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| 1855 wedding certificate |
So, up we went to the eight bedroom home near Dinkytown near the University of Minnesota (U) where she and her older sister Jane, operated a boarding house for young men attending the U. And we packed up everything, clothes, jewelry, chair, sewing machine in cabinet, books, books and more books, her hand written recipe book from when she was pastry chef at the Kahler Hotel in Rochester, dresses half-sewn, fabric never sewn, and little boxes of who knew what!
Little by little as time permitted I went through her things. Much to my utter surprise, tucked between the pages of books and tiny boxes with very old lace and leather and soft cotton gloves still amazingly white were envelopes that contained birth and marriage certificates and newspaper clippings about my ancestors dating back to the 1800s. This meant I had to go through every single book flipping the pages and each tiny wooden and tin box to be sure not a single family treasure was hidden within. And so I did!
This morning, I sit in Aunt Ella's fading shades of green arm chair with cotton stuffing showing and hold this and other documents from my family archives (including the newspaper clipping that was tucked into the folds of the wedding certificate).
I am holding an envelope on which Aunt Ella scrawled with a very dull pencil in her expansive Palmer penmanship "for Robert Moulton and he is to have my iron bank." Inside the envelope is the marriage certificate of Almond Buckley and Sarah D. Biddle, 25th day pf April, 1855, state of New York, my great-great-great-great grandparents (I am sure that is the right number of "greats") and a very very yellowed newspaper clipping headlined: In Memorium ~ "On Thursday evening, October 10, the grim messenger, Death, entered the pleasant home of M. W. Pendergast, of the neighboring town of Concord and laid his icy hand upon the fond wife and devoted mother and concealed within the dark confines of the sepulcher, one whom the entire community knew but to respect." In the next paragraph I learn that Mary A. Parker, was born May 22, 1848 in New York State. She married W. M. Pendergast in New York, February 4, 1868 arrived at Concord, Dodge County, MN that spring after "crossing the great father of waters" and died at the age of 41.
The language in the "memorium" is vibrant and rich stating, "Within the sacred precincts of home which was ever Mrs. Pendergast's earthly paradise, her rare wifely and motherly qualities shown with a dazzling luster, seldom equaled and never excelled. Hers was a home in which hospitality reigned triumphant, and where no amount of sacrifice was too great to be endured for the love of home and friends. Like the vine, whose caressing tendrils will cling to the shattered oak after it has been rooted from earth, so will the memory of her affections bind up the wounds of sorrowing hearts in that home now desolate."
How the world has changed! Today my computer tells me the word memorium is misspelled and it is NOT! Next week I will introduce an Immigration Witness event a the 175th Anniversary celebration of the arrival of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States at which I will briefly identify that my first ancestor came to the United States in 1631 from Wales and took the freedman oath in 1652. We are a nation of migrants. Only those who have always been on this land are truly Native Americans. My ancestors came from Wales, Switzerland, Germany, Norway and Ireland. Some of this I know because of archival materials, some through family story.
I celebrate: my ancestors originated in northern Europe, they came primarily to live on and work the land; I live and work with migrants and always have; and today I count as friends and colleagues migrants from Southeast Asia, Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, the Baltic nations and the Middle East. And I wonder, what will their family archives look like? Most likely they will be internet based as opposed to yellowing envelopes found tucked inside books and tiny boxes.
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