Treasure Chest Thursday: Whirlwind of Treasure in Carnegie

In the last week or so, there has been a flurry of activity on the DOOLITTLE family of Carnegie, Allegheny, PA.  It all started when I wrote a post on August 3 about cousin William James GLENN.  Little did I know finding the Civil War personal war sketch at the  CarnegieCarnegie site of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, Allegheny, PA, could make me so happy.

Emails have been flying around since then from a descendant of Jacob DOOLITTLE (1809-1891) asking if I could assist with more documentation about his wife, Sarah CUBBAGE, and her family.

Sarah CUBBAGE was the daughter of Irishman George CUBBAGE and his wife, Nancy CALDWELL.  I have not yet been able to find evidence that Nancy is one of my CALDWELL clan, but her 1791 birth in the same general neighborhood as my documented 1830ish births make it likely.  To read more on CUBBAGE family, go to St Clair Cemetery.

The cool find for me in the email was the noting of the final resting place of Nancy CALDWELL CUBBAGE. She is listed at Venice Presbyterian Church Cemetery in McDonald, Washington, PA.  Of more interest was noting Nancy's final resting spot uses the surname of her first husband, George CUBBAGE.  My notes and research indicate she married Alexander EWING after the 1826 death of George.

A quick check with the descendant of George and Nancy confirmed what I thought I knew on the marriage to EWING.

To my knowledge, Jacob DOOLITTLE and Sarah CUBBAGE had five daughters.  Two of them are of special interest to me.

Susan Belinda DOOLITTLE married into the LEA family--  that is, J W LEA of Carnegie.  The LEA family was the neighbors, friends, and sometimes, spouses of my blood line.  See a recent posting on Cassius M LEA, the husband of my 2g aunt. 

The other daughter of Jacob and Sarah who married into my family was Martha E DOOLITTLE (1842-1907.)  Martha was the wife of William James GLENN (1839-9018.)

Maggie (ah, how I love THAT name) of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie also contacted me to see if I could identify any of the gents in the picture they have of the Thomas Espy GAR Post as I have several cousins in that group.  I took a quick look at the photo and realized that the odds of me recognizing the older men in full beards was basically little to none.

So, I started on a new journey of looking through old files and records to see if I could locate any pictures of some of these men when they were younger.  I guess the folks at the library have most likely identified cousin George B FORSYTHE as my dearest cousin, his granddaughter, (yes, I know her) recently donated some more Civil War relics to the post. 

I've also seen pictures of some of the GLENN men when they were younger.  Could I see enough family resemblences in the pictures as they aged?  I think not.

BUT-

I dug around and found some living descendants of William James GLENN!  After making a phone call and leaving a message, it was now time to wait.

Today, I got the phone call.  After speaking with the gentleman who confirmed his identity and his love of genealogy, my heart experienced a whirlwind of activity.  Another connection to the past established!  He has pictures!  He has stories!  And he has a cousin that he works with to research the past!  Oh, glorious day!

Click to read the post that is causing such a whirlwind of activity:  http://genitalesga.blogspot.com/2010/08/tombstone-tuesday-simply-i-am-survivor.html

Special note to Maggie at the library--  I hope to have some photo ids for you soon.

Ahh, genealogy.  What treasures a whirlwind of new finds can be!  Sometimes, it takes just a nudge from someone new to bring new energy to the hunt. 



©2010 AS Eldredge