Douglas A. Campbell published his book entitled Frederick Morrison Campbell and Agnes Pearson Cancelliere: A Genealogy with Modern Memoirs in 2024. This family history took six months from the day we started the project to the day books arrived on his doorstep. We asked Campbell to reflect on what the publication process was like for him, and what it has meant to share his book with others.
1. What were the sources of the information you presented in your genealogy?
Douglas Campbell: I began with what I had heard from my parents over the years about our ancestors. After my parents died, I took custody of a shoebox and large manilla envelope that contained a disorganized trove of papers and photos they had kept. These included writings about our family from the early part of the 20th century with some specific names, dates, and alleged facts. Once I organized these materials, they provided a foundation for my subsequent research on the internet.
2. How did you go about shaping the information into the narrative you first sent us?
Douglas Campbell: I sorted the information by generations, going back as far as I could on each side, and then I wrote a narrative for each generation. This process resulted in a “bring-down” or “bring-forward” presentation that began with my most distant ancestors and concluded with my parents.
3. Upon reviewing your draft, we recommended, among other things, numbering your ancestors using the ahnentafel system, adding genealogy charts to help readers navigate the text, and reorganizing chapters to present family groups in reverse chronological order (from most recent to earliest, from well-known to lesser known). What do you see as the benefits of these changes?
Douglas Campbell: Keeping track of one’s ancestors becomes more and more challenging as additional generations are included in the “story.” Modern Memoirs made the text more reader-friendly by reversing the chronological order I had imposed, so as to begin with my parents. The addition of a genealogical chart that included a simple numerical convention keeps relationships clear.
“I learned that with hindsight even the lives of everyday people are interesting.”
4. For one chapter, instead of relying only on your own research, you commissioned Modern Memoirs to investigate an ancestor’s rumored descent from King George III and a woman named Hannah Lightfoot. How did this research contribute to the project and to your own understanding of your heritage?
Douglas Campbell: The research done by Modern Memoirs related to a claim contained in the “shoe-box papers” that one of my paternal ancestors, George Rex, was the product of a union between George III of England (while he was Prince of Wales) and a Quaker named Hannah Lightfoot. Modern Memoirs traced the evolution of this story in my family (and in others) and ultimately debunked it, putting to rest my oldest sibling’s royal ambition. How George Rex—so named—managed to come to Western Pennsylvania in the 18th century as an Episcopalian, with an unexplained source of income for life and a daughter named Hannah, to live on a large and prosperous farm, is a mystery left for future generations to solve.
5. Why was it important to you to write a family history?
Douglas Campbell: I wrote the book so that my parents will not soon be forgotten by their descendants, and so that my children, nieces and nephews, and their children, could see their lives in a larger context. I’m gratified that they not only appreciated it, but they enjoyed it, too.
6. What did you learn about your family as a result of exploring its past?
Douglas Campbell: I learned that with hindsight even the lives of everyday people are interesting. Perhaps this book will inspire some future descendant to find my generation interesting, too, and that person will write an update.
Liz Sonnenberg is genealogist for Modern Memoirs, Inc.