Robert Joseph and Nancy Jo met on June 16, 1980 while working at Fellowship House, a psychosocial rehabilitation program for the mentally ill, in Miami, FL. Robert was in the midst of his graduate studies to attain the Master of Social Work degree from Barry University. Nancy Jo had previously been a special education teacher. She has twin sons, Shawn and Todd. Our first date was on October 25, 1980 when we saw Richard Burton perform in "Camelot" at the Jackie Gleason Theatre in Miami Beach. We married on April 24, 1981.
Robert's maternal family is English and Irish heritage: one major segment dates to the early Roman Catholic English settlers of colonial Maryland and the other major segment are Irish immigrants during the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. The family has been centered in Daviess County, Indiana, since before the Civil War. His paternal family is mainly English Protestant, most of whom initially settled in colonial Virginia, with a smattering of Irish and German heritage. One family segment moved into Pulaski County, Kentucky, and another family branch into Ohio, prior to settling in Benton County, Indiana, in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Nancy Jo's maternal family is mainly German Lutheran, with some Jewish heritage, who settled in St. Louis, Missouri, during the late 1800s, after migrating through New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Her paternal family was of Austrian Roman Catholic heritage who immigrated to St. Louis, Missouri, in the early 1900s.
Our families embody the motto of this nation that our immigrant ancestors successfully entered and thrived: "E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of Many, One").
This site is our story and the history of our families.
NOTE: Only information regarding deceased family members may be viewed by visitors. Family members have been provided with the password for full access. If you have forgotten the password or want to request full access, send a message to the website administrator (Robert J. Vaughn).
HISTORICAL NOTATIONS ADDED: Levin Bramble, James L. Brown, Ralph C. Dages, Mary Ann Daily, Edward Farrell, Isabella Gibson, Austin L. Healy, Anne Louise Healy, John Healy (b.1836), Maria Healy, Samuel Healy, Simon P. Healy, Helen Healy, Richard A. Mangin, Victor J. Mangin, Margaret McAvoy, Hugh Morgan (Sr), Richard D. Norris, Clarence Smith, John Adam Smith, Clarence P. Vaughn, Jesse W. Vaughn, Robert W. Vaughn, Paul A. Zinkan
"We are the story tellers, the bards, the druids of the tribes. We hear the calling of those who went before us as their path leads to ours. We yearn to discover their stories, to know each and every one of them. We search for their graves, their histories, and an understanding of their lives beyond cold statistics.
We connect to a past rich in history and hardships, loves and losses, glories and gains.
We understand ourselves as we understand them, the same genes, the same features, the same family.
We honour them and bestow our respect to their memory, for their bones are our bones, their flesh is our flesh.
We record carefully all that we have unearthed, learned, discovered, understood and surmised.
Then, we pass the torch of knowledge and heritage to our children, our grandchildren and their grandchildren.
We are the story tellers, the bards, the druids of the tribes."
(by Anne Stevens)
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