Green/Fife/White Family Papers

Collection

Identifier: 1989A006

Green/Fife/White Family Papers

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Scope and Contents

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The Green - Fife - White Family Papers consist of correspondence and other documents from the family of Daniel Green and Margaret Ross Green and their descendants. The letters from Ireland to Alexander Fife are especially interesting as they discuss the economic and political situation in Ireland as well as information about family members and neighbors. The last letter in that series briefly mentions the Potato Famine. There are also numerous documents relating to slaves and slavery including a ledger which records slave birth dates and children from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The correspondence in the collection also includes letters written during the Civil War in which currency and conditions during the war are mentioned. The diary of Martha White was begun on December 30, 1905 when she left Richmond, Kentucky to become a trained nurse in Dr. Price's Hospital in Philadelphia. For the next three years subsequent entries describe her fellow nurses, the patients, their ailments, and her activities during her free time as well as other topics giving the researcher a good overview of the life of a young woman training to become a nurse in the early 20th century.

Dates

Creation: 1797 - 1955
Acquisition: 1983-06-27

Biographical or Historical Information

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In 1793, Margaret Ross of Ireland was married to Daniel Green of Maryland. They had six children. Of these a daughter, Mary, married Alexander Fife of Ireland on August 2, 1832. It was their daughter Mary Elizabeth Green Fife who married Brutus White on October 30, 1866. Mr. White died in 1916, but Mrs. White lived well into the twentieth century. She died in 1947 at the age of 101. Six of ten children survived her. The correspondence involving those in these three families, Green - Fife - White, comprises much of the collection revealing a great deal of information about the life and times of these families for over a century. For more information consult the genealogical chart is included in these papers. Much is learned of the families by reading the deeds, surveys, and wills. Land exchanged hands among family members easily and often. This was indeed a very loosely 'woven but close knit family.' This is evident in the given names of the children. Each family seemed to have an Alexander, William, Mary, Daniel, or John. In reading through the papers it is necessary to go back to the genealogical chart from time-to-time to further check on who-was-who.

Note written by Sharon Brown McConnell