Wikipedia
1857 Massacre
Mormon Site

I am not sure as of yet that I could, with any great confidence tell the story of what happened. The man I know that could has passed on.

IF I understand correctly, then my uncle felt this important enough that it should once again be taught in schools. There are countless links on this topic. Google "Fancher Wagon Train." You can be left to make up your own mind.

I knew nothing of it until the other day. I know decisions I made that I didn't exactly agree with, I would have made different had I known of these events. Short and not very sweet; A wagon train apparently lead by an ancestor of mine, though his placement thus far I've not figured out, left Arkansas for California. I read that for some it was for gold, for others it was a move to family awaiting them and others were herding cattle out to the west coast.

They were attacked, and here the stories seem to be different but basically as I understand it, by Mormon's dressed as Indians. When they were unable to to defeat the members of the wagon train they cleaned the make up off and somehow confronted them with the offer of peace from the "Indians" if they throw in their weapons.

So it would be that men, children and women that were now weaponless and believed they were safe were in turn massacred. Only small children under the age of eight were spared, though somewhere I read that all of them might not have been spared.

There was a Massacre in Utah, I need to do more research as it seems my great, great grandparents (?) along with other families from Arkansas lost their lives at the hands of Mormons. But to speak of it now might be a tad bit soon as I haven't had a chance to research it. So I deleted it for now.

Were Jeremiah and Thomas Vail brothers?
Tabitha Vail .. I have her as Jeremiah's daughter.. this might be wrong?
Goody Garlick/Jeremiah Vail.. his part in her witch craft trial.
Vail, Veale, Veal, Veyl, Vayle, Vale, Veil, Vaill, Valles, Vaille. All various spellings that were used for the Vail name.
So far ship and date remain unknown though it appears that the first record of Jeremiah Vail is in 1639 (long before 1913!!))
Jeremiah Vail was a Puritan of some wealth and good standing.

Jeremiah Vail / Jeremiah Vail or John Vail (both ??) / Tabitha Vail married one from the Case family./ Case child married into Mapes family I believe/ Mapes married Hamilton/ Luella Hamelton who would be my husband's grandmother.

When doing this family tree research online I look for histories. How or when did a person do something. Why did this person do it. You know, what motivated those family members that came before us.

Apparently, the first major attack of Native American's on settlers was in retaliation to something someone from my husband's family did. I learned this online. While I like the history; I consider it flawed at best until I find out for myself the factual information.

So it is I advise anyone using my information to take it with a grain of salt and always remember it can be flawed. If the information intended to be there is correct I may have typed it wrong.

There is an immigrant that came to this country sometime during the 1630's. I don't know when. I wasn't there nor do I have records of this. But, I wrote notes of things i wanted to research. One of them was the immigration date and for whatever reason I put 1913.

This person was born, as far as I know in 1618. Four or five people connected my notes for research to their family trees apparently trusting that my information was basically correct yet all of them changed the date to 1631.

That's cool if you are only putting it there for reference but just please make sure it's correct.. my notes are indicative of questions I have NOT fact!

If you look at the banner I made.. and yes, I know it lacks the look a graphic designer might have given it, but.. eh.. it works!! Anyway, the kid in those pictures is me.

On the far right picture I am with my great grandmother and the grandmother I am named after. They lived in a home in Pittsburgh, made of brown stone and across from a graveyard. In this house, I was afraid of the bathroom because when you turned the water on it made a ghastly sound! When you are young and expect water any sound is frightening.

There was also stained glass windows in their house. Those windows now hang in my father's house in California. I was supposed to get them but the woman he was married to when he died didn't let me take them. This is a long ugly story so.. let's move on..

The living room is a room I was not allowed in. The furniture was covered in plastic. I didn't go in there.

All the way.

I would stand with my toes carefully placed just inside the living room. I was in awe of that room so special it was covered with plastic. I didn't understand it but didn't dare wriggle those little toes any further in.

I also remember having breakfast in the sun room. A bowl of bananas and milk. The best breakfast in the world. There are also some other memories, rather skewed and I can place no detail to them. Not long ago I believe I've found out why.

I.. lived there. I guess there was an apartment? duplex? attachment of some sort and my biological mother, father and I lived in that part of the house.

Skip to the picture on the far left. This is my grandfather. This is one of the very best men in the world. He was my favorite grandfather. I missed him and my uncle when we moved to California. I missed them terribly.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that actually he had been a boarder in my grandmother's home! Now, I am the very last person to judge anyone for living together without benefit of marriage. It was surprising on the level that he acted in all ways as if he was a grandfather. I sat on his lap on Sunday nights when we went to their house to watch television.. Ed Sullivan. He walked to the hospital to see me when I was in for tonsils. He was in all ways a grandfather.

It seems he and my grandmother did actually marry right before we went to California. I hope to find some sort of records of his existence to work into my family tree. No matter, he is, and always will be my favorite grandfather.

So far I have 1,146 names in a family tree dating back to 1100's. Assuming I remember correctly.

As of yet I haven't seen a way to tag posts on blogdrive nor have I found a way to mark research so I know who it belongs to or even what century it belongs in.

I started this for my Uncle. His last name is Peters. Mine is Martin. No matter which direction I went I was getting nowhere. In the year 2006, I was growing tired of this as I beat my head against the wall and before my free trial period with ancestry ran out I decided to try my husband's side of the family.

It was only months before Christmas and my father in law mentioned he'd hoped one day to do that. BINGO!! For the remainder of the year I did next to nothing.. I am blessed with the best husband!! Obviously, I couldn't order a lot of the paperwork and relied heavily on only internet but I was started.

And I was hooked.

And, though I made it painfully clear it was not actual research on my part, I have to rely HEAVILY on those stories that get passed down through the sands of time and even those are sketchy at best but they get me started.

From the lack of activity, my blood pressure went up. I was dehydrated but when all was said and done both he and my mother in law felt that whether it was done online or not, it was the best gift anyone had given them. So, to give a person the gift of not just a future but history as well, it doesn't get much better than that does it?

Unfortunately, my Uncle died before I got anything of interest. Still haven't gotten much. I will. One day something will pop up that will send me off interesting directions.

I need to find if I can tag this. Somehow sort by a name the information I want to put in here if it is to work.

Probably photobucket for pictures? Categories of information? Immigrants, Historical Virginia, More Research needed. Perhaps one for skeletons? But, some skeletons in one's closets still remain hidden for others that are living... so it would be wrong to include those I think.

Okay, skeletons is still up in the air.

What about a layout? Do I want to get too much into a layout? Do I care?

What about information on living family members? Possibly refer to them only as "Living Whoever"

Add links to side section.

Make my first real post on why this is important to me? Or why I started this? Yeppers.. a beginning.