Walking Down the Shenandoah Valley: A Saga of Four Families: Ferrell, Davis, Boggs and Kessler

By Sally Kessler Mertens

FULL COLOR, 182 pages, 73 pictures. Starting with her four grandparents, Mertens traces her ancestry back to her four Immigrant Ancestors. Although there are gaps in the history of the four families over three centuries, enough is documented in official records to trust that this is generally a reliable account. Coincidentally, each of the four families moved deep into Virginia's wilderness prior to 1751 when the Great Wagon Road down the Shenandoah Valley was surveyed. Research discovered that her ancestors had walked, one step at a time, down trails Indians had earlier blazed to get to hunting grounds. These pioneer families, one generation after another, walked hundreds of miles through virgin territory, toddlers in tow, without benefit of horses, carts or wagons. It took over a hundred years of successive moves westward before the families finally sunk down roots in America. Genealogical charts are provided for the four families' patriarchs going all the way back to Hubert O'Ferrell, who, driven out of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell, arrived in Virginia in 1658. Timelines of European and American history highlight events which impacted or somehow involved the families. Maps show the families' westward progression down the Shenandoah Valley to where they finally found "home," in areas of pre-revolutionary, colonial Virginia which later became the states of West Virginia and Kentucky.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1512084034
• ISBN13: 9781512084030
• Release Date: May 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"