Whole Number 4
In the December, 1953 issue of The Sparks Quarterly, Whole No. 4, page 24, it was announced that I would begin in this issue a query and answer department. Several readers have asked why we did not incorporate such a department into our publication, and since we announced our intention of doing so, several have asked for further details regarding the purpose, functioning, benefits, etc., of this new department.
To begin with, the purpose -- the sole purpose of operating a query and answer department in The Sparks Quarterly is to lend a helping hand to those of you, our readers, who are anxious to trace your Sparks lineage. Many readers have observed that to date all the material we have published is so far back that they have no idea whether or not it pertains to their own ancestry, and each reader is naturally more interested in his own ancestry than in all Sparks data in general. Since THE SPARKS FAMILY ASSOCIATION was planned as a long-range project, it is the intention of the officers and founders of this Association to publish over the years a vast amount of Sparks family history, from the present back several hundred years. But to start out with it was thought best to begin with articles pertaining to the earliest Sparks families in America, then, later, material will be published on both the ancestors and descendants of these early Sparks families in America. This is, of course, a gigantic undertaking, one that will takes years of hard work, and the cooperation of all our readers, if it can be accomplished at all. We will do our best to publish material pertaining to the ancestry of all our members all over the United States, but it may be months, or even years, before data on your own particular family appears in this publication. You, the reader, can hasten the publication of data on your own family by sending us a sketch of your family, beginning with yourself and your immediate family, and tracing back as far as you can, including names, dates, locations, interesting incidents, traditions, etc. The Association will publish these family sketches from time to time in The Sparks Quarterly, and endeavor to tie your family in with one of the various Sparks immigrant families, and to other Sparks families in America.
Another way to stimulate interest in your particular branch of the Sparks family is to send queries to this department, and, of course, to lend a hand to another member whenever possible. Many of our readers have Sparks ancestry in common just a few generations back, and if all members will cooperate, we shall all benefit by the exchange of Sparks family data. Most of the copies of The Sparks Quarterly are sent to private homes all over America, but at the same time a number of the largest libraries in the United States are on our mailing list, and your query placed in this department will be read by people all over America. Also, anyone going to any one of these libraries to do research on the Sparks family will readily find The Sparks Quarterly and your query, not only now, but for many years to come there will be Sparks searchers reading all issues of The Sparks Quarterly. The 'missing link' in one’s lineage often has a way of turning up unexpectedly, and there is no telling when or where some one will see your query and have just the information you have been looking for!
Further, I have in my library a large manuscript collection of Sparks material, covering Sparks families in several states. This will all be published eventually in The Sparks Quarterly, but in the meantime if I have anything in my files that would answer or help to answer any of the queries sent in to this department, I shall make use of this storehouse of material to aid you in the immediate tracing of your Sparks lineage, and all answers to all queries will appear in this department as one answer may benefit many readers.
The cost of having a query appear in this department is a nominal one, at but three cents per word. The money received for queries will go to help defray the expenses of conducting this department, which is a time-consuming task, and the majority of the hours devoted to this new department will be donated to the 'cause.' Amounts under $1.00 may be sent to me in the form of postage stamps.
The method of counting words in a query may be demonstrated by query 1, below, which has 29 words, amounting to a cost of eighty-seven cents. Query 2 has 67 words, at a cost of $2.01.
1. Who was the father of 1.2.5.1 Solomon Sparks, of Frederick Co., Md., born c.1720-30, probably in Queen Annes County, who removed with wife Sarah Sparks to Rowan Co., N.C., 1753?
Webmaster Note: 1.2.5 Joseph Sparks would appear to be the father of 1.2.5.1 Solomon Sparks
2. Who was the father of 1.2.5.1.2.2.1 Wesley Sparks and William Sparks who appear on the 1830 census of Lawrence Co., KY.?
Wesley Sparks was born ca.1805 in N.C. and married Nancy Kosee in 1835 in Lawrence Co., KY;
William Sparks was born ca.1812 in N.C. and married Mary Lyon in 1832 in Morgan Co., KY.
Were these two brothers also brothers of Nancy Sparks, who married Martin Ison ca.1829?
Webmaster Note: 1.2.5.1.2.2 Robert Sparks would appear to be the father. See Whole No. 12.
3. Wanted: Ancestry and Descendants of a Henry Sparks who lived in Dorchester County, Maryland, in the early 1700s.
William Perry Johnson, Professional Genealogist
Historian-Genealogist for THE SPARKS FAMILY ASSOCIATION
Address: Box 531, Raleigh, North Carolina.
(Note added to the 1981 reprinting of this issue of The Sparks Quarterly. As Mr. Johnson predicted in the above statement, The Sparks Family Association has grown through the years and a vast amount of Sparks genealogy has been published in The Sparks Quarterly. We no longer charge for queries, however, but continue to welcome them for publication. William Perry Johnson, who served for some 27 years as the Association’s Historian-Genealogist, died on October 17, 1980.)
Mrs. Clarissa A. Sheppard, 2440 23rd Street, N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2M 3Y2, whose maiden name was Sparks, would welcome correspondence with any member of the Association who has traced his/her ancestry to the County of Essex, England. The place names (parishes) there that are associated with Mrs. Sheppard's family are Burnham, Maldon, Orsett, and Woodham Martimer.
Doris Park, P.O. Box 2061, Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, VOC 1 RO, would like to correspond with anyone who could provide her with information per taining to Jesse Sparks who was born ca. 1845. He moved from Newfoundland, Canada, to the USA sometime during the late 1800s. He resided in the USA until his death, which may have been around 1900. His wife's name may have been Ann or Leah. Jesse may have worked in a shoe factory. He had a daughter named Naomi Sparks who was born in 1868 in Newfoundland; she was married there in 1891 to Caleb Sparks, dying in 1951 in Newfoundland. Caleb and Naomi Sparks lived at Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1892 to 1895 and had two children:
(1) Philip Sparks, born September 14, 1892, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, who died February 22, 1967, at Haverhill, Massachusetts, and whose wife's name was Minnie; and
(2) Annie Jane Sparks, born May 25, 1894, at Cambridge, Massachusetts; she died on July 9, 1895, in the USA.
Jesse Sparks may have resided and was probably buried in the area of Cambridge or Haverhill, Massachusetts, however, she has been unable to obtain documented information confirming that he ever lived or died in the USA. She would appreciate any information anyone could provide regarding Jesse Sparks and would wel come the opportunity to correspond with descendants of his son, Philip Sparks.
Page 3719
Whole Number 153
A member of the Association recently expressed disappointment that no query section is included in The Sparks Quarterly. As most members surely realize, we frequently include queries regarding our members' Sparks ancestry, although we do not group these in one section of each issue of The Sparks Quarterly. Your editor welcomes queries from our members, although we do limit such inquiries to requests for information regarding one's Sparks forebears, or to persons who were very closely related to individuals named Sparks, such as wives or mothers of Sparkses.
There is no charge for publishing queries submitted by our members.
Because we believe that files of The Sparks Quarterly will be preserved for genealogical research in libraries long after our own departure from this earth, we also believe that many of the queries appearing therein will serve as sources of information for future genealogical research, as well as coming to the attention of current readers. Therefore, we do not limit queries to a certain number of words as is done in the typical query magazine. In fact, your editor frequently adds material to the query that he may have on the family in question, in order to make the record as complete as possible.
Burt Anderson, P.O. Box 535, West Chester, Pennsylvania, is working on a third edition of the genealogy of the Sharpless family, the first having been printed in 1816 and the second in 1887. There is a Sparks connection about which he is curious but has been able to find no information.
William Aratus Gilpin and his wife Elizabeth Brown had one daughter, Anna Elizabeth Gilpin. She was born May 28, 1835, place unknown, although her parents were born in Wilmington, Delaware. This Miss Gilpin was married August 8, 1868, to Charles Elkitten Sparks. This is the extent of Mr. Anderson's information. If anyone has a clue regarding this branch of the Sparks family, Mr. Anderson would be delighted to hear from him.