A TREASURE FROM "BEYOND" Mary Ann Reed Unger [email protected]

For more than a decade, I had been searching for information on my elusive ancestor, Jeremiah REED, who died in the mid-1800s in Hamilton Square (old Nottingham Square), New Jersey. The cemetery in which he was buried was now under a paved parking lot behind a church-turned-auction house, and I could find no record of his birth.

Research in New Jersey wills provided a clue: Jeremiah REED was identified as "nephew" and executor to Jonathan PIERSON of Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Several more days of searching old Hunterdon County court records turned up a 1776 paternity suit, in which the entire ancient love affair was recounted and Azariah REED of Trenton/Maidenhead, New Jersey was proven to be the father.

Armed with this information, I placed the genealogical data in the New Jersey State Library and in several databases. Then I placed queries in the REED surname index at RootsWeb. I had a response from a REED gentleman from nearby Lawrenceville, New Jersey, who claimed to have the Jeremiah REED Bible. We arranged a visit and he brought the tattered old book. Yes, it contained the birth, marriage, and death records of Jeremiah REED and his children, but then some families simply copy earlier information into Bibles for each of the children. However, the publication date was in the early 1800s, so it was possible that this was the genuine Bible of Jeremiah REED. We paged through the old Bible, finding newspaper articles from a much later time period, articles whose significance was lost to us.

Then I saw a small stained and folded paper -- a bookmark, suggested the gentleman. I unfolded it and read the faint handwriting that said:

Jeremiah Reed is my name,
America is my station,
Nottingham Square is my dwelling place,
and Christ is my salvation.
When I am dead and gone
and all my bones are rotten
and you should read this,
then I am not forgotten."
���� ����[signature of Jeremiah REED]

A personal "thank you" for bringing to light the details of his life? I like to think so.