Bless You Virginia Fendrick

Virginia Shannon Fendrick wrote the Revolutionary War Soldiers of Franklin County Pennsylvania published in 1944. She was an historian, a genealogist and a librarian. Her book contains not only biographies of those who were engaged in the Revolutionary War. Information about their kin, their origins, their connections.  She writes about where the bodies are buried with the addition of cemetery information.  She amassed a lot of information. She did this in a time when no digital searches were possible. She must have made made many  trips to the courthouses to read will books, made visits to churches to read records.  Everything done in person or by mail. All notes handwritten or typed. 

Virginia took notes. A lot of them. Her notebooks still exist in the local library in Mercersburg Pennsylvania.  We were excited to discover that  our 4th great grandfather William Allison and his brother Colonel John Allison were mentioned in her book.  We wondered what other Allison hints might be contained in her research.

A trip to Pennsylvania? While visiting libraries is one of my favorite pastimes (go figure) a trip across country to page through 25 dusty volumes of handwritten notes this month was not likely. What to do?  I did what all searchers do: Visit the digital version of the Fendrick LIbrary.  Online I discovered that the Fendrick is housed in a lovely old colonial building. It is small, it is local and it is sited in a house that was built by Captain Robert Parker (1754-1799), a veteran of the Revolutionary War and aide to General George Washington.

Best yet, it has a phone number.

I call. 
Cheryl Custer the cheerful, friendly Fendrick librarian answers the phone. We have a delightful chat. She promises to look up Allisons for me in the Virginia Fendrick notebooks.  But she says, it's Saturday afternoon... and she won't get to until next week. I'm thrilled. 

A week or so later pages of Allison references show up in my email box. This Pennsylvania part of the world appears to be infested with Allisons for more than a century. Its an amazing list. Stella and I sort through all these Allisons. Some are ours, some not...

Virgina Fendricks notes point us to the last testament and wills of our 3rd Great Grand Father William Allison , 4th Great Grand Father William Allison and 5th grandfather John Allison.  We are able to find digitized versions of these handwritten documents. It is a fabulous discovery. 

These wills map the progress of our Allison family who migrated from Northern Ireland and settled on the Pennsylvania frontier. They reveal details about the life and times of a colonial world that existed three hundred years ago... a time the Americas existed but not yet "America" as we have come to call the United States.  

Bless you Cheryl Custer and librarians everywhere who help us glimpse our histories.

Bless you Virgina Fendrick for taking such copious notes.  

Source :  Fendrick, Virginia Shannon.. American Revolutionary soldiers of Franklin County, Pennnsylvania [sic]. Chambersburg, Pa.: Historical Works Committee of the Franklin County Chapter, c1944.

The Fendrick Library Online:  http://fendricklibrary.org/Genealogy.html