Shakin' the Family Tree

Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: E is for Export

2013-05-11T01:49:48Z

Exporting the GEDCOM to whatever online service you use.

I do this a couple of times a week.

Okay, some weekends, a couple of times a day.

Because once you start shakin' the family tree, it's real hard to stop.

These days, you'll find me in the garden on all but the coldest and rainiest of days.

I am taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, albeit starting a few months late.

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It's raining cousins again...

2013-04-10T02:15:42Z

Baldings, Harrises, and Whartons.

Three emails today. From the blog, and the online family tree and Facebook.

Woo-hoo!

I love it when that happens.

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Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: D is for Death

2013-04-10T02:12:52Z

You cannot explore your family history without encountering it. Death is part of the cycle, and family history is a marvel of cycles.

Still, there are stories that just tear at your heart.

This entry is re-published from the original entry on 6 Nov 2010, entitled Sometimes I don't know how they did it...

Sometimes I don't know how they did it.

The ancestors, that is.

No air conditioning or indoor plumbing.

Chamber pots under the bed at night.

Dinner was running around out in the backyard until you took a hatchet to it. Or went out in the woods with a shotgun. If you weren't faster than your prey, there probably was greens and cornbread. Again.

And you were thankful for it.

Wardrobe choices were easier, I guess.

And all those kids. Sometimes as I am adding them one after another to the database, I have to smile...there were only three of us and my parents would get confused.

Dee - I mean Vicki - I mean Lorraine...I mean, whoever it is, CUT THAT OUT!

And then, there are somber moments that accompany all those names and dates. Moments when I feel, even for just a split second when the horrible details come together, like I've been sucker punched.

Meet Charles Hardin Patterson...

The year before he married Polly Ann Wharton (my second cousin, 3X removed), Charles had what was probably the worst year of his life.

He married Sarah Ann Cowan in the fall of 1877 in Johnson County, Arkansas. The leaves were probably turning fiery reds and glittery golds when they got hitched. Johnson County is gorgeous that time of year.

They made a farm and babies, including fraternal twins Nancy Ellen and her brother, Jesse Washington, in June 1886. Sarah Ann was 28 when the twins were born, her fifth and sixth children.

Ida Bell was born in October 1888, and William, the eighth and final child borne by Sarah Ann, arrived on 11 Jun 1890.

Something must have gone horribly wrong.

Charles Hardin Patterson became a widower five days later, alone with a newborn son and a toddler daughter, both of whom shortly would become very ill. He was 32 years old.

On 5 Aug 1890, baby William died. His sister Ida followed him to a tiny grave in Buckhorn Cemetery on 23 Aug 1890. In the space of just over two months, Charles Patterson lost his partner in life and two youngest children. His oldest child was 11 years old.

I cannot begin to imagine his pain.

Sometimes it's hard to see the path through the tears.

But the journey is good.

Namaste.

I am taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, albeit starting a few months late.

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Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: C is for Callaway

2013-03-01T02:30:39Z

Mace Callaway to be specific.

He was my great great grandfather.

This is the only known photograph of him that exists in my family.

Allen Mason Lowery Callaway, 3 Jan 1847 - 15 Feb 1877

I know quite a few things about him.

It's the things I don't know that bug me, and even more, that I haven't a clue about how to figure them out.

Like where he's buried.

And if his death at age 30 was related to his service in the Civil War.

And how, since he already knew the man who was to become his widow's second husband as a result of their service in the same CSA cavalry unit - was there some kind of an agreement between the two of them that David Andrew Williams would take care of the young widow, Mary Dunn Callaway, and their daughter (my great grandmother), Julia Ann Callaway?

And why did Mace and Mary only have one child throughout the course of their eleven year marriage before his death?

My C is for Callaway challenge is a challenge in so many ways.

I am taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, albeit starting a few months late.

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Another one of those "I Had No Idea" things

2013-02-05T00:18:21Z

I never heard of the American Protective League, a group of private citizens who worked with federal law enforcement during World War I.

Only according to this article in Slate's The Vault, sometimes they got a tad over zealous.

Busting citizens they considered to be food hoarders.

And other stuff.

Geez...

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Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: B is for Bits and Pieces

2013-02-03T16:36:28Z

Logo

I loved reading this in The Atkins Chronicle, 23 Jan 2013 issue, at page 3.

75 Years Ago
From the files of Feb. 4, 1938
People of Hector will celebrate the installation of electric power Tuesday, Feb. 22. The celebration will begin at 4 o'clock. J M Danley of Scottsville is in charge of the program. H M Cheek of Hector will deliver the welcome address. Other speakers on the program will be W P Strait of Morrilton, Lieutenant Governor Bob Bailey, Judge A B Priddy, Reece Caudle and E W Hogan of Russellville.

Rural Arkansans have always been last to get most of the modern conveniences.

As early as 1913, Arkansas had, in addition to city and town electrical utilities, an electric utility that connected cities on the power grid.

So I imagine that a quarter of a century later, it was a really big deal for the little Pope County town of Hector to get electricity.

In my mind's eye, I see someone ceremoniously flipping a switch, and I hear the "oohs and aahs."

Got this photo in my email the other day.

That's my dad, and one of his favorite hunting dogs - a pointer named Rex. The year was 1972.

Dad always loved to bird hunt - back in the day when Arkansas had an abundant quail population.

Before humans destroyed their habitat.

When I was very young, he had English setters. The pointers came later. Dad and his dogs competed in field trials.

And Rex was a very cool dog.

As I read other blogs, I've noted that most bloggers try very hard to credit information they use in their blogs to appropriate sources, if it's not original content.

It does kind of bug me to see a blogger's copyright symbol displayed on so many old photographs. While I understand that the blogger is probably trying to prevent indiscriminate copying and re-use of photos, just possessing a photo doesn't grant you copyright.

From the FAQ page of the United States Copyright Office:
Copyright is the right of the author of the work or the author's heirs or assignees, not of the one who only owns or possesses the physical work itself. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Who Can Claim Copyright.”

I am taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, albeit starting a few months late.

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Sepia Saturday: She made hats

2013-01-26T05:00:05Z

This is a photo I estimate to be circa 1868-1875 of the millinery shop owned and operated by my great-great grandmother, Mary Emily (Conner) Meek in Grenada Co., MS. (Click here to read more about her.)

From comparing the only known photo I have of her to this one, I think grandmama was the lady seated to the right of the post.

But I can't be sure.

This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for more wonderful photos.

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Family History Through the Alphabet: A is for Ashmore

2013-01-23T23:33:42Z

In my line of direct ancestors is Andrew Sawyer Ashmore. He was my 3rd great grandfather.

I don't know where the middle name came from, although some records and other family trees indicate he favored the name enough that he called himself Sawyer. Sawyer Ashmore's mother was Mary Henderson, so it wasn't a case of carrying on the maternal surname.

Here's what I do know about Sawyer Ashmore.

He was born in 1798 (probably in Lawrence Co., TN) to Joshua Ashmore and Mary Henderson.

About 1815, he married Elizabeth McCarley (whose parents are unknown to me) in Lawrence County.

He and his father were listed on the Lawrence County tax list in 1826.

Apparently, he was not old enough to vote in 1818, because only his father was listed in the Lawrence County list of registered voters that year.

In 1838, Sawyer and Elizabeth, along with his younger brother, Robert, and two younger sisters - Cynthia Ann (Burris), and Lucinda (Carrell), moved to Pope County, AR. Members of Elizabeth McCarley's family also made the same trip, as did Sawyer's 78 year old father, Joshua. I have a visual image of the elder Ashmore being helped up into an ox drawn wagon.

Sawyer and Elizabeth Ashmore had four, and possibly five, children, one of whom was my great great grandmother, Elizabeth Adeline Ashmore.

He farmed 170 acres of land in what was Conway County, AR (but is now Pope County) for 15 years prior to his death on 9 Oct 1853.

He was buried in the McCarley Family Cemetery, not far from where my dad lives now.

This is not the original gravestone, and Elizabeth's date of death -
3 Nov 1875, must not have been known by the descendants who placed it.

I am taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, albeit starting a few months late.

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An Ashmore cousin came to call...

2013-01-11T13:24:44Z

He found me through my Find a Grave entries.

We've been corresponding for the past few days, and made an interesting discovery.

One of my Burris cousins was his first grade teacher in a little one room schoolhouse at Gumlog in Pope Co., AR.

I love it when this happens.

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Sepia Saturday: Grandma in her bathing suit

2013-01-08T18:23:57Z

This one has got to be one of my favorites...

I understand my grandmother made her suit herself.

She was always good with a needle.

Look at her monogram...

Doris Geneva Balding, early 1920s

This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for other wonderful images.

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Arkansas Peace Society of 1861 and "chain gangs"

2013-01-06T21:45:37Z

I've been working with a friend on his family tree over the last week or so, and found out something I did not know about Arkansas in the Civil War.

We had secret societies of what could be characterized as the first conscientious objectors. Apparently, they were more prolific in north central and northern Arkansas.

The CSA began early in the war in Arkansas to "investigate" and arrest people it considered traitors to the Southern cause.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, the Arkansas Peace Society was "occasionally referred to as the Home Protection Society, Home Guard, and various other names at the time."

And so I ran and looked.

Yep, we had a few members of the Pope County Home Guard in my family.

My friend is researching the surname Turney.

At least one of the members of his family who were members of the Arkansas Peace Society was forced into the CSA after being led away in an infamous "chain gang," the brainchild of Colonel Samuel Leslie, commandant of Searcy County’s militia. In December 1861, he marched 78 men in chains to Little Rock, a trip that took six days.

One of the descendants of one of those men commented on a blog called The Civil War Daily Gazette:
Interesting article! My great-great grandfather Franklin Wortman was one of the seventy-seven men chained and marched away. My grandmother, Grace Wortman Cox (1906-2002) said that her father John Lemuel Wortman told her that he would never forget the sight of his father being marched away in chains.

The members of the Arkansas Peace Society are listed on a page of the Edward G. Gerdes Civil War Home Page, and were (his relatives in bold):
Adams, Green Berry - Adams, Joseph - Adams, Spencer - Addison, Mayfield - Arter, Carroll -
Arter, Joseph L.

Bailey, J. F. - Baker, B. A. - Baker, David C. - Baker, James A. - Ball, Gehuger
Ball, James W. - Barnes, James Jackson - Barnes, W. F. - Barnett, David - Bartlet, William
Bishop, Lindsay - Black, Simeon B. - Blasingame, Anderson - Bradshaw, Henry - Bradshaw, John H. - Bradshaw, William - Brantley, B. F. - Branum, Solomon - Bratton, William Milican - Brewer, Aaron V. B. - Brewer, Jonas - Brewer, Lewis S. - Brown, John - Brown, George - Brown, John - Brown, Solomon I. - Brown, William - Broyles, James F.

Carithers, John M. - Cash, Levi C. - Castleberry, John R. - Castleberry, Washington Cahal - Cates, William A. J. - Chambers, Jeff - Chambers, W. R. - Christy, James F. Homer - Christy, John - Christy, Joseph C. - Clark, Lewis - Conley, Beverly L. - Cook, Henry - Copeland, Alexander N. - Copeland, James B. - Copeland, William - Cummins, Joseph - Curl, John W. - Curl, Samuel M. - Curry, Anderson - Curry, David - Curry, James E.

Davis, H. M. - Davis, William - Denton, Chris - Dickerson, E. - Downey, Patrick L. - Duck, Timothy Arthur - Dugger, Jasper- Dugger, Thomas M. - Dugger, William M.

Ezell, Isiah - Ezell, John

Faught, Thomas J. - Faught, William C. - Fisher, William Thomas - Forehand, Jonathan - Forehand, Thomas - Foster, James B.

Gadberry, Wm. - Garner, Sr. Parrish - Garrison, _____ - Gary, B. H. - Gerner, Parish - Gilbreth, John - Grinder, Robert - Grinder, Samuel - Guthrey, Thomas

Harley, John - Harness, John W. - Harness, John - Harness, W. H. - Harris, John - Harris, Thomas - Harris, Wm. - Hatley, J. R. - Hatley, J. W. - Haynes, Wm. - Hays, George M. - Hays, Wm. - Hensley, F. H. - Hensley, P.M. - Henson, F. H. - Hoffs, John - Holly, Absolem - Holley, Alex - Holley, Reuben C. - Hollis, James M. - Holmes, John - Hooten, George

Jamison, D. - Jeffery, Wm. - Jenkins, John H. - Johnson,Robert - Jones, Stephen

Kamey, Thomas - Kesner, W. A. - Kilburn Carroll - Kirkham, John W. - Kuykendall, Francis

Ladamon, R. C. - Laive, Jo - Lee, Robert - Long, George - Love, A. J. - Luttrell, James - Lynn, W. G.

Maness, Claiborne - Marshall, William H. - McBee, Alexander - McBee, James H. - McDaniel, John W. - McDaniel, William F. - McEntire, John A. - McInturn, Thomas W. - McLane, S. Allan - McMillan, E. L. - McNair, James Claiborn - Melton, Thomas - Moody, Jonathan - Morris, John Wortman - Morris, John, Jr. - Morris, John, Sr. - Morris, William

Null, John R.

Osborn, Eli L.

Packet, W. J. - Palmer, Benjamin F. - Parks, Daniel J. - Parks, Theophilus (Dink) - Parsley, A. A.- Parsley, Abraham J. - Parsley, J. B. - Passmore, Benjamin J. - Passmore, Joel Henry - Pearce, William - Phillips, Luther P. - Pierce, Austin - Potter, William F. - Price, Charles William - Price, Lindsay - Price, William

Ramsey, Smith - Reeves, Asa - Reeves, Jarrett - Reeves, Joshua - Reeves, Peter - Richardson, James C. - Richardson, Joshua - Ridings, James C. - Rose, M. - Ruff, David Crocket

Sanders, John L. - Satterfield, A. J. - Satterfield, John R. - Satterfield, Nathaniel - Satterfield, P. M. - Scott, William Franklin - Seaton, Nicholas - Shipman, Matthew - Shirley, Wm. - Singleferry, Wm. C. - Slay, Benjamin F. - Slay, Thomas J. - Smith, Abner H. - Smith, Claiborn - Smith, G. W. - Smith, Gilmore - Smith, John - Snellgrove, Gasaway - Stobaugh, Ananias - Stobaugh, Edmond - Strickland, John Anderson - Strickland, Paris - Strickland, Samuel Smith - Strother, Wm. - Sutterfield, Ananias J. - Sutterfield, Nathanial - Sutterfield, Peter Moore - Sutton, Logan

Tackett, W. J. - Taylor, Benjamin Franklin - Taylor, Hezikiah - Terry, Morgan M. - Thompson, James Patrick - Thompson, Samuel - Thompson, Thomas - Thompson, William J. - Tilley, James -

Tinkle, Mike - Tinkle, Robert - Treadwell, John S. - Treat, James William - Treat, John B. -

Treep, James - Treese, Benjamin - Treese, Daniel - Treese, William - Tucker, John Allen - Tucker, John Middleton - Turney, Bowman - Turney, Pleasant B. R. - Turney, Presley - Turney, Si (Josiah S.) - Tyler, Peter A.

Wallace, J. W. - Wallis, James - Ware, J. J. - Watts, Asa - Watts, Benjamin G. - Watts, Samuel
Webb, John - Wells, Wm. C. - Whitmire, Henry J. - Whitmire, J. J. - Wiley, Wallis - William Jasper - Wilson, John - Winn, Wm. M. - Woodrum, Vinsom M. - Woodworth, Nathan F. - Wortman, Christopher M. - Wortman, Franklin - Wortman, John - Wren, Shadrich J.

Yeary, Wm. H. - Younger, Alexander - Younger, Thomas

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Happy holidays to you

2012-12-24T16:04:12Z

Jo Desha and Maxie Leah Williams family, Christmas Day 1900
photo by McLeod, the Wild West photographer

Every time I see this one, I just dissolve into gales of laughter.

Can't you just imagine the dinner table discussion a couple of weeks before the holiday?

"Honey, what shall we do this year for Christmas? After all, it's the first Christmas of the new century."

Oh, I don't know. . .hey, why don't we get that McLeod guy to take a picture? We could dress up and go sit outside on some rocks."

"Marvelous idea, darling! And we could put Paul and Cedric on a couple of asses. They've been acting like asses for a few days now. It would serve them right. . ."

The back of the photo has an extensive ad for "McLeod, the Wild West Photographer. . . the man who made Happy Hollow famous the world over."

I don't know how you celebrate this holiday season in your home. However you do it, do it with gusto. Laugh and love and enjoy.

You could do it in Williams family style. Dress up in all your finery and go sit on some rocks. Take a photo. Take lots of photos.

From me and the petting zoo at the cottage, happy holidays.

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The Rose Man of Sing Sing

2012-12-15T14:43:49Z

Getting that contact from my Chapin cousin rekindled my fascination with one of our bad boys, Charles E Chapin, whom James McGrath Morris dubbed The Rose Man of Sing Sing, in his biography of the same name.

The book was published in 2003, and in 2004, it was selected by the Washington Post as one of the best non-fiction books of 2004.

Since I have a holiday season staycation coming up soon, I checked it out of my library to read.

Only I'm peeking.

A lot.

Because it's good.

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A letter from her dad

2012-12-12T03:16:14Z

My 10th cousin and I are pretty jazzed about our Chapin connection.

So now, we've started on her mother's side of the family.

I am quite taken with one of her mother's relatives - her maternal grandmother, Hilda.

In a few short hours, I have come to admire Hilda for several reasons.

We believe Hilda's maiden name was Osterberg.

She was Swedish, born on 17 Jul 1891 in Kristianistad, Skane Co., Sweden. I got that information from her passport application in 1919.

Hilda immigrated to the United States in March 1911, as a 19 year-old girl. I don't know yet if she came with relatives or by herself.

If it's the latter, I am in awe. I cannot imagine doing that myself.

Sometime between March 1911 and the 1920 census, Hilda married William C Griggs, from Plymouth Co., MA. He was 12 years her senior. They had a daughter named Ella Linnea Griggs, whom I suspect was named for both her grandmothers.

William's mother's name was Ella.

On 23 May 1919, Hilda completed a passport application so she could return home to Sweden.

Attached to the back of the application were two letters from her father. One of them made me want to cry.

My Dear Daughter

I will tell you that your aunt is dead. Your uncle & his daughter are in bed so that cannot be at the funeral so that I have to do the work myself as the funeral is going to be at my house. I wish Linea had been [illegible] to help me.

When can I begin to look for you home. I do not want any present only bring home a dollar bill so that I can see how your money looks.

It's that letter that makes me wonder if Ella Linnea Griggs was named for both grandmothers. She was not born until 1923, so Hilda's father could not have been talking about his granddaughter.

Passport applications are rich in information.

I love this photo of Hilda.

Now, I just have to brush up on Swedish naming conventions...

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Lucius Milo Chapin, 1842-1928

2012-12-11T03:51:00Z

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My newly found, who-knows-how-many-times-removed Chapin cousin is hunting for information about her great great grandfather.

She has quite a bit of information already. She wants to find his grave, which she suspects is unmarked. She recently has been to Evergreen Cemetery twice on that quest.

And she shared a photo.

Lucius Milo Chapin and wife, Viola M Bayle

Information about interments at Evergreen Cemetery in Union City, Erie Co., PA show the graves of Lucius, Viola and Paul (one of their sons) in Section 6, Lot 53. A caretaker told my cousin that the graves are in Lot 38 instead.

I hope she finds markers buried in sod.

I wonder if Lucius would have a Union Army marker. If he doesn't have one, she can get one from the VA for him.

For free.

According to existing documents, Lucius Milo Chapin enlisted at Venango Township, Erie County, PA on 21 Aug 1861 as a Private in Company K of the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteers.

He was wounded at the second Battle of Bull Run on 30 Aug 1862, and discharged 28 Jan 1863, for wounds received.

His thumb and forefinger were shot off in the battle. Look at the photo above.

According to my cousin, when Lucius posed for photos afterward, he kept something in his left hand to hide the amputations.

And it must have been incredibly hard for him to return to farming afterward.

He applied for a Civil War pension as an invalid on 27 Oct 1863.

I hope he got it.

Lucius married Viola Bayle on 1 Oct 1866. She was the daughter of Samuel K and Theresa L Bayle.

They had five children. The 1870 census in Erie Co., PA shows their first child, a 3 year-old son named Otis.

And that's the last time I saw Otis in the census. The 1900 census says Viola was the mother of 5 children, 4 of whom were living at the time of the census.

I can't find a record of little Otis in cemetery records on Find a Grave for Erie County.

Other children born to Lucius and Viola were Adda, Nora, Paul and Samuel.

Lucius Milo Chapin died on 13 Jun 1928.

And eureka!

As I have been typing this post, my cousin has filled me in on more of the descendants down to her.

We are 10th cousins.

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Woo-hoo! Another Chapin cousin came to call...

2012-12-09T15:57:27Z

And sent me a private message through the blog.

Her g-g-grandfather was Lucius Milo Chapin.

Whom I did not have in the GEDCOM until I did some digging around this morning. I found out he was my 5th cousin, five times removed. So I have no idea what kinship she and I are, because I let the software tell me.

If any of you can figure that one, let me know.

But while I was digging, I found a whole bunch of her ancestors buried in Lowville Cemetery in Wattsburg, Erie Co., PA.

So naturally, I had to stop and figure out who was whom, and add them also. You know about my genealogy ADD. (Yesterday, I was all over some Kellys in Lancashire ENG.)

Chapins now number 745 in the GEDCOM.

They were quite prolific. I wonder if it would shock the boots off of our common progenitor, Deacon Samuel Chapin, to know how much his descendants enjoyed and engaged in sex? Since they were raised not to cuss, drink alcohol and raise hell, I guess there was only one thing left to fill the time when they were not in church.

His likeness was used to craft the monument called The Puritan, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Springfield, MA in 1887.

What can I say? I was born curious...

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I want to be like them...

2012-12-03T01:08:49Z

Well, not really, I'd just like to have the free time they do.

Like this chick on FAG who has the time to count the number of someone else's memorials that are listed as "burial unknown."

On the bright side, I bet she has all her holiday presents bought and wrapped, and can tell you which of her neighbors are woefully inadequate in that regard...

Geez...

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With a nod to our ancestors...

2012-12-02T14:52:55Z

I say our ancestors, because I've always loved old stuff, and some of this did not come from my ancestors.

I don't have a microwave. I don't have a dishwasher, or a clothes dryer.

It's just me and the small "petting zoo" (that's what my son calls it) of companion animals here at the cottage, and I don't mind doing things the old-fashioned way.

My kitchen has stuff in it that my immediate ancestors would have used (and in many cases, someone's did) 50, 75, and 100 years ago.

( For DW readers, more photos behind the cut... )

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Tombstone Tuesday: He did it again...

2012-11-27T02:22:55Z

Find a Grave volunteer Larry Hart went back to Union Cemetery in Panola Co., MS, and got the rest of the gravestone photos in what must have been the Conner family plot.

He emailed me to let me know, so I could create memorials for them.

Then he posted his photos.

William Henry Conner, 1808-1858, my 3rd great grandfather.

Elizabeth Curtis Conner, my 3rd great grandmother.

Henry Conner, 1874-1874, and Claudius Conner, 1876-1876, baby sons of James Alfred Conner, one of William and Elizabeth's sons.

And then he sent me the photos he took by email.

You just don't very often run across people like Mr. Hart.

When you do, you've found a real gem.

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Sentimental Sunday: Mary Emily Conner (1837-1913)

2012-11-25T14:27:29Z

This post is not a fond remembrance of my great great grandmother. I can't remember a woman who died 45 years before I was born.

Her grandson, Jo Duffie Williams, was 10 years old when she died. I don't know - and he didn't ever say - if he attended her funeral, held in Sardis, MS.

For years, I wondered where she was buried. Her death certificate gave me the answer, and I created a memorial page for her on Find a Grave.

I made a request for a photo of the stone.

Just a little over two years after I created the memorial, another Find a Grave volunteer got the photo.

Here Lies With Hope in Jesus Christ Her Saviour
Emily Conner Meek Webb
4-12-1838
4-27-1913

Not only that, but after I thanked him, Larry Hart emailed me all the shots he had taken to get a photo he felt best captured the inscription on the stone which has fallen into the ground after nearly a century. In one of them, you can see that he had to kneel on the grass to get his shots.

He gave me his written permission to use the photos in any way I wished.

The stone is interesting.

The family Bible and her death certificate give Mary Emily Conner's date of birth as 12 Apr 1837. The stone says 1838.

And since her first name isn't on the stone, I wonder if she was called Emily all her life.

This Sentimental Sunday, I am thinking of the great great grandmother I never knew, and a man who knelt patiently in the grass one autumn day to provide her granddaughter a photo of her grave.

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Happy Thanksgiving

2012-11-22T12:26:19Z

And it may come with a guarantee...

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So while I was noodling around in the Webb family tree...

2012-11-22T03:25:27Z

I found something else.

Isn't that the way it always works?

In 1880, there were some people unrelated to Robert Newton Caldwell and Selina Sophia Webb in their household in Fenter, Grant Co., AR.

And one of them had a line drawn through his name when I looked at the image of the form.

Name: George Dallas
Age: 22
Birth Year: abt 1858
Birthplace: Mississippi
Home in 1880: Fenter, Grant, Arkansas
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Single
Father's Birthplace: Mississippi
Mother's Birthplace: Mississippi
Occupation: Work On Farm

When I finished looking at the form, I went back to the transcription of the record.

And saw that little hint in the sidebar.

So I clicked on the link.

U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885
Name: George Dallas
Gender: Male
Race: Black
Marital Status: Single
Place of Birth: Mississippi
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1858
Age: 22
Month of Death: Aug
Cause of Death: Thrown From Horse
Census Year: 1880
Census Location: (City, County, State)
Davis, Grant, Arkansas
Enumeration District: 96

So the 22 year-old farmhand, George Dallas, died in August 1879 after being thrown from a horse.

And his name was crossed out on the form why?

The instructions say the census year began June 1, 1879 and ended May 31, 1880.

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Bits and pieces...

2012-11-21T20:47:45Z

The person who emailed me answered my reply. She is interested in John Webb (some folks say his middle initial was L). I have a date of birth of 10 Sep 1798 in Tennessee, but no date of death. His wife, Sarah "Sally" Waters, died in 1882 and was buried in Fairplay Cemetery, Benton, Saline Co., AR

And that's all I know.

And that's all I know about what she wants to know.

Webbs are collateral members of my family tree. There have been scattered intermarriages of Webbs with my Stricklands and McCarleys - sisters of John Webb.

So now, I'm taking a look at the Webb family. There appears to be evidence of a large, well established family in Grant County made up of the children and grandchildren of John Webb.

It would be nice to have specifics about what my correspondent wants to know.

But I am intrigued anyway...

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Sepia Saturday: Louise Herrington and sister Florence

2012-11-21T16:16:51Z

A photo of my paternal grandmother, Addie Louise Herrington (left) and her sister Florence.

Florence was the only daughter of the five born to Jasper Monroe Herrington and Julia Ann Callaway who *was not* a twin.

Photo circa 1925

This is a Sepia Saturday post. Head over there for a look at other wonderful old photos.

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Random musings...

2012-11-21T14:57:01Z

I started this blog to share - photos, memories, documents, places and people - with other people.

Freely sharing was important to me because of the sharing of information I experienced in the early years of this journey when I asked for information.

On surname message boards. Hard to believe, but I still find posts of my own from 1999 on some of those boards.

Distant cousins found the blog in Google searches. I correspond with several of them still. All the other bloggers were right.

If you build it, they will come.

In the last few months, I've started getting emails that go something like this:
I am making sure that this e-mail doesn't bounce. I am researching a possible family connection in Arkansas. (That's the actual text of a message I found in my inbox this morning.)

I always reply to those, to let them know the email address is still good. Sometimes, there is a distant family connection.

Sometimes, people have seen how Arkansas-intensive my tracks are on the internet, and they just need help with their own trees.

What can I say? I'm a Scorpio, and always intrigued by a mystery.

Even when it doesn't have one of my own surnames on it.

You know how people say that they hope they don't find out they unwittingly married their own cousin?

I've always figured that somewhere downline - closer to my generation - I'd find out someone was a cousin of their spouse.

I decided last week to start looking at my nephews' and niece's families on the *other* sides of their families.

I started with my niece. Her father's surname is Rankin.

Started with her dad and went backward.

After about 3 hours, I sat here grinning like a fool.

Her dad is my 4th cousin, twice removed. The connection starts in 1877, when John James Rankin married Margaret Ann Lemley in Pope County.

Margaret Ann was the daughter of Ephraim Lemley, Jr. and Cynthia Elvira Burris.

So my niece is also my 4th cousin, three times removed.

Of course, I didn't stop with the pedigree.

I'm looking for bits and pieces of information that give the third dimension to the names, dates and places.

Turns out the Rankins (and their allied families) were quite the movers and shakers in Perry County, AR.

And some of its earliest settlers.

The Rankin family will have blog posts of its own.

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