Cemetery monument at French Broad Church of the Brethren Tennessee

In sorting files, I found this in my genealogy file, source unknown, but the handwriting looks like my father's and I know he visited cemeteries in Tennessee while visiting relatives, but there is no signature on it. We also talked a lot about genealogy and family stories which makes sense of the final sentence.

"There is a monument in the cemetery at French Broad Church of the Brethren which reads (near Oak Grove, Tenn.) "French Broad Church of the Brethren

Charter Members              Side 1

Jacob Wine, Minister

Elizabeth Wine

Geo. W. Hepner

Martha Hepner

William Finck

Americus E. Finck

Thomas Finck

Sabrina Hepner

Maggie Satterfield

William Silvis

Betsy Forder

JNO. A. Collins

Mary A. B. Sloat

Mary Steadman

J. McClure

---------

Ministers Elder                    Side 2

Jacob Wine

Sterling W. Noe

JNO. A. Collins

Emanuel Newcomer Elder

JNO. Satterfield

W. R. Williford [our family name] Rev William R. Williford (1873-1938) - Find a Grave Memorial

Revel B. Pritchett Elder

                                                        Side 3

In memory of Alexander Mack 1679-1735 Founder of the Church of the Brethren (Dunkers) in Schwarzenau Province of Wittgenstein in Hesse-Cassel on River Eder, Holy Roman Empire 1708

"Dunkers were pioneers of religious education and Sunday School on this continent. Printed first religious magazine in North America and the first Bible in a European language in the new world, 1743, 1763, 1776.

Emigrated to America in 1719-1724-1729

Tennessee in 1783

Jefferson County in 1870"

Thought this might be of interest to you after our conversation the other evening."

NB: On Facebook I found the current name of the church, "Established in 1875, French Broad Community Church (formerly French Broad Church of the Brethren) is about continuing the work of Jesus. Peacefully. Simply. Together."

 

ADGD Attention Deficit Genealogy Disorder

 When I was a child I began looking through family Bibles at my grandparents. I determined that both my parents were seventh generation Americans, both Church of the Brethren, one German descended, the other Scots-Irish. That made me eighth. For maybe 30 years, if the subject ever came up, I said, "I'm eighth generation American."

Then I discovered genealogy using the Internet.  I joined a genealogy listserv for Church of the Brethren which was very helpful in determining maiden names and found surname websites and county histories. Then I found out about Cousin Dan Wenger who had a massive database of over 3,000 pages of my "closest" relatives.  I let my software manipulate my branches and found out I was 13th instead of 8th generation American.

2409 For Family Only

The rest of you won't care about this photo, but I'm just thrilled to have it. So just move along--if you don't like sappy and sentimental.


When I opened the envelope tears came to my eyes. I had seen this photo flash by in a DVD made by my second cousin (we have the same great-grand parents). I contacted her aunt to find out who they were. She wasn't sure, but said she'd find out. And then the photo arrived with a note from my cousin. This is the wedding photo of my grandmother's grandparents of Jefferson County, TN, James and Mary Ann Elizabeth Williford. It looks like it's been through some hard times--that it had been folded, and chipped, and maybe a cup or something placed on it. I don't know its provenance. Only one granddaughter of this couple is still living, the sister of my grandmother--she's 91 and I visited her last year. She probably has a copy of this, or this is a copy of hers. There are so many things I don't know about this couple that I'd like to ask.

So I go into my genealogy software and look them up. I found out quite a bit about this family on the internet some years ago because in Tennessee during the Depression there was an attempt to record family information from old Bibles, and that has since been put on the internet by county. James and Mary Ann Elizabeth had nine children. Leanor, my great-grandmother, was only 10 years old when her father, the handsome young bridegroom of this photo, died. I knew her. Used to run down the street and sit on her front porch swing and listen to her soft Southern drawl and gentle laugh. By then she'd probably buried those hurts of 60 years before. Why would she have even mentioned such a sadness to a little five year old whose own daddy was off in a war? How did such a large family survive with only a woman to head the household? James' father was over 50 years old when he was born, so how much help could they have been if still alive? Even my grandmother, Bessie, born in 1895, didn't know this couple. They had both died before she was born. For many years Grandma Bessie was our family archive--her phenomenal memory could retrieve the stories with ease. After her death, we'd ask my father. When he died it was like the library had been burned, and my paltry software is no match for the stories he heard from his parents and grandparents and at the Tennessee Reunions that were held in northern Illinois for many years.

However, we don't know what we don't know do we? So we don't ask.