Letter J. D Andrews to Thelma Reeder Explaining Exchange of Materials
You dug into your treasure chests and came up with some interesting items. You keep exposing new letters and data sheets, and I am beginning to realize the extent of Your records. I have pursued an entirely different style of research. During the early 1940s, I collected from relatives mostly by site visits and letters. The Univ. of Wisconsin had a great genealogical library where I worked the PA and NJ archives and other journals about 1940. I collected published articles from local histories. During the war, I depended entirely on letters and some relatives and public officials who felt a need to reply to soldiers.
My first census records were copied directly from the huge original census books at the National archives in Washington, D.C. Only during the last 5 to 7 years have I collected so many census records from microfilms. Neville Dilley of Louisville, KY bought 20 rolls of census microfilms and extracted the 1870 censuses for Dilleys in OH and IN. I have never understood how he did this without indices and a knowledge of the counties and townships where they lived. He gave these rolls to me and I donated them to the local FHC. I will send You a list of his counties for these rolls. Have I sent you my list of census records by states, counties and years?
After a surge of genealogical activity in the late 1940s and 1950-52 from Yorktown, I became too busy with my research on oysters, and my good distant cousin Win O'Hara bombarded me with unanswered letters about NJ records for 20 years. When the Dilley book arrived, for me in 1972, I made a trip to Morgantown, Washington Co., and Mercer Co., PA for collection of local records; but this surge of activity did not last. I began hunting records again after I retired in Jan 1983, and I got a computer in 1985. As a consequence, I did not experience the changes in availability of microfilms until 1985. I have not visited the LDS library in Utah or the DAR library in Washington, DC. I am still not competent on the FHC computers which have rapidly changing IGI and ancestral files. I have great respect for your style and the extent of Your collections, and I have never used the Helper or any other search list from net-working groups--except one local computer group. My entry there resulted in one query with a Year, a place and a name which I identified--it was John Dilley of MN--but after sending him several sheets on John, I never got a reply. During the summer of 1991, I had eight queries, all but one of which I identified and sent from 4 to 50+ pages, and would you believe I heard from only one of those people--a nice lady from Florida working on the Shipman clan.
I have had better luck with a few more regular correspondents. I am usually generous in distributing my materials free of charge--partly as a safety procedure to preserve my records. Have you considered the fate of your records if you do not get them compiled and on microfilm at least. Of course you have enough grandchildren that your records will surely be kept and extended. I am not so lucky with two unmarried children near 40 Years of age. Don Dilley and Ruth & Jerry Dilley are the major recipients of my deluges of records, and they responded in kind. However, the best security is to get the records compiled and microfilmed by LDS at the least. I have no desire or intent to publish a book on Dilleys. I recognize that there will be mistakes, and I warn readers to check or prove the records. The worst part of the LDS system is the inability to correct mistakes once accepted. I worked with a lady trying to correct the parentage of Susan Dille who was a grand-daughter of David Jr. but W. W. Dille, born after she left Cleveland, put her in David's late family where there was a gap in births. Our proof was good, but this type of correction results in another entry and most people do not know which one to believe on IGI.
I realize that I am giving you my life history. I was aware of the Martin and Henry account in the Dille book, but I had assumed that it was the same as the Price biography which contained much the same references to four brothers migrating from Maryland, but no dates. I found your husband's item in the appendix of the Dille book. I have identities for some of the Dilleys in the appendix, such as the descendants of Aaron Dille b 1787, son of Isaac Sr. p 129-30. I have never been able to link the Samuel Dille of Cleveland who was a nephew of Asa and David Jr. to any clan. Mrs. E. A. Warner (p133) was a descendant of John Dilley of Blue Earth Co. MN, a son of Jonathan of Richard’s clan. James Dilley p 133 of Kansas was a son of Nehemiah (David Jr.). John Madison Dille was a son of Andrew (Thompson) of Trumbull CD., OH. I am suspicious that Reeve Dilley of New England was not a Dilley but a Dill. In the early NJ records both Diltz and Dills are much more frequent than Dilleys (census records eg.).
Do you have copies of any of Your correspondence with George E. Dille? After his death, I wrote to his wife a few times ordering books, and I also made a new Price Dilley account in their style hoping a new version would be produced, but he was the driving force and I suspect the son had almost nothing to do with it. I have corresponded with Ellis Brockman who is a first cousin of Earl Kay Dilley. He is a professor in Michigan who works at the famous Allen Co., IN library, and did some work for me there. He planned to contact his cousin, who is a big executive in St. Louis, about getting access to the records, but apparently there has been no result. I did get a curious telephone call (Don Dilley too) from a lady living 9 miles west of Marceline, MO where the Dille book was published. She informed me that she was revising the book and I asked her to write to me but she never did.
I assumed from your letter that the material on Lawrence Co., OH Dilleys was mostly obtained by you? The land records for that county are most interesting. Abner apparently settled where a village followed and he sold a lot of land. Luke had little land, but James quite a bit. So Luke at age 44 was in the Civil War, and he is called a cousin of James & Abner. But who is this James Dilley old enough to be Luke’s sire in 1819. The only VA Dilley with the name James was in Prince Wm. Co. VA but he was too Young too. Apparently Luke was born in Ohio although my 1850 census shows him born in VA? Some of my OH censuses were obtained from the OH Census Research, a private service for OH censuses that is cheaper than microfilm; but mistakes can be made. I have 34 James Dilleys in my census records, but none fits this one for father of Luke. I repeat that the Luke of Morgan & Noble counties OH is not the one of Lawrence Co. that some correspondents have assembled mixed data on.
I already had the censuses for Lawrence Co., OH that I found attached to the letter from Sylvester Dilley of Florida, but it was useful to check the two extractions and I found a couple useful items. The letter from Wm. E. Dilley of Ironton was quite interesting and useful. The WVA archives record of births and deaths provided some living sites that I copied. The David Dille Jr. family sheet sent in by some of David Buell Dille's descendants is fairly accurate and complete, although I find Esther Layton not too reliable. David Buell was lousy at keeping family records, although he listed hundreds of relatives and friends that he bonded for eternal life. I presume that you have seen his autobiography--a weird but important life following the Mormons to Utah and England. Don’t mistake my comments as critical of Mormons; I have read about and associated with some and I am impressed with their dedication and work ethic. Their temple in Hawaii was impressive and fostered many activities which is typical of the Mormons. I had a Mormon tent mate in the Philippines.
Reading through my old notebook, Jan 1990, I found this entry at the College of Wm. & Mary. N. J. Historical Soc., Vol 44 p 400 (1826): New Brunswick 1st Reformed Church Baptisms 1717-1820: 3 May 1730, Deeli, Johannis and Annetie--Maria. This is obviously New Brunswick, N.J. which provides a John who was born in USA and whose parents lived in N.J. I will recheck this item because it meant nothing to me when I first encountered it, three Years ago. I would not note this entry except that the names are so similar to those of the MD John Dilley. Looking back in my 1940s notebook, I find the record of Johannes and Annette--Maria, members of the New Brunswick Reformed Church baptized 3 May 1730 already extracted 50 years ago.
Who was the J. F. Dilley who with Joseph of Frostburg, MD attended law school at Wm & Mary College 23 Oct 1820? We attended the 300th Anniversary of the formation of the College of William & Mary last Saturday. Prince Charles was the principal speaker to a crowd of some 11,000 people.
I spent four hours at the Wm. & Mary Library yesterday working in the stacks. They have a big collection of old VA, PA, NJ materials, and even for other states, in book form. I must have looked in the index of 100 books yesterday, for a second or third time, but Dilleys are scarce in the indices. I borrowed a copy of the 1882 History of Morris Co., NJ. to read about early communities, specially Mendham Twp where occur family names that are quite familiar to me in Washington Co., PA after the migration. My Axtell, Condit, and Tuttle lines appear in these records, but nothing about Dilleys. So many men were recruited for the Rev. War that one would have expected Dilleys to appear, but they did not in the lists of militia companies and where they were recruited. Besides Ephraim, only two Dilleys had military records of which I am aware.
I found the list of VA taxpayers 1782-1787 by Fothergill and Naugle which explains how they listed each tax payer by the first year of the six year span in which they found county records. Most of the counties were listed from the first year of records (1782) and names were only listed once. Therefore, one would have to go to the originals to find out during which years our Dilleys paid taxes.
I do not find a census record for Christian Dilley in the indices for the 1830 census of VA. Where did You find this record?
I am being distracted from genealogy now by a whole list of activities including gardening, taxes, and spring-flowering plants. I spend a lot of time clearing hardwoods out of a five-year old 80 acre pine forest with a chainsaw. I tried to follow up on George Washington Dilley of Muskingum Co. OH who had a milling business there in 1870 with several mature sons in Zanesville City, but I did not find them in the 1880 census. I hope You forgive me for such a rambling, gossipy letter. I guess that I’m running out of ammunition.
Sincerely yours,
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