When my Dad's 4x great grandfather, Edward Shillito, died in 1838, he left half of his 80 acres in Clinton Township, Vermillion County, Indiana to his only son, William, and the other half to the support of his wife, Sarah, and his 2 unmarried daughters, Polly and Rebecca. He divided his livestock among his wife and 5 living daughters, including my Dad's 3x great grandmother, Alice Harper, to whom he left a hog. ​

Edward had been in his early 70s when he died, having been born in Northern Ireland about 1765 to George Shillito and his wife, whose name we don't know. The Shillito family were Scotch-Irish and Presbyterian, which meant that they faced both the enmity of the Catholics and the persecution of the Anglican English. From 1710 to 1775, over 200,000 Scotch-Irish decided to instead try their luck in America. In 1773, the Shillitos packed themselves into a wooden sailing ship and endured the 6 to 10 week crossing of the Atlantic to arrive in Philadelphia.

As a weaver, George Shillito may chosen Philadelphia as a home for a very good reason: the city had a booming textiles industry and it lured professional weavers with inducements such as free land. Once settled into the city, George would have sent his children off to work as apprentices in various trades throughout the city. Although a weaver, he wouldn't have wanted all his sons to enter the same trade, as they would be in competition with one another.

Edward likely was apprenticed to a millwright, who would have built or maintained grist and lumber mills. His older brother, George Jr, may have also been trained as a millwright, while a younger brother, William, trained with his father as a weaver. In addition to these trades, it's also likely that they would have farmed with their father. 

The family quickly found itself embroiled in the Revolutionary War and, as with most Scotch-Irish, their sympathies were very likely with independence. It's not clear whether the Shillitos fled Philadelphia when the British advanced on the city in 1777 or had left earlier, but the family relocated 120 miles west to Cumberland County. Although most of the the Shillito brothers were too young to fight in the war, George Jr. managed to enlist in 1778, at the age of 16, joining the Cumberland County militia.

During the British occupation of Philadelphia, Edward may have remained near the city, working at his mill, or he may have returned after the British departure in 1778. Regardless, he resided in the county until at least 1784. Meanwhile, George Sr moved his family again, 30 miles southwest to Franklin County. At this time, this was the frontier, dense with overgrowth and prowled by wolves, whose howls kept the settlers up at night. 

George Sr established his home and livelihood on a half-acre on Washington Street in Chambersburg, where his property consisted of four buildings:

• House (26' x 24', log, 2 stories, 5 windows)
• Shop (12' x 12')
• Kitchen (14' x 16')
• Stable (14' x 16')

Most people who could afford it kept their kitchen's in a separate building from their homes. This kept their homes cooler in the summer and reduced the risk of a fire. Tax documents also had him owning a cow.

By 1790, Edward had joined his family in Franklin County, living near the households of his father and brother, William. In January of 1798, Edward married Sarah "Sally" Scott. There were several Scott families in Franklin County so she may have come from one of those, or perhaps Edward had moved on by then and had met her in Lycoming County. All we know is that by 1800, Edward had picked up his belongings and traveled 150 miles northwest to Pine Creek township, Lycoming County, in what is today Jefferson County.

Samuel Scott had first arrived in Pine Creek in 1796 and decided that it was the ideal location for a saw mill. Together with his partners, they began construction of a saw mill in 1797, completing it in 1799. On an 1800 census, Samuel Scott and Edward Shillito were the only 2 declared millwrights in the township, although some farmers may have also worked as millwrights.

By 1800, Edward had 2 daughters: Elizabeth (b. 1798) and Rebecca (b.1800). However, the first child credited as born in Pine Creek belonged to Samuel Scott, so it's possible that Edward did not move there until 1800. Edward's daughter, Elizabeth, would later marry James Wood and name their first son Samuel Scott Wood, so it's possible that Samuel Scott and Sally Scott were related. To add some weight to this possibility, there are some DNA matches between my family and descendants of Samuel Scott.

After 5 years in Pine Creek, Edward and Sally were ready for a new challenge. Packing up their belongings and 3 daughters, they traveled north through the Allegheny Forest, herding  a few cows along with them. Only a few hundred settlers had preceded them along this trail, felling trees to establish small farms. Their destination was a small settlement on the Conewango Creek, a few miles east of Chautauqua Lake, just south of Lake Erie. 

Recently, Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge, the 1917 battle that gave Canada a seat at the table as an independent power. However, this remembrance is about someone on the other side of that war. 

It actually all begins 50 years before World War I. With all of Jutland occupied by Prussia and Austria, King Christian IX of Denmark signed the Treaty of Vienna on October 30, 1864. Denmark had gone to war over the Duchy of Holstein and ended up losing both Holstein and the Duchy of Schleswig to Prussia, which was to become the nation of Germany under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck.

What does this distant event have to do with family history? The Bendixens were living in Brørup at the time, which meant it was on the Denmark side of border with the new German Empire. However, other ancestors were not so fortunate, and it had tragic consequences. 

A Bendixen cousin in Denmark, Peter, has provided me more information about the family of Anna Hansen, the paternal grandmother of my sister-in-law, Paula. I have found a few records confirming Peter's research but I have a lot more work to do. However, Peter certainly appears to be a very diligent and passionate genealogist and I trust the thoroughness of his research.

My sister-in-law's grandparents were Christian Bendixen, born in Brørup, and Anna Marie Hansen. According to Peter, Anna's parents were Andreas Christian Hansen and Hansine Magdalene Pederson. While I haven't yet found a record that proves this relationship, Paula's memories of her grandmother's family stories match the records very well. 

Hansine was born March 24, 1891 in the town of Nyby, Læborg Parish, Malt Hundred, in the County of Ribe. Læborg Parish is only a few kilometers from Brørup​, where the Bendixens lived at that time. 

​Hansine was the first child of Mikkel Pederson, 35,  and Anne Marie Schmidt, 38. However, this was Anne's 2nd marriage, she was a widow of Hans Petersen Lund, and she had several previous children. ​​ It's very likely that the Bendixens still have many distant cousins living in this area.

Hansine appears on the 1906 census with her parents and siblings. However, she is absent from the home on the 1911 census, possibly because she was no longer in Denmark. She may have been working in a home as a servant or staying with other family. Regardless, she married Andreas Christian Hansen in 1912. 

While Andreas was Danish, he lived in Haderslev, about 70 kilometers southeast of Læborg, which was in the Duchy of Schleswig, which meant that he was a subject of the Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II.

Andreas and Hansine had at least 2 children together: Kristine and Anna. Since they are absent on any Danish census at this time, it's likely that they lived in Haderslev or some place nearby. Andreas worked as a miller and helped operate the machinery to grind up grain into flour. Sadly, their family life would be very harshly interrupted.

On June 28, 1914, a Serbian, Gavrilo Princip, shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir of the Austrian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. This spark lit the fuse of the war to end all wars, which later became known as World War I. 

Denmark was to remain neutral throughout the war, although it faced a small German invasion near the end of the conflict. However, the Hansens did not live in Denmark but inside the borders of Germany and, consequently, faced the prospect of mandatory military service. Andreas avoided conscription into the regular forces but instead had to serve 12 years in the ersatz (supplementary) reserve.

Unfortunately, as the war dragged on, Germany called up all their reserves, including Andreas. All told, thirty-thousand Danish men were called up into service. 

Andreas served as infantry in the 394th regiment, 7th company, in the 2nd Ersatz Reserve division. He was called up  in late 1916 or early 1917 to become one of the millions of men digging an endless network of trenches across France. He would have hid down in the bottom of the trench when the Allied artillery pounded his location with fire and shrapnel. He would have leaned out of his trench, firing his rifle, when thousands of Allied soldiers and tanks swarmed his position. And, when his officer blew his whistle, he would have crawled over the top of his trench to crawl through a kilometer of barbed wire, mud, and bodies to rush into Allied machine gun fire.