Henry’s Children, the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley

For a couple of years now I have been working on the book I first intended to write back in the year 2000, when I became involved with family history - Henry’s Children, The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley. That Henry, of course is Henry Tapscott, The Traveler (Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois), who with his wife Susan (Bass) Tapscott founded the Wabash Valley Tapscotts. But other books kept getting in the way, including Henry The Immigrant, the First Tapscotts of Virginia. Henry The Immigrant was, of course, Henry The Traveler’s great great grandfather.

Writing the book, which I hoped to have had finished by this time, is going slow, SLOW, SLOW, SLOW. The problem is the number of people, even though I am limiting it to the first five generations. In addition to Henry and Susan the book names 575 descendants through generation five (1206 going through all generations), 539 spouses for those descendants (9033 spouses for all descendants), plus parents (and sometimes siblings) for nearly all those spouses. And every once in a while I stumble onto a new descendant or spouse or parent of a spouse. And the book attempts a history of each of the individuals and their spouses through generation four (generation five individuals are usually just named).

 

A major gridlock are the Sanders, descendants of Sarah Ann Tapscott – lots of marriages and lots of kids. That is where I am now, about half way through the Sanders, who are half way through Henry’s descendants.

Right now the half-finished book has 2,623 source references (with nary an undocumented tree), plus a few footnotes, and 258 pages. I expect these numbers to double. Henry The Immigrant, the First Tapscotts of Virginia has 2415 sources (with only one tree, which is pointed out as having no sources and thus, questionable) and 497 pages.

I turned eighty-one this year. I hope I see the book completed. And if you are a Wabash Valley Tapscott, you should too, since I plan to distribute free, rather than sell, most of the copies.