Beginning March 2nd, 2020 the Mailing Lists functionality on RootsWeb will be discontinued. Users will no longer be able to send outgoing emails or accept incoming emails. Additionally, administration tools will no longer be available to list administrators and mailing lists will be put into an archival state.
Administrators may save the emails in their list prior to March 2nd. After that, mailing list archives will remain available and searchable on RootsWeb
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FhI.2ACEB/110
Message Board Post:
Does anyone know how I can contact Gary A. Chronister, who is the author of the book: "The Chronister Family"? I have seen his book, and my Chronister line is missing from the book. Thank you.
The following link will take one to the archived messages on the
Chronister list. Apparently earlier posts were not included because of a
period of downtime at Rootsweb archiving.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index
Hello, Peggy. I'm sorry that you had such a negative experience on the Chronister List. Perhaps we can all use this as a learning experience regarding posting and asking for personal information on living persons. In these times of electronic and almost instant communication, it is very important to use discretion about what we share with others. Genealogical sites are prime mining areas for identity thieves. We sometimes forget that there may be a few persons in the world who do not share our passion for the past and who may use our carefully gathered information on our family for their own gain. In fact, just the opposite, there are unscrupulous persons out there who can use our online data to access our personal and financial records. So, in this case, I suppose it would be wise, when asked to provide information on living persons, to follow the guideline of "Don't Ask. Don't Tell."
List Members:
Another caveat from Peggy is worthy of discussion. Serious researchers cannot use derivative and compiled works such as Gary A. Chronister's work, or anyone else's research, without verifying each fact presented. The late Orville Faubus, during his long tenure as governor of Arkansas, said "Just because I said it, doesn't make it so." This is as true of my own research as that of anyone else's. We should never take something from someone else without questioning and tracking the data to the source document. Neither should we distribute another's work without permission. It isn't ethical.
My family is also misrepresented in THE CHRONISTER FAMILY, by Gary Chronister, on page 144.
James E. Chronister out of the NC line was married to Macie Caroline Murray, not Mary A.
James E. and Mace's children were James C., Earl Z., W. Aaron, and H. Bruce, NOT Winnie D., James H., Krue and Millard L. as listed. I will add Peggy's family information to my copy of The Chronister Family. Please correct my line in your copies.
Three things that we can do as researchers, for ourselves and for those who follow, are 1) VERIFY 2) DOCUMENT and 3) CITE THE SOURCES. Secondary sources and compiled works have an important function. They provide us with clues to follow to the original record. Peggy is so very right in her assertion that the very best information is the primary record created by the ancestor, at or about the time of the event in question. Researchers who can't or won't share the sources of their information should cause red flags to wave.
Debra Chronister Blackard
List Manager
OOPS! I need to correct my own data--the Chronister book that I have heard so much about was written by GARY Chronister, not Rick. My apologies...
Peggy Reeves
Burtonsville, MD
Thank you, Debra, for saying a word about proper behavior on lists!
I think that's why this Chronister list isn't more active than it is. When I posted something, I was immediately approached by people wanting to know my own personal information (about myself), which is not what genealogy is about. They also were eager to refer me to the Chronister book.
For all of you who are new to "lists" and genealogy in general, the purpose of a "list" is to share legitimate data with other people researching the same surname. Legitimate data is things that you find in various records such as obituaries, census, wills, birth and death records, land records, cemeteries, etc...
After several years of hearing about the famous Chronister book, by Rick Chronister, I was finally able to get a look at it. The author did not cite any sources, or give any clue where his information came from. I can't comment on the entire book, but I can tell you with certainty that pages 68 and 69 are little more than family gossip and fairy tales!
Lewis Chronister, the subject of page 68, was my gg-grandfather. The real story of his wives and children was very much "cleaned up" and sanitized by someone--whoever Mr. Rick Chronister got his information from. The public records tell the real truth. If you have this Chronister book, grab a pen and I'll give you the major corrections--and I'll give you some legitimate sources!
The information about Lewis and his first wife, Eliza Wolf, and their six children is, for the most part, correct. The second wife and the children he had with her is the sanitized version. Sometime after the birth of Lewis and Eliza's fifth child, Ann Rebecca, Lewis had an adulterous relationship with the teenage girl who lived down the street. The girl got pregnant, and Lewis couldn't marry her because he was already married! That baby, who was my g-grandmother, was apparently sent to live with the John and Margaret Moritz family, because that is where I found her living in the 1870 Adams County census. After her birth in 1852, Lewis then had the 6th child with 1st wife Eliza. Eliza died shortly after that. Lewis immediately got the mistress pregnant again, but this time he could marry her and did--and her name was NOT Susan E. Kelly. Her name was Susan E. ALBERT, daughter of Solomon Albert and Anne Marie Diehl, who lived just a couple doors down from Lewis and Eli!
za. The will of Peter Diehl names his daughter in it as the wife of Solomon Albert, which is my source for that information. In the 1860 and 1870 census, Anna Albert was living with Lewis and 2nd wife Susan--further proof that Susan's name was NOT "Kelly", it was Albert. I also have a copy of a family birth and death record that proves that Susan Albert was the mother of Sarah Marie Chronister, born 1852. Susan Albert gave her illegitimate child the name "Chronister"--evidence that Lewis was the father. To further tie the illegitimate child to Lewis, Sarah Marie had one of her children baptized at the home of "Lewis Chronister in Hampton, Adams County" in 1880, according to a record I found at the York Historical Society. Why would she have a child baptized at this man's home if he was not her father? Also, Lewis himself named Sarah and her husband, Henry Yohe, as executors of his will--pretty strong evidence that she was his child. I hope to obtain a copy of that wi!
ll soon to see if he refers to her as his daughter or not.
I find it interesting that in Rick Chronister's book, there seems to be a clever cover-up of the family sin. He lists the third child of Susan Albert as: "Sarah Margaret". This merges the illegitimate child with another one. The illegitimate one born in 1852 was "Sarah Marie". There was another child named "Margaret Amanda". How clever to say that "Sarah Margaret" was one child! HA! I'd love to see the sources on that one. Many of Susan Albert's childrens' names and/or birthdates are incorrect, per the family birth record. Some of them carried Susan's maiden name of "Albert" as their middle names.
I notice on page 69, where the children and their descendants are given, the fictitious "Sarah Margaret" (who is really two children) is not listed. I can fill you in on that:
"Margaret Amanda" never married and died at the age of 53, according to her tombstone at the Hampton Union Cemetery. She is buried next to her parents, Lewis and Susan Chronister. There was nothing difficult about researching that!
"Sarah Marie", who is my g-grandmother, was b. 21 Jul 1852, according to a copy of the family birth and death record kept by her brother, Charles Albert Chronister, in the posession of his grandson, Charles Ruben Chronister. This date agrees with her age in the federal census where, in 1870, she is listed as a "domestic servant" of John and Margaret Moritz, who apparently raised her. She was also living with the Moritz family in 1860 as an 8-year-old child. Sarah married Henry Shaffer Yohe and they had the following children: Moritz Shaffer (named in honor of the family who raised Sarah), Lottie Catharine, Emory H., and Lawrence H.
One other correction I should make is on page 69 of the Chronister book. Lewis Chronister's two oldest sons, Dixon and James, are listed as Union veterans of the Civil War. This is true, however, James did not die in the war, as the book states. James, who was born 22 Jan 1843, was actually underage when he went off to war. James went as a substitute for his FATHER, who was drafted but claimed that he was too weak and feeble (at the age of 40) to go to war. James served the full term of 9 months and came home. He didn't die until a couple years later, on 30 Jan 1865. Lewis then tried to claim his dead son's pension money as the "dependent father". There are affidavits in that pension file at the National Archives from Lewis himself, which is my source for this information.
If Rick Chronister is on this list, I would love to hear what his sources of information were for the information on pages 68 and 69. Anyone writing a book about a family should certainly visit some record repositories and cemeteries, to get the story straight. Family stories that can be easily disproved do not belong in any legitimate research!
I did a partial cemetery transcription of the Hampton Union Cemetery in Adams County, PA, and I will be sharing that soon on the list. I hope to encourage some legitimate researchers to come out of hiding and share what they have found in the public records. We can all help each other and learn quite a lot.
Peggy Reeves
Burtonsville, MD
(gg-grandaughter of Lewis Chronister and Susan E. Albert)
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FhI.2ACEB/103.1
Message Board Post:
Steve in regard to Susie Chronister her mother.s name was Margaret Warren and Father.s name was Simon Warren, born at Ozone, Arkansas and later moved to Lamar. Arkansas where she meet Earl Zachery Chronister, was baptize at minnow creek. Her grandparents where Mary Williams Wilburn and Absolem Williams from Kentucky, than later moved to Missouri, and later to Pettigrew and St. Paul area at Madison County in Arkansas near the hunstiville area. A very rural area mostly farm land. After Mary and Absolem youngest son killed a man for throwing rock at his parents home in Madison County they moved to Padene, Oklahoma, where they purchase several blocks of property in Town, Mary always signed her name with an X which Grandma Susie always thought she was of indian descent. I have a copy of the probate of Absolem Williams dated 1915. The Williams are a distant relative of Daniel Nathan Boone from Kentucky. The Williams where very educated people, Claude Williams another cou!
sin was the founder of Broken Arrow, was in politics, he died at a ripe ole age of 105 they took his license from him at 103. Rhoda Minks granddaughter of Mary and Absolem Williams that lived in Pocola, Oklahoma has a lot of info on the Williams, she is getting up in age. We are kin to the Minks, two of Mary and AB.s children married Minks. There is a quilt that your grandma Susie helped quilt, a friendship quilt made with the church woman that you can view off the internet, I think the Pearson.s have ownership of this quilt. Were you at Susie. funeral I did not see you. Sure do miss you. love Ya Aunt Shirley
List Members:
A recent message about intrusive internet behavior on the Chronister
List prompts me to post the following addresses for articles focused on
consideration of the rights of others and safety in this day of identity
theft. As a group, we must practice responsible research techniques or
our sources of "good" information are going to dry up. The Internet is a
wonderful tool to expand our research capabilities and find others who
are researching the same family lines, but it does not relieve us of the
need to practice good manners or to use common sense.
Myra Vanderpool Gormley
http://www.ancestry.com/columns/myra/Shaking_Family_Tree06-19-97.htmhttp://www.ancestry.com/columns/myra/Shaking_Family_Tree07-09-98.htm
The following address will take you to an excellent article about use of
the internet in genealogical research. There are many other articles at
<www.genealogy.com> on related topics.
http://www.genealogy.com/65_gary.html
Debra Chronister Blackard
List Manager
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FhI.2ACEB/109
Message Board Post:
I am looking for info on a Jerry Chronister that lived in Chicago IL. He was born March 1959 and died March 1977. I am an old girlfriend and just found out about his death. I know he was part Indian, but that is about all I know about him personally. I need to know how he died & where he is buried, I want to visit it. Thank you!