Legacy - Wells County, IN

Clicking on any of these names will link you to its first occurence in the ancestors chart.

CONTENTS

Navigation Notes

Notes on Home

Genealogical Links

Acknowledgements

NAVIGATION NOTES

THE MENU
	The menu will be present at all times on the far left side of your screen When a page contains a large amount of information, a drop down menu displaying page contents will appear when the button is clicked. Menu options are closed by clicking on the exit menu entry also at the far left.
Please Note
	Information pertaining to any one ancestor is linked between the separate pages, so if you find an individual of interest, it is possible to view everything here with a few mouse clicks. Some ancestors have information on all of the pages. I want it to be easy to see everything I have on any given individual. Please notify me if you find any broken links.
CONTACT ME
	If you want to contact me for any reason, please click on the Contact button, which is always present at the far left.
SITE CONTENTS
	Genealogical Data -- Births, Deaths, Marriages, Burials ...
		An incomplete 7 generation ancestor list beginning with my mother and tracing preceding generations. This ahnentafel format is used on every page.
	Public Records -- Biographies, Obituaries, Sworn Statements
		The documents and data accessed in my research that are part of the public record. To be included here, it's either straight from a courthouse or was formally published at some point.
	The Attic -- Photographs, Letters, Family Heirlooms
		'Human interest' type newspaper clippings are also here, although they are, in the strictest sense, part of the public record. Digital photographs of certain heirlooms are included with their creator/original owner. Needless to say, this page is loaded with graphics; it will be slow. Please be a bit patient, and if your browser / computer setup cannot accommodate it, contact me and I will work with you.
	Hints, Allegations, Things Left Undone
		For individual ancestors, we have unsubstantiated information, my unanswered questions, and descrepancies, as well as links to USGenWeb sites as well as other research sites whose work mine overlaps.And because I wanted one and couldn't find it; a birth date calculator – enter date of death and exact age at time of death -- Ben Buckner's code will calculate the birth date. Please note that his page does state a few disclaimers.
	Prayers for the Dead
		A tribute to my lost loved ones.
	Prayers for America
		A tribute to those lost September 11, 2001 and those who defend us.

An essay about my home follows, read it if you wish, I'm quite pleased with it. Otherwise, thank you for taking the time to wade through all this with me, and I hope that something here will prove useful.

I have always had a very strong sense of home. Growing up, it never occurred to me to question from where I had come or where I belonged. I knew beyond a shadow of doubt. My interest was drawn to what lay beyond the boundaries of my known world, because I knew that there was a place to which I could run when the world overwhelmed me or where I could hide while the self-inflicted wounds of youth or arrogance or folly healed. A place to which I belonged as much as it belonged to me or to my family. While it was not always entirely comfortable, or in sync with my dreams and aspirations, it was there, and my place in it irrefutable. After all, home was literally the home of my people; built by my great-grandfather on land held by the family even before his time, handed down to my grandmother, and then, in her turn, to my mother.

I was close to my third decade and, quite secure in the knowledge that I had a place to which I could return, had explored quite a bit of the world, its byways, and a few dark alleys before I realized that not everyone had that same bone-deep sense of home as I. That fact appalled me. What would you do if you could not go home again? How would you cope if your world collapsed and there was no generations-old shabby brick house to run to? It was then that I began to understand how very much I valued my family and the gifts they had bestowed upon me.

That sense of home and place is the reason why I have undertaken the work that follows. My mother's house, always The House in my thoughts, is no longer hers; it has passed to the next generation. The task of inventorying the contents of that house came to me. That inventory included personal items belonging to various occupants dating back four and five generations as well as heirlooms whose stories were becoming obscure.

Because of that legacy of belonging, the following is a tribute to my mother and her forebears. My immediate goal is make the entries in various genealogical ancestors charts as real and tangible as the passage of time will permit. There is much to be proud of, and there are things that might make one a bit uncomfortable. My personal philosophy is a bit vague and still very much a work in progress, and regardless of a hard-won veneer of sophistication, I struggled with some of the things I've learned. Initially, I concluded that I was descended from a long line of ‘wackos', and joked with friends that at least I came by my own eccentricities honestly.

At this point, I've reached a slightly more compassionate view. I've come to understand that, regardless of personal reservations, the people illustrated in this document, be they wacko or simply as human as you or I, are profoundly mine. It is their blood that runs through my veins, their values I learned during my childhood, their monument to the future that provided safe haven for my youthful traumas. It is their stories I will teach my child, their possessions I will safeguard and preserve for future generations (who will probably include me in the wacko category). I honor them and the future they helped to create in these pages. I ask that you do the same when you find yourself examining the bits and pieces left for us. At best, I have provided a hazy outline, you will have to look inside your heart and dreams to clarify the picture.

Camela Mount
October 1, 1999

The links here are useful for anyone researching their family tree. The page titled Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Undone is where links specific to individual ancestors/lines are stored.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It's not possible to accomplish a project of this scale by oneself. Here, it is my intention to honor those individuals who have been so instrumental in creating this work.

• Kathryn Bonham, for her research, locally and at DAR's library in DC, for lessons in research documentation, the loan of photographs, and moral support.
• Natalie Cottrill for inspiring this page.
• Katinka Dixon, and my husband, Jerry, for their technical expertise.
• Carol Newell for the loan of certain documents.
• Thank you all, so very much.

|Home Page |Ancestor Page |Public Records |In the Attic|
|Hints,Allegations & Things Left Undone... |Prayers for the Dead|
|Prayers for America |Contact Me|