Dickey-Sellers-Tomlinson-Irby and Extended Families

Mary Cutler Dickey, 1864-1947, was the first family member to begin our family genealogy. She was mother's great aunt (mother being Sally Bliss Dickey Sellers), then susequent family members continued the search. In the early years, my father, Homer Lafayette Sellers, thought a family genealogy "silly," until he retired and discovered a great past time with which he bored the rest of the family. It seems youngsters care nothing about ancestors, but older folks begin to wonder about their forebears.

I confess that I was one of those wonderers, especially when I learned about Manassah Cutler, who is depicted, along with Rufus Putnam, on a US 3-cent postage stamp in 1937 (I have a couple), because he helped push through the northwest passage treaty, opening up Ohio for Revolutionary veterans to claim land. Manassah's son, Gervase was one of the first settlers. Manassah was a minister, a doctor, a congressman, and a personal friend of French General Lafayette.