Ohio Pioneers



. . . and so it begins. Our pioneers in Ohio. The dream has been this for decades – to pass along the stories of our family to my children; and to do it by not only personal, specific accounts, but through literature – the well-love and carefully researched historical novels, histories, biographies, and autobiographies that I’ve read along the way.   

This is not to be a linear path from, let’s say, 900AD to the present. The books were and are read in random order. Last year I was inspired by the Medieval power couple, Sir William Marshall and Lady Isabel de Clare, through the well-researched, well-imagined stories of Elizabeth Chadwick in two historical novels: The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion.  When I first picked-up the books I knew that the couple were on our family tree. Looking closer at the spider-web of family connections I found, much to my surprise, that the Marshall family is very significant to the make-up of our family. No fewer than five lines from four of the Marshall daughters found their way down to our present-day family. I’d have to say that my children and grandchildren have a strong claim to the Marshall legacy. It is one to be proud of and to cherish.

http://elizabethchadwick.com/

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I started by buying new copies of each of the Chadwick historical novels as Christmas gifts for my 4 adult children and 4 adult grandchildren. Then I set about the labor of love – compiling an individualized account that displayed their descendency from William and Isabel.

I hope that each of them will come to treasure the gift and use those three books as the start of their family history library and keep them through their life-times and pass them on to their children.

I have four younger grandchildren and two great grandchildren who didn’t receive copies but it is my hope that their parents will see that they have an opportunity to read them. This year one of those four grandchildren, Maia, has reached the age of 10 and is a reader. She will receive her personalized copies. And so there will be nine. . . ‘Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise!’ as they once said back in Ohio territory. . .