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Sunday, December 7, 2014

Civil War Update: 152 Years Later

A new friend recently introduced me to the ongoing interest in Civil War memorabilia. The history of such a bloody war still fascinates many and continues to prompt authors and documentarians to review and present their findings over 150 years later.  Learning about other people's interests can be contagious.

Maybe it was coincidental that the first sale this weekend would be the home of Genealogist, Pamela Manning. I love the title of this magazine cover found hanging on an office wall, which prompted me to ask:
The Genealogy Helper


 "If I add some ground beef and sauce, could I eat this for dinner on Tuesday?" Or, maybe the only ingredient required is Thyme (time). This home was full of books and research material into the lives of her family.

Genealogy books


The funny thing about studying your family's history is that you automatically become a genealogist because often so many other people and families become inter-connected in the research.

more Genealogy books

You can see the dedication in the shear number of books, periodicals and folders of her own findings. Our genealogist either knew ahead of time, or eventually discovered that she was related to a very well known family.
Col. Van Manning and Wife

Van Manning was a decorated Confederate officer who lead over 1300 southern soldiers an an effort to defeat the Union troops.
Van Manning Oil Portrait


Though he was wounded in battle and would eventually lose 90% of his men, Manning went on to serve 2 terms in Congress as a democrat. You can read more about him here.

My thanks to Pamela Manning, whose home I was permitted to traipse through along with many other urban archeologists, collectors, historians, genealogists and, dare I say, opportunists. I was permitted to take pictures, but the only thing I bought was this postcard for a dollar:

I knew it wasn't period and the postmark on the back proved it. The messages on the reverse did strike me as funny, with no disrespect to the family or anyone else.

With the depiction of a grand Civil War battle on the front of the card, the message "This Southern hospitality is better than I expected." is a very odd thing to write. Intentionally funny, or just a coincidence? You tell me.

1 comment:

  1. Greg,
    I'm stuck in an endless loop. I'm trying to read the rest of the 4 comments on this article but can't find them. I see the beginning of a comment at the bottom of the page where it shows previous and next articles, yet when I click the link it brings me back to this page that says 0 comments. Help?

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