My maternal grandmother, Wanda Lynn, started working on her Postlethwait and Calvert genealogy around 1983 or 1984.  I was just out of college and would go with her to the Family History Center from time to time.  While we were there one day, I was flipping through the index cards that they used and stumbled on information about one of my father’s uncles.  It was then that I decided I wanted to know more about my father’s family.  That is when I started my search for my ancestors.  As I didn’t know more information could be obtained outside of the local library and Family History Center, the search for my Howser ancestors soon ended.  I had a rudimentary knowledge of my paternal ancestors and I was pleased as punch. 

Since I tackled one family, I thought I’d start on another.  I asked my maternal grandfather about his family.  He gave me the names of his parents, his aunts and uncles as well as the counties in Ireland from which his parents immigrated.  Shortly after that, he died, and with him, his knowledge of his family.  Without more information, I didn’t know where or how to begin my search in Ireland.  I would try off and on throughout the years, and always walked away discouraged until last year.

It was about 1997 and my father was telling me a story that his grandmother told him.  She said that her father was in the Civil War.  He was a 12 year old boy carrying a flag in the Confederate Army.  There was gunfire all around and, because he was so scared, he hid in the corn fields.  I was hooked.   I had to find out more about this man, my great great grandfather.  It was then that I bought my family tree software and transferred all of my written notes to the computer.  Things were looking good.  I found there were more resources than what the local library had to offer.  There was a whole world just waiting to be explored.  I compiled this information in two notebooks and presented this labor of love to my father for Christmas the following year, complete with pictures, and a history of who the people were.  They were more than names on paper.  They had depth, they had stories, and they were alive again, on the paper.

Since then, I have never stopped searching for my ancestors.

I was looking through some old photographs that were taken in the early 1900’s.  And here is a woman, “Aunt Estovinia” [sic] in the picture.  I was curious as to who she was, so that was the official beginning my Calvert research and my connection to the Calvert group.  My research shows that “Aunt Estovinia” [sic] is my great great grandmother’s sister.  My grandmother never knew her aunts given name, as she was only known as “Sis” and “Aunt Sis.”  I have since picked up the pieces where my grandmothers research ended and have begun my own Calvert search. 

As with my other family groups, I hope the Calverts come alive on paper through their pictures, stories, and history.

Lynn Howser – A descendant of Isaac Calvert of Greene County, PA.