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Author's Preface
The Merging
Interest in the past and in the
generations that preceded me grew gradually in me. It
grew apart from any pressure from without or effort from
within. The stories my parents and their siblings told
us, old photographs, artifacts from the past, church
history courses, obituaries, family reunions, cemeteries,
books about the past, and travel to many places—all
of these and more gradually began to relate to each
other. Slowly at first, then sort of in a rush, the story
of my past came together.
With a collector’s bent, I had
kept the articles, notes, stories, photos, and clippings
that fell into my hands. So now I had numerous albums of
materials telling bits and pieces of the stories of
people who were part of me. The time came when I realized
that most of this material could be lost to the
generations to follow me unless I gathered at least some
of it into a form that could be preserved.
And so this book began to grow in me.
Among some grandnieces and grandnephews I sensed a
genuine interest in the way it was in years gone by.
Letters with many questions about my childhood have come
to me from them. Their interest encouraged my writing of
Book Three.
I make no claims to be a historian
except in the sense that the story of every person and
every family is history—and this is my story and the
story of my people. However, I have made great effort to
be accurate in use of names, dates, and places. Where I
have felt the need to add story details, I have tried to
be authentic and consistent with people, times, places,
and happenings. Occasionally I have indicated uncertainty
when I could not fully verify or substantiate my
statements.
I started out to tell my family’s
story. It was not long until I realized that to tell the
story of this family, I must also tell, at least in part,
the story of a movement of God’s people. As will be
seen, these were all people whose spiritual heritage was
tied to the Anabaptist movement of the sixteenth century.
Again in my treatment of the
Anabaptists my claim is not to be a historian; scholars
have already covered similar ground with much more
sophistication than I offer. My goal is simply to place
the story of my own family in the historical context
within which its members were shaped.Nor do I mean
through speaking of a “merging” to imply that a
primary goal is to detail the blending of two different
branches of Mennonites. Rather, I am simply aiming to
tell the story of how two different family trees managed
to cross an ocean and 500 years to be united in the
marriage of my parents.
I finish my story with deep respect for
the generations of wonderful, ordinary, fallible—and
often failing—Christian men and women who preceded
me. I honor them and thank God that through the
generations, even centuries, they kept a light burning to
point out the way for those who came after. My prayer is
that the generations which follow mine—already as
many as three more—may not only sense the strength
and value of their heritage but also commit themselves
faithfully to follow in the footsteps of those who have
gone before.
—Evelyn King Mumaw, Harrisonburg, Virginia
The Merging
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