Researching her roots leads woman from          coast to coast By Ginny Duffield​

 

​(​Printed in THE MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM-SENTINEL, Feb. 26, 1998)    

 

​A letter coming to her family after the death of her grandfather more than 20 years ago started Peggy Hake of the St. Anthony community down the road of genealogy research almost by accident. Now it is an avocation that is very nearly a career.

Her Grandfather Gardner (writer error: suppose to be Grandfather Smith)​​ died in 1975, and a Jefferson City woman saw the obituary in a local newspaper and wrote to Hake's father because of the Gardner surname. Hake's father forwarded the letter on to her in Kansas City, where she was living at the time, and the two women corresponded. 

Hake said she had spent a lot of time with her grandparents when she was growing up, and undoubtably had heard family stories. But she really didn't remember much. "It sort of went in one ear and out the other." she said. "She (Jefferson City woman) sent me lots of Gardner information. That really got me started."

Hake learned that her Gardner and Bailey forebearers had come to Miller County from Barren County, Kentucky. So in June 1975, she took her vacation to Barren County. She returned the next year, much to t​​he displeasure of her two youngest children who were still taking vacations with Mom. Hake solved the problem by renting a motel room where there was a pool; the kids spent the day swimming and she spent the day in the courthouse. The children realize the importance of those trips now that they are adults, and appreciate all their mother has done in tracing their family roots as far back as the 1600s in France and Germany. The family names include two familiar to man Miller countians: Wyrick and Bilyeu. The search has led Hake to determine all kinds of family relationships with area residents.

"I'm not related to my husband, but I'm related to his kids," Hake said. That is through the Boyd family, and she had found the relationship before they were married.

Hake's advice to anyone wanting to do genealogical research is to plan on spending a lot of time doing it, be prepared t​​​o travel and get used to dust because there is plenty of it among old records stashed in courthouses and libraries across the country. She has traveled to both coasts in search of family history, including the states of Virginia and Oregon.

"If they ever get involved, there's never any stopping place," she said.

Many families have had member do research in the past, and much of that is now located in libraries and museums around the country. Hake said she was able to find some family informati​​​​on that was compiled at the turn of century.

She finds it easier to buy family history books when she can so she has them at hand, rather than have to go back to a library to do more research. Bookshelves fill a bedroom and the end of the hall in her home t​​o store those volumes. She said she has even left instructions on how those books are to be distributed when she dies.

Hake has gone to ​​the Mormon library in Rolla to do research, but has never traveled to the Mormon's main library in Salt Lake City. So many people are there doing research that lines are long and it is hard to make copies. 

Hake's husband, Ambrose, th​​inks its great she enjoys her research, but he would rather do something else. So when she goes off on her research treks, he stays at home. Hake traveled the Oregon Trail route to the northwest and saw the wagon ruts that are still visible along parts of the trail, and the landmarks, such as Chimney Rock, that pioneers,  including part of her family, used to navigate across the plains. Hake's genealogy led to writing, not only to keep track of what she learned and share it with others. She writes the Seeking 'n Searching newsletter, which has maintained about 350 subscribers during its 14 year history. She also writes a column for this newpaper, Window to the Past. 

Hake has two children who followed her into writing. Son Kerry is a newspaper editor and daughter Kelly is about to publish her second book. The first was on Ghost Towns of Central Missouri. Son Kirk drew the​​ illustrations for the book and daughter Kathy works in the printing industry.

Genealogical research puts one in touch with local history, too. Hake says that history is just as important as the family history. "There's no one who doesn't have skeletons in their closets," Hake said. She has found some family history she would never publish, but she has kept records of it. Her ancestors include a thief or two, and one German who was jailed as a Tory in Virginia during the Revolutionary War.

"If it​​'s a Miller County family, I'm interested," Hake said about the information she finds. 

Because of her research, Hake probably knows the Miller County records better than anyone, although she said the​​ late Clyde Lee Jenkins surpassed her. When she worked at a title company in Tuscumbia, she heard Jenkins, a former county clerk, call out to her. He let her answer all of his mail about local history and families because he did not like doing it, she said.

T​​he two volumes of history Jenkins wrote for Miller County are invaluable, Hake said. The final one was completed by his son, Clayton Jenkins, who is currently Miller County clerk.

When Hake is not busy with genealogy and history, she is involved in community affairs. She currently is president of the ​​Iberia VFW Auxillary and the Iberia Community Club and is past president and current secretary, newsletter editor and program director for the Miller County Historical Society. The St. Anthony Sunshine Gals, Miller County Senior Services Board, Repubican Central Committee and Missouri Ozarks Community Action Agency round out her community involvements.

"It ​​keeps me busy. That's the way I like it," she said.