As a list member who read all three of Jane Swan's books, I was sorry to
hear of her passing. I enjoyed reading the "rantings" between Fred and Jane
and learned to appreciate their "affection" for each other!
I remember her saying she had been off line due to some medical problems a
while ago and hoped it was not too serious. Often I would "skip" over
e-mails but always read hers!
Claire Berger
Massachusetts
In a message dated 1/13/2011 1:50:40 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
fredrump@gmail.com writes:
I found an obit for Jane Ellen Swan of Port Charlotte, Fl, but it made
no mention of her books. However, I just found in the Hannover-L
archives this statement in one of her postings when she was giving Fred
a lecture.
I was an officer of the SW FL Genealogy Society and we had our
meetings in Port Charlotte. She was a member. Jane was sickly about
two years ago and would miss meetings but she never complained about
anything. I've since dropped out of the group as it is a long drive to
get there for me. When we founded the group we were going to rotate
meeting places around SW FL but that turned into too many
complications.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure the obit points to our Jane. I'm in the
process of verifying that.
As to our arguments - basically Jane wrote fiction and put a bend on
it that didn't reflect real life all the time. At least according to
my readings in contemporary works (of that era) she based her writings
on her own family history and not on a more generalized even view. She
had a fetish about Hanoverian vs Prussian conflict in the latter 19th
century which, she claimed, eventually resulted in war between the two
nations. It was a much larger picture involving German unification
which switched old allegiances toward different goals then having all
these little vulnerable (mostly to French aggression) German states.
But it's a long story.
Fred