John Winn
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2014
- Location
- State of Jefferson
This is a bit contorted but I'll try to encapsulate the story.
My great grandmother lived in Anderson, South Carolina during the war as her father, a prominent Charleston merchant and big-time blockade runner, decided it was best to move the family out of Charleston and bought a house in Anderson. A prominent family in Anderson was that of Jacob Pinckney Reed and his daughter and my great grandma were good friends. Emmala Reed - Jacob's daughter - kept a diary but it somehow got lost. Miraculously, it was discovered at a flea market in the 80s and the purchaser thought it might be historically significant so gave it to the U. of South Carolina. It remained in their archives for some time but was re-discovered and eventually transcribed and published in 2004. My family are mentioned several times in the diary.
Now then, the editor made some mistakes in identifying various members of the Reed family and my family. I wrote him but got only a short reply. So, I looked to see what reviews the diary had got on Amazon and found a Reed descendant had also complained of misidentification errors. I then thought it might be fun to see if I could connect with that descendant since her folk and my folk were friends during the war. Well, the short story is that I did find her and we are now in contact and it turns out she is actively involved in promoting her region's CW history (in Maryland) and is very interested in sharing family history.
Ain't that swell ? Our families knew each other during the war and now, thru the miracle of the internet, we've re-connected and it also turns out that we are both students of the history of the CW era. She is sharing what I've sent her with some cousins and I hope to hear from at least one of those, too. Voices from across the walls of time.
Just had to share that with somebody.
My great grandmother lived in Anderson, South Carolina during the war as her father, a prominent Charleston merchant and big-time blockade runner, decided it was best to move the family out of Charleston and bought a house in Anderson. A prominent family in Anderson was that of Jacob Pinckney Reed and his daughter and my great grandma were good friends. Emmala Reed - Jacob's daughter - kept a diary but it somehow got lost. Miraculously, it was discovered at a flea market in the 80s and the purchaser thought it might be historically significant so gave it to the U. of South Carolina. It remained in their archives for some time but was re-discovered and eventually transcribed and published in 2004. My family are mentioned several times in the diary.
Now then, the editor made some mistakes in identifying various members of the Reed family and my family. I wrote him but got only a short reply. So, I looked to see what reviews the diary had got on Amazon and found a Reed descendant had also complained of misidentification errors. I then thought it might be fun to see if I could connect with that descendant since her folk and my folk were friends during the war. Well, the short story is that I did find her and we are now in contact and it turns out she is actively involved in promoting her region's CW history (in Maryland) and is very interested in sharing family history.
Ain't that swell ? Our families knew each other during the war and now, thru the miracle of the internet, we've re-connected and it also turns out that we are both students of the history of the CW era. She is sharing what I've sent her with some cousins and I hope to hear from at least one of those, too. Voices from across the walls of time.
Just had to share that with somebody.
Bringing the