Our Genealogy Angels

Helen Gould Tubbs Judson
(Aug 1947)

For anyone interested in family history, we all have genealogy angels. One type of genealogy angel were the people from counties all across the United States who created compendia of town histories that include biographical sketches. Most counties in Michigan have at least one of these thousand-page books and most include images of some of the most prominent people of the time. Just do a google search of “History and biographical record of” and you will see what I mean. They were sort of the “Who’s Who’s” books, where publishing companies were appealing to people’s desires to see themselves in print and knew that many of those included would buy the books, and I am so glad that they did!

 If you are lucky, you might have family members who stayed put long enough, were prominent enough, and of the right age to be included in one of these 1880 through 1910s books. Since I love photos, I am especially excited to find a family member with an image. In my husband’s family, we have two such examples. The first one I found was in the 1903 book Illustrated History and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, Michigan by John I. Knapp and R. I. Bonner. This is Jim’s maternal great-great grandfather, George Howell (1836-1909) who lived in Macon, Michigan. The second example is of George’s father-in-law, Jim’s great-great-great-grandfather, James Leonard Remington (1814-1894). I love that this second one is a pencil drawing and it includes his signature. (I’ve started collecting signatures in addition to photos of people because it seems to provide just a little more insight into their personality.) This came from an 1884 Atlas of Lenawee County. This is one of four drawings of men on the page called "Representative Men from Lenawee County Group No. 9".

My personal genealogy angel

We also have another type of genealogy angel. These were the individuals researching their families and who did the Herculean effort to write to towns, counties, and states for records
and waited weeks or months for a response to sometimes find nothing.

I have one of these in my family. She wasn’t just a family historian, she was truly a genealogist. This is my grandfather’s sister, my great-aunt Helen Gould Tubbs Judson (1904-1991). When I was growing up, I knew my aunt Helen, but never her genealogy work!!

Once I started doing family history seriously about 20 years ago, I learned that my aunt Helen was well-known in genealogy circles. She had written a book about the Tubbs genealogy and her book about the Orcutts is one of the seminal works that everyone cites. She was a librarian by training, so it was not surprising that she did excellent research that others depend on to this day, over 60 years later.

A page in the Orcutt Book!

It was really wild for me to go to Salt Lake City and to request from their vault her Tubbs book. I was both impressed and proud to be associated so closely with Aunt Helen. Last month, I contacted Aunt Helen’s granddaughter who has been the current keeper of her work to ask if this summer I might be able to visit the box of her things. This 2nd cousin did one better, she SENT ME HER original work on the Orcutts!! (Thanks Carol!) I am now the very proud (and nervous) owner of Aunt Helen’s work and hope to continue her work.

Bentley Library 

This brings me to today! I learned a few weeks ago that Aunt Helen made a donation to the Bentley Library at the University of Michigan about another line of my family tree. As a side note, I have heard back from the Mayflower Society and of the 30 documents I need to produce to prove my lineage, I already have 24 of them! In my search for the remaining 6, several are for Susan Ann Bailey. So off to the Bentley Library I went today to look at Aunt Helen’s book about the George Dolan Bailey’s (1805-1849) descendants in America (Call Number 88484 AA).

Aunt Helen wrote in her introduction:

“Rather then (sic) let my research notes lay unorganized and collecting dust in some dark corner of an attic with their final resting place being the nearest trash can (not that they won’t end there anyway) I have written this manuscript of the genealogy of George D. Bailey Family in America. It is my hope that some future generation may find it useful. The material in the following pages is as authentic as it is humanly possible to ascertain and if errors do exist they are of the mind and not of the heart. An old Chinese philosopher once said, ‘To know ones ancestors is to know oneself.’ ”

I’m not sure why this struck me so, but I sat staring at this first page. In this quiet beautiful space, my brain was yelling…”Yes, I agree and I appreciate you, Aunt Helen, and your work! Thank you!” This book is amazing! It was a beautiful collection of documentation AND photographs! I didn’t fill any blank photos on my wall, but I did get a much better and beautiful photograph of my great-great-great grandmother, Mary Ann Moshier (1810-1887), the wife of George Dolan Bailey.

While it didn’t provide the documentation within the manuscript, she did provide a few hints to where I might find the documents I need about Susan Ann Bailey. We’ll see if I can follow the breadcrumb trail.

Example pages from book

Thank you, Aunt Helen, you ARE my genealogy angel and I am the future generation that finds your work useful and inspirational. (As a side note, Aunt Helen did find her connection to join the DAR but I think she had no idea that she might be a Mayflower descendant. I hope I can make her proud and prove this line!)

Helen Gould Tubbs Judson
(Aug 1947)

I hope if you are interested in family history, that you find your genealogy angel!