Quaker fiction and local history

Jennifer Hudson Taylor visited the bookshop last weekend and brought her new Quaker historical novella, Quakers of New Garden.

She brought her Scottish historicals, too, and we celebrated with real shortbread "biscuits" (and American coffee).

I'd been looking forward to Jennifer's visit because we have a lot in common. She sets Christian-themed stories in the times and places that her ancestors lived. I'm writing a novel about my heritage, too. We both have Quaker ancestors, and they all ended up in the North Carolina Piedmont!

Quakers of New Garden is a collection of four stories about the Wall family.

Jennifer wrote the first one, "New Garden's Hope," set in 1808 Greensborough, N.C. The other authors followed generations of the Walls to Indiana, including their involvement with the underground railroad.

I have a few signed copies of Jennifer's books in the shop. If you live far away and would like to order an unsigned one, or if you have a Nook reader, please click on the title above.

The book signing topped off a very bookish weekend. Friday I "rescued" several armloads of science and history from a last-minute school renovation. Saturday, I picked out several boxloads of modern reads from a local thrift shop that's closing its doors.

My best finds came Friday night at the High Point Library's preview book sale. Although I had to pay to get in, I struck gold with lots of local history. I found this lovely 1945-46 High Point City directory, complete with business ads from my parents' and grandparents' time — like furniture, hosiery mills, and railroads.

Besides the residential and business phone listings (with four-digit numbers), it has a street directory on pinkish-purple pages in the back. You can look up a street and see who all the neighbors were, even who owned the property.

Some of those neighbors might be relatives — very helpful for genealogists!

Adventures in haggis

I don't remember why, now, but I just had to cook some haggis this past week. For the first time.

I had heard of haggis as a scary mixture of animal innards, used almost as a threat in the movies. Several years ago, they had some at a Celtic festival and we decided to bravely give it a try. Now remember, I grew up in rural North Carolina. I took one taste of the dark mush and exclaimed, "This is liver pudding! I grew up on this!"
(Note the word "pudding" and a meat in the same American phrase; there's got to be some Scottish or English heritage here.)

Haggis is now nostalgic, ever since we went to Scotland in 2006 and had it with "neeps and tatties" (mashed potatoes with turnips, like a shepherd's pie) at Edinburgh Castle.

I've always liked liver pudding, which is available in my local stores. But it's made of pork, and I've become more conscious of pork in everything. Why couldn't I make it out of something a little healthier, like beef or venison?

Ingredients. So I bought some beef liver and threw it in the freezer. And last weekend I thawed it, determined to find enough ingredients to try to make haggis. Anybody who knows me well knows that a recipe is just a starting point. I started with the Frugal Gourmet's Our Immigrant Ancestors, but decided not to try to chase down any icky or high-maintenance ingredients, like sheep's stomach or a heart. I did buy lamb, which required going to the grocery store on the other end of town. I knew I would need to steam it all in something, and having just eaten some beef tamales, I hit on the idea of using corn husks - same cooking method, right?

Cooking. I fried the meat instead of boiling it, since I didn't have to bother with the heart. The first problem was that I only had two cornhusks. I had saved some stiff cabbage leaves (idea borrowed from Korean cooking), but I didn't have enough for all the meat. The second problem was that my steamer was just an insert in a saucepan. I had a huge bowl of mixture (from 2 pounds of meat) and only a few wrappers and a little pot! Continuing to improvise, I wrapped some mixture in aluminum foil and formed a meatloaf shape with the rest and baked it.

Results. By now you're probably thinking that I've lost my mind! But it was all an experiment.
Everything that got baked was dry and crumbly. It might could be rescued with water and a shepherd's pie, but baking is not the best.
The steamed portions, both cabbage and cornhusk-wrapped, turned out fine! Next time I'll get more (a bigger cabbage, too), and I'll buy or borrow a steamer.
The recipe had optional gravy, but no guidelines. Frying the meat gave me the drippings to make gravy. But, note to self: gravy with liver in it is not good! It went in the trash.

By the way, the recipe called for Scotch, so I had to buy some. A drizzle on the haggis goes great. But pour it in a glass, and that's some nasty stuff! 'Guess I'm just a bourbon girl.

Tonight, I made mashed potatoes and served it on some leftover haggis, like an individual shepherd's pie. Mmm.

From the Archives: The search for Thomas English

Part I — Old books and basements

I had dreamed about traveling to England, Scotland and Ireland to research genealogy and capture enough ambience to write a book. The dream started to come true when my sister and her husband said, “We’re going to England.” We decided to combine itineraries and go together.
I had been to England once before. I considered myself a veteran because I had taken a tour of London on a double-decker bus. While Debbie and Eddie visited the sights, I went digging for ancestors.
There’s never enough time, as people who have been researching their families for decades can tell you. I narrowed my search to the family of Thomas English, my ninth great-grandfather who moved to Ireland in the 1600s. There I was in London, looking for Irish records.
I found them in the basement of St. Magnus the Martyr Church — English churches have creative names. I followed paper signs for the Irish Genealogical Research Society to a spiral stairway leading to the basement. I held onto the railing as I descended narrow stone steps. I ended up in a small library, where three faces looked up to register the newcomer.
The Society members were kind and helpful. As I pored through books, the lady asked me if I’d like some tea. It was rainy and chilly out, so I accepted gratefully. I expected a paper cup of warmth which I would sip quickly and then continue with my work, but she meant “Tea.”
Everyone pushed their old books and research aside when she brought out a tray complete with teapot, milk, sugar, and “biscuits” (cookies). They chatted with each other as if sitting in a living room. It was an unexpected highlight of the trip.
I found mention of Thomas English in a book that was so old I was in heaven just to handle it. I love old books wherein an “s” looks like an “f” and the language is eloquent.
Thomas Wight’s “History of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers in Ireland” recorded the meetings in Ireland and detailed many hardships that Quakers endured during that time.
It said that a (Quaker) meeting was started at the house of Thomas English in Moate in 1659.
I wasn’t as lucky at the British Library, since the genealogical reading room was closed. But the Library had a museum of old books and manuscripts on display. I saw old Bibles, an early collection of Shakespeare, Beowulf, original sheets from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and Jane Austen’s childhood satire.

While the Englishes did not live in Scotland, my ancestress Mary Glendenning Hoggatt did (Mary of the Hoggatt House in High Point and the first grave at Springfield Friends).
After exploring Edinburgh Castle together, my family remained as tourists while I skipped off to be a scholar in the National Library of Scotland reading rooms.
For those who have never been in a reading room, it’s a collection of books and records so wonderful or old that no one can check them out.
I found a marriage index record for Mary’s parents, David and Margaret (1685), and a reference in the 1715 town minutes that David was to be paid 20 Scottish pounds per year to care for the town swans.
My favorite find in Scotland was in Inverness. I don’t mean the Loch Ness — although yes, it was beautiful and no, we didn’t see Nessie. I mean Leakey’s Used Books. It was filled with books and more books, plus maps and a cafe upstairs. A bibliophile’s dream.
I bought a collection about England’s social history during Thomas English’s lifetime.
Did I mention that I love books?
Next week: The Search for Thomas English, Part 2 — Stone Walls in Ireland

published in The Archdale-Trinity News, August 24, 2006.