Last night I dreamt, in stunning detail, that I was reading this book. I read it in fact from front to back. The pictures in the book would come to life for me, and tell me stories about my husband's ancestors. The stories I read didn't make as much sense as the stories I was told. The written ones were all surreal and avant garde, which was mesmerizing. I deduce from this dream a few things. Firstly, I really want to read. Why not make it this book? There is no reason why not, because this book is actually an exquisite compilation.
I found this treasure at the Brass Armadillo several months past. Since then I've been told that Lippincott's Magazine actually published several famous authors, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde. None of these wound up in this volume, but I am told many volumes may be available online. You may or may not be interested to know, Lippincott's Magazine eventually became McBride's for a year and then was brought up by Scribner's.
Of course, the book originally held interest for us, my husband and me, because it is almost certain that my husband is related to those who founded and ran this magazine. It was published by J.B. Lippincott and company, and was in the family for several generations. After Scribner bought the company a descendant of J.B. started the Lippincott publishing company that now publishes medical journals and such.
My husband is a descendant of Joshua Coles Lippincott, who I am told was born in 1811. J.B. or Joshua Ballinger Lippincott was born either in 1813 or 1816 according to various sources I've stumbled upon.
Joshua Coles' mother was Ann Coles and Joshua Ballinger's mother was Sarah Ballinger. Not too surprising because Joshua is a name that has deep roots in the Lippincott family, and adapting the maiden name into a middle name is quite common as well. Still, a coincidence my imagination allowed itself to read too much into.
Really I only know these things as an apprentice. I am no relative (except by marriage) of the Lippincott family, which traces its American roots all the way back to Richard of the Puritans, I believe.
So I spent the day reading stories and newspaper articles about my husband's random ancestors. I read about plenty of Quakers. Quite exciting, and very satisfying.
From what I can gather, my husband's nearest common ancestor with J.B. is Restore Lippincott, the third son of Richard Lippincott. From there my husband is descended from Restore and Hannah Lippincott's son Jacob, and J.B. was descended from their son James. All in a day's amateur sleuthing, so take this with a huge barrel of salt, but at any rate the relation is not very close.
Still somehow it feels special. Besides, the real pay off of all this research was reading stories about people who lived so long ago. Nothing serious, just some fun really. Another white rabbit I had fun chasing.
