Family of Jennie and Howard Paige

SPECIAL NOTE:  I've often felt anger toward prior generations for not keeping better (if any) genealogical records. But before disparaging our ancestors for not providing us with recorded lineages back through time, it might help to keep in mind a few reasons why they didn't or why information they kept is no longer available:  the Plague and a host of other family- and community-destroying diseases, rampant illiteracy, extreme poverty/lack of wherewithal, lack of freedom from satisfying one's master's needs to pursue ones own interests other than mere survival, certain destructive religious convictions, and loss of existing records due to wars, fires, floods, mildew, neglect, miserliness, etc. The more affluent folks tended to have genealogies made and published. In my case, most of my ancestors, at least until recent times, moved to wherever labor was needed, especially farm labor. Only after technology greatly reduced the incessant need for a huge pool of human farm laborers did they permanently settle. These Gypsy types are the folks of which Brick Walls are built. We are the lucky ones who have much more freedom to and freedom from. Who knows how long this freedom will continue to reign? While it does, we must harvest what we can—if not for those who follow and today may not care, at least to record with honor those who came before and made it possible for us to be here to enjoy these freedoms.

This Web page was created April 3, 1999 by Charles W. Paige and last updated Thursday February 9, 2023.

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