[The following article was published in STIRPES, TEXAS STATE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY, Austin, Texas, Volume XXVIII, No. 3 (September, 1988), pp. 3-5.]

When my wife, Margaret Stoner McLean, started to work for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, Texas, in 1963, Mitchell A. Wilder, the Director, gave her the assignment of establishing a Newspaper Microfilm Collection, so that the Museum staff members could read the contemporary accounts of what was happening in the American West and get the necessary background information that they needed in preparing the books which would accompany their exhibits.

Consequently Margaret spent the next ten years in a dark room, reading microfilm for eight hours a day and taking notes for the dozen to fifteen projected exhibits which the Museum had on its calendar at any one time. In that process she ordered, accessioned, and processed microfilm copies of 592 different newspapers scattered all the way from London, England, to the Pacific Coast, Alaska, and the Mexican states bordering Texas. Furthermore, she established the policy of making this microfilm available through inter-library loan to any other library in the world.

During all that time, however, there was one very important newspaper, THE WESTERN STAR AND LEBANON GAZETTE, of Lebanon, Ohio, of which she could get no microfilm copy, despite repeated entreaties. However, Mr. Wilder was not one to abandon the pursuit, once he was convinced that the objective was worthwhile. Therefore, in 1969, when he learned that we would be in Nashville, Tennessee, on our vacation, he offered to pay our way on up to Lebanon, Ohio, so that Margaret could have a personal interview with the director of the institution owning he original files of the newspaper, and she got the microfilm. On returning to Fort Worth, she immediately began processing the microfilm, whereupon her eye fell upon the following article, which appeared in the issue of THE WESTERN STAR AND LEBANON GAZETTE for August 19, 1826, page 3, column 4:

"A writer in the CHRISTIAN WATCHMAN relates the following anecdote of Mr. Jefferson. He says that the circumstances were detailed to him by Elder Andrew Tribble, about six years ago, who since died when ninety two or three years old:

"Andrew Tribble was the pastor of a small Baptist Church, which held its monthly meetings at a short distance from Mr. Jefferson's house, eight or ten years before the American Revolution. Mr. Jefferson attended the meeting of the Church for several months in succession, and after one of them, asked Elder Tribble to go home and dine with him, with which request he complied.

"Mr. Tribble asked Mr. Jefferson how he was pleased with their Church Government? Mr. Jefferson replied, that it had struck him with great force, and had interested him much; that he considered it would be THE BEST PLAN OF GOVERNMENT FOR THE AMERICAN COLONIES. This was several years before the declaration of American Independence. To what extent this practical exhibition of religious liberty and equality operated on Mr. Jefferson's mind, in forming his views and principles of religious and civil freedom, which were afterwards so ably exhibited, I will not say."

The thing that caught Margaret's eye and aroused her curiosity in the foregoing article was the name of Andrew Tribble, because she had heard her mother talk about the Tribble family, and she had a vague feeling that she might be related to him in some way. It was in the fall of 1969--some nineteen years ago--that she read that article, but it was not until just a few days ago that her research paid off, and all the pieces fell into place. Now she knows that the Reverend Andrew Tribble was her great-great-great-great- grandfather!

By diligently searching through the volume entitled: THE BOONE FAMILY, A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY BOONE WHO CAME TO AMERICA IN 1717, CONTAINING MANY UNPUBLISHED BITS OF EARLY KENTUCKY HISTORY. ALSO A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DANIEL BOONE, THE PIONEER, BY ONE OF HIS DESCENDANTS, compiled by Hazel Atterbury Spraker (originally published, Rutland, Vermont, 1922; reprinted, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1974), she found that there was a section on "The Burris and Tribble Families" on pp. 513-515, and a section on "The Stoner Family" on pp. 550-553. Combining these sources with the entries in her own Stoner Family Bible, she was able to work out the line of descent shown below. The reader should bear in mind that each numbered entry represents her direct line of descent in the next generation, and that the male member of the marriage is always shown on the left. She has carried the chart all the way down through our grandchildren.

In conclusion we should point out that genealogists who wish to consult the microfilms which Margaret collected for the Ndwspaper Microfilm Collection at the Amon Carter Museum can find them all listed and described in the most recent edition of volumes published by the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., entitled: NEWSPAPERS IN MICROFORM, sold by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402.

The microfilm in the Amon Carter Museum Newspaper Microfilm Collection can be consulted by phoning (817) 738-1933, and asking for the Librarian, to make an appointment.

NOTE; Malcolm and Margaret McLean have retired and are now living at 206 Golden Oaks Drive, Georgetown, TX 78628-3320. Phone: (512) 869-0166. E-mail: mdmclean@texas.net.