The Original Thomson Family Tree

December 27,2009 --

Some time has passed since I wrote the story about the Thomson Family Tree, a poster-sized circular document with some 1,500 names of descendants of James Thomson (my great+ grandfather), a man of Scots-Irish roots who emigrated with his family to America in 1771. (The Family Tree is pictured intact at the top of the last entry). I only had a copy of the tree that was drawn by hand in the late 1800's, and a rather poor one at that, and so spent a few months researching the wherabouts of the original. Thanks to the Internet, and to the LDS genealogical society, it only took me a month or two to find it. Unfortunately, the Tree, which was donated years ago to the Iowa Historical Society, was quickly turning to dust. A kind librarian photographed the Tree for me in pieces so that I could transcribe the information. This may seem like a daunting task with few benefits, but to me, the stories written in tiny, fine print were worth the effort to preserve. Here are a few of the intriguing family details of lives past:

"James Whitney Thomson, b. Feb. 13, 1830 Wagon maker. Went west. Supposed Killed by Indians."

"David McConaughy Russell, b. Oct. 9, 1831: d. Jany 19, 1871, Single. Was shot through the body at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. Lay in the field, 3PM till 10 AM next day & recovered; Fell through hatchway in Pitts & recov’d; mate of tug boat on Ohio River: died in Livermore of old wounds."

"Jenny McConaughy, b. Aug. 20, 1857: d. Nov. 5, 1858. Scalded to death by Cookstove upsetting."

These are stories normally lost to history. You won't find anyting like them in census reports or birth/death records. And, there are so many more on the Thomson Family Tree, such as a baby that fell out of a window, or remarks about singing voices, or lovely smiles. There are many Civil War stories and a few Revolutionary tales. James Thomson, along with his eldest son William (also my direct ancestor) were part of the Frontier Rangers in Pennsylvania.

For posterity, here are the photos given to me of the original Thomson Family Tree:

The Thomson Family Tree

Everyone has a family tree.  I don't know of anyone, however, who has a family tree quite like mine.     

I first saw the poster-sized family tree pictured above as a teenager.  My grandfather had just passed away, and so my father inherited the Thomson Family Tree from him.  He carefully unrolled the aged document that was torn and smudged throughout and taped it to the wall of his office.  The circular ancestrial display captivated me.  It covered six generations with some 1,500 names beginning with William C. Thomson, who migrated from Scotland to Ireland with his wife and children around 1742.  His name is at the base of the tree.  The trunk of the tree carries the name of his son, James Thomson, born in 1730, who emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1771, along with a story about who he was (a farmer and an elder in presbyterian churches in Ireland, Pennsylvania and Kentucky) and a little bit about his wife, Mary Henry (b. 1736 in Donegal, Ireland; d. 1823 in Kentucky; m. 1760), who is described on the trunk of the tree as a "lovely woman noted for her rich and sweet voice." 

 The main branches hold the names of all of their nine children, along with the names of their spouses, and all of the dates for birth, marriage and death.  There are also stories about what types of jobs they held and any special talents.  The tree goes on for three generations of complete detail about every decendant.  There are two more generations of incomplete information on the tree, and additional tidbits of this and that added after the tree was completed in 1890. 

Recently, my father gave me the family tree, which he told me is a copy of the original.  He said that his father, my grandfather, told him that the original had been donated to the Library of Congress, but after some research, I am confident that it is not there.  He told me that Wasatch College in Indiana had a copy of the tree, since one of my ancestors was a founder of the school.  I called the librarian and she confirmed that they do have a copy, and in far greater condition than mine since it's been stored properly and does not have all of the creases and smudges that mine has.  She promised that she would make a clean copy for me, and I agreed to pay her for all expenses.  After a lengthy and detailed conversation over the phone in which all contact information was exchanged...I never heard from her again...   

I have not attempted to call her back since she did confirm that what they have is a copy with the same blurry edges as my own that cannot be read.  I am more interested in finding the original.  The author of the Thomson Family Tree was as much intrigued with accounting for all of the family members as he was about the people themselves. It's the stories written on the tree that I cannot read that I seek.   

 

The author of the tree is: Rev. Nathaniel McConaughy (b. October 11, 1825 in Salem, Pennsylvania).  McConaughy is a major family name since two of James Thomson's children married McConaughys.  Robert McConaughy married Jane Thomson in 1784. William Thomson married Sally McConaughy around the same time.  

Both Robert McConaughy and William Thomson were elders in the Salem Church in Pennsylvania, a church that James Thomson is given credit on the tree for organizing in 1786.  Throughout the branches of the tree there are several other marriages between Thomson's and McConaughy's, or people related to Thomsons and McConaughys.  The close relations the two families shared through generations must be a major reason why Rev. Nathaniel McConaughy decided to draw the impressive family tree in the latter days of his life.  

Also of obvious interest to him were the amount of ministers, church elders and church founders among the descendants of James Thomson.  At the bottom of the tree he writes, "Of the 1,500 names, 30 are Clergymen, a dozen or more each are Lawyers, College Professors, Civil Engineers, Physicians.  Some are Judges, many Teachers."  He signs it, "By Rev. N McConaughy, Somersville, N.J.  1890."  There is an insignia beneath the date, of which I do not know the significance.  Rev. McConaughy was a minister at a presbyterian church in Somersville, N.J.  He moved to New York shortly after completing the tree where he lived with his daughter, Annie Mills McConaughy until his death.  

Since my grandfather had been under the impression that the original family tree was donated to the Library of Congress, I thought perhaps the tree had been donated to a library, just not that one.  Since Wabash College only had a copy of the tree, I decided to call other libraries that Nathaniel might have thought worthy.  I called the Pennsylvania State Library, since Pennsylvania was the migrating Thomson's and McConaughy's first stop in America.  The librarian I spoke with said that they did not have the tree, however their records showed that the tree was in the possession of the Allen County Library in Indiana.  My heart leapt at this information!  Many descendants of James Thomson moved to Indiana by the third generation ring of the tree.  I called the Indiana library only to find out that their document was also a copy of the tree, and not in very good shape at that!  

During this time, I had joined ancestry.com and was having fun looking up the names of my ancestors with the dates provided on the tree.  Every date that I have typed into the website's search engine has come up accurately.  As far as I have determined, Nathaniel McConaughy's tree is 100% accurate in terms of names and dates provided.  An idea came to me one night while plugging in data on ancestry.com.  Why not follow Nathaniel McConaughy's line down to modern day and see if his living descendants still hold the original tree?  It made sense that he would have held on to the original and passed it down as a family heirloom.  I used census reports to come up with names of children for the most recent descendants and then googled their names.  It took only a few hours to find the contact information for Daniel McConaughy, living in Maryland -- Nathaniel's great grandson.  I called Daniel on the phone.  He was very polite.  He knew of the tree and in fact, shared a story with me that as a young boy his father showed him a pile of poster-sized copies of the tree that were stored in the attic.  His father didn't know why his grandfather had made a family tree of another family name, and not their own.  Daniel said he thought the original tree had long ago turned to dust.  

However, Daniel gave me the names and contact information for his brother, Paul McConaughy, who at one time had done research on the McConaughy family history.  So, I called Paul, who was also very nice and remembered the tree.  In fact, he said he had scraps from the tree, which he was sure was a copy of the original, and offered to send them to me.  He also agreed to send me the book he had written about the McConaughy family history, which contained pictures of Nathaniel.  

 

The pie-shaped family tree at right is one of the tree pieces that Paul sent me.  

It was exciting to get this piece!  For the first time, I could read every name, date and history written.  It was unbelievable!  There was such detail so meticulously placed.  It was like Asian rice art, where tiny words or pictures are written on a piece of rice that can only be seen with a magnifying glass.  The pie-shaped fragment Paul sent me was a copy of the family tree I have always known -- with much larger lettering -- as if magnified for me to see!  That's when I realized that the original family tree authored by Nathaniel McConaughy was larger than the one passed down through my family line.  The fragments are copies of the original since there are gaping holes in the tree and other tell-tale signs.  

Paul told me that at a McConaughy family reunion in 2002, a young man named Robert McConaughy from California had a copy of the family tree that was laminated.  He said that the tree was legible throughout and in very good shape.  This Robert McConaughy also had postcards that Nathaniel had sent out requesting family information.  I googled Robert McConaughy and found contact information for him in Loma Linda, Ca.  I left a phone message for him, but he has not responded.  I am going to send him a letter asking for information.  He may or may not be the Robert McConaughy that attended the reunion.  

In the meantime, I visited an LDS genealogical center in Boise, Idaho and found The Thomson Family Tree listed on its microfilm.  I paid $5 for the microfilm reel to be sent from Salt Lake City to Idaho for me to see.  In viewing it, I see that it is also a legible copy with no blurry edges, and in the microfilm, appears to be in relatively good shape.  The microfilm lists the tree as being in the possession of the Iowa Historical Society.  I wrote down the location information and called the IHS.  I have spoken with one of their archive librarians who has located the document for me.  It is of the larger size (like Paul's) and is attached to a fabric background for stability.  She was concerned about unfolding it since it is very fragile, and in fact, pieces of it fell apart when she first touched it.  I have sent her a check made out to IHS to pay for help in rolling it out and photographing it.  She said that there is blue and black ink on the document, which may indicate that it is the original (It could be information added to a copy in a different color ink).  I am looking forward to hearing back from her in the near future!

It appears that at some point, from 1900- to 1950, many copies of the Thomson Family Tree were made and distributed to family members.  At one point, I was in contact via the Internet with a man whose wife was a descendant of James Thomson's youngest daughter, Mary Thomson.  They also had a copy of the tree.  If you read this blog and know something about the Thomson Family Tree, please leave a message!