THE MISSING LINK

                                                  By June Harman Betts

The clock was ticking away the last minutes of 2007 when I opened my email for the last time that year.  As I skimmed the messages, one from a man with my mother's family name caught my attention.  The subject matter, "Jason Glancy with questions about your book, "  was intriguing enough to get me to open it immediately. 

The message reiterated his name and went on to say, "I've been an active caver in Germany Valley since my late grandpa told me of a family visit to a cavern somewhere in West Virginia.  After 15 hours underground on Saturday, we decided to eat  breakfast at Seneca Cavern's Restaurant.  However this time was different.  When I pruchased your book, I never dreamed it could be the missing link of information about Grandpa's journey back in the thirties.  I have read the entire book until wee hours of the morning .  Enjoyed every page.  Great work!"

My questions had to wait until my husband and I saw the old year out and welcomed the new year in.  Then back to the email with questions of my own.  "What was your grandfather's name?  Where did he live?"

His quick response with his late grandfather's name and the fact that he  had lived in Martinsburg, Ohio, a small town only a few miles from my home in Ohio, sent me to the geneology charts my brother had compiled.  There in black and white was his late grandfather's name, Charles Elmer Glancy  He was the son of my Uncle Charles William Glancy, my mother's nephew, my first cousin.  

Later during a telephone conversation, I discovered that the man who had bought my book over two-hundred-fifty miles away lived in Rocky Fork.  That was the setting of the first part of Father Was A Caveman, less than ten miles from my home. 

Then a few days later, my other questions were answered during a visit from  Jason and his father, Keith.  Jason said that he had bought the book because of his interest in caving  and explained how he  had discovered the connection to his grandfather's story.

He had skipped the first part of the book and started where the caving adventures began.  He realized  when he came to the story about Josiah Glancy and his capture and imprisionment in in the infamous Civil War Andersonville Prison  that this book wasn't just about some writer he had never heard of but his own family.  That discovery took him back to the part he had skipped and to burning the midnight oil until he had finished reading it. 

 Since I received that New Year's Eve email, my husband and I have met his father, his wife and two adorable young children, and I have introduced him to my brother, Cecil, via email  During the course of their emails, Cecil has supplied him with additional nformation about generations of Jason's Glancy ancestors.  

I am glad that Jason found his missing link and  that  I have gotten to know  family members that until then I didn't know existed.   I hope that though readers might not find anything as dramatic as what Jason found,  that they will discover something within the pages of  Father Was A Caveman that will interest, intrigue, amuse, educate, or make them smile or cry, but most of all that will leave them feeling that reading it was an adventure.  If so, let me know.

jaybee46.alltel.net