Our Ancestor Was ~ a Missionary

Emma Naomi Ruth Shellabear, husband's aunt

b. 11/26/1886 - d. 05/14/1972

A favorite website for researching ancestors is the Library of Congress newspaper website, Chronicling America. I have been fortunate enough to find tons of interesting articles. Also, additional information was discovered on Newspaper.com.

While researching Rev. C.W. Ruth (husband's grandfather), I discovered this unknown family history story about my husband's aunt, Emma Naomi Ruth.

Naomi was Christian's oldest daughter. She was born November 26, 1886. She began missionary work at a very young age. Over her lifetime, she traveled to many out-of-the- way places. I discovered the above photograph on her passport from Ancestry.com, dated September 13, 1916.

Doing further research, I located the articles, which detailed a very anxious time for the entire Ruth family. For a while, they didn't know where Emma was during an earthquake that struck in the path of her travels.

The Sun. (New York, NY) 31 Dec. 1908. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83030272/1908-12-31/ed-1/.

 

The Indianapolis Star: 31 Dec, 1908; Indianapolis, Indiana; Newspapers.com

The Indiana Star; 01 Jan, 1909; Indianapolis; Indiana; Newspapers.com

The Fairmount News; 06 Apr, 1909; Fairmount, Indiana; Newspapers.com

Can you imagine how harrowing this was for Naomi's parents?! Especially in a time period where communication was not as readily available. 

To learn more about the disaster, searched Chronicling American for "messina".  

          

New-York tribune. (New York, NY) 30 Dec 1908. Retrived from the Library of Congress, 222.loc.gove/item/sn830214/1908-12-30d/ed/1.