From Whence We Came or How to Drive Your Family Up a Tree

Who would have known that a trip I took with my grandparents at the age of 12 would have turned into this endeavor? Had I known then, I would have paid more attention.

We have been working on this genealogy for 5 generations over a span of close to 100 years. Today it is much easier than it was when my Great Great Grandfather Wells Butler Smith began his search for our roots. I imagine him writing his letter by candlelight to an old friend far away. Hitching up the horse & buggy and making the trip to the post office. How long would he have to wait for an answer? The man must have had patience. I can bearly stand to wait for an email reply. What would be written in the letter he received? Was it the information he was looking for or would he have to try again somewhere else? How many letters were written over the course of the years, I do not know. How many days did he make the trip to the post office only to find there was no letter.

We still have the tree that he did so many years ago in that beautiful longhand of years gone by. I wish that I had him by my side now to go on this journey through lives & years. Oh what he could have done with this computer!

This site is dedicated to his memory & the other members of my family who know that we are the caretakers of our children's history. It is our responsibility to preserve it all for generations who have yet to be born...

Family Photos

• Handwritten genealogy of Abraham Wright Page 2 (123 KB)
  Handwritten genealogy of Abraham Wright Page 2
• 4 Generations of Shumway in 1915 (179 KB)
  L to R Jeremiah Shumway (Age 88), Sarah Evelyn Cass Smith (Age 29), Viola Pamelia Shumway Cass (Age 62), Frances Adelaide Smith Aged 2. Adelaide is my Grandmother.
• Home Of Anson Smith In Salamanca, New York (19 KB)
  Anson Smith was born July 31, 1829 in Poland, Chautauqua County, NY. This is the home he shared with his wife, Frances Amanda Bigelow Smith, until his death May 1, 1885 in Salamanca, Cattaraugus County, NY.
• Wells Butler Smith (81 KB)
  Wells Butler Smith was born September 5, 1859, in Rochester, Monroe County, NY. This photo was taken about 1911 at the home of his father-in-law Warren Wright in Jamestown, Chautauqua County, NY. Wells died April 18, 1952 in Wigginton Infirmiry, Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish, LA.
• Handwritten genealogy of Abraham Wright (160 KB)
  Handwritten genealogy of Abraham Wright Page 1