Visiting With My Ancestors

My husband and I are both from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, he from Augusta County and I from the neighboring county of Rockingham. Our roots are deep there with our Ancestors arriving in the Valley in the 1700s. Like a lot of people from the Valley, he and I actually share a common ancestor as well (don't worry, it's pretty far back!). Both of our mothers' maiden name is Hanger. John Jacob Hanger(1790–1870) and Catharine Wehrle(1791–1826) are my 4x great-grandparents and my husband’s 3x great-grandparents, which makes us 4th cousins once removed (see, it's totally fine!).

We no longer live in the Shenandoah Valley, but visit as often as we are able. Last summer we returned for the Hanger Family Reunion, which had not been held since Covid. The numbers have dwindled over the years with only 13 in attendance last year. I decided that while we were in town, I would try to “visit” as many of my Hanger ancestors as I could find! With some digging, planning and preparation, our trip was a success and left us both with an even stronger sense of connection to our ancestors and the Valley from which we came. It was a very special trip!

The way I “visited” with my ancestors on this trip was to visit gravesites, places they had once lived, and also some archives for a couple of very old documents! I also made facebook posts in my family’s page so my siblings and nieces and nephews could learn a little about their ancestors as well.

First my sister and I took my mother to the Hanger Family Reunion. Here we visited with our living relatives listening to the stories of their parents and looking through their old photographs. This is so important! Often we think of famly history as being something from long ago and forget that our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are a great touch stone to that past and have lots of information that they love sharing and passing down. So make sure to get those stories while you still can!

After the reunion, we visited my mother’s parents(my grandparents), Howard Hamilton Hanger(1918-1986) and Hazel Frances Sandy(1920-1984).

Howard served in WWII and then worked on farms in Rockingham County the rest of his life. Hazel played the guitar and wrote country  songs. Together they raised 6 children, Kenny, Opal, Laura(my mother), Larry, Phyllis and Dale. Dale died in a drowning accident at the age of 14. Opal and Larry are also no longer with us.

Next stop was the Dayton Cemetery where my great-grandparents are buried, Frank Bismark Hanger(1890-1950) and Laura Virginia Fadely(1891-1975). My mother was named after Laura Virginia. She knew her well and remembers her giving them each a coloring book and crayons for Christmas. She was too young to remember Frank who died when she was only 6 years old.

Frank was the first of the Hangers in my family to move into Rockingham County, Virginia. The Hangers originally settled in Augusta County, Virginia in the mid 1700s.
​

We also managed to locate the area where Frank’s farm would have been when he was living there in the 1920s. It is beautiful countryside! My mother tells us this area used to be called Lick Skillet because during the Civil War there was an encampment of soldiers there who would "lick the skillet clean" because they didn't have enough food to go around.

My great-great grandparents are buried in Weyers Cave, Augusta County, Virginia. Ewell Walker Hanger (1866-1937) and Mary Ann Mohler (1864-1945). They lived on a farm in that area. At the age of 71, Ewell was baling hay and fell off the wagon and died of his wounds a few days later. He was baling hay at 71! Ewell and Mary had 5 children.
 
Interestingly, I also lived on a farm in Weyers Cave for a brief period of time in my childhood. I never knew my great-great grandparents were just down the road from me!

A little further up the Valley in Middlebrook, Virginia, there is a Hanger family cemetery called Dutch Hollow Cemetery. (Look for a blog post soon all about Dutch Hollow Cemetery and the man who pretty much single-handedly brought it back to life!)

My 3- and 4x great-grandparents are buried there. David Ott Hanger (1820-abt 1868) and Elizabeth Cale (1826-1906) are my 3x great-grandparents. Together they raised 9 children. He died not long after their last son, Ewell (my great-great grandfather), was born, leaving Elizabeth to raise most of the children on her own.

David’s headstone has not been found in the cemetery but Elizabeth’s has and it is likely that he would have been buried there.

John Jacob Hanger(1790-1870) and Catharine Wehrle(1791–1826), David's parents, are also buried at Dutch Hollow. John owned the land right next to the cemetery and his house was still standing until around 1970! They raised 9 children together. (John is mine and my husband's common ancestor.)

John's parents (my 5x great-grandparents), John Jacob Hanger Sr(1764-1833) and Catharine Dull(1770-1830) are likely buried in Dutch Hollow Cemetery as well. Their graves have yet to be found. They lived in Middlebrook and had 10 children.

My 6x great-grandfather Johann Frederick Hengerer(1726-1799) married Eva Margaretha Mayer(1736-1818). He was the first of my Hanger ancestors to settle in Augusta County, Virginia. In 1740, at the age of 14, his parents, my 7x great-grandparents, Melchior Hengerer and Maria Majer, immigrated from Württemburg, in what is today Germany, and arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the Robert and Alice.

I discovered that the University of Virginia’s small collections library has in its holdings a piece of paper on which Frederick recorded all the names and baptismal dates for his 13 children. My husband and I visited the library and were able to "visit" with our ancestors!

It was amazing to touch (very carefully) a piece of paper from 1755 that had been touched by my 6x great-grandparents. It was a moment! Not only did that document provide us with important genealogical information, but it was also a touchstone to the past. In that moment, I felt very connected to them.

With a lot of research and planning, I managed to "visit" with all of my Hanger ancestors going all the way back to the first Hanger who entered the Valley in the 1760s. It was a trip I will never forget and I am so happy I was able to share it with my husband and my mother! I have always loved Rockingham and Augusta counties, but I now feel a very deep rooted sense of belonging by connecting with my Ancestors on that trip.