Mary Jo's genealogy web site

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A disciple of Christ lets his faith affect his politics -- not the other way around.

to my Genealogy Home Page!

This has been my hobby for 30 years and though I have all this information and pictures in books I have written, I have been trying to put all of the information on these internet pages so that others can enjoy what I've found. I love having a website because I can keep the information up-to-date -- and I DO keep this site up-to-date. I get lots of email from people who see my pages and want more information. I usually will not have anything else other than what is here on these pages or in my rootsweb database, but I am happy to correspond with you and maybe we can work on a problem together.

These pages are mainly here so that I can post not only information on my ancestors, but also old pictures, documents, and links to more information. If the family history information is not yet up on each of these pages (not underlined), you can find information on them by going to my rootsweb.com page and searching for them by name. If you have information, OLD PICTURES, or documents to share, I would LOVE to have more!!! (a genealogist never gets enough information.)

This is a work in progress! Please check back occasionally for updates.

--- Mary Jo Freeman

Great books for Kids!

See my fantastic finds of books kids will love!!

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Will the Road you are on lead you to Heaven?

~~~ GROWING UP IN MISSOURI ~~~

• You might not be quite a Southerner, but you're definitely not a Northerner!
• You've never met any celebrities.
• Everyone you know has been on a "Float Trip." (High school friends skipped school to go floatin'.)
• "Vacation" means driving to Branson.
• "Down south" means Arkansas.
• You know what "barn swinging" is, and probably have done it.
• Your local Dairy Queen is closed from September to May.
• You know several people who have hit a deer or a cow.
• You've worn shorts and a parka at the same time.
• You've seen 11 inches of snow disappear the next day.
• You pronounce Missouri with an "uh" at the end, but you don't like for outsiders to call it that.
• Your school classes were cancelled because of heat.
• You've had to switch from heat to a/c in the same day.
• You still pull off the road and stop for a funeral procession.
• You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.
• You've been to a picnic in a cemetery (on Memorial Day, of course).
• You've seen men wearing bib overalls and a white shirt at a funeral.
• You use an unnecessary pronoun, such as, "I'm going to get me one of those."
• You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition, such as, "Where's my coat at?"
• You've heard someone say, "You'uns come back now."
• You went to roller skating parties as a kid.
• You think that the first day of "deer season" is a school holiday.
• You've run to a cellar or basement in your pajamas during a tornado warning.
• Even if you don't use them, you understand the terms "fixin'" (I'm fixin' to) and "reckon" (I reckon so), "yonder" (over yonder), and "directly" (I'll do that directly).
• You can't think of anything better than sitting on the front porch in the middle of a summer rain.
• You've said, "It's not the heat; it's the humidity."
• You think a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
• You know that Harry S. Truman, Walt Disney and Mark Twain are all from Missouri.
• You failed geography because you thought Cuba, Mexico, California, Nevada, Louisiana, Buffalo, Houston, Macon, Memphis, Mount Vernon, Savannah, Versailles, Glasgow, Paris, Warsaw, Cabool (Kabul), New Madrid, New London, Hayti (Haiti), and Springfield were all cities in Missouri (and they are!)
• You know what "Home of the Throwed Roll" means.

"You can say what you want about the South,

but I've never heard of anyone wanting to retire to the North."

VonAllmen descendants:
. . . . . Especially good reading is the Hay page - our Scottish ancestors had a castle in Scotland! Plus, we are related to Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of State, John Hay (he was a second cousin of great-grandma, Mary Elizabeth Heral VonAllmen!)
. . . . . The VonAllmen family was from Switzerland. This page has some beautiful pictures!

Jolliff descendants:
. . . . . The Huddleston page has good stories and pictures. Some of the Huddlestons had a castle in England.

. . . . . The earliest Tatum was in Jamestown, Va. in 1619. This is probably my earliest immigrant ancestor!
. . . . . Our Jolliff ancestor was frontier preacher and an early settler in Kentucky, in the same area and same time as Daniel Boone.
. . . . . Our Casey ancestor was also the ancestor of Mark Twain (picture at right, see chart), which makes me his 4th cousin, 3 times removed.

Willard descendants:
. . . . . The Colyott page has some interesting information about our French ancestor, Nicholas Caillot dit LaChance on the Mississippi.
. . . . . The Spurlocks were early Kentucky settlers.
. . . . . Ancestor William Hancock arrived in Jamestown, Va. in 1619 and was killed in the Indian massacre in 1622. He participated in the first Thanksgiving Day in America (Dec. 4, 1619) at Berkley Plantation, Virginia
. . . . . James & Martin Willard knew Abe Lincoln and split rails with him.

Lindesmith descendants and their New England roots:
Since the Lindesmith ancestors came from New England, there are many good records that go way back to the 1600's. This is very helpful,
. . . . . One of these lines runs back Lindesmith to Pease to Metcalf to Park to Fuller to Greenwood, all the way back to John Greenwood (1556-1593) who began the Puritan movement. He was executed for his teachings in 1593 by Queen Elizabeth, but his followers, who fled to Holland, later became the Pilgrims who came to Plymouth, Mass.
. . . . . Joseph Lindesmith came from Switzerland to America in 1769. He served under Washington in the Revolutionary War and often shaved him. He was with him at Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown in 1781.
. . . . . Joseph Kingsbury came to Boston in 1630 with John Winthrop.

. . . . . John Pease & his brother landed in Boston in 1634.
. . . . . The first Metcalf arrived in Boston in 1637. His son, Michael Metcalf, Jr. married Mary Fairbanks, daughter of Jonathan Fairbanks (Michael Jr and Mary were my ancestors and also President Bushs' ancestors--both of them!) This makes George W. Bush's my 10th cousin, once removed! Another descendant of Jonathan Fairbanks was the poet Emily Dickinson, making her my 7th cousin, 4x removed.
* Another of Michael Metcalf, Sr.'s descendants (Thomas) married a sister of Paul Revere. [Thomas6, John5, John4, Jonathan3, Michael Jr2, Michael Sr1]
. . . . . The Wrights were in Springfield, Mass. by 1655. Several in their family were killed in an Indian attack in 1708.

* In 1630 the Wintrop Fleet sailed from England with 11 ships and about 700 people. It was the beginning of the "Great Migration." My ancestors among that group were:
Lucy Weston (came with her mother and step-father; she later married John Pease)
Robert & Mary Pond (their ggg-grandson Oliver Pond married a Metcalf in 1752, and Oliver's great-granddaughter married a Pease in 1846.)

* Another Metcalf ancestor, Peter Palfrey, arrived in New England in 1623, just 2 years after the Pilgrims, and helped found the city of Salem, Massachusetts in 1626. Peter Palfrey's daughter Remember Palfrey married Peter Aspinwall and along with being my ancestors, they also became the ancestors of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which makes FDR my 5th cousin, 6 times removed. See chart

[Check ship's passenger lists from early 1600's]

I've never bothered to join the DAR, but I have these ancestors on the DAR Patriot Index (2003 ed.)

WILLARD
Caillot, Nicholas (MO - PS*)
Estes, Thomas (NC, soldier died in battle 1783)
Hancock, John (VA)
Spurlock, John Jr. (VA)
Turman, Benjamin Sr. (VA - PS*)
Henry Willard (is not on the DAR Patriot Index, but his gr-gdaug said she remembers hearing stories about him being in the Rev. War)

LINDESMITH
Obed Metcalf (soldier MA)
Gideon Park (pvt, MA)
Christopher Pease I (VT, minuteman)
William Williams (pvt, MA)
Benjamin Wright Sr. (VT - PS*)
Joseph Lindesmith (is not in the DAR Patriot Index, but he fought in the Rev. War and was at Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. He was also Washington's barber)
John Bridges (not in the Index, but he was away fighting with the South Carolina militia when his wife and children were burned out of their house in NC by the Tories)
Obadiah Pruitt (not in the Index, but he served in VA and applied for a pension)

JOLLIFF:
Graves Eaves (PS* NC),
John Whiteside (soldier NC),
Thomas Clark (Pvt PA)
James Jolliff (the frontiersman) (not in the Index, but a grandson of James' stated that his grandfather was in the Revolutionary War "having served under Washington until its close and received seven different discharges from the War Department of the US."

VONALLMEN:
Christopher Herrold, Sr (CS** PA)
Frederick Leathers, Jr. (Pvt PA)
John Shirk (soldier PA) [may have been at Valley Forge]
Randolph Casey (is not in the DAR Patriot Index, but he served in the 2nd SC Regt. with Francis Marion)
Adam Hay (not in the Index, but he provided patriotic service in VA to the army and was an acquantance of Washington)

[*PS - patriotic service, other than soldier]
[**CS - civil service]

Ancestors at the battle of Yorktown, 1781:
Joseph Lindesmith, James Jolliff, and Obadiah Pruett

Ancestor at Valley Forge, 1778:
John Shirk (probably)
[James Jolliff's regiment was there but he is not listed on the muster roll]

Signs on churches in England:

~~~~

"A wise and frugal government,
which shall leave men free
to regulate their own pursuits
of industry and improvement,
and shall not take from the mouth of labor
the bread it has earned -
this is the sum of good government."
- Thomas Jefferson

JESUS LOVES ME!

Jesus loves me, this I know, Though my hair is white as snow.
Though my sight is growing dim, Still He bids me trust in Him.

YES, JESUS LOVES ME. YES, JESUS LOVES ME.
YES, JESUS LOVES ME. THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.

Though my steps are oh, so slow, With my hand in His I'll go.
On through life, let come what may, He'll be there to lead the way.

Though I am no longer young, I have much which He's begun.
Let me serve Christ with a smile, Go with others the extra mile

When the nights are dark and long, In my heart He puts a song
Telling me in words so clear, "Have no fear, for I am near."

When my work on earth is done, And life's victories have been won.
He will take me home above, Then I'll understand His love.

I love Jesus, does he know? Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus loves to hear me say, That I love Him every day.

(by Ray Stevens - watch the video!)
Many, many years ago When I was twenty-three, I got married to a widow Who was pretty as could be.
This widow had a daughter Who had hair of red. My father fell in love with her, And soon the two were wed.
This made my dad my son-in-law And changed my very life. My daughter was my mother, for she was my father's wife.
To complicate the matters worse, Although it brought me joy, I soon became the father Of a bouncing baby boy.
My little baby then became A brother-in-law to dad. And so became my uncle, Though it made me very sad.
For if he was my uncle, Then that also made him brother To the widow's grown-up daughter Who, of course was my step-mother.
Father's wife then had a son, Who kept them on the run. And he became my grandson, For he was my daughter's son.
My wife is now my mother's mom. And it surely makes me blue. Because, although she is my wife, She is my grandma too.
If my wife is my grandmother, Then I am her grandchild. And every time I think of it, It simply drives me wild.
For now I have become The strangest case you ever saw. As the husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa!

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