Genealogical Quilt Books
Luckily for us, my mother gave us a beautiful quilt as a wedding present, made by her grandmother Flora Anna Coogle Armstrong, and great grandmother Minnie Araminta Sibert Coogle. My mother set aside one for each of us. When my nieces and nephews were born in the 1980s, I made each of them a quilt of square blocks, sewn by their living ancestors (parents, grandparents and great grandmothers) and relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins). I did the same for my daughter. I had fallen in love with my wedding quilt and wanted my nieces and nephews to have that same feeling. If only I had the same skill with a needle. My second cousin went through her mother’s and grandmother’s things when her mother passed away. She knew how I felt about family history and my quilt, so she mailed me her grandmother’s pile of quilts made by the same ladies, along with scads of unidentified photographs, clippings and other epherma. She knew for certain I wouldn’t pitch this stuff, but treasure it all.
Quilt History Books
I am a researcher, a genealogist and a reader, so naturally I have amassed a small collection of quilt and quilting books. When I am in a bookstore, I always check in the quiliting/craft section for new books or books I don’t have. Many of them are books of quilt patterns, which do interest me, but not as much as those with a historical background. Some of my favorites are quilt books with a genealogical twist. There’s a surprise.
Treasures in the Trunk; Quilts of the Oregon Trail by Mary Bywater Cross.
She has written another book, Quilts and Women of the Mormon Migrations: Treasures of Transition, I hope to add to my collection one of these days.
Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell’s Graveyard Quilt: An American Pioneer Saga by Linda Otto Lipsett. This book is often described as the Kentucky coffin graveyard book.
She has also written several other quilt/history books that look appealing, but as yet I have only one. This quilt was discussed in my Genealogy Blog.
Pioneer Quiltmaker: The Story of Dorinda Moody Slade 1808-1895 by Carolyn O’Bagy Davis.
This book has a sequel, A Quilt for the Promised Valley, I have not yet read and she has written several others, I look forward to reading.
The Quilt That Walked to Golden: Women and Quilts in the Mountain West From the Overland Trail to Contempory Colorado by Sandra Dallas.
I have read several of her novels and eagerly await her next quilt book.
All of these books were carefully researched, through the quilts, history and genealogy and well written. The stories are fascinating and somewhat similar migration era stories, but still interesting and different. The pictures of the quilts are astounding.
If you can not find these book in your local bookstores, used or new, they can probably still be ordered from the author’s web sites. Finally, Amazon, ABEBooks and Alibris could be consulted.
