Techie?

Ever since I started this blog, I’ve wrestled with the fact that I am a major non-technical person.  I truly want to be, but as you can see from this page, I haven’t even been able to change the blog background to something more personal or subject-oriented, and I haven’t ever done my ‘links’ correctly.  So, I guess that makes me a ‘techer’ and not a ‘techie.’ 

Oh, now, now…I can hear all of you saying that there is no such word as ‘techer.’ But I assure you that’s what I am.  A techer is someone who follows the world of technology, loves it, but is not quite a part of it.  At least that’s what we should be called – I’m pretty sure that I just made that word up.  A techie, of course, is someone who completely understands the vast world of technology, can easily make use of it, and truly belongs there.

I use the word ‘techer’ in honor of the fact that I am and always have been a major Star Trek ‘Trekker’ – and most certainly not a ‘Trekkie!’  Yes, there is a difference.  A Trekker (like me) loves the show, including all of its various franchise series: the original, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.  I loyally watched and enjoyed every episode of every series.  Because I love Star Trek, I’m a Trekker.  However, I would not now (nor ever would have) actually put on a Star Trek costume or participate in one of those major fan gatherings where they act as if they really live in the Star Trek Universe.  Those people are true Trekkies.  Like ‘techies,’ they are (or in this instance, think they are) part of the Star Trek world.  I’ve always felt that Trekkers were the ones who, like me, just loved the series with their wonderful stories and characters, and that was all the involvement that was needed.

Many people will disagree with this analogy.  I’ve heard it said that both words can be used to describe the Star Trek ‘nuts.’  I totally disagree with that assessment.  I’m a Trekker and not a Trekkie.  No question.  That’s why I’m calling myself a techer.  I love technology, want to learn more, but I’m truly not yet a well-educated part of the technological world.

Now what, pray tell, does any of this have to do with genealogy?  Everything!  In this day and age, a true grasp of technology is necessary to accomplish adequate research and retrieval of genealogical facts.  I’ve actually been ‘not quite bad’ at that part.  It’s just when I’ve tried to relate my findings in venues like this blog, or on social media such as Twitter, that I’ve had some difficulties – to say the least. 

In reality, I surprised myself when I was able to put in a personalized background photo on Twitter for my ‘home page.’ Nonetheless, if you were to ask me how I did it, I would never be able to tell you. I even put a link to my Twitter account on here, but I wasn’t able to figure out how to get that cute little bird to click on.  Evidently, I did that one incorrectly. I should be happy that at least there’s a link to my Twitter account, but I want that bird!

I have a number of things that I’d like to display on this blog site.  I was able to get my GeneaBloggers symbol on the page, but I’m a member of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE) and would love to have that symbol on here as well.  Also, I’d like to proudly show the symbol for the Tennessee Genealogical Society, a group to which I also belong.  I need to get busy and become more adept at this technology stuff.  I will have to admit that I’ve been hesitant to put too many posts on here until I’ve learned more and can be more proud of the way my site looks. 

I will never be a Trekkie, but I do so hope that one day I will be a techie.  When I come closer to that goal, you’ll see a fabulous new background on this blog, and you’ll see all of the symbols and tags, etc. that I’ve described above displayed with pride on this ‘sassy site!’

Until then – live long and prosper!

Sassy Scottish Lassie

I’ve always loved the sound of bagpipes.  There is something about that strange sound (which produces such poignant and beautiful music) that touches my soul in a way that I cannot explain.  Listening to bagpipes was not something that we often did in my house when I was a child.  Probably the first time I ever heard the sound of a bagpipe was on that new and wonderful television set we finally got when I was in the second grade.  Nonetheless, when I first heard the sound, I was moved to tears, a phenomenon that still happens to me to this day. The music of the bagpipes fills my whole being with almost-painful feelings and deep longings.

I’ve heard of the theory of “genetic memory,” but being the reasonable and logical person that I am, I have a hard time accepting the idea that the memories and experiences of my ancestors could be passed down to me. Yet even from childhood, I loved and was deeply drawn to all things Scottish, especially to that peculiar music. 

My Mother was a Wallace, but since we never really knew her father or his family, my Wallace ancestry never made a very big impression on me.  I do remember hearing that we were “Scotch-Irish” and found out years later the origin of that term: groups of Scotsmen who had moved for one reason or another to land in Ireland before coming to the new world. (There is ever so much more to that story, but that’s for another time.)

I actually remember my Mother saying things like “let’s get under the kivers.”  Kivers is apparently an old Scots-Irish/mountain term for quilts or covers - a fact that I didn’t know until just a few years ago.  Words and terms like that, along with the German phrases that my Grandmother would often say (her mother was a Zeigler), were just a part of our everyday life.  



Wallace Clan Tartan

When I first began researching my family’s history, I focused mainly on my Love family heritage. However, when I decided to research that Wallace line, I was fairly surprised at the number of Scottish families who were a part of my lineage. Some of those surnames include: Wallace, McReynolds, Smiley, Wilson, Thompson, and King.  In point of fact, members of those particular families actually arrived on the American continent sometime in the early 1700s, and groups of each family appear to have travelled (often together) down the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania into North Carolina and Tennessee.  My line moved from Tennessee up to Indiana. They married each other, built new homes (often uprooting and moving again), and embraced life in a huge and exciting new frontier. They were amazing people.

I’m very proud to have that Scots heritage. Interestingly enough, on my Love side I actually descend from the Crawford family, a family which included Margaret Crawford, mother of the famous William Wallace. The Scots appear to be all around me and, evidently, deeply embedded into my genetic code.

So naturally, it stood to reason that when I married the love of my life, he was a Scotsman!  Years ago, when my husband and I prepared to join the Clan Maitland Society of North America, I found that in order for me to be a member, I had to make a pledge to renounce the wearing of any other clan’s tartan.  That really hurt.  The idea that I would not ever be able to wear the Wallace Clan tartan was sad, but there was something about that ancient and sacred tradition that appealed to me.  It somehow seemed right; I would give up my clan in order to join my husband’s.  I could almost hear the bagpipes play as those fighting Wallaces shouted a ‘highlander yell’ at my marrying into that noble Clan Maitland.

Clan Maitland Tartan

Hmmm…maybe there is something to that genetic memory thing. 





Wordless Wednesday: Photographic Tribute to Shiloh

(Photos taken by my friend B. Westmoreland. Many thanks for her permission to share!)

Shiloh - Continued

As we continue to observe the 150th anniversary of the Batle of Shiloh, I want to continue with my tribute to the two members of my family who participated in that infamous battle.

In the Military Annals of Tennessee, Confederate, by John M. Taylor, ed, by John B. Lindsley, 1886 (reprint 1974) Taylor described the contributions of the 27th Tennessee on page 422 and wrote of Major Love at Shiloh as "a gallant and affable gentleman, true soldier and grand officer, fell pierced in the neck by a shot."

Also, in a final report issued by captains and other officers in the Official Report of the War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, I found a description of Samuel in Series I, Volume 10:

"After the enemy began to retreat from the battery one regiment bore to the right, under the command of Maj. Love, pouring a continuous fire into the enemy's ranks, until they were forced conceal themselves among and in the rear of their tents…”  He went on to say that “Maj. Love was killed, after commanding the regiment in a fearless manner during the day."

Samuel’s life ended at Shiloh, but his nephew, Richard, survived the battle and went on to fight in the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky, near Murphreesboro, Tennessee, where he was wounded in October of 1862. I found on the “Henderson County Sharpshooters” site at http://www.tnyesterday.com/books/gm/gm2-12.html that he was eventually captured in 1863 in Selmer, Tennessee, which is near the Mississippi home of the McKenzie family, who had taken him in to help tend his wounds. 

Richard lived until the age of 79, when he died on October 23, 1923.  He had married Ann Elizabeth McKenzie, who had helped to nurse him during his stay at their home. They made their home in Benton County, Mississippi, and had at least five children.  Sadly, only one lived to adulthood.  Richard Love, Jr. died tragically at the young age of 24.

My own grandfather, Richard Enloe Love, Sr., was very close to his uncle.  He and my father, RIchard Enloe Love, Jr., spent many happy days at the Love family home in Benton County.

Major Samuel T. Love never married, but that "gallant and affable gentleman" is remembered with love by his brother's descendants.

Richard and Ann Elizabeth McKenzie Love

Shiloh - the Beginning

On the morning of April 6, 1862, one of the earliest and deadliest battles of the Civil War began.  The two-day conflict between Confederate and Union forces at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, located on the banks of the Tennessee River, would result in over 3,400 killed on both sides, with thousands more wounded and missing. It would ironically be forever afterwards called the Battle of Shiloh.  This name was taken from a small church named Shiloh, around which General Ulysses S. Grant settled most of his troops.  The name Shiloh is often translated to “peace” or “tranquility” in Hebrew.  Along with the thousands of soldiers who died in that battle, two high-ranking and outstanding generals lost their lives as well: General Albert Sydney Johnston, USC, and Brigadier General W. H. L. Wallace, U.S. Army.  It most certainly was not a place of peace.

Also lost in that battle was my 2^nd great grand uncle, Major Samuel T. Love, who was “mortally wounded” and taken prisoner, only to die on April 17^th of his wounds in the Union prison camp at Paducah, Kentucky.  Major Love served in the 27^th Tennessee Infantry, Company K, also known as the “Henderson County Sharpshooters.”  

Samuel Love, born in 1821 in Fairfax County, Virginia, was the brother of my great-great grandfather, Charles Jones Love, Jr.  Samuel was a veteran soldier who had served as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the 14^th Infantry in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War.  Even though he was already 40 years old when Tennessee seceded from the Union, he followed his 17-year-old nephew, Richard Love, and signed up for duty at Trenton, Tennessee, with the newly formed 27^th Infantry. Richard had enlisted in July of 1861 and Samuel in August of the same year. Richard was the son of Samuel’s brother Charles and was my great grand uncle.

Samuel entered his service as a private, but his age and experience earned him a rapid promotion from private to major in September.  Richard enlisted as a corporal, since he was one of the first to sign up for service, and he would soon be promoted to sergeant.

As I researched Samuel’s Civil War record, I found several glowing accounts of his military service.  In the Civil War Archives found at http://www.civilwararchive.com/RESEARCH1/1862/shilohcsa6.htm, I read that Major General B. F. Cheatham, commanding officer of the 2nd Division, First Corps, Army of the Mississippi (Confederate) at Shiloh, had written a report of the battle on April 30, 1862.  His account of the battle included the following:

“During the engagement here I was re-enforced by Colonel Gibbon, with a Louisiana brigade; by Colonel Campbell, with his gallant Thirty third Tennessee, and by Maj. Samuel T. Love, with the Twenty-seventh Tennessee, all of whom deserve particular mention. Major Love gallantly led his regiment to the charge and fell mortally wounded. Thus re-enforced, I was enabled to prevent the advance of the enemy, who seemed to have thrown his whole disposable force against our left flank."