So You Want to be a Mayflower Descendant - West Lines - part 9

 All the stars aligned for a lovely Christmas present for me.  (see West-Presbury Pedigree chart) 

Look at these gorgeous family trees from the Library of Virginia!  Above is the Fisher Family and below is the Carter Family.  The Carters are the most important family of Virginia, above the Lees and the Washingtons.

A visual representation of how the Fischer/Fisher family split, with literally one branch staying in Germany and the other coming to America.

All the tiny names. Having tried to lay out charts in perspective, I cannot imagine the hours it took to figure out space for each descendant in accurate place.

It may look like a weeping willow, but all those leaves are names of children, divided, and sub-divided, and sub-divided again.

As you can see, I spent a wonderful vacation day at the Library of Virginia drinking in their genealogy section and absorbing the march of women's suffrage in Virginia.  After going thru the parking garage, validated ticket, elevator, appointment desk, COVID questions, bag search, and metal detector, of course.

You will recall that I had asked the Kings County, Nova Scotia, Museum to find out the name of the book I had a page out of.  I had taken a photo of the page, but not the page number or the title of the book.  Bad, bad documenting of sources.  Bad genealogist.

You remember this page, the only mention of a Levi West in the entire history of Kings County.

The first star aligned when I contacted the museum to ask them to locate the book and send me the title and page number.  They were still going to be open for a few weeks, just a couple of days a week, just to researchers.  Yes, they would do that for me.

Meanwhile, the Mayflower Society historian had told me that a relative's application to the Mayflower Society, using the book West Lines by Margaret Adelia West Ells, had already been approved.  So this book was official proof, and I had ordered the book by inter-library loan.  The particular page this West relative had cited was page 78.  The historian, however, didn't know what page 78 looked like or what info it contained.

Imagine my amazement when the wonderful Kings County museum researcher sent me the title of the book I had used, and it was West Lines!  And even more incredibly, the photo I have is page 78! 

How the stars align.

I expect this means that my proof that the elusive Levi is the son of Samuel and Charlotte is acceptable to the Mayflower Society.  I am not entirely sure, since the book still does not include any birth or death info about Levi.  In fact, I don't know where Margaret Adelia got her information from.

Yes, I spent an indulgent day at the Library of Virginia, where the nice man had procured West Lines for me from a college in New Brunswick.  I have it for 6 weeks.  Of course I read it from cover to cover on Day 1.  Maybe I can copy every page before I return it?

http://www.kingscountymuseum.ca/

https://www.lva.virginia.gov/