The following story from the Higdon Family Newsletter, April 1973, Number 15, page 3 would have been lost forever were it not for someone recording the information:
Mrs. Ralph P. Acton has found the following in a small booklet in her possession which was compiled by a distant cousin of her father:
"John Shaw, son of Johnathon and Susan Higdon Shaw, was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 1807. At the age of 4 his father died, and John with his mother and two younger brothers, lived with her father until he was 13. Then they moved to Frederick City, Md., where he was apprenticed to the Conrad Brothers to learn the coloring and weaving trade.
"John's father, Johnathon, came to this country from Ireland, as a 'bound boy'. This meant that he had to work for the person to whom he was 'bound,' to pay for his passage to America. "After John finished his apprenticeship at age 21, he married Harriet Sponseler. "in 1831 at age 24 he brought his wife and first child, John A. to Perry County, Ohio."
You are encouraged to record your family
history beyond the genealogical data. What will people tell your grandchildren if you don't record your stories?