OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Why do we pursue this endeavor?? (published 1895)
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Scott Galbraith 
vsg@x-press.net
April 3, 1999
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I have decided to post this to the group since I thought that most on here
could personally relate to the contents.

The lengthy quote below is taken from the last part of the preface to Hugh
Scott and his Descendants, 1670-1895, by John Scott, published by John Manor
Scott (Nevada, Iowa. March, 1895), Copy #127 (Only 300 printed.). Volume in
possession of Vincent Scott Galbraith as of 1999.

I found this passage interesting as it shows that the trials and frustrations
of genealogists over 100 years ago were not that different from what we face
today AND it seems to give a pretty good reason for why we go through all this
fun and effort.

 - Scott
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

     "With the present facilities for taking care of books, as shown in the
standard Libraries of the World, they being proof against destruction by fire
and by water, against the ravages of moth and rust and mould, this Book may
last thousands of years, preserving every name on its pages. It will also, 
in preserving these names, show the recorded blood of the persons named, and 
much of value in their several Histories. It takes the place of inscriptions 
on marble and in bronze. It is more extended as a means of identification 
than such inscriptions can be. It can be widely circulated by means of many 
copies, and can be read of all men wheresoever they may be."

     "On the other hand the stone that marks one's tomb is stationary. It is
usually placed in some spot deemed secure from general resort. It is liable 
to suffer from want of care; to be overthrown by the hands of vandals: to be
overgrown and hidden by weeds and brambles; to crumble under the gnawing 
tooth of time, or as food for the ivy or other growth. In course of time the 
demands of civilization (so called) and the increased population of the 
country calls for the abandonment of 'God's Acre,' where sacred dust was 
meant to have repose its dedication to such uses has been declared a 
nuisance, and unhallowed hands bear away the ashes of our dead and destroy 
every evidence as to when and where they lived. At most these stones but 
tell that they were born and that they died."

     "In illustration of this I give an extract from one of many letters
written me by Miss Mildred A. Bell, of Washington, Pa. Dear Girl! Her own 
young and blessed life went out as she seemed to be entering the world of 
activity and of usefulness that was supposed to lie before her."

"Under date of July 2nd, 1877,. at Washington, Pa., she wrote: - 'A few days
ago I went to the old Cemetery near this place to find, as you requested, the
grave of my great-great grandfather Josiah Scott. I succeeded in finding it,
but the inscription on the tablet, except the name and age, was almost 
effaced by time, and I concluded it could not be deciphered. But I again 
visited the spot, and by considerable labor was able to make it out. The 
following is a copy: - 'In memory of Josiah Scott, who died on the 20th of 
February, 1819. aged 84 years. Having sustained a character exemplary for 
honesty, piety, and usefulness, he came to the grave in a full age, as a 
shock of corn cometh in his season. Job 5th Chap, and ~6th verse'"

"She then added: - 'By the side of this grave is one with a similar large 
fiat stone upon it, bearing the following inscription: - 'In memory of Jane 
Scott, who departed this life December 26th, A. D. 1831, in the 82nd year of
her age.'  Now this was not my great-great grandmother, for her name was 
Violet. Was Jane Scott his second wife?'"

"Could anything more forcibly illustrate the importance of giving early and
prompt attention to the preservation of our family records? It is not yet 
sixty three years since Jane Scott died. She was a Gordon, the mother of 
four sons, and the ancestress of many score of those whose names are herein 
entered as the descendants of 'Old Josiah'. Yet, within fifty years the 
tablet of stone had become so moss-eaten as to scarcely give the date of her
death, and was voiceless as to every detail of her life. The generation that
knew her has passed away, and in a few more years, except for these pages, 
there would be not even a memory that would recall her existence."

"[Where was Violet Foster buried?]"

"This matter will bear further reference. Not long since, one who was
interested in this sort of 'forgotten lore' rambled among the ruins of
Jamestown, Va. This was the place of the first settlement in Virginia, by 
Capt. John Smith, in 1607. He found the remains of the old church tower, now
standing but a few feet above the city of the dead, at its foot. Its walls 
were three feet thick, built of brick that was brought from England about 
275 years ago."

"He says: - 'The few monuments that can now be seen are broken, half buried
in the earth, and covered with a pall of ivy and long grass. Among them is a
half-reclining and decayed old sycamore. Entwined by its roots is a blue 
stone slab about four inches thick. The date is 1708. All else is 
illegible.'"

"Here, then, in an historic spot, over which a Commonwealth, if not a Nation,
might be disposed to have some care, every local monument of the first one
hundred years is unintelligible. But the printed page survives, and will last
while civilization endures. But for this Art it would already have been
forgotten or disputed that Jamestown was settled by the English, or that 
Capt. Smith was other than a myth."
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