Fall Colors on the Perry Tree
FAMILY LEGEND TELLS of one of our ancestors, who marched with General Grant in the Civil War. To be more exact, he rode with him... as General Grant's flag bearer (color bearer). Apparently, being a Civil War color bearer was "the toughest job you'll ever love, but it will probably get you killed. Carrying a regiment's colors into battle was considered an honor and a privilege. It was also a very dangerous job and would likely get a man maimed or killed. Thus, it required a great deal of courage" (Civil War Sources Blog). Soldiers would look to the flag to maintain their position and to keep from being separated from their regiment. My uncle told me...
Read more...Lucky Charms
TWO MYSTERIOUS INSCRIPTIONS, believed to have been penned by Garrison Smith Welch (my 3x great grandfather), were found in a family Bible. The Bible sat in the home of one of Garrison’s great-grandsons—an 80-year-old farmer in Union County, Ohio (Robert E. Welch, d. 2010). When I first talked with him on the phone, he was surprised to learn that our Welches were believed to be of Irish descent, rather than German. Garrison’s father was Martin C. Welch, and according to the 1880 US Census, Martin’s father was born in Ireland. Old farmer Bob had figured they were German, because the inscriptions were written in some form of German. One of them was even signed...
Read more...Are You Nuts?
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED if you are a few genes short of a double helix? Or does anyone in your family come from the shallow end of the gene pool? Well, it seems I’ve found a Welch who has lost every branch on her family tree....
On a mysterious death certificate for an Elizabeth Welch, her contributory cause of death is insanity. Parents are unknown. Birthdate is uncertain. But she died as a patient of Columbus State Hospital—also known as Lunatic Asylum of Ohio—in 1933...
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