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One of the treasures we have come into is a diary, found among the papers
of Anne "Betty" Phelps, my grandmother. It had apparently
been among her husband's, Harold Bartle Phelps, papers when he died.
It has
no journal type entries, but the unnamed author or authors records in
fine penmanship the births, deaths, and marriages of a large number
of Harold
Bartle
Phelps'
family members.
The name of the writer remained a mystery for quite some time until
we were able to piece together the following information.
- The deaths of these previously unknown individuals are listed (as
illustrated below):
1834 August My mother
1890 August 5 Geo Bartle
1892 September 1 E. G. Bartle
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| These and other entries on the frontleaf of
this diary give us some clues about William Bartle's family. |
On the page for November 3, the same hand has written:
1824 My Brother Geo Born.
- On the frontleaf, the same hand recorded the names and birthdates
of "grandchildren."
So if the owner has a brother named "Geo. Bartle,"
then the owner's given surname must also be "Bartle". Then
if the individual is a grandparent to all of the children listed,
only one of those eight grandparents would have the birth surname of
Bartle.
This leads us to conclude, given the time period in which the writing
changed from one individual to another, that the initial owner appears
to be the
Rev.
William Toy Bartle himself. Based on the evidence in the diary his mother
died when he was twelve years old. Along with William's father, she was
an immigrant from Prussia.
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