Research takes time

James Fenimore Cooper's story "The Last of the Mohicans," written in 1826, is a fictionalized version of Daniel Boone's life.

My family and I have been searching for true facts about Daniel Boone (1734-1820) and his sister Hannah (1746-1898) for 45 years.

Unlike the celebrities on "Who do you think you are?", the TV series, it has taken a long time to obtain results.

A lot of fact and fiction is connected with the boone family. His experiences have been compared with folk heroes. It is true that the Shawnee Indians adopted him. They called him Sheltowee (Big Turtle.)

The Boones were Welsh. Squire Boone (1696-1765) was born at Exeter Devonshire, England (Wales). Sarah Morgan, his wife, (1700-1777) was also of Welsh descent. The grave of Squire Boone is located in the Joppa Cemetery at Mocksville, Rowan County, North Carolina.

Daniel Boone was the sixth child of Squire and Sarah. Hannah Boone (1746-1828) was their 13th child. Rebecca, Daniel's wife, married him when she was 17 and he was 21.

As Quakers living at Oley Valley, Berks County, Pennsylvania, the Boones attended church services regularly. Then, in 1750, Squire Boone sold his land and they settled in North Carolina. Their lives changed radically out on the American Frontier. Daniel read the Bible, but did not go to church.

Hannah Boone (Stewart-Pennington) is of special interest to me. I am six generations away from her daughter, Anne Elizabeth Stewart.They are my direct ancestors.

Unsettled questions exist about the true gravesites of Daniel and Rebecca Boone. Some researchers say they have been reburied at Frankfort, Kentucky. Others say their graves were mismarked at Tuque Creek, Missouri, so the wrong bodies were taken to Kentucky.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska