Research led author to a relative who fought for both sides in the Civil War, among other family anecdotes

BELLVILLE — At a recent speaking engagement I did, the question came up, how do I find the details that bring to life the obscure historical stories I write about?

The short answer is, “Drill, baby, drill!”

The longer answer is that the kind of research I do to reconstruct mostly forgotten stories involves digging deep into surviving records, newspaper accounts, and archives in order to find the facts that shed light on the story.

And one of the places I learned to do this was through genealogy research. Fortunately, we have just such a depot locally, at Bellville’s Ohio Genealogical Society.

I wish I had started my in-depth searches into my family tree at a much younger age, when the patriarchs and matriarchs of my family were still around, for they would have had countless stories of their younger years which would have helped me understand the change and growth of our folks over the years.

But, it’s hard to care about things like that when you are young and full of scattered energy.

I did, however, finally tuck into such matters when I was around 30 years old, and it was a life-altering experience in countless ways.

At the time, I knew my family roots went back to eastern Kentucky. My parents met and married in Mansfield’s Roseland neighborhood in the 1950s, the area also known as “Little Kentucky” for all the people who had moved north to get industrial jobs in Mansfield.

Because of these roots, I assumed that my forebears were most likely illiterate dirt-poor farmers, genuine hillbillies.

How ignorant I was! Once I actually dug into the genealogical sources available to me, I discovered a much more complicated and fascinating history. Sure, there were a number of illiterate, dirt-poor farmers. There were also some very different ones.

I discovered that I may well come by my knack for words honestly, considering that Irish author Jonathan Swift is my first cousin, several generations removed, of course.

He was famous for Gulliver’s Travels and infamous for his wickedly satirical “A Modest Proposal,” which mockingly suggested that the government could solve hunger in Ireland by feeding people the excess population of babies!

Another first cousin was Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner. Other literary relatives included English poet Richard Lovelace and Malabar Farm’s own Louis Bromfield (both third cousins). Musical relatives include Loretta Lynn and one Elvis Presley.

But even the immediate forebears were fascinating.

My great-grandfather, Willie Snipes, once shot and killed a man in self-defense. Another great grandfather, Alfred Hall, dropped dead in a store in Grahn, Kentucky, in the middle of a heated argument about the Bible.

My great-great-grandfather William W. Mosier fought on both sides of the Civil War! (He was apparently drafted into the Confederate army, served his year, then made his way to the Cumberland Gap and joined the Union army.)

I found branches of the family that go back to American Indian ancestors, and not just vague family stories, but actual documentation. These roots connect my family to the Cherokee tribe, which was expected, but also to the Saponi tribe of Virginia, which was a surprise.

The Saponi were wiped out as a tribal entity in the early 1700s, but of course there were refugees who fled elsewhere. My forebears eventually coalesced with others fleeing colonial society to form the so-called Melungeon population on Newman Ridge in extreme southwest Virginia.

Early pioneers on the frontier were startled when they encountered tribes that already spoke English. These were the Melungeons, along with the Lumbees and other refugee populations.

So, it turns out that in places, a remarkable amount of record-keeping was done in the colonial and early national period of the United States. Not all places kept good records, but where they did, amazing detail can survive.

When I requested copies of William Mosier’s military service record from the National Archives in Washington, D.C., they supplied me with a copy of a hand- written letter Mosier had penned to his commanding officer requesting a leave of absence to check on his poverty-stricken family.

Far from being an ignorant farmer, Mosier had exquisite penmanship and expressed his thoughts eloquently. Suddenly, it was almost as if I could hear his voice: Quietly spoken, but firm. I recognized myself in him.

This digging for details taught me to respect my own background. My ancestors weren’t just hard-working farmers, they were interesting people who led fascinating lives.

I have an ancestor who sat in House of Burgesses in Virginia, the first colonial lawmaking body. That ancestor, Samuel Jordan, also lived through the shipwreck that inspired Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.

One ancestor, Harriet Riddle, was forced to witness her husband and son being executed during the Revolutionary War. Another, Lilburn Snipes, got married four times without ever once getting a divorce, which you could get away with in Kentucky in the 1800s, if you kept moving from county-to-county before the authorities caught up with you.

I come from a background of characters, judges, poets, preachers, and notable wits. Everything I do can be traced back to a precedent in my family tree.

It took deep digging into records to sus out these peoples’ stories. I began to feel like a detective finding clues. And the skills this research gave me led directly to my current life as a local history writer. These detection skills made it possible.

I bring all this up to draw attention to the treasure trove of Ohio records available locally.

Many people don’t even realize that the Ohio Genealogical Society’s headquarters and archives are located nearby, on Ohio 97 between Bellville and Interstate 71. The location was chosen because of its central location in the state, and researchers can find a library of thousands of books and what must be miles of microfiche of old records such as census reports.

For anyone with ancestral roots in Ohio, this is the place to dig for information about your forebears. And although my roots are in Kentucky, my work as a regional historian has given me ample reasons to hit the OGS library in the endless search for insight.

If you’re considering digging into your family tree, I recommend the OGS library highly. You can work there on a single day for $5, or purchase an annual membership for $60, and spend unlimited time searching the stacks.

There are additionally active local chapters all across the state, and I will be making an appearance at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, to do a talk at the Freer Home in Ashland for the Ashland County Genealogical Society, who have asked me to speak about Phebe Wise, the subject of my book The Witch of Mansfield.

I haven’t talked about Phebe in a while, so it will be a pleasure to do so, for without Phebe Wise, there probably wouldn’t be a Mark Sebastian Jordan writing this today. I’ll explain why in my talk, as well as so much more about Phebe, and about the treasures to be found in research.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to do some research of your own, check out the OGS, a treasure in our own back yard, or join one of the local chapters.