ABOUT THIS SITE

When I was a very little girl, I used to love to sit and listen to the grownups talk; always on the alert for that little snippet of information that would make these "big people" in my life real to me. I loved to hear about times when my parents got in trouble with their parents. I loved trying to figure out how cousin so and so was related and I loved to show off my knowledge by informing everyone in my most grownup sounding voice that Cousin So and So was my 2nd cousin twice removed. I think the genesis of the Griffith Project got its start in these early years.

GRIFFITH

The material found in this website is a WORK IN PROGRESS. More than forty years ago, my Mother handed me a manila envelop with the words "Save for Leslie" on the front in my father's handwriting. Opening that envelop was the true beginning of this Project, although I did not realize it at the time. Inside was a rather badly typed excerpt from The History of Cambria County Pennsylvania containing a few of the sections dealing with the Griffith family. Attached to the pages was a map my father had drawn. In looking over these pages from the past, I remembered my father once taking me to see a man he called "Uncle Will, the oldest living Griffith." Although, I'm still not positive who Uncle Will was, through process of elimination, I believe him to be my great grandfather's brother, William Griffith, the one called "Windy Bill." My memory is of a very old man in a big brass bed.

Through the years, I became more and more interested in genealogy, and spent many years working on my maternal family tree. Because I had those typewritten pages on the Griffith family, I felt there really wasn't much to do on the line. Once in awhile I would ask one of my relatives a few questions and fill in a blank here or there, never accomplishing anything like real work on the family. Then about fifteen years ago, I joined a computer information service that carries a genealogy section. Suddenly I had access to researchers all over the country. I found that there were many people out there with a Griffith name or two on their pedigree charts. More than that, though, I found out that nearly everyone with a Griffith name was hopelessly confused as to which Griffith line to even begin researching. I decided at that time to create and begin to maintain a Griffith database or clearing house. My original intention was to be nothing more than a repository for all the stray Griffith information I could get my hands on. I had no intention of doing any original research beyond the bounds of my own direct line of descent. I was very naive. I put out the word about my Project and was immediately inundated with Griffith material. Some days I received four or five packets in a single mail delivery. I soon discovered that a single surname project was a huge undertaking on a name as common as Griffith.

As I began to enter all the incoming information into the database I had set up, I realized that, for the most part, the information was falling into three main categories: Descendants of Thomas Griffith, the subject of this website; Descendants of the three Griffith brothers who came to America in 1715, William, John and Samuel; and the Descendants of William Griffith of Maryland. At this point, I decided to lower my sights slightly and concentrate on one group at a time. Since my own line of descent is through Thomas Griffith, it was natural to start with him. I was still thinking strictly in terms of creating a clearing house for information and had no thoughts of producing anything for public consumption. However, the more information I collected, the more I had people asking for information. It began to be both too time consuming and too expensive to reproduce the information over and over again on an individual basis. I then graduated to the thought of just producing what I would call an annotated index, something that other researchers could work with to help sort out not only which family line their Griffith belonged in, but also sort out which of the various Johns, Williams, Abners, Thomases, Jesses, Rebeccas or Marys were which. And that is how this Project came into being.

Much of the information is well documented by "official" sources, particularly the information from Quaker records, however, there is also much material that has been pulled from county histories and individual pedigree charts. I have made every attempt to present accurate information, but I make no representation to the accuracy of information that is undocumented by "official" sources. County histories are notoriously incorrect in many respects, family tradition, although often providing excellent clues, can often be very misleading, and even material that has been submitted and certified as accurate in the past has proven to be completely useless because of misinterpretation or just wishful thinking on the part of the submitter. In many areas, the information is presented in the database just as I got it. I present it in full and allow you the researcher to draw your own conclusions. Throughout you will see The History of Cambria County by Henry Wilson Storey cited as a Source. Because this 3 volume history is so difficult to obtain, I have retyped the listings as they appear in these volumes for the individuals concerned. I have found many errors in the information in this History, so be cautious in accepting the information at face value. When other information has been available, such as Wills, Obituaries, Burial Records, Quaker Meeting Records for marriages, births and deaths, and other records dealing with official vital statistics, census, or the military, these have been cited independently. Where Quaker records are cited, these can all be found at the Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA in the Minutes for the various Monthly and Preparative Meetings that our ancestors attended or on microfilm through the Salt Lake City genealogy library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where the largest collection of genealogical material in the world today is maintained. An ongoing search of the Quaker records is in progress. When information has been acquired from individuals, this is cited as such.

My GRIFFITH DATABASE contains at present approximately 32,000 individuals. As I said in the beginning, this is a WORK IN PROGRESS and I would like to continue to build the database. If you have an interest in the Griffith or L'Hommedieu line and can add to what is already here, please contact me.

L'HOMMEDIEU and YOUNG

Within this site, you will find the results of approximately 20 years of concentrated research into the family L'Hommedieu. For the most part, this research has been satisfying and fun, although at times extremely frustrating. When I started this project in 1977, I had but three names: Lucie Estelle L'Hommedieu, my Mother; William Raymond L'Hommedieu, my Uncle; and William Peryn L'Hommedieu, my Grandfather.

All good "how to" genealogy books tell the researcher to start by interviewing family members. This is excellent advice, however, in this case not very helpful. My Mother knew nothing of her L'Hommedieu ancestors, not even the names of her Grandparents, and Uncle Bill was not any more knowledgeable. There were a few "family tradition" type stories, which were interesting, but not very informative when it came to names, dates, and places.

My first clue came from some old letters in my Mother's possession that had been written by her mother, Sara Pluma (Young) L'Hommedieu, wife of William Peryn L'H. and sent to her own mother back in Pittsburgh, PA. In these letters, Grandmother Sara had mentioned a visit by Papa L'Hommedieu and that he had brought with him some old dresses for her to make over. It seemed reasonable to assume that perhaps "Papa's" visit, in conjunction with the old dresses, coincided with the death of his wife. Using the date of the letter, I wrote to the state of New York and asked for a three-year search of the death records, under the name L'Hommedieu, and a few weeks later I received the death certificate for Estelle (Jeffrey) L'Hommedieu, wife of Delos Gager L'Hommedieu. My first successful search! And a goldmine of information ... Great-grandmother's maiden name, and better yet, the name of my great-grandfather. However, for every success I had in the beginning, there were two or three or four unsuccessful attempts to learn more of this family line. After running into brick wall after brick wall, I gave up on the L'Hommedieu line and began to concentrate on the Young family. At least with the Youngs, I had living relatives who kept records and in this regard, cousin Dr. Alfred Clyde Young, Jr. of Pittsburgh, was very helpful. His son, "Pete" is still going strong and is responsible for all the most recent work on the Young and related lines.

My big breakthrough with the L'Hommedieu family came as a result of my Aunt Jeanette, wife of William R. mentioned above, when she happened to remember a letter she had seen in Uncle Bill's business files. This letter, dated 1952, was a request for information on our branch of the L'Hommedieu family for inclusion in a L'Hommedieu Genealogy being prepared for publication. Unfortunately, Uncle Bill never answered the letter so we are not included, but, for my purposes, fortunately he kept the letter and Aunt Jeanette found it. One of those small miracles that happen while doing genealogical research now occurred. With the letter in hand, I called the number on the letterhead, a L'Hommedieu company with headquarters in Chicago. It was lunch hour in Chicago and the secretary was away from her desk, and the boss's son answered the phone. He was "sorry to inform me that the writer of the letter," Charles L'Hommedieu, "had died a number of years earlier," but ... he was familiar with the L'Hommedieu Genealogy because his father, Mr. L'H's best friend, had helped with the compilation and publishing. This "best friend" was now running the company and "if I would hold" he was sure I could speak with him. What transpired in the next few hours was almost unbelievable ... it turned out that a 2 volume leather-bound, gold embossed L'Hommedieu Genealogy had been published, there were no copies left ... or maybe, just maybe there was one copy in the company library in their branch office in Los Angeles. It just so happened that I was staying with my Mother at the time because of a broken leg and was near Los Angeles. The company president called the L.A. office, the L.A. office did a search, the very last set of the Genealogy was found, and they delivered it to my Mother's house by messenger, all at their expense. A Gift.

Another one of those small miracles occurred while I was researching the Clock family lines. The Clocks were early Dutch settlers in New York and Estelle (Jeffrey) L'H.'s mother was Laryine Clock. After finding reams and reams of Clock information, I was still unable to tie Laryine to any of the major family lines. This was the most frustrating area of research in the entire record. In a last desperate move, I obtained a copy of the Suffolk County phone book from the telephone company and picked the name of Helen Clock, at random. I explained my problem regarding Laryine in a letter that also contained as much other information as I had at the time. Helen clock never answered my letter, but she did give it to her son, Bob, who in turn forwarded it on to Mr. John H. Williamson in Florida. It turned out that Mr. Williamson was in the process of putting together a Clock Genealogy and had all the information I needed. He was even in the possession of the old Clock Family Bible, which contained many birth, death, and marriage entries. Mr. Williamson is a third cousin to Lucie Estelle and William R. L'Hommedieu.

The L'Hommedieu Genealogy included complete pedigrees and background and historical information (some of which is reprinted in various notes throughout my records) from our earliest known American ancestor, Benjamin L'Hommedieu up through our great grandfather, Delos Gager L'Hommedieu. Since I had already made the connection to Delos, needless to say, I was in seventh heaven.

Since obtaining the L'H. Genealogy, I have also added printed copies of the Hallock, Howell, Kelsey and Hawkins Genealogies to my personal reference library, as well as copies of the "Records of the First Church of Southold," the "History of Southampton," and several other references books on early Long Island settlers. You will find extracts from many of these sources, which I hope will make the family history more alive and real for the reader/researcher.

In compiling this family pedigree, I have gotten to know many of the people intimately and would draw your attention to a few:

	Captain Leander Jeffrey, brother to great grandmother Estelle, First America's Cup skipper.
	The early Howell settlers, Lords of the manor in England, who gave it all up to pioneer as the first settlers in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Long Island, NY.
	George Johnston, great-great grandfather on the Young side ... came to America from Ireland and made his money in the Gold Rush of 1849, hiking across the Isthmus of Panama on his way to California.
	Delos L'H., great grandfather, who was murdered while camping on his way home from his trip to the West, when he brought the old dresses mentioned in my Grandmother's letter.
	Benjamin L'H., himself a refugee from religious tyranny in France as were many of his counterparts refugees from religious tyranny in England.
	Rev. National Brewster, graduate of the first class at Harvard in 1642 and is claimed to be the first native-born American graduate.
	John L'H., one of the Revolutionary "Minutemen," as well as many others who served their new country both in war and in government with distinction.
	Phoebe Halsey, murdered by the Indians, and all those other brave women who defended their homes against the Indians, the wild animals, the English and the Dutch while their husbands were away defending our right for freedom. The women who bore their many children without benefit of medical assistance, often dying in the process, and had to raise their families without the simplest amenities, spinning their yarn, weaving the cloth, and fashioning their every day tools out of the rudest of materials.

It is said that we all carry with us the genes of the very first man and woman and a look at portraits of English royalty should convince anyone that family traits carry on for hundreds of years, so we may look at the ancestors of this record and realize that without them we would not be. Our heritage is a proud one of men and women who pioneered this country in the name of freedom and the name of God. They fully expected to meet us one day in heaven, and I for one, am happy I will know them by name.

Good hunting!

Your Cousin ... Sara Leslie Griffith