READER   FEEDBACK

1.  In a message dated 6/5/00 6:20:12 p.m. EDT (followed by a second message dated 8/11/00 4:02:21 p.m. EDT), [email protected]  (Robert J. Helms) wrote:

Subj: Descendants of the Rev. John Lothrop

Some time ago, I viewed a video prepared by the Mormon Church about the Rev. John Lothrop, as he was an ancestor of one of the church's founders, Joseph Smith. John was an Anglican minister who, like Martin Luther, objected to some of the practices/teachings of the established church (in Lothrop's case, the Church of England), so he started his own church. They had to practice their religion in secrecy and were hunted down, and John was finally captured and imprisoned. For many years his wife sought his release, and, as I recall, the condition of his eventual release from prison was to leave the country, which he did, coming to America.

The data on the Rev. John Lothrop's descendants that I'm sending you for possible inclusion in the Ryker-Riker database came to me in the 1980s from a Mr. Bernal M. Meador, who had done the research. My brother, Art, had met Bernal ("Bill") Meador at a Ryker family reunion about that time, in or near Madison, IN, and Bill subsequently sent Art some Family Group Sheets as they pertained to my family's (i.e., HELMS) connection. As I recall, Bill considered himself the Ryker Family Historian at that time. [In 1986, I know that Bernal lived in Denver, CO; he had moved there from Kansas City. I doubt if he is still living, as he was around 70 years old then.] He also sent a sheet of paper indicating the relationship to the twenty-something famous people you will find in the file, and later sent information which allowed me to determine my relationship to them. That's why there is the link to my family in the files, but not much else.

The primary source of these 'Rev. John Lothrop Descendant' data is thus Bernal M. Meador (although 10 of the names bore as source The Scudder Association -- www.scudder.org/history.html). Though I cannot vouch for their accuracy, I hope that Ryker-Riker family researchers will find the indicated relationships informative and tantalizing, though far from complete.

     -- Robert J. Helms, South Bend, IN

(Ed.): To check out your relationship to the Rev. John Lothrop 'famous descendants', click here.

2.  In a message dated 3/23/00 7:30:18 a.m. EST, [email protected]  (Kenneth Haas) wrote:

Subj: Dr. William Riker

In the early 1960s, we lived in the Chicago suburbs and had three children, including two-year old
Michael. At a routine visit to a doctor, we were told Michael had a suspicious and loud heart murmur. We took him to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and tests confirmed that Mike had a large hole in his little heart. He was checked periodically for two years and we were told he should have surgery in from "now" to six years. We elected "now" when Mike was not old enough to be afraid. The surgeon selected to do the surgery was a middle-aged, white-haired fatherly figure named Dr. William L. Riker.

Now this was when open-heart surgery was in its infancy. Dr. Riker told us harrowing stories of such surgery before the development of the heart-lung machine. In a five-hour operation, Dr. Riker sewed a plastic patch over the large hole in Michael's heart chamber. In a week, Mike was sitting on our front porch in the Spring sun, and in a few weeks he was running around like any normal four-year-old. His small body had taken on skeletal proportions before the operation but now he ate everything in sight -- and still does!! Today he lives in Texas, is forty-one years old, weighs over 200 pounds, has never had any further serious health problems and drives a semi-truck all over Texas. My wife Polly and I will be eternally grateful for that wonderful man (and his surgical team) for giving back our Mike's life.

As that was forty years ago, I assume Dr. Riker is no longer with us, but if there are any of his children or grand-children or other relatives out there, I wanted them to know this story. Forty years ago, Dr. Riker's bulletin board was posted with dozens of letters expressing similar sentiments. What a wonderful legacy!!

     -- Kenneth and Polly Haas

(Ed.): If any of our readers can identify this Dr. Wm. L. Riker, please send a short note & we'll publish it here.

[This page was last updated 10/29/03]