. Napoleon menaced Europe, and Joseph Greenock joined the British Army to oppose him. Muddy River Asher was the oldest of Jeremiah and Mary Asher Shelton ’s children. He was born in 1772, near what is now Stuart, Virginia in Patrick County, but neither of them existed at that point. When Asher was about 25, he and the rest of his large family moved to Logan County, Kentucky. There’s a story that his father led a wagon train, and that must be true because there were 15 people in the family, so they were a train all by themselves. But other Sheltons, cou...

Jeremiah Shelton was probably born around 1745, when his peripatetic family lived in Amelia County, Virginia. Around 1768, when he and his family were living near what is now Stuart, Virginia , he married Nancy Asher . Her last name is uncertain, as it is with so many of these marriages. What's Happening? What's going on when Jeremiah and Nancy start their family around 1770? The Boston Massacre enflamed tensions between colonists and Great Britain. The Treaty of Lochaber opened up what is now West Virginia and Kentucky to settlement. Daniel Boone was exploring Kentucky , and fighting with practically everyone. Zerobabel Gay was entering adulthood, and his future wife Selah was still 10 years from being born. Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. The American Revolution Jeremiah's older brothers James and Eliphaz both had distinguished Revolutionary War careers as Captains in Colonel Abram Penn 's militia regiment, the only body of troops raised in Henry or ...