BRETHREN-L Archives

From: "Terry R. Barnhart" <>
Subject: Hair Samples
Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2000 08:20:01 -0700

I too have a small collection of hair samples from past relatives. I
think it was somewhat a common practice of saving hair from loved ones
in the 19th Century. For example, I found samples from my great
grandfather (Elisha Demmitt) wrapped in tissue in his wallet which I
believe were taken from his corpse before burial. He died young in 1905
from double pneumonia after getting wet from chopping wood in Miami
County, Ohio. His widowed wife must have kept the samples and stored
them in his leather wallet marked with his name and address. I found
this artifact by accident with my 95 year old grandfather in his attic.
I often thought it could be useful someday to test for DNA, but have
never pursued that idea yet.

Terry R. Barnhart
Denver

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• Hair Samples by "Terry R. Barnhart" <>