Why I'm doing this

Back about 1992, I discovered a shoebox in a closet at my grandmother's house. In the box were several photographs dating from the 1860s to the 1920s, mostly of my mother's Patton ancestors. This led to lots of questions. I was fortunate to have a grandmother with an excellent memory, who was able to provide lots of information on both her family and my grandfather's. I also connected with several relatives who were in their 90s at the time (born in the late 1890s) and recorded a number of stories that I suspect would now be lost.

I've collected enormous amounts of information over the years on many families, but especially the Pattons of Allen County, Ohio; Priddys of Van Wert and Fayette Counties, Ohio; Blossers and allied lines of Fairfield, Hocking, Perry, and Allen Counties, Ohio, etc. I've learned a lot along the way. I learned that most "family stories" about the distant past are usually at least partially untrue, yet almost always contain some grain of truth. I've learned that things that seem tangential at first can in fact be central. And I've learned to scour records for what they say about how people lived, not just when and where.

After about 10 years, I started sorting through my files about two years ago organizing the data. I'm interested in more than just when my ancestors were born and died. I'm interested in how they lived and how their lives worked. My work in the 90s was very much focused on the skeleton-- who people were, when they lived, etc. Today, I'm trying to put some flesh on the bones, telling more about how they lived. I try to combine good genealogical research with local history methods.

I've always had dreams of putting together some books on some of these families, but I've realized that this will never happen and perhaps should not happen. The process never finishes. So I'll share bit by bit, usually in an incomplete form, in the hope that it might be interesting to someone. I believe strongly in documentation, but I also value traditions, inferences, and good guesses. It's essential to state which is which.

So, here goes...