Name/Title
AU Harris, Paul Joseph Jr. - 1994-03-05 letter to Luella Mae (Lambert) WilliamsEntry/Object ID
1996.1.11Context
3923 Seeley
Downers Grove, IL 60515
March 5, 1994
Luella M. Williams
P.O. Box 426
Greenwood, MS 38930
Dear Cousin Luella,
Within six months may be good for you, but it has regrettably taken me a little longer to get back to you. Thank you so much for your letter of 6 Nov 1992. I am glad that the NJ pictures are of some value to you. I had been unemployed for over a year and just returned to work in November. Haven't had much time to work on the family history, but am starting to get back into it now. That's why I am writing, I would love to correspond about the Lamberts and any other lines of interest. Very little of my Lambert information is a result of original research. Most of it was obtained from lost genealogy charts and letters of my grandparents, Joseph Harris and Bertha Lambert. They did a lot of genealogical work in the 1920s and I appear to be the first one to find their notes and do anything about them. I have more than three hundred Lamberts in a computer
database.
I would like to answer some of your specific questions from your last letter. I know there is the risk of you, Bette Knapp, and I exchanging the same information and thinking we must be right because we all agree! I have not obtained very much information from her, to date. I am hoping she will visit me this summer, if she accepts an invitation from Mary Frances Lambert Shepherd, who lives only a few miles from me. She is a cousin of Bette's.
You mentioned material from Swarthmore. I am not familiar with the specific material that you are referring to. If you have something about the general history of the Quaker meetings in Ohio, I would be delighted if you would share it with me. I think that sort of thing goes a long way toward seeing the total picture. I have visited Swarthmore on several occasions. Always came away with more information, but always overwhelmed at how much is there.
You also asked me if I had or want anything on Barclay or Elwood, Civil War records, etc. Actually, my records on these branches have a lot of holes in them. A lot of my information comes from the book Meet the Edgertons, by J. Howard Binns. I have a copy in my research library. I am very interested in documenting Lambert descendants to living generations today, so I would appreciate the chance to computerize any information on any Lambert branches in our family, as this makes it easier to share the information with others.
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In your letter you thought I might have had Pennsville mixed up with Plantsville. No, I am very aware of the difference between the two. Pennsville is in Morgan County. Just west of Plantsville is State Road 377. If you follow it north into Morgan County it goes through Chesterhill, Todds, then Pennsville, before it gets to Malta and McConnelsville. Pennsville was the site of the Deerfield Quaker Meeting. I am familiar with Plantsville, as both of my grandparents were born and grew up within a mile or so of there.
You asked me if I have any proof of Abner Lambert being the son of John and Elizabeth, besides Bette's book. No, I do not at this time, but I haven't really tried to find anything else, yet. I have not seen the Lambert book by Josiah Lambert and Joanna Woodward, nor Bruce Love's book on Belmont County, OH. Belmont County is one place I have not yet begun to do research. I would imagine the Little Hocking book on Washington County, OH, would be interesting. I'll have to find a copy.
You asked about the Monroes. Funny you should mention them. I have a lot of questions on just how they fit in. I have in my possession a letter written to my great grandfather, Daniel Webster Lambert, during the Civil War. It is from Abner Monroe, and in it, he calls Daniel, cousin. In the 1860 census, Abner Monroe was enumerated with Daniel W. Lambert as a laborer. I would love to put him in perspective. I have loosely gathered information that John Monroe's wife, Matilda, may have been a Pickering, daughter of Elias Pickering and Elizabeth Lambert. This is pretty much undocumented guesswork. I am guessing that Abner may have been a son of John and Matilda. If you have someone in your family who is descended from them, you may be of more help to me than I to you on the Monroes. Was Matilda a Pickering or a Lambert? Please let me know what you can about this.
I have not seen a copy of Daniel's will that you referred to. If you could share a photocopy, it would be very much appreciated. In asking about "all the different Isaacs that have shown up" I am astounded to report that I have not one single Isaac Lambert in my database.
There is a conflict that I would appreciate your helping me clear up. It involves the birth and marriage of Albert S. Lambert (by the way, do you know what the S. stands for?). I have information that I do not know the source of that says he was born 2 Oct 1815 in Belmont County, OH. Your chart said 10 Feb 1815 in Guernsey County, OH. Also, your chart has the place of marriage as Guernsey County. The minutes of the Somerset Monthly Meeting in Belmont County report that on 27 Mar 1837, Albert Lambert was granted a certificate to Pennsville MM, O. (Morgan County, as I described earlier) to marry Elizabeth Edgerton. Also, under Edgerton in the Pennsville minutes, her marriage to Albert is reported. This body of evidence would lead one to
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conclude that the marriage took place in the Quaker meeting at Pennsville, so I would be interested in knowing your sources regarding these two events in Guernsey County. Perhaps, we can straighten out the apparent conflict.
I am sending along a nineteen page descendancy chart of John Lambert for your amusement. I have marked our lines of descent and you can see we connect quite a ways back. We are fourth cousins descended from Abner Lambert II and Winifred Cartwright. Incidentally, I am very weak on information about her family. Would appreciate any sources you could lead me to.
Look forward to hearing from you in six months to a year.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Harris
