The Girls Were Shipped Off . . .

via Parcel Post to their aunt in 1918. Read all about it.

Spring Break . . . Almost Here

Spring break is almost here for the college where I work. I plan to take advantage of my time off to do a little genealogical research! First stop . . . the North Carolina State Library and Archives in Raleigh. I've got a long list of things to copy there as well as more work on a project that I'm hoping to turn into an article for publication.

Next stop . . . New Bern, North Carolina. The North Carolina Genealogical Society has a regional workshop there. Craig Scott is the featured speaker.

After heading back to Raleigh, I'll be off to Monroe County, Mississippi to do some digging in the courthouses. (The chancery is in the old post office building.) If I have time, I want to head over to Lowndes County to do a little digging as well, but I may have to save that for another trip. This is for a project in which another researcher and I are collaborating.

I do want to find a little time for R & R in the midst of all this so I'll probably try to give myself a little break once in awhile from the research!

A Productive Saturday

There were two things that were on today's agenda, and I accomplished both tasks. The first thing was laundry. I noticed from Facebook status updates that I was not the only person with this on today's "to-do" list. I'm happy to report that all my clothes with the exception of those that I'm presently wearing are clean! The second thing on my agenda was the more genealogical driven task. I wanted to complete three of the four syllabi for FGS 2009 before my spring break begins on Thursday. I managed to get those three in final format today. (I will confess that I've been working on them off and on for awhile.) I've got a good start on the fourth syllabus, but I want to take a little more time with it. There's so much information I could include, but I've got to limit it to just four pages. I want to make sure that I include the things that will be most useful to those attending the presentation for future reference.

I've been introduced to the Bejeweled Blitz application on Facebook. It's a game with a one minute time limit. I honestly think that I'm at a distinct disadvantage over most folks because I usually use my laptop keyboard and trackpad rather than a real mouse. I haven't got the hang of it with that time limit yet, but I'm sure that practice will improve my results.

Now it is time to get organized for research on spring break! I've already got a list of documents I need to get at the North Carolina State Archives. I've also got a to-do list on a Mississippi project for the courthouses in a couple of counties (if I have time to check out both).

Old Records Unavailable to Researchers

Researchers expecting to find historic materials at UNC's Wilson Library may be in for a surprise. Apparently much of the building is inaccessible due to fire laws. With the current economic crisis and cuts in funding, the outlook for getting the building reopened in the near future appears grim.

Odds & Ends

I had intended to post something to the blog yesterday, but I just ran out of time. Yesterday would have been my maternal grandmother's 112th birthday if she had lived that long. I had intended to post some sort of tribute to her. I'll save that for another time when I have the time to do a good post.

Yesterday I received a friend request from deceased genealogical fraudster Gustave Anjou on Facebook. It amazes me that anyone would want to be the friend of someone who fabricated so many genealogies, but alas, 44 of my friends were friends of his the last time I checked. I do wonder who would even want to pretend to be him on Facebook.

Tonight I've been chasing down the history of a family that lived in this area. One of my colleagues had received some information from another researcher that indicates that the family moved to this area from Scott County, Virginia. However, there is a rather odd migration pattern in that the person who sent her the information claims the Scott County family descend from someone who was in Charleston, South Carolina. In my experience, most of the people settling the Scott County area would have been of Scots-Irish descent and have most likely entered the country through Philadelphia. I've been tracing the family backwards out of Hamblen County into Grainger, Hancock, and Hawkins County. I have not quite made the connection to Scott County, Virginia as there is a problem which needs to be resolved first. (It's really a fairly significant problem in attaching the known person with his alleged parents.) I (or my colleague) will probably have to travel to resolve the issue although I'll try two LDS films that might give me at least part of the information I need to resolve the problem. I've also been studying the neighbors to see what clues they might yield.