Tag: Genealogy

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Great Grandma Lindsey’s Spaghetti

I wish I had gotten to know more of my Great Grandparents. I would love to be able to sit down with them now and listen to their stories. I would love to be in their presence and experience what they are like.

Great Grandma Betty Lindsey with Great Grandpa William McKinley Lindsey and son Tom

I’ve always felt an attachment to the Grandparents I know. At a young age, I remember travelling with my Grandpa to Pennsylvania. While we drove, he told me the story of Robinson Crusoe, and I loved every moment of it.

I also had opportunities to get to know some of my Grandparents that I squandered. Several lived for a long time, and I never made a move to get to know them better. I regret that.

My Paternal Grandmother, Betty Lindsey Babb, died before I was born. Her Father, William, My Great Grandfather, died a year later. My Great Grandma Betty Lindsey had died three years earlier in 1972.

In 2017, I began to look into my family history in earnest. This led me to seek out the descendants of William and Betty. The last of their 9 children died just as I began to do this research.

When I contacted the wife of William and Betty’s son George, I learned a lot. What she mentioned to me was that she always enjoyed being at William and Betty’s family. She remembered very clearly the smell of garlic because Betty was always making spaghetti.

I asked my own Father, who had lived with William and Betty for a time, if he remembered the spaghetti. “Oh yeah.” He said. “That’s probably one reason I don’t like spaghetti today. We ate it all the time!”

As I asked around, people always mentioned Great Grandma’s spaghetti. It was the most prominent and constant theme.

Over Christmas, I was finally able to sit down with a group of the descendants of Tom Lindsey, William and Betty’s oldest (the baby in the picture above). We talked about memories of the past, and, inevitably, Great Grandma Lindsey’s spaghetti came up. One of Tom’s daughters told me, “I have the recipe, if you want it.”

“Absolutely!” I replied. Then, I listened carefully as she told me the details.

“You start by frying up some bacon.” She began. “Then, you leave the bacon grease in the frying pan and take out the bacon for later.”

A good start! I thought.

“Chop up onion and garlic and sautée them in the pan. Once you’ve done that, you add tomato juice. After mixing the tomato juice, you crumple up the bacon and put it back into the sauce. Then, there’s one more thing. They always had fried chicken with the spaghetti.” She said.

Fridays are my day to cook. On a Friday in January, I decided I would make Great Grandma Lindsey’s spaghetti. Step by step, I followed the directions. The only way I modified the spaghetti was to add a little bit of tomato paste. I needed less than I thought because the sauce was thicker than I thought. I warmed up the fried chicken to go with it.

And it was good! I love spaghetti. This was different than any spaghetti that I had eaten, but it was still good. My daughter described it this way: “I like it, but it’s more Southern than Italian.”

As I prepared the spaghetti and served it to my family, I could imagine sitting at Great Grandma Lindsey’s table with a plate of spaghetti and fried chicken and the house filled with the aroma of garlic. Somehow, I felt closer to her than I had before.

Great Grandma Lindsey with two of her sons

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Barzillai Willey, or The Unknown Impact of Ancestry

“Do you know who Barzillai is?” I asked my Grandfather.

“No.” He replied. “I don’t believe I do.”

I asked my Father the same thing. Neither one of them knew who the biblical character Barzillai was.

Now, that’s not a slight on my Father or Grandfather. These two men are ministers, and they knew their Bibles. It just shows how obscure Barzillai is in the Bible.

It makes it all the more surprising that the story of Barzillai must have captivated Isaac and Deliverance Willey so much that they named one of their sons “Barzillai.”

For the record, Barzillai was an elderly rich man who aided King David when he fled for his life from his son Absalom who had just carried out a successful coup d’état. King David crossed the Jordan River tired and hungry. Barzillai brought him supplies and encouragement.

Barzillai Willey was born in 1734 in Lyme, CT. He died in 1771. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War, and he had a son whom he named–Barzillai!

The second Barzillai was born in 1764. As a very young man, he became a soldier in the Continental Army in the Connecticut Line and served at the Battle of Saratoga. After the Revolution, Barzillai became a Methodist minister. Eventually, he moved his family to Clark County, Indiana.

He had a son whom he named Barzillai, but my own interest is in his son Dennis Willey, who is my 4th Great Grandfather. Dennis Willey was a Methodist minister like his Father.

One of his daughters was named Margaret Minerva Willey, and she married Jairus McMillan. Jairus had left his home in Oneida County, New York, and traveled on foot from farmhouse to farmhouse to southern Indiana. There, he met Margaret, and they were married in 1855.

Apparently, the ministry was very important to Margaret Willey, and she longed to have a son who would be a minister like her father. Her desires were answered in her son, Clyde Holmes McMillan, who became a Methodist minsiter. Incidentally, Clyde married a minister’s daughter named Florence Mae Maupin, daughter of William Maupin.

Margaret Willey was so excited about her son Clyde being a minister that, according to my McMillan cousins, she would take out ads in the paper any time Clyde would come back home to North Vernon, IN to preach.

Clyde and Florence had several children including my Great Grandmother Roberta McMillan. Roberta developed a love for God and His Word in her early years. As she described it: “My Father would read a passage of Scripture and then our family would kneel at our chairs for prayer. It was here a reverence and love sprang up in my heart for God’s Word in those early years.”

This same devotion led my Great Grandmother to God’s Bible School in Cincinnati and then to a desire to go to the mission field. After graduating, both My Great Grandmother and my Great Grandfather were on their way to serve in Africa–separately.

Clarence said goodbye to his friends and family and headed off to Africa first. During that time, his Father, James Mason Keith, had a dream that Clarence had come back to find a wife. Everybody laughed because they knew that Clarence was off to Africa. Unbeknownst to them, the documents for the trip had not been filed properly, and Clarence had to return home. While he was home, he paid Roberta a visit and asked her to marry him. She assented, and they went to Africa together.

There, Clarence and Roberta had eight children. Their three sons were also ministers, one of whom was David Keith, the Grandfather I mentioned in the introduction to this story. Three of the daughters married ministers.

My Grandfather and Grandmother David and Huberta Carver Keith also met at God’s School of the Bible, and they ended up in Africa as missionaries. There, they had four children, the oldest of whom is my Mother.

When my Mother was 19, she met my Father, Sam White, at what was then Marion College and is now Indiana Wesleyan University. Undoubtedly, part of my Mother’s attraction to my Father was that he was planning on being a minister. From a young age, My Mother had had a desire to serve the Lord and was happy to partner with my Father to serve Christ and His church.

Their son, John Wesley White, never wanted to be a minister. I don’t believe it ever even crossed my mind growing up. I even went in a different direction theologically. I moved away from the Wesleyan Church and went into the Presbyterian Church.

You always think that your destiny and decisions are your own. But here I am, an eighth generation minister. I wonder what good old Barzillai Willey would think of that.

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The Genealogies of the Bible

“The Bible is boring.” Let’s be honest. We all feel that way sometimes.

More than anything in the Bible, people get bored reading the long list of names in its genealogies.

I believe that all of the Bible is profitable (see 2 Tim. 3:16), but it’s sometimes hard to see the profit in some passages like the genealogies. A long list of names? Profitable? How?

My view of genealogies in general has recently changed. It’s changed because I’ve begun doing some genealogical research (you can read about it here and here), and I’ve really enjoyed it.

I didn’t really connect this with the Bible until I began reading the book of Matthew with my family and doing a small group study on this book. And how does the Gospel according to Matthew start out? With a genealogy.

In the past, I might have slogged through it.

But now, having studied and thought about genealogy, this genealogy actually really piqued my interest.

Here are a few of the things I thought about as I contemplated Matthew’s genealogy.

First, the Bible genealogies demonstrate that family is important. In our nation in particular, we tend to downplay the importance of the family. However, family shapes us. We carry it with us wherever we go whether we think so or not. Genealogies are one perspective on what has shaped us.

Second, we are family people. We are human beings, but we are not “abstract human beings.” We are all particular human beings with particular ancestors from particular places speaking particular languages shaped by particular cultures. We all have our limits and unique perspective.

Third, our family connects us to the world story. Our family is a significant part of what makes us unique human beings, but the story of our family connects us with the world story.

I have always loved history, but genealogical research has made me feel more a part of it. I feel much more connected to the Revolutionary War knowing that one of my ancestors died at Valley Forge. I’ll never hear the name Mohammed Ali the same way again knowing that a second cousin was in a boxing match with him when my cousin was 14 years old (the cousin lost and never boxed again, by the way).

Our family connects us to the rest of humanity. Trace it back far enough, and all our family trees intersect.

Fourth, our family matters to God. The fact that God put genealogies in the Bible shows that He cares about our families.

I have had quite a few conversations with people about my genealogical research. It’s an easy topic of conversation because everyone has some sort of genealogical understanding, but sometimes their eyes glaze over when I talk about my 3rd great grandfather or 1st cousin twice removed. But God’s eyes don’t glaze over. God is interested in our genealogy. He cares who our cousins are and who are 3rd great grandfathers are (you have 16 of them by the way!).

Fifth, our families connect us to the brokenness and fallenness of the world. In Jesus’ genealogy, there was a prostitute, a murderer, the wife of the man who was murdered, and other unsavory characters. Sometimes in studying genealogy (or your own immediate family!), you may say, “I wish I hadn’t learned that!” But like it or not, fallenness and brokenness are part of who we are. We can’t change that fact by running away from it.

Sixth, there is hope for our families. At the end of the genealogy in Matthew is Jesus. He comes right into the middle of the mess. He’s literally born into it. He comes into the middle of it to save it. Our families don’t have to follow the same old patterns. There is One who comes who brings new hope, restoration, forgiveness, and renewal for all the families of the human race.

For me, genealogies are no longer boring.

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The 2,446 Descendants of James Russell “Major” White

Me and my Dad, Myrland Edward “Sam” White, Jr.
Do you ever have an idea from childhood that sticks with you? Then, you say it out loud as an adult, and you think, I’m not sure that’s true! I’ve had experiences like that more often than I’d like to admit.

One of those ideas was that I (with my brother) was one of the last males in my line of the White’s.

I think there are two reasons why I developed that conception. First, my Dad’s name is Myrland Edward White, Jr. If any of you know him, you may be surprised to read this because he goes by “Sam.”

My Dad’s Dad, Myrland Edward White, Sr., died after 3 months of marriage to my Grandmother, Betty Lindsey. During those 3 months, my Father was conceived. For the first 3 years of his life, my Dad was often with his Grandfather, Sam White. He lived with them long enough to get the nickname Sammie that he carries with him to this day as “Sam.”

Eventually, Betty remarried to Lloyd Babb, and my Dad went into the orbit of the Babb’s and Lindsey’s with little contact with the White family.

The second reason is that growing up I didn’t know any male cousins with the last name of White. My Dad connected with one of his half brother’s, Larry, who was a White, but he had only one child, a daughter.

So, from one perspective I was right. I was one of the only male descendants of Myrland Edward White, Sr. However, what I discovered is that if you extend that out to one, two, or three generations beyond my grandfather, then it’s not even close to true.

Here’s how I made that discovery.

Through some strange circumstances that I won’t go into, I ended up taking a DNA test from Ancestry.com. This led me into an initial foray into genealogy. You can read about that here.

Through a couple of genealogists on my Mom’s side of the family, I had a pretty good sense of where my Mother had come from. However, I only had a vague idea of where my Father had come from.

So, I made it one of my goals to research my Father’s ancestors. I just needed some time to go through the material on Ancestry.com. That would be my start.

Several months passed.

Then, I got sick. As I lay in bed trying to recover from the flu, I realized I had enough strength to do some searches on the internet. It was time to research my Father’s ancestry.

I made some significant progress, but I also realized that when you look at other people’s research on Ancestry.com, you need to trust but verify.

Gravestone of my 3rd Great Grandfather, James Russell White
I knew my Dad’s Grandfather’s name on the White side was Sam, but I didn’t know much beyond that. Gradually, the story began to unfold. From what I could tell, My Great Grandpa Sam’s father was Robert Dempsey “Dock” White. Robert’s Father was James Russell “Major” White.

James Russell White’s family lived in De Kalb County, Tennessee and moved up to Russellville, KY, probably sometime in the early 1860s. I had moved to TN thinking I was going to a place where The White family had never lived before. Perhaps I was wrong.

In spite of this initial research, I was still skeptical. If this was correct, I realized that I probably had a bunch of cousins in Logan County, Kentucky.

So, I asked a couple of my older relatives on the White side if “Russellville, KY” meant anything to them. They both replied, “Oh, yes. We went down there to visit relatives often.” It turns out that five of Robert Dempsey’s children had moved to Owensboro from Russellville and yet stayed in contact with their relatives in Russellville. One of my living relatives even confirmed that they had heard the name “Major” White before.

I was quite satisfied that the link between my White’s and the Russellville White’s was established. Still, I wanted to know more, and I wanted more documentary proof.

I probably had searched James Russell White’s name on Google a few times, but I did it again. To my shock, I discovered that there was a book, The Descendants of James Russell “Major” White written by Michael and Barbara Christian. Wow! I thought. That’s amazing. I wonder if I can get a copy. I could not find it in any of my normal searches for book purchase.

What about libraries? I wondered. I found through WorldCat that this book was in 7 libraries in the United States. One of them were relatively close (compared to Utah!): Muhlenburg County Library in Greenville, KY. I was going up to visit some relatives in Louisville and Owensboro over Christmas break, so I concluded that I could stop by the Muhlenburg County Library’s Genealogical Annex and take a look at this book on my way home.

The Courthouse in downtown Greenville, KY
So, that’s what I did. I arrived in Greenville on December 28th at about 11:00 in the morning. Google Maps told me that my destination was on my right. I got out of my car and looked at the library. There was yellow warning tape in front of it: Under Construction!

Seriously? I thought. I come all this way, and it’s closed? So, I called the Genealogical Annex.

“Are you open?” I asked.

“Yes, we’re temporarily located in the basement of the Old National Bank. What do you need? Most of our stuff is in storage?” The lady on the other end asked me.

“Well, I’m looking for a book called The Descendants of James Russell “Major” White.” I replied.

“I have it!” She answered.

“I’ll see you in a minute.” I said and then hung up.

With the joy of potential discovery in my heart, I went over to the bank. The librarian gave me the book, and I sat down at the front of her desk while she worked on her computer in the tiny room where the Genealogical Annex was housed.

I opened the cover and saw the first page of the book written around 1996. I opened the book and began reading, “James Russell and Mary White did not leave behind many worldly goods. However, they had 10 children, and their 2,446 descendants have settled throughout the United States from California to Florida. . . .”

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What’s Your Story?

What’s your story?

Like most Americans, I was pretty hazy on where my ancestors came from and how they got here.

My Mother was born in South Africa to American missionaries. My Father was born near Owensboro, KY. I always thought of my Father and Mother as having very different backgrounds.

A few things happened recently that led me to do some research and realize that the two sources of my ancestry were quite close.

One ancestor that I knew of was Levi Parks Keith. He was from my mother’s side, was in the Illinois cavalry in the Civil War, and died of disease late in the war.

I realized that “Levi Parks Keith” was a pretty rare name, so I did a Google search. This led me to a site called Grave Finder.

On that site, I found not only where he was buried but also information about his life and links to other family members, including his father and mother.

His Father, Mason Parks Keith, came from Virginia to Kentucky and then moved to Southern Indiana where most of my family stayed.

This intrigued me because I knew my Father’s family was rooted in Northern Kentucky and Southern Indiana as well.

I began to plug in some general history. The Great Lakes States as we know them were not open to settlement until quite a few years after the Revolutionary War. In addition, Kentucky was opened for settlement before the Great Lake States. Continue reading “What’s Your Story?”

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