Gracey, Patrick 1700- 1810 descendants - E Boehms Skelley
Gracey, Patrick 1700- 1810.
a book about his descendants, now five years after it’s publication, is reviewed by J W Gracey, an unlikely possible relative who concludes the book has become a standard text for anyone studying Gracey and Woody family history. This brief three page notice is intended as a tribute/honor to Etta Boehms Skelley.
Skelley, E(tta) Boehms (1920- )GRACEY / WOODYA genealogy and narrative history of two families; that of immigrants Patrick Gracey –1740, and Richard Woody – 1638. Tennessee Valley Publishing, Knoxville, Tennessee 1998.Hard back (A4 210x273mms). No jacket.Green cloth with gilt/gold? blocking. Linen thread stitched sections. Inner spine topped and bottomed, with gold and green thread bands. Blank endpapers, i-xxiv, pp1-75(76), 1-172, (4pp). (Total 280 pages).85 listed illustrations called figures. ( Some marked a, b, c etc., in total some 93 certificates, photographs, one family tree etc). Cost $40 April 03. To purchase contact the Author E Boehms Skelley, 1121 Cresthaven Ln. Virginia Beach, VA 23464. $40
I was put off buying this important, (well produced and physically large) book; because I couldn’t find sufficient details on the internet to order it.Any reference, I have seen up to now February 2003, have not printed out the second part of the subtitle or means of buying the book. Then bingo the author address was included on a message board, many thanks.(The dates in the full title are dates of immigration, Patrick Gracey (1700-1810) leaving Coleraine, Ireland with his sister Jean(Gracey) Knox, andRichard Woody (15xx-1656) leaving Kent, England with daughter Mary, sons Richard Woody 11, John and probably Isaac. Might I suggest to the author/publisher, if not already done so, that a free copy be presented to the Library of Congress, and to the LDS Salt Lake City main library, Tn State library.If the author/publisher gets carried away, please also send a copy to Linenhall Library, Belfast, the National Library of Scotland, and the British Library, London.This will ensure its fully catalogued for future academic generations in the countries most connected in the Gracey part of the book.
The then 78 year old Author has done a wonderful job. The Gracey, Woody families are thoroughly covered, and she manages more, a chapter on the Boehms, and information on her own Skelley family, even the descendants of Robert and Mary Ann Brooks.
To start her book, Etta Boehms Skelley sets out her summary of american historic events, and awkward historic problems, including distanted ancestors in the introduction.She combines both with her christian views, and stresses that the time is on us now to keep on board, our full human inheritance. No matter what the background, we should be grateful for, and honor, our ancestors.She comes back to this belief several times within the book. I welcome her thinking and concern as an ideal essential, for the professional genealogist.She is of course too modest to see her stance in this way.She ends her introduction with a map of middle Tennessee at page xxiv.
The Gracey section has pages 1-75 devoted to it. The first six pages are made up of the author starting with a curious short note mentioning the norman family LeGras in Ireland about 1200AD.Without further comment she launches into John Knox and Jean Gracey, staying on the Knox family to set the scene of the connections from the first named Gracey ie John Gracey (Patricks father) to John’s gt gt grandson, the 11th President of the United States, James Knox Polk.I remain wanting more information on John Gracey.Was he the Presbyterian Ruling Elder in or visiting Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, Ireland 1811?Is there a Gracey benefactor to have the irish genealogical work done?Then the book settles down to go through a selection of the Gracey generations. So the progression runs through Rebecca Barnett, John Logan, George Templeton, Leah Scroggs, Jane Lawrance, Racheal Ramsay, Prudence Archibald, Margaret Shores, Elizabeth Greer, Lockie Meador(s) Gordon, Rubin White, and James Knox Polk Hutcheson, Henrietta Chaney, Laura Elizabeth Woody, John Bruce Carver.There are two selections one onRobert Graceys sons’ letters, and another on a place Gracey’s Branch.
This first ‘text’ section on Gracey contains about14 illustrations including certificates etc and photographs. That section ends with a Gracey Gallery pp 61-75.Together making a sufficent Gracey ‘pool’ to have me wondering did I or any of my family look a little bit like …him or her.It’s a great attraction to the book.
As probably already disclosed, my own agenda is Patrick Gracey 1700-1810.I am struggling to find out more about Rebecca Barnett, Patrick’s wife. She might be a daughter of a Barnette (french origins with one generation born in Ireland), emigrating 1730 with her father and uncle.As happens a 2nd wife has been suggested since Etta’s book was published.Although I was originally persuaded the Graceys of Ireland were probably descended from Highlanders centred on Aberdeenshire and Banff, and hence part of the Farquarson Clan of that area, my own research suggests there are stronger links with the borders area of South West Scotland in Dumfriesshire. Eg TheDonegal Muster 1630 Lord Annandall’s tenancy.So I question is it the same Sept or Clan.
To conclude my appraisal on the Gracey section, there have only been one or two purchaseable Gracey/Gracy books.This book serves a much wanted and overdue, detailed introduction to Patrick Gracey descendants, now that I have read the book, it’s obvious that it has become a reputable ‘standard’ work.Published notes and references on the net confirm this. Hence my desire to review it.
The rest of the book (the major Woody part) with a new section pagination follows the same treatment as described for Gracey.In this part of the book,the wider knowledge of the author is more widely expressed about history eg quakers, urine collection for the saltpeter component of Gunpowder, many facets become so much clearerthrough narratives by the author. So the headings move from the English Woodys, to Orange County, NC, the Quakers move to Indiana,the Woodys of Maury County,Tennessee;The Brook Woody’s, Obion County, TE; Hickman County, Tn;Reaves, Puckett, Nichols, Essays on the Civil war between the states, military camps,Flu,Kinzer Boehms.The text in Woody section 2 is as liberally illustrated as the Gracey section and has a Woody Gallery on pages 127-171.
The book ends with an afterword and a list of about 44 Sources, I only recognised Hattie Goodman’s The Knox Family, and then a list of Correspondents, the majority being Woody related ones and a Mrs Evelyn Gracey Clark, Chandler, IN.
Overall a quick scan of the entire book produces an impression of an well illustrated book, with an average page that is not narrative but mostly factual information, which nevertheless contain short or long narrative sections, or extracts.Etta has been careful not to state emphatic relationships here and there, so she mentions carefully the probable connection, for example Capt Frank P Gracey.I think that her caring approach is why there is no full family tree in the Gracey section.Is there a way of presenting a family tree with problems, so the truth is on offer and not pandering to quick decision by closed minds?My only other mild criticism of the whole book is the typeface, which is unusually large 14/16pt.To reduce the length of the book the children in each family generation are run on, this prevents quick scanning compared to if they had been presented in new paragraphs. Finally if a new edition was every conceived I would be delighted to make an index to it for her, if she wanted one.Indeed I volunteer to do one just for Gracey in this first edition for a message board if the author so wishes.Perhaps a Woody would do the rest. It would be well used.
The book reveals that it has been written and compiled by a most interesting person, this author started with humble hard times, she has witnessed others shortcomings in health, she knows about the fortitude of the afflicted.I found a little note that sums up Etta, she is writing of a young living person who was showing a running ability, and she cant help herself encouraging the person by remembering that their gt grannie could run faster than anyone else in her school! At the end of the Woody section p126, she quotes Bruce Bowers.. ‘The ultimate lesson of genealogy: a lesson… in the fact that we’re all members of one large family’.
Thank you Etta for finishing the book for us all, even as you were experiencing the possible ‘Tired-of-it-all’ pressures.Rather than as an aspiring genealogist, you rate as one.Finally I implore all readers that this book is worth a place in every genealogical library.Please put your book proposal request to your own library now while stocks last.
Jim Gracey (hopefully related one day)
Email ;- [email protected]
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Re: Gracey, Patrick 1700- 1810 descendants - Skelley supplement
Jim 4/14/03
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Re: Gracey, Patrick 1700- 1810 descendants - Skelley supplement
Jim Gracey 4/04/11
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Re: Gracey, Patrick 1700- 1810 descendants - Skelley supplement