Visiting West Point

Today I went in search of some of my deceased Thornton relatives in the West Point area.  I made stops at the circuit & chancery offices where I gathered marriage records and obituaries from the old newspapers, the library where I verified the cemetery plot info on a map and browsed some local history items, and Greenwood Cemetery where I photographed some markers.  Then I went and met a "live" cousin I'd never met before!  All in all - it was a successful day!

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Last week I attended the Itawamba Historical Society's Meeting where Roy Turner did a presentation on preserving documents and photographs on Tuesday night.  Then on Thursday, I met with a group of members of Monroe County Historical Society and then with the entire society in the evening at a "reorganizational meeting."  I spoke to them on things that historical societies were doing in various locations.  The good news is that the society is collecting dues again and the 1997 issue of their publication is now at press.  I hope a lot of people get behind it and help get it back on track so that researchers of history and genealogy in the county will be assisted.

While I was over in Aberdeen, I visited the Evans Memorial Library and stumbled across a resource that gave me a much needed clue on a Thornton collateral line.  Earlier this summer I had found a book of transcriptions of Clay County cemeteries in the Amory library and had found my great grandfather's half-brother's burial location in McPherson Cemetery.  Upon a visit to this cemetery, I discovered that there was an empty grave next to his.  I assumed that his wife Ida was buried in the unmarked grave although I could find no indication there was a footmarker such as the one Jim had.  I knew that one of his sons was buried in Memorial Gardens in West Point but when I visited that site there did not appear to be any family markers there except that one family plot with 3 graves.  I knew that the Greenwood Cemetery was not included in the cemetery book, but I didn't realize that it had been previously surveyed and published.  In that book, I looked in the index thinking that perhaps some of Jim's children or grandchildren might be buried there.  I discovered that his son Cliff and Cliff's second wife were buried there, daughter (or more likely step-daughter) Alice was there also in a grave next to Jim's wife Ida!  I'm not really sure why Ida was not buried next to Jim but now I need to make a trip to West Point to get obituaries (now that I have dates) and to photograph these additional markers.  You just never know what you'll find!  I would have probably never noticed this book if the tables of books that had accumulated had been shelved.  I guess this is one of those serendipitous finds!

Mississippi History & Genealogy Notes

I've been kind of neglecting this blog because I started a new one specifically for folks researching historical and genealogical stuff in Mississippi.  It is called Mississippi History & Genealogy Notes.  I think it will serve a great need for Mississippi researchers.

Everton's Bites the Dust

Everton's has gone out of business. They are the publishers of the Handy Book for Genealogists which has gone through numerous revisions over the years as well as Everton's Family History Magazine, formerly known as Genealogical Helper. It's kind of sad to see such an old standby cease to exist. I read the alert on Genealogy Blog today. I wonder how subscriptions will be filled or refunded. I hope news is forthcoming soon! I should have known when they were selling the latest edition of Handy Book dirt cheap from their web site recently that something was amiss!

Very Nicely Documented Web Site

I was surfing the web last night and came across a very nicely documented web site which contained information on my Ward family from New England. It was created by Robert Roy and is called The Roy Genealogical File. It is nice to stumble across a site such as this one. I came to be surfing for my Ward family because I had been cataloging a book entitled "The Life, Ministry, and Journals of Hezekiah Smith: Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1765 to 1805 and Chaplain in the American Revolution 1775 to 1780." The book was written by John David Broome (with the exception of the actual journals which were written by Smith himself and transcribed by Broome). It has been published by Particular Baptist Press in Springfield, Missouri this year (2004). In the journals, Smith writes about having attended the second ordination of my ancestor Rev. Nathan Ward, a Congregational minister who later became affiliated with the Separatists, most of whom later merged with the Baptists. I was delighted to find this first-hand account of contact with my ancestor and was quite motivated to find new information on this line that I really had not worked on. I really enjoy working on my New England lines even though many of them are more distantly related because of the plethora of records available for the researcher. With my Southern lines I frequently run up against brick walls because of the paucity of records because of a combination of poorer record keeping and the "burned county syndrome." Sometimes I think some of my ancestors are the ones who set fire to those courthouses so that I couldn't find them. Ever feel that way? Every once in awhile you'll find one more evidence of their existence and pursue that lead until the well runs dry there and you have to find a new one to get another burst to the research, all the while hoping that you are chipping away at that wall.

South Carolina Genealogical Society Summer Workshop

I was reading the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, Miss.)online edition and read about a workshop being held this next weekend in Columbia, SC hosted by the South Carolina Genealogical Society. This annual summer workshop will be held July 9 and 10, 2004 at the South Carolina Archives and History Center. Several of the sessions look very good. Persons doing African-American research in South Carolina should pay special attention to this event as the keynote address and several of the sessions are devoted to topics of interest for those doing so.

4th of July

On holidays, I often wonder how some of our ancestors celebrated these in the past. This past week, I was typing up some pages from a book published in 1881 that described the first 4th of July celebration in the town of Ashland, Wisconsin. One of the highlights of the day was the reading of the Declaration of Independence. It made me wonder when the last time most Americans have heard the words to this important document of our history. I knew I had not read it in years -- probably since I had to read it for a history class in undergraduate days -- or possibly even high school. I decided that I'd better read it again myself to truly appreciate the freedoms we as Americans enjoy. I invite you to also read the Declaration of Independence of the United States. It gave me a renewed sense of what my ancestors lived through during the Colonial Period of the U. S.

Queries

As a USGenWeb county coordinator, I see a lot of queries written by people who are new to genealogy and who make all sorts of errors when they are asking for assistance. I had one the other day where the person had erased the county name from the message line. On the hyperlinks on my pages, I always add the county name so that when a person sends an email I have an idea in which county they are asking for help since I have several counties in multiple states. On this particular one, the person was asking me for assistance in a place that I knew was not connected with any of my counties, and I had no idea which site the person had visited. It turns out - the person was researching in counties further south in that particular state and appeared to have no connection with any of my counties. The person also asked me if anyone was researching her ancestor. There were surname registries available on the site (of course, she was in the wrong county) and links to message boards and mailing lists (and their archives), but even the absence of a name in one of these online sources doesn't mean no one is researching that person. It just means that no one has registered the surname or written a query regarding him. Oh well, enough on the subject of bad queries. A good query will identify the person on which one is seeking information, dates or approximate dates, location, and other helpful facts which might produce a lead.

In Sheep's Clothing

Several years ago in the public library of a large metropolitan area where I lived, I stumbled upon the beginning of a mystery series where the sleuth was a genealogist named Torie O'Shea. Since that time, I've been devouring Rett MacPherson's series. Last night I finished reading her latest. I actually purchased it as soon as it came out but I had such a backlog of things to read that I didn't get around to it until this past weekend. It did not disappoint me. O'Shea visits her aunt in Minnesota in this installment. She investigates a mysterious diary from the past that was found in her aunt's home. Of course, there is a murder in the present which Torie is able to solve. I don't want to give anything away so I won't go into further detail. If you haven't discovered the series, it is worth a trip to your local library or bookstore!

Ashland County, Wisconsin

I've been typing up an historical sketch of Ashland County that was published in 1881. While I'm far from done with it, the parts I have been able to post thus far detail some of the missionary work of the Jesuits and the early formation of the county. It is interesting to see that there was settlement in that area in the 17th century when most people only think of the Eastern seaboard having Europeans there.

Zachariah Butler Autobiography

Jerry L. Butler contributed an autobiographical sketch written by one of his ancestors to the Lee County MSGenWeb site. It is a very interesting description of how Zachariah Butler was orphaned at an early age, apprenticed for a time, worked for his brothers for awhile, and how he struck out on his own with a blind horse (and a wife). It makes for some rather interesting reading.

Genealogists and Vacations

I'll admit it - a vacation isn't complete without a trip to a cemetery, courthouse, and/or library. The longer I work on genealogy, the more i find myself trying to figure out how I can squeeze in a trip to a certain county to find a record in a courthouse or go by and take a photo of someone's grave or even see what resources the local library might have that I don't have available on a regular basis. I'm really wanting to plan a trip to New England, but with gas prices as they are, I don't really know that's the best idea right now. Also, it would be hard to decide how long to stay in each location I want to visit. I know that there are lots of New England locations where I need to do research. In the state of New Hampshire, most of my ancestors were in Rockingham and Grafton counties. I would also need to visit the state capital for resources there. In Massachusetts, Ipswich and some nearby towns and villages would be my main focus although one ancestor spent about 3 years in Boston before moving to Ipswich. I would also need to plan to spend some time at NEHGS' library. In Rhode Island, one of my ancestors was one of the original 1660 settlers of Block Island. I've found evidence that he spent winter months in Newport so I'd need to visit both of those as well as Providence. Then there is Maine. I just want to go there! I want to see the coast and lighthouses and go to Bar Harbor as well. Now - when will I have a full year of vacation? LOL

Random Thoughts

I'm getting a bit behind on my blogging! I began doing some reach over the weekend on my nephew's maternal lines. I took a look at some online census reports and also spent some time at the McClung Collection in Knoxville researching one branch who lived in Page County, Virginia. I found quite a bit of interesting material but I've got a lot of data entry ahead of me! I always make sure that I cite my stuff as I enter it. The first genealogy software program I owned lacked citing capabilities. I tried to do it as best I could in the 10 lines of notes I was allowed, but that just wasn't enough space and I often had to rely on my memory or on what I had in file folders or notebooks. I'm really glad that I have migrated to a newer piece of software which is more functional.

I spent Monday evening making a presentation to the Jefferson County Genealogical Society about using the Internet in genealogical research. Folks seemed to really enjoy my presentation. I shared tips about watching for the integrity of sources as well as a few of my favorite places for research as well some places to go to get a good start!

Rev. Stephen Bachiler

One of my more interesting ancestors is the Rev. Stephen Bachiler (sometimes spelled Batchedler or other variations). The Lane Public Library in Hampton, New Hampshire maintains a page of articles relating to him. At the bottom of that page, I discovered a link to a descendants site. While I normally hate geocities sites because of all the popups, I had to mention this one even if it is lacking in visual appeal and the data is presented awkwardly.

Mifflin County, PAGenWeb

It's been awhile since I had visited the Mifflin County PAGenWeb site, but I was thrilled to see some new data on there. Most of the Amish lines I'm researching lived in this county for awhile. It's always great to find more information online, and I plan to spend a little more time on this USGenWeb county page.

Publisher with County Pictorial Histories

While surfing the web, I stumbled across the site for Turner Publishing which has several county histories available for purchase. Most of the histories are pictorial histories. A few of the histories focus on cities or churches or families. I had a couple of families who lived in the three corner area of Monroe, Itawamba, and Lee counties in Mississippi. I noticed that they had a history for Lee county.

Telfair County GAGenWeb

I adopted Telfair County in the GAGenWeb project this week and posted it online today after receiving the account information. Although it is a work in progress, it is now available for researchers to use. My grandfather's sister Emma lived in that county as did another cousin.

Gateway Family Historian

St. Louis Public Library released the Spring issue of Gateway Family Historian online. They are the library which houses the National Genealogical Society's collection. The focus of the spring issue is Kentucky research.

Top 101 for 2004

Family Tree Magazine has come out with its annual list of the top 101 web sites for genealogy for the year 2004.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Home & Museum, Mansfield, MO

This past week I had the opportunity to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri while en route to the Association of Christian Librarians' conference in Springfield, Missouri. As a genealogist, I was absolutely thrilled with the museum. It was full of items, articles, and other things that would truly help someone researching the Ingalls or Wilder families. A friend of mine and I decided that we needed a museum to store all of our family history research and artifacts! If you are ever in the area of the home, it is definitely worth a visit!