Life at the Home20

The 55th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is a show and tell.

Not too long after I started my genealogical research I was re-introduced to the county courthouse practice of “returning the marriage license” once it has been properly recorded in the appropriate book.  Apparently there is no statute of limitations on when such certificate may be claimed by someone and I have been the lucky individual on more than one occasion.

The first surprise was after I had requested a copy of the marriage record for my great grandparents, Rush Hadley and Dezzie McCollum, married on February 10, 1895 in Putnam, Callahan County, Texas.  I didn’t receive a copy of the marriage record but instead received the original marriage certificate and a nice letter from the county clerk explaining what she had sent and why.  To say I was shocked was an understatement.  It was the standard pre-printed form that had been completed by the minister who presided over the event.

Not too much later, I requested from Montgomery County, Texas the marriage records of:

• Joshua Hadley and Joyce Floyd, dated November 22, 1840
• D. P. Hadley and Mary Bogges, dated April 18, 1844

Once again I was amazed when I opened the envelope and found the original certificates rather than copies of the marriage records.  These certificates were very special in that they were handwritten and issued by the Republic of Texas 160 years ago.  Their condition is marginal so I refrain from scanning them into the computer.  The ink has begun to seep through (maybe it always did?) and would make a scan hard to read anyway.

I’ve used these for show and tell more than once and I’d like to thank my Hadley ancestors for being so lax about retrieving their legal documents from the courthouse clerk.  I understand this was a common occurrence at the time with marriage records.  I guess that one’s marriage record was not nearly as important as one’s land record but for Pete’s sake, you would think that they could have been claimed in the same office at the same time.

Tags: Southern Genealogy by admin
3 Comments »

Whenever a hurricane of significant strength begins to makes it way towards the Texas coast, I am reminded of my seventh great grandfather, Richard Eiland.  Richard settled in North Carolina in the early 1700’s but I sometimes wonder if he knew what he was doing.  As you can see on the map below, Richard chose land very near the North Carolina coastline.  Not just the coastline but the area of North Carolina that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean, just waiting for a hurricane to demolish it.

Here’s a closer look.  The plantation was just south of the Virginia line.

Here it is blown up a little more. It doesn’t look so bad here and maybe by being on the inner coastline along the bay, he was a bit shielded from any major devastation. But note that the main road through this area, Highway 615, is known as the Marsh Causeway. Not too encouraging.

I was able to do a little research on North Carolina hurricanes but the data only went back to the 1850’s.  There were a few significant storms during that decade as there were every decade since so I can only assume that the same was probably true during the early 1700’s.   The family endured for several years there, then headed for Georgia and this time they opted for land a little farther in.

Tags: Southern Genealogy by admin
1 Comment »

Wrizopa and Robert Womack, date unknown

Tags: Southern Genealogy by admin
3 Comments »

Well, the 2008 Genea-Blogger Games are coming to a close and Thomas at Destination: Austin Family needs some time to organize the Closing Ceremonies which are scheduled for Monday.  Be sure to visit his site for all the pomp and circumstance.

My personal standings are as follows:

1. Go Back and Cite Your Sources! Nada, just couldn’t get it into gear on this one.

2.  Back Up Your Data! Completed A & C for the Silver Medal

3.  Organize Your Research! Completed A, B, D, & E for the Diamond Medal

4.  Write, Write, Write! Completed A, B & D for the Gold Medal

5.  Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness! Completed A, B & C for the Gold Medal

I may not have documented the last two requirements.  They were to invite others genealogists to join Facebook and back up all of your data.  I completed those on Thursday and Friday.

It’s been fun getting to know more genea-bloggers than ever before and I can say that I had no excuses for not having any ideas for posts for the last two weeks.   I didn’t complete as many events as I was planning to but you know I had to watch the real games from time to time.  I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted.

Tags: Computers & Genealogy by admin
1 Comment »

Several weeks ago I started working on my Genealogical Scanning Project wherein I installed Scansoft PaperPort 10 (no longer available) on my computer.  I documented this learning process in five posts on this blog.

• Part 1 - I explained my reasons for choosing my hardware and software.
• Part 2 - I discussed the installation of PaperPort and basic scanning.
• Part 3 - I went over keywords, tagging and searching.
• Part 4 - I talked about securing a backup copy for emergencies.
• Part 5 - I discussed some problems I had encountered.

I’m still scanning documents into the application and everything is working fine, although not as perfectly as I would wish for.  Perhaps upgrading to ScanSoft PaperPort 11 would help.  I think it’s just a matter of a few kinks they needed to work out.

Regardless, as a result of having begun this project, I have been able to complete 3 parts (A, B and E) of event number 3. Organize Your Research! of the Genea-Blogger Games on Facebook.

Tags: Computers & Genealogy by admin
2 Comments »