Laura Cooper Fenimore has published a two-volume set
of her American era family history that traces her ancestry back
along each line to identify the original European emigrant, the
reason and circumstances of their emigration, and then traces their
lives, family narrative stories, and migratory patterns in America since relocation. In
telling her own family history, much of the history of the United
States can be seen through her family's eyes. The two volumes
are not the ordinary academic tracing of a lineage; instead, the
author attempts through the evidence to weave together the narrative
stories of her families' lives in order to view her ancestors
as people within the context of their personal life histories as
Americans.
The book is divided into two essential parts: Part 1
traces the major events of English and American History as well as
the family's overall participation in it (while highlighting a few
important characters along with their represented surname or
cultural groups). This volume provides the general historical
context of our shared American history. Part 2 is the
collection of surname-based narratives which "weaves" the family
story of each surname with its American historical antecedents.
Many of the surname narratives are interwoven as the families
themselves intermarried and migrated together. Generally
speaking, the cutoff between the history of Volume 1 and Volume 2
occurs with the American Revolution; this cutoff was chosen for the
practical reason that our government's information resources about
families only came into official existence at that time, and those
government records form the basis for much of what we know about our
ancestors. Consequently, post-revolution families are much
easier to describe and track than pre-Revolution families, and the
individual surname narratives are thus focused on the generations
that have lived since the Revolution.
There have been approximately 6 generations of
Americans between the American Revolution and the author's recent
lineage. Therefore, Volume 2 covers a span of approximately 6
generations of descendants for the author. Her Surname
Descendancy Volumes include the following: [Male 1st, Female 2d]
Gen 1: Cooper, Scribner
Gen 2: Cooper, Henderson; Scribner, Steele
Gen 3: Cooper, Classick; Henderson, Costello;
Scribner, Steele; Steele, Fenimore
Gen 4 [Male]: Cooper, Cooper; Classick, McNutt;
Henderson, Cox; Costello, McDermott [Fanning];
Gen 4 [Female]: Scribner, Hetsler [Hetchler, Hetzler];
Steele [or Steel], Harrington; Steel, Hetsler
Gen 5 [Male]: Cooper, Titus; Cooper, Gray; Classick,
Wilks; McNutt, Hamilton; Henderson, Thomas; Cox, Williamson;
Costello, [???]; Fanning, [???]
Gen 5 [Female] Scribner, Carll; Hetchler, Benedict;
Steel [Stahli], Widrig; Harrington, [???]; Steel, ***; Hetzler,
[???]; Benedict, Smith
Gen 6 [Male]: Cooper, White; Titus, Peyton;
Cooper, White; Gray, Motheral; Classick, McGowan;
Wilks, Wright; McNutt, Jordan; Hamilton, [???];
Henderson, Wiggins; Thomas, Cook; Cox, Rue;
Williamson, Hodgin
Gen 6 [Female]: Scribner, Jellison; Carll, Morrell;
Hetzler, Singer; Benedict, Barger; Smith, [???]; Stahli, Wohleben;
Widrig, Bender
Preview and purchase of the two volumes are
available online:
Volume 1 is
here. [Link no longer valid, see below]
Volume 2 is
here. [Link no longer valid, see below]
Oops.... due to printing problems, the volumes have
been delayed. I regret the problem, but am not willing to
compromise on quality because this volume needs to adhere to strict
acid-free standards in order to endure through time. Nor am I
willing to downgrade from full-color because the family photographs
simply are not the same otherwise. Also, the book needs to be
hardbound in order to preserve its overall quality.
Keep checking back for availability. In the
meantime, if you would like to view an electronic version of the
Scribner portion of the book or a related surname line,
e-mail the webmaster and
indicate which surnames you share with her so that she may create
the correct portion for your viewing.
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