But Henrys had turned out to litter my genealogical life, and Henry the Bichon had been joined by
Henry Bicker and Henry Lansing. And by Henry Livingston. That last Henry had turned out to be a
happy farmer from Poughkeepsie, a town I only knew as
the home of one of the IBM laboratories up the Hudson River from the IBM Research Laboratory,
where I worked as a computer scientist researcher.
Henry attracted me from the start. His optimistic view of life mirrored my own, and I delved with joy into his
life. And came up sputtering with the story that some people actually believed Henry Livingston
had written "Night Before Christmas!"
Amazing!
While being escorted to the grave of another ancestral poet in Trinity Churchyard in New York City, I was told by my priest guide that Clement
Clark Moore was buried in the same yard. That set me off on the story of Henry and the Christmas poem.
The priest, Rev. David R Jette, turned out to be the very man who led the Christmas candlelight procession to
Moore's grave.
This coincidence inspired me to dig deeper into Henry and the poem.