The Whigham Report
Newsletter of the Whigham Family Association Vol. 2, No. 3 November 8, 2001

The Past that Led to the Present

A Look Back in Time

Over three months have passed since so many of us met together in Barbour County. Since that time, I have been contacted by even more members of the Whigham family. Typing in all the information that I have received reminds me daily of the many branches of Whighams that criss-cross our country today - having moved from east to west, north to south - so many who have grown from so few.

Yet, as we look back, we notice a number of things. Twins have been quite common in the Whigham bloodline. The early generations had extremely large families. Many of our young male Whighams fought, and some died, during the Civil War where we had "cousins" fighting on both sides of the war. Whighams have also fought and died in every American war, beginning with the Revolution.

Our earlier Whighams were adventurous. Always moving; going from place to place, hunting a better way of life. Wives and families following the men from one home to another. Later generations proved equally venturesome, spreading across the country - one city, one state at a time.

They farmed the land, grew cattle and often lived very primitive lives. Many of the southern Whighams owed slaves, though none yet identified owned large numbers of slaves. As they grew more prosperous, more of their children went to college, becoming teachers, doctors,.dentist - yet many remained in professions close to agriculture as had their forefathers. Whether it was Keith Whigham of the Iowa branch, Myron Whigham in Alabama or Jerome Whigham in Florida (from the Southern Whighams) they made significant contributions to their states and their nation as they held important positions in the agricultural field.

We have Whighams in almost every field of service - from the arts with Shea Whigham, grandson of J.B. Whigham, having recently played a major role in the TV movie on Pearl Harbor - to the field of medicine which so many sons of Reba Whigham Johnson and Dovie Whigham McLaughlin have embraced. We have Whighams in public office such as Boyd Whigham, the District Attorney in Barbour County, and David Johnson, a Judge in Geneva County and Sheriff James Jones of Columbia, Alabama. We are scattered throughout all professional occupations including teaching, government, political consultants, music, etc. Politically, we are both Democratic and Republican, conservative and liberal.

The Whigham family is truly a microcosm of America. Our ancestors came to America seeking a new way of life. Their descendants benefit everyday by the sacrifices they made to provide us the opportunity to live in this great land.

As we find our country involved in yet another confrontation with those who do not believe in our kind of freedom or tolerance of the differences of others, we stand united as a family and as citizens in this nation they helped to build. Their descendants will go to war again, yet this time we find the battle has been brought to our homeland and not just fought far away.

Our ancestors would be proud of the way our family is pulling together; as proud as we are that they had the courage to cross an ocean to start new lives and, in the process, provide the United States with thousands of their descendants to make their own contributions to this land.

To have found so many of you in the latter stages of my life is one of God's greatest blessings. To be able to record our family history is one of my most rewarding tasks.









For those of us who attended the reunion last summer, the arrival of the videotape made by Pat Whigham was an exciting event. As we sat watching it, Don and I would constantly be saying, "I didn't see that," or "Do you remember?" And, as we reminisced about the reunion and all the great people we met, we found ourselves very nostalgic about those days. We all owe a real debt of gratitude to Pat Whigham for all the work she did while we were having such a good time together.

It has become apparent that I am still months away from completing the second book on our family. The overwhelming amount of information that I continue to receive - and for which I am extremely grateful - plus the continuing research Don does for me every week on the internet, will consume much more time than I had anticipated.

I am extremely grateful to everyone who has contributed to the information that has been gathered these last years. In addition, we are receiving a large number of pictures. Because I want this book to be as complete and accurate as possible. I don't anticipate writing a third book, so I continue to do more research to resolve conflicting information.

This book will also include information on other branches of the Whigham family in the United States, as well as some information on the Whighams of England, Ireland and Scotland.

I have made arrangements to have the book hard bound, so we will have a book to pass down to our descendants that will record as completely as we know it the history of our family. In addition, Don and I are leaving on Monday for an approximately three week vacation to do more research and to spend Thanksgiving with my sister in Florida.

So, for the next few weeks we will be visiting state archives, libraries and cemeteries. Along the way we may stop by and see some of you for an hour or so but, at the current time, I can't say who or when. When Don and I go on research trips, we just let the information we are gathering lead the way. We do plan to visit with J.B. and his family for a while, as he lives very close to my sister.

I will have my laptop with me, so those of you who have email can keep in touch with me. If you have any suggestions as to places we might go or other sources of information for us, please email me and we will do our best to get there.

Several people sent me checks as a result of my last newsletter - none of which have been cashed. I will try to get all these checks returned before we leave and let you know when the book is ready to be published. I do believe the completed version will be one that each of us will feel was worth the wait.

This and That

At last I have purchased a web site for the Whigham Family Association. While it is currently under construction, the web address is:

www.WhighamFamilyAssn.com

I believe this site will serve to draw the attentions of other Whighams. I currently have no intention of putting our database on the site, but we can answer questions, pass information, etc. The size of the database has grown to over 8300 persons related to the Whigham family by birth or marriage. I have no idea how big it will be when it is ready for publishing. So, any of you who are computer "whizzes" and would like to help work on the website, please let me know. I would like this to become a really outstanding site, so put your thinking caps on and come up with some really neat suggestions.

Recently, I have been contacted by descendants of Andrew Nathan Whigham (my branch) and those of William and Minnie Mills (the William Whigham branch) providing us with both pictures and information about themselves and others in the family.

In addition, Coraleigh Whigham Gassen has written me of a Whigham reunion next June of the John Wilbur family. I am hopeful that they will enlarge it to include others who descended from Thomas Marcus Whigham (my great-grandfather, and son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hannah Whigham). It is always good to see Whighams getting together.

Treasurer's Report

by Lance Russell

Income
Membership dues $ 790.00
Reunion registration fees 1,406.70
Miscellaneous (T shirt sales/donations) 2,590.01

Total income $4,786.71

Expenses

Newsletter
Copying $111.12
Postage 260.20

Reunion
Caterer 1,479.87
Entertainment 300.00
Facilities 180.00
Food 254.80
Miscellaneous 352.01
T-shirts & caps 720.90

Total expenses $3,658.90

Balance as of January 1, 2001: $ 582.94
Balance as of October 24, 2001 $1,710.75 Members 119

MURPHY'S LAW OF GENEALOGY

1. The public ceremony in which your distinguished ancestor participated and at which the platform collapsed under him turned out to be a hanging.

2. When at last, after much hard work, you have evolved the mystery that you have been working on for two years, your aunt says, "I could have told you that."

3. You search ten years for your grandmother's maiden name to eventually find it on a letter in a box in the attic.

4. You never asked your father about his family when he was alive because you weren't interested in genealogy then.

5. The will you need is in the safe on board the Titanic.

6. Copies of old newspapers have holes occurring only on the surnames.

7. John, son of Thomas the immigrant whom your relatives claim as the family progenitor, died on board ship at the age of ten.

8.Your great grandfather's newspaper obituary states that he died leaving no issue of record.

9. Another genealogist has just insulted the keeper of the vital records you need.

10. The relative who had all the family photographs gave them all to her daughter who has no idea who has no interest in genealogy and no inclination to share.

11. The only record you find for your great grandfather is that his property was sold at a sheriff's sale of insolvency.

12. The one document that would supply the missing link in your dead end line has been lost due to fire, flood, or war.

13. The town clerk to whom you wrote for the information sends you a long handwritten letter which is totally illegible.

14. The spelling of your European ancestor's name bears no relationship to its current spelling or pronunciation.

15. None of the pictures in your recently deceased grandmother's photo album have names written on them.

16. No one in your family tree ever did anything noteworthy, owned property, was sued or was named in a will.

17. You learn that your great aunt's executor just sold her life's collection of family genealogical materials to a flea market dealer "Somewhere in New York City."

18. Ink fades and paper deteriorates at a rate inversely proportional to the value of the data recorded.

19. The 37 volume, 16,000 page history of your county of origin isn't indexed.

20. You finally find your great grandparents' wedding record and discover that the bride's father was named John Smith.