David E. Hill was born on 16 November 1949 in Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania. He died on 4 August 2013, at age 63, in Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania. He was buried in Fairmount Cemetery, Phillipsburg, Warren, New Jersey.
David E. Hill was a Hunterdon Development Center Supervisor.
2 David Hill, son of Howard Isaac Hill & Frances R Bartow, grew up, got married and had 2 sons and a daughter.
Per his obituary, "The Express Times" (Easton, PA), David was a supervisor at the Hunterdon Development Center in Clinton, NJ and had also been in the Army National Guard.
I was very young, the last time I know of seeing Frances & Howard and their children, having vague memories of an afternoon sitting outside with the boys, David and older brother Butch, talking, while we were all visiting with my grandmother Emily Hill. That's the afternoon that I remember them, trying to tell me who they were & how they were related. Butch, the only name I knew him by, said he was named after his grandfather who was brother to my grandmother. He had not said 'our' grandmother, but said "brother to your grandmother".
Take note of the "your" part. It had left me confused, being as I, at that time, was just getting started at trying to grasp relationships of people to each other. I had thought they were grandchildren of Emily, like I was. So, if they were grandkids of her brother, then how were we related? They said we were cousins. That left more confusion. My mom and dad's brothers and sisters children were my cousins. Butch and David's dad was not not a sibling of my parents, not my uncle, so how could David and Butch be my cousins too? They said their dad was my cousin too and their grandfather was my gr-uncle. I said, "no, my aunts and uncles are my parent's brothers and sisters... but you say your grandfather, is brother to my grandmother, and that he is my uncle?" So confusing. How could he be my uncle, if he was not my mom or dad's brother? Who was their dad? I just couldn't get it.
To a five year old, that is way too far out in left field to grasp. Makes sense to me now though.
I never forgot that afternoon... pondering it at times over the many years, while growing up, until one day, I started down my genealogy path, and watched the relationships unfold of my Hill ancestors and then I finally saw and understood what the boys had tried to tell me. I knew they were my cousins, but I still didn't know who their parents were. I finally figured it out. Howard & Frances were their parents. Butch, was not Butch, but was Isaac, same name as his grandfather, just like he had said, "named after his grandfather" who was "brother to 'my' grandmother". He'd not said what his grandfather's name was. I finally figured it out. Yes, their dad was not my uncle, but yes, their grandfather was indeed my 'gr-uncle', a brother of my grandmother. Yes, we're truly cousins. 2nd cousins to be exact.
Back in the summer of 2004, David called me, and we had a good and fun chat. Through our talking, David said he remembered that afternoon and he now realized just how confusing what they had said would have been to me, telling me that, yeah, I was pretty young now that he thinks about it. His older brother had, after them trying to explain it to me, stared at me and had said, "aw, you're too young to understand" and I had gotten miffed at that. "I wasn't too young", I had argued back, "it's just that he didn't explain it where I could understand." He had waved his hand at me, shrugging me off. THAT miffed me big time.
That day. The one and only time that David and I remembered seeing each other and had a shared memory that had stuck. One of so far back, that we had already started discussing genealogy & just didn't know it. David told me that he'd been tracing the family genealogy for many years and had just learned that I too was doing so. We had lots to talk about we found, cluing each other in with tidbits we knew that the other one didn't. He was tickled to have someone to talk about it with, as was the same for myself.
David, my 2nd cousin on my dad's side. Yes. Their grandfather was brother of my grandmother. That made their dad be a cousin to my dad, 'because', THEIR parents were brother and sister. Brothers and sisters children are always "cousins 1st". We're children of our dad's, who were cousins '1st', and when we were born, it makes us be cousins 2nd. That's simple enough! Even a 5 year old could understand that. Why didn't Butch just, so simply, say so?
David and I got a very good laugh off of this. Was wonderful that we remembered this together.
The genealogy seed.... got planted deep into both of us that day.