On the trail of
family histories
Jack Schulik

As a boy, Gary Leonard had no use for genealogy. His father traveled all over the United States studying his family's history. Gary told me, "Anytime my father would start talking about the topic, I would vanish."

But after Gary married, times changed. He and his wife, Janice, have traveled all over America and to several places in Europe tracing the history of their families. I recently visited the couple at their lovely Plano home to find out more about their fascinating hobby.

Janice's family name is West. One of her cousins printed a small booklet about the West family history. Gary entered the information on his computer…a few hundred people. It was then that he discovered that he was really interested in the process of finding people. Gary related, "This is problem solving. I love puzzles."

Janice said that while Gary is intrigued by the process, she enjoys the people they meet and the wonderful stories they discover about folks from the past.

Gary's mother's last name was Romary. He learned that the family came from England. A woman in Bath had done considerable research on the family, and donated it to the Mormon Church. Gary had read it, and while on a business trip to England, he visited with her. She took him to Tunbridge Wells where one of the ancestors had owned a factory which made biscuits. (We would say crackers or cookies).

The factory had been visited by Queen Victoria in 1876, and for years displayed the royal emblem on its façade. In keeping with tradition, Princess Diana ordered biscuits from this company for her wedding. Sadly, the firm is no longer in business. The building is now occupied by a company that specializes in health and nutrition. But next door is a dance hall called the Biscuit Factory Disco. The name lives on.

One of the Romary family members left England to settle and farm in Kansas and became well-to-do. He built a large stone house in which he raised his family, including Gary's grandfather. This past fall, Gary and Janice looked for the site. The house is gone, but they found the couple who had bought the property. They built a house nearby using stones from the original house. Gary was given one of the stones.

The Romary family had a reunion in Kansas in the year 2000. Then, in 2003, Gary and Janice traveled to Tunbridge Wells for another family reunion. Of course, they visited a local graveyard, where they found the tombstone of a family ancestor who was born in 1712. While in an arts area of the town, they commissioned a local artist to do a watercolor of the Biscuit Factory as it was in the 1800s. Janice showed me the beautiful picture with the royal emblem on the façade.

At a Leonard family reunion, the family had their picture taken in front of a monument to Valentine Leonhardt, an ancestor who was a hero of the Revolutionary War. Leonhardt translates to lion-hearted. The inscription on the monument said that he was born in Katzenbach, Germany.

As you might guess, on a trip to Germany, the Leonards went to Katzenbach. It was a tiny farming village. They saw a man in front of his house, and Gary showed him the picture of the monument. The man invited them into the house, and showed them a book about the town's history. The book contained tax records from the 17th and 18th centuries. And there in the records were the names of Gary's ancestors. Janice remembers, "We were speechless. The man handed me the book and said, 'Here take it. It's yours.'"

Gary said it is much easier to track people now, but getting property information is still difficult. Over the years, he has come to understand many of the surveying terms. The Leonards have spent many, many hours in courthouses looking at information about property ownership.

They came upon a deed for property owned by William Sears, one of Janice's ancestors, who lived in Virginia. The property was part of a land grant given by King George III to Lord Fairfax. One of the surveyors was a 16-year-old youth named George Washington.

One beautiful spring day the Leonards drove to the tract. It is still farmland. As the couple stood there, amongst the dogwoods and rhododendrons with the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance, the thought suddenly occurred to them, "This is just what William Sears saw in the 1700s."

Gary said that one of the things genealogists enjoy is finding relationships to famous people such as presidents, kings, and entertainers. He told me that they had a family connection with Mickey Mantle. Our readers all remember Mickey Mantle. But, do you know about one of Janice's other relatives who was also a New York Yankee? His name was Cy Moore. He was a pitcher on one of baseball's greatest teams, the 1927 Yankees. Babe Ruth was so sure that Moore would not get many at-bats that he bet Moore that he would not get three hits all season. When Moore got his third hit, Ruth paid up. Moore spent the money on two mules which he named Babe and Ruth.

As you can see, Gary and Janice love their hobby. Whether they are walking through a graveyard in Ireland, pouring over historic papers in the Library of Congress, or visiting a 500-year-old church in Germany, they enjoy the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment.

They recently visited a woman in Pennsylvania who had done extensive research on one of the branches of Janice's family. She insisted that the Leonards stay in her house for a weekend. In her cellar was a massive collection of books and papers. She said that her son had no interest in them, and she wondered what would happen to them when she died. Janice told me that this is not an uncommon occurrence; many valuable papers are taken to the dump and lost forever.

I mentioned at the beginning of this article that Gary had a few hundred names in his computer. He now has in his data base over 30,000 names of people who are interconnected to his family.

Longtime Plano resident Jack Schulik indulges his passion for travel and is a regular contributor to Plano Profile.