Vera Dunn Smith-And the Hand Written Family History

My grandmother Vera Dunn Smith lived with my family all my life. She was a talented woman knowing several languages and aspired to be a concert pianist in her youth. During the early Great Depression years she used her talent to play piano music for silent films When I was just a girl, before I joined the church, she showed me a hand written copy of the Biography of the Beighley Family of Europe. In the 1930’s, she had copied the biography with her lovely scrolling handwriting while visiting her uncle Isaac Newton Beighley. I have kept that copy all my life as a lost family artifact, using it to connect to ancestors in the France. A couple years ago, I was on the internet and decided to just “Google” my ancestor’s name. There it was in less than five second, the treasured biography of the Beighley Family History abridged by someone and posted on the internet.. Here is the story I want to pass down to my family. “Johan BUEHL came under notice from King Louis XIV under the following conditions: Louis XIV, profound in his belief in the divine right of Kings, found himself opposed by half the armies of Europe; wherein the Rhine Valley, for many years was destined to be a battleground. Many of the settlers of the area intermixed with the thrifty Hollanders whose beliefs were diametrically opposed to those of Louis XIV. These people adhered to self government, free thought and Protestantism. The victorious armies of Louis XIV seized the city of Strausberg, mistress of the Rhine, and decreed that all Protestant Churches be closed. All were ordered to embrace Catholicism and into the homes of those who refused, groups of solders known as the Dragoons were sent for the purpose of persecuting the inhabitants until they submitted to Catholicism. When members of the detested Dragonade entered the home of our Johan BUEHL, he handed a small bible to the officer in charge and told him, "I am guided by this Book and will flourish as yon evergreen tree, as this Book promises." It is said that the shamed officer took his departure and the incident was reported to the King. Whereupon, the King sent Johan an invitation to become one of his officers and sent him a coat of arms. The College of Heraldry describes this coat of arms as "a green tree on an azure background, quartered with the king's own color." As an officer of the King, Johan would have been permitted to wear this on his sleeve. Also as an officer of the King, his name was to have been changed to BUCHLI, meaning "little book." After the revocation of the Great Edict of Nantes (which promised protection of Protestants), Johan BUCHLI, who refused to convert to Catholicism, was forced to leave the land occupied by generations of his family and travel across the border into Germany, where he made a new home in the city of Stutgart. Having lost everything, he had taken up the trade of weaver. [Excerpted from a family history compiled by Harry L. Hutchinson, great-great-great grandson of Johan Conrad Buchli, son of Johan Buehl.]”