Business note:

After a hiatus of three years forced by publications schedules, the online store Embellishments will reopen in spring 2008 with an updated inventory of Victorian, vintage, and collectible costume jewelry and accessories. When you click on the image above and it takes you to the site, it means the doors are open for business!   

Victorian * Edwardian * Art Deco * Czech * Austrian * West German 
Bakelite * Sterling * Copper
Designer Signed * Unsigned But Noteworthy
Figurals * Handbags & Other Accessories 

Member of JewelCollect

Thinking of visiting Orange County, Virginia?

To help plan your trip, may we suggest a visit to the websites of the Town of Orange and the Orange County Department of Tourism and Visitor's Bureau.

Orange County is host to numerous historical sites, and none are more spiritual than stately St. Thomas's Episcopal Church, established in 1740. 

A house of wartime worship for such notables as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, it stands today as a testament to the timelessness and durability of faith.  Visitors are warmly invited.  For a virtual tour, a history of the church, and information about services, please click on the image above.

ndearing.com webmaster
Nancy Dearing Rossbacher

Member
Daughters of the American Revolution
New England Historical and Genealogical Society
CivilWarCollect

 

Site last updated 01/12/2008. 
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Genealogical research services

"Only in our vainest imaginings do we inherit credit or
blame from forefathers. ...
Yet we may take their lives as gifts or examples."
---Richard Irwin Rossbacher,
Now Remembered: Living Pennsylvania History Through 1900
University Press of America, 1987

We have decades of experience tracking ancestry and unearthing military records from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.  If you've hit a "brick wall" in a family tree or even if you're just starting from scratch, we can help.

Finding living descendants of people with whom inscribed or signed artifacts are associated is a specialty.  There's nothing we enjoy more than reuniting history with family.

We use primary resources, including censuses, archival documents, family Bibles, period newspapers, and birth, death, marriage, and immigration records. 

Call or write for a consultation and quote.

Left, early Howard Pyle illustration of seven-greats-grandfather John Bartram, New World botanist.  
      Right, six-greats-grandfather Rev. Martin Boehm of Boehm's Chapel, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Left, two-greats-grandfather John W. Wertz, who, with the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry ("Rush's Lancers"), rode with Custer's troops at the end of the Civil War;
     Right, great-grandfather Dr. J.R. Irwin, who practiced medicine in Warrior's Mark and Tyrone, Pennsylvania.  His "official" biography in 1910 has him descended from Peregrine White of the Mayflower, which is bunkum --- you can't rely on hearsay or family lore.  However, 21st century research revealed that he was, in fact, directly descended from the Mayflower's John Tilley, Elizabeth (Hurst Rogers) Tilley, Elizabeth Tilley, and John Howland.

Currently working on the following brick walls:

1. 
Carpenter / ship sparmaker John S. Bradley, reputedly of Connecticut and born circa 1811 according to the 1850 census, was killed in Buffalo, New York, in 1852 in a ship explosion, leaving widow Maria Julia (Overall) with two young children, Ann Amelia and John.  Maria was later married to widower James Seba, and they lived in the Pittsburgh area, Chautauqua, New York, and Erie County, Pennsylvania.
     Who were John S. Bradley's parents?

SUCCESS

Early Families of Guilford, Connecticut showed that John, who was born 1811 and married Maria Overall and lived in Buffalo (all matches), was the son of Timothy Bradley and Betsey Smith.  Timothy's line goes back to Capt. Steuen (that's not a typo) Bradley, born 1642 in Yorkshire, England, died 1702 in Guilford, Connecticut.
     Betsy's well-documented line goes directly back to Edward Doty, a cabin boy on the Mayflower.

2. 
Isaac B. Potter, born variously circa 1810 or 1803 (1850 and 1870 censuses) and in New York (most likely) or Connecticut, was in Caneadea, Allegeny County, New York, in 1850, with wife Mary Ann and children Harvy (married Amanda Verry) , Isaac B. (married Elizabeth Pitt), Mary A., Adeline (married Benjamin Moe), Millard, and Wallace.
     By the time the Civil War broke out, most of the family, including Isaac B. Potter, Sr., had migrated to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Harvy, Millard, and Wallace all fought with Michigan cavalry units, and Harvy was KIA at the Battle of Falling Waters.
     Who were Isaac's parents, and what was wife Mary Ann's last name?

Update October 2007:

A lovely gentleman from Baton Rouge, while on business in Grand Rapids, traveled to the Hesperia Cemetary in Newaygo Co., Michigan, and checked out Isaac's grave.  Between that and the records on file at the Library of Michigan, we now know that Isaac was born in 1803 and died in 1884.
     We also know that he lied about his age to join up with the 7th Michigan Cavalry.  He claimed to be 44.  He was actually 60.

Three-greats-grandfather Pvt. Isaac B. Potter, 7th Michigan Cavalry.  
Photo courtesy Gene Smith

Left, grandmother Clara (Patterson) Dearing, who was born in Montana 
Territory, motherless within the month, handed off at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and raised in Corry, Pennsylvania,  by father and stepmother.  
     Right, two-greats-grandfather Franz Joseph Rossbacher, a 
Franconian who immigrated to America from Amorbach, Germany, in 
1852.

If you're descended from the following lines, we'd love to hear from you.  We may have family information, photographs, and ephemera that will help you add to your family's file.

Bartram of Lancaster * Boehm of Lancaster *
Bradley of Connecticut * Dearing of upstate New York and Pennsylvania * Irwin of New York, Canada, and Pennsylvania * Lount of Canada * Rossbacher from anywhere (there are precious few of us, and likely all related) * Wertz of Bedford, Pennsylvania (a well-researched and fascinating line)

Additionally:
Penrose, Hughes, Mendenhall, Overall, Anderson, Odell, Rainey, Gillespie, Ward, Meigs, Voisen