I just typed this from the February 23, 1877 issue of the Carroll County Times.
"Hunting for Ancestors. ---- A very searching investigation was carried on in England
a few years ago. In the north of England two families were searching up their respective
ancestry. The strife was great between them, each one determining to look back into
antiquities further than the other. One of the families, whose name was Spencer, employed
an artist to paint an historic scene, representing the building of the ark and the loading
of the ship by Noah and his sons with its multifarious and various cargo. On the gang
plank leading to the deck of the ark, two men were seen rolling up a large box, on one
side of which was painted in large letters, "Relicts, insignia and Papers belonging
to the Spencer Family".
This was consider a coup d'etat hard to beat, but the other family determined not
to be outdone in the antediluvian pretences of their name, prepared, at great cost and
research, a record of their antiquity. In describing the exploits of one of their
ancestors at the very early day, who was represented as a man of some authority, this
remarkable passage occurs: "During this year Adam and Eve were driven out of
Paradise."
Happy New Year everyone.
Liz Robertson