Okay, so I’m a genealogy, family history nerd, geek, fanatic, extremist, or whatever you want to call me. When I get on the scent, I’m off and running.
I’d like to say that I dug up this poem written by my 4thGreat Grandfather – but I didn’t. One of my cousins (along with her sisters) who is a genealogy, family history nerd, geek, fanatic, extremist, or whatever you want to call her, is responsible. Her Grandmother, my Great Aunt, collected family history, too. She had this poem in her amassment of oral and written archives.
Lawrence Gordinier was born about 1801. Some records list his birthplace as Holland, and other documents, New York. He died in Eaton County, Michigan in May 1865. This poem was written by him and is the oldest family poem that we know of.
“Oh how hard it is to tell,
with scarlet fever also fell”
and this part –
“so we all must pass away
tho bitter struggles on our way.
We travel up a rugged road
in hopes to meet a smiling God”
This was all my Great Aunt could remember of the poem, but that was at least 125 years after the poem was written.
I wonder what filled in the gap listed as, “and this part.”
We can only speculate as to the timing and events that led to the composition. Did he suffer from scarlet fever or maybe a child or grandchild succumbed to the sickness. We may never know.
This photo is Lawrence Gordinier’s daughter, Mary Ann Gordinier Spencer, my 3rd Great Grandmother.
