Conversation With Ancestors Past

Guilty Pleasures and the "Oh! Shiny!"

2011-12-30T09:03:00.001-08:00

I saw this first on Facebook with Sue Peterson posting her blog (Long Lost Relatives) and then I went to the blog Susan's entry had originated from by Leah Kleylein (Random Notes) that she had read. So I thought I would do that too and then Sheri Fenley (The Educated Genealogist) posted her blog too! So here is mine, my other life or, the random "Oh shiny's!" in my life.

When I am not working on my family history, I...:

I work full time - not doing my genealogy (I confess my mind is on my family history work during this period of the day. I am a podcast junky, listening to genealogy, knitting, spinning, health, well all sorts of podcasts!).

I have just taken on a part-time job (I went to the retirement meeting at work, had heart failure)

I play Angry Birds sometimes.

I play Frontierville. (Yeah, I know.)

I play Castleville. (I know, I know!)

TV. Many years ago, when my daughter was a pre-schooler, my day was filled with the TV always on so one day we turned it off (I seriously dumped the ABC line up of soaps! 18 years ago!), she got 2 hours a day of TV, we got a couple hours at night and over time I just stopped altogether. Then I started to work at this job 6 years ago and listening to my co-workers talk about shows and joining the Survivor pool for three seasons without knowing what the show was about I slowly started watching TV again!!

Currently I make sure I watch:

Biggest Loser

Parenthood

Ghost Hunter's

Ghost Hunter's International

Being Human

Antique's Road Show

Harry's Law - but I seem to miss it all of the time.

Aside from regular TV, movies, I love movies, period films most but I am hooked on the Transformers movies, do not ask me why, it is out of my usual genre appreciation.

Costuming!! If I could get my lazy butt in gear, Costuming would be my second passion after genealogy. I follow blogs of amateur costumers, and the contests like Realm of Venus Showcase. I love costume diary's, there are so many bloggers out there. I am in the SCA, fringe member, and am changing my persona from 1500's Turkish to 1500's Italian, I think. I just want to be Safiya of A Thousand Dresses. I currently have working class Italian ren garb in the works but am mentally preparing to do a complete ensemble… someday.

(Shhhhh. Secret thing: Roleplay. I roleplay on AOL, building a story with other people typing back at you is a lot of fun.)

Spinning. I love to spin. I have three spinning wheels, enough fiber for twenty years worth of spinning time and guess what… THREE DUSTY spinning wheels!

Knitting. I am not great at it but I do enjoy it so I knit. I always have a project in my work bag, lunch was always my knitting hour but then I got onto something else. This past week I have been knitting at lunch again and reminded how much I really do enjoy it. It's just too bad it takes me 6 months to do one pair of socks. I have enough yarn for a few years of knitting projects based on my speed at getting things not finished.

There is so much more.. I have too many likes and I think that really hurts me in being truly "expert" at anything. My concentration is always so thinned out over too many areas. Jane of all trades, Master of none.

Where I fit in, in a nut shell… and what is coming in 2012

2011-12-26T09:04:00.001-08:00

This post has been rolling around in my mind for a while now and then the recent upswing of discussion of the shift in the Genealogy world with the advent of the internet and social media makes this post rolling around in my brain timely. I now wish I had gotten right on it at first, I might have been the trailblazer! A few things happened within the last few months which made me think about my place in this wide world of the social media collective.

I am a hobbyist when it comes to Genealogy. I will never be a super Genealogist or super blogger. I will never be famous or a leader in our vast environment of all levels of family historians. I will have my good months of research and I will have my months of not so much progress. I will never be a professional. My blog will never carry up to the minute news or teach people how to be good Genealogists, I am adequate at it, but it will reach out to those that just might be stuck on a family name we share and it will be a beacon to reach out to those that share my ancestry. Those are the things I will never be. Now the things that I am. I share the same passion as the rest of the genealogical community. I am passionate and love every minute that I am involved in some form of my quest to know my roots. My mind is 24/7 on this quest. Ask my family, friends and co-workers, haha. The collective energy of the genealogy community keeps me inspired and tackling problems in my family tree. I love to learn, I love to share and I learn so much from those people who are the super stars in our growing world. I don't have to be a mover and shaker and I appreciate when the big names are nice to me and realize I am there and part of our collective community and I try very hard not to take it personal when they are not. I am a webinar junky, podcast junky and I am broadening my horizon's and have registered for NGS 2012. I am very nervous about that, I have a shyness that can be crippling and going someplace without a close friend to cling on is really pushing me out of my comfort zone. Just saying. I am very excited about it though and I will be the one there trying to make one with the wall. There is me in a paragraph.

Aside from the online presence, I feel memberships in Societies are very important and a presence in them more so. In the last year I have made good on my resolution to get myself out more and involved. I have always wanted to do this but again shyness in big crowds makes not going places alone very easy. Well, I can say that I have pushed myself out and into these meetings, DAR and the Rochester Genealogical Society, and have enjoyed myself very much and really do like the physical community that is waiting for those who come out and join. I am also a member of the NC Genealogical Society since much of my ancestry is there and it is my way to help support that community. Tennessee is pending, I have sent in my form and that is another state with much of my ancestry.

And now on to Projects 2012 - -

I have one personal genealogical project that has to do with me. Once I am done being mad about it, I will work on it.

DAR - I was pinned and swore my oath to the DAR in December after two years of being a member and not being involved. I found it to be a wonderful personal moment in my life. Wasted time, I so enjoy the meetings. I have a handful of possible Patriots to add, Reverend Robert Stockton, Edward Weatherly, Samuel Walker, Thomas Blakey and a couple more, oh and John Duncan, the big mystery man in my family tree. So 2012 will be a year I set a goal of 2 supplemental applications made.

Cattern Walker Cowden brick wall. I have always felt she was the mother of my James C Cowden and 99 percent of the trees on Ancestry have Nancy Crewse as his mother. My Ancestry tree did too because it is a tree that I import a lot of junk info into as clues so I don't forget about them. My personal RM5 tree on my pc has my actual information sourced and cited. If I can somehow prove Cattern was alive when James C Cowden was born and is his mother, that will open up Samuel Walker as a supplementary application.

Bannister Hensley - the mystery man.

Transcribing - I have a pile of deeds that need to be transcribed for three different families..

Scanning - I have a lot of scanning to do. Photo's to scan and share of my Grandmothers side of the family. There are a lot of unidentified photo's and hopefully, someday, if I find cousins from Dundee, Scotland from my Fender clan, maybe they will be able to help me figure out the faces!

Blog more -- yeah, I say that every year...

And this is just the short list….

The Stockton Climb into the DAR

2011-12-25T10:21:00.001-08:00

Currently I am working on a few possible Revolutionary War ancestors but I am a VERY distractible which makes me laugh because every report card of mine in grade school said I had a hard time staying on task. I am a wanderer and so over time, especially the last ten years, I do cut myself some slack and follow my focus. I am more productive that way in a round about sort of way. It does frustrate me because a dozen different times I have told myself one family at a time, thorough, get everything, move on but….. Then the drift comes along again. It annoys me because I am a doer, I like to get things finished, I am a list maker and once I write it down on a list, I am obsessed until I can cross it off. As you can imagine with what I have said just in this paragraph, this can cause a lot of conflict and frustration in myself. As I age, this just seems to worsen. Ah well.

So I am back on this Stockton thing! Again. And I have made some very good progress. My Elizabeth Stockton who married Hugh Lawson Baldwin is the daughter of Robert Stockton Jr, son of Reverend Robert Stockton of Barren County, Kentucky, who was a Chaplain in the Revolutionary War. Now to prove that Elizabeth is the granddaughter of the Reverend. Robert Jr. died in 1815 at the age of 43 and so far I am not finding a lot of documentation on him so connecting Elizabeth to the Reverend is a series of hops over Robert Jr. Reverend Robert Stockton's will mentions Robert Jr as being deceased but does not mention his grandchildren. There is a lawsuit over a slave girl named Eliza after the death of Catherine Blakey Stockton (Reverend Robert Stockton's wife) which mentions Elizabeth as a granddaughter. I have ordered that from the Kentucky State Archives and I am waiting for that. I did however order the marriage bond for the first marriage of Elizabeth to William C Wilson and there are three names to link Elizabeth to the Reverend Robert Stockton. I do wonder why he was not involved in this transaction.

The document is written by Nancy Blakey Stockton, who is the widow of Robert Stockton Jr. , giving permission for William C Wilson to place bond for Elizabeth's hand in marriage with her signature. There are two signatures as witness, one is Catherine B. Stockton and Joseph B Stockton. Joseph is clearly defined in Reverend Robert Stockton's will as his son so Elizabeth's mother, grandmother and uncle all have their hand in approving this marriage. With that will I think that is sound evidence that this is my ancestry line and will be making my supplementary application for Reverend Robert Stockton in the DAR.

Reality of a Dream ~ The Loss of a Mother

2011-09-12T16:19:00.001-07:00

I had a dream. I had dreams of falling off bridges over and over again. The one thing that terrifies me the most, bridges, came to me in a night long of nightmares and no matter how many times I woke up I would go back to sleep starting up where I left off. Falling and falling… falling. It was an endless cycle that night and when I woke up it was Sunday morning and I had a horrible headache. I think it was the night she died, this is what I believe. Was that my fear of losing her? Was it that there had not been the time to tell her all of the things I needed to tell her? Things should not have been left between us as they were. Both of us are to blame in this. Were the nightmares her fear of leaving? Was she not ready? In my heart of hearts, I am not sure she is at peace. I have seen a peaceful death in my daughter's father, Kevin. I have asked Kevin to help her if she needs it. When we viewed her at the funeral home all I could see was my Grandmother and I was so surprised. I had never really thought my mother looked like her mother but there it was much of Elizabeth Fender Duncan there in her daughter.

I have lost my mother too early. She was found August 30, 2011 and it seems as though she went swiftly. I am grateful and thankful that she went as she did and not suffering for weeks, months or years. She was very lucky to be given a quick out. I hope I am as lucky when my time comes. I couldn't have stood to watch her suffer and I never felt she was fully content in this world. In some ways I know she is happier. She has been so unhappy since my step father died. A local psychic took one look at me and my mother about 20 odd years ago… or maybe 30. She said I had an old soul and I was my mother's soul's teacher and here to bring her through this life. I am not sure how I feel about these things but I am not sure I did too swift of a job here either.

It was never easy being my mother's daughter. She and I are so much alike in many ways but there is a lifetime of head butting. She was a difficult woman but I loved her with every ounce of my being. I marched to my own drum from a very young age and she liked everything around her to be as she liked it. So I fought the control as most children did and do.

I have lost a parent, my mother, and it is turning out to be a hard thing to reconcile. We all made mistakes, we all could have done something different. What I do know is it gives me a view of where my energies need to go. My family unit is strong but it will be made stronger and there are things I have to do and say to my children so that they know where they fit into my life.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of humor, fun and good times in the long past years. In fact the funeral director was very patient with my sister and I as we let our senses of humor get the better of us while making arrangements.

The news came on my birthday… this birthday thing is an interesting thing.. Carrie Baldwin (My great-great grandmother) lying in her dying bed asking the date until March 24 hit, and then she died, in peace. Her husband's birthday and death date were March 24.. That was my mother's birth date too. She did not die on my birthday but that will be what he death certificate reads.

And a note to the Genealogists, I thought I was being such a dweeb when the funeral director was going over the information for the death certificate and obituary notice. I kept interjecting with information saying I wanted it clear for those looking at this information in 100 years. He was nice, tolerant but then toward the end he added something else to the obit and got this little grin on his face and said, "for the future researchers". I had to laugh and it turns out he is married to the Town Historian so he knows! It was odd at that moment all I could think of was the various webinars I have sat in on hearing, "the facts of the death certificate is only as good as the informants knowledge". I am happy to report that a future genealogist will get accurate information from these two sources.

Rest in peace, Mom. I love you.

JoAnne Duncan Statt

March 24, 1940 - August 30, 2011

Elizabeth Fender Duncan, JoAnne Duncan Stevens Statt & Sharon Stevens Lighthouse

Ten Years Later ~ September 11, 2001

2011-09-11T11:20:00.001-07:00

I am so enthralled with the history of my ancestors that many times I forget that I will be part of history some day. I wrote about this before in a post about having seen the Wall between West and East Germany and now it is gone. This is for my future generations who might wonder what it was like back in the olden days of 2001.

9/11 (September 11, 2001) will forever be a historic marker on the pride and resilience of Americans. I wonder if the Terrorists responsible counted on America standing strong and collectively circling the wagons to take care of its own. There was a rash of military enlistments after this unspeakable act of cowardess, people became Hero's in an instant and everyone that day was an American, not just the neighbor you really didn't like. Did the Terrorists know at the time that what they did was strengthen a country and each and every family that lives under America's glorious flag? There is something that happens to humans when we are put on the defensive, we are protective and we will take care of business. Anger, pettiness and cruelty is put aside as tragedy is a quick reminder of all of the things we love or admire comes front and center for us to clearly see and how fragile they are. For a while we could forget animosity and hold hands while we collectively struggled through the pain of trying to understand this act of violence.

For me it was a normal work day. I worked at a small family owned business and one of the engineers came in to our office with the oddest look on his face and said he couldn't believe it but a jet had crashed into one of the buildings in NYC. We looked at him with disbelief and went to the television in the meeting room to turn on CNN and couldn't believe what we were seeing. In the meantime it was time for me to go to the post office so I did that and as I came out and sat in my car the radio said the second plane had crashed into the other Tower. What??! My apartment was across the street so I went there to turn on the news thinking I had misheard what was being said and there, just in time, I saw the footage of the second airliner making its final journey. Then came the news it was possibly a terrorist attack. Stunned, being a female, that maternal instinct of wanting nothing but my children with me and right now kicked in, I made myself drive back to the office where we sat watching a tv as reports came in about the plane in Pennsylvania and the brave passengers making sure more didn't die. There are moments in a life that you just do not forget. Ever. This is a moment for me. I will never forget the very real visual of the news footage. I will never forget the feeling of my heart sinking and my gut twisting. I will never forget that urge to collect my children and protect them. I will never forget the anguish I felt for the victims as the death toll alarmingly rose. I will never forget the looks on the faces of those I worked with as we watched helplessly with tears staining our cheeks in stunned silence. I will never forget how I wished I had been there to help; even if it was handing out a cup of water. I will never forget the stories of people coming together in NYC to help each other no matter what culture or class they were. I will never forget the admiration I hold for the few people I know who made their way to the tragic site risking their own life to help; it's what they do. I will never forget all the people who died that I did not know and the few I did know but not face to face but an online community I interact in. Still, they were special and their absence is still felt 10 years later. I will never forget the kindness of my boss and the look in his eyes when he told his two female employees to go home to our children. You never saw two women move so fast. I will never forget the fear in my 11 year old daughters eyes and her being afraid to go back to school. What if a plane drove into her school, she asked. For days she was afraid to leave me, she said she didn't want me to go away. Could I assure her nothing would happen to us here in a place you wouldn't think of as a target? It stayed with her quite a while, her school art work depicted planes and buildings.

I am extremely proud of my American Heritage. I come from a line of generations that have fought for this country since the American Revolution. This is not the first time American's stood strong to protect American soil and 9/11 will not be the last. 9/11 gave us a glimmer of what it was like to be our ancestors of generations past from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the first battle of the Civil War and further still to the first battle of the Revolutionary War. 9/11 is a bit more personal by the mode in which our enemies chose to attack us going after innocent and helpless civilians. Every generation has that kick in the pants reminder about who and what we are.

Today I am thankful for those that saw us through one of our darkest hours with courage and selflessness. Policeman, fireman, military and every citizen who reached out a hand, I thank you. I thank you all for reminding us all what it is to be an American and in general, a decent human being. Thank you for giving up your own lives to those who were in need and terrified beyond anything comprehendible. A string of pretty words can not possibly measure the actual feelings or do the moment justice. To our teachers, thank you for helping our children through this. This post does not say enough.

God Bless America.

I will never forget.

And a big… AHAAAA!

2011-06-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

I knew it.. Knew it… K.N.E.W. I.T.!! Yes, I knew it! <---- this is a genealogical happy dance.

I have a lot of blog space dedicated to William F. Duncan and his father, George W. Duncan. William filled out that glorious Tennessee Civil War Questionnaire that gave a lot of information and clues to follow. But there is one big.. Huge! Gaping! bit of information he did not put on that questionnaire…. Ready? His Confederate service. I thought it strange his father joined the Confederate Army in 1862 and William joined the Union Army in May of 1864 at the age of 21. So then I thought maybe he did something else those two years but my mind was constantly brought back to that two years difference in their service. So the other night I was checking out what Footnote had by way of War of 1812 records as I might have War of 1812 Veterans. I didn't have any luck, that collection is in its infancy yet so something drew me back to the Civil War record section. It might have been me feeling cocky, I had just found a census record I had been looking for what seems forever. Spelling was off on the surname and a County I would not have looked for them in! Who knew. George W. Duncan and his family were very transient. Something made me take a stab at Confederate records and look for William and I have to say that even if I knew I was looking for him I was still very surprised to find him. The two years that puzzled me makes sense. There are 8 pages to this compiled record of Company Muster Rolls. There won't be a pension record since he defected I have his Union service documentation so will now have to figure out if there is another service file with more information. I am not very good finding records like these, NARA boggles my mind completely. I will be going through the State of NC Archives online catalog and hoping I can find something there. I struck gold there by accident once before over this family!

I am a dreamer… I want to know the why's. Dates of battles can be interesting, kind of, I love history but its about the people. What were they thinking, what did this split do to he and his father and how did it affect the rest of their family. Did William keep in touch with his mother after the war was over? His father died a month after he enlisted in the Union Army, they were both in Tennessee, did he know? So many questions that I will probably never have the answers to. To find even the smallest bit of information to give a better understanding to this would be so exciting.

The last Muster Roll for William Franklin Duncan in the Confederate Army:

A Tale of Two Duncan's and Toss In A Baldwin Too.

2011-04-18T16:43:00.001-07:00

I find myself sitting at my desk with three of my ancestor's folders in front of me and trying to put the pieces together. I have to admit that for the first half of my life I was hooked on European history and could care less about American history. I liked it; it was okay but European, the Tudor period, and the intrigue! And sadly, I do know more about Medieval England than I do the Colonies and the States. Or that "was" the case. At the time I didn't know my connections to the War and too, I remember being able to quote that I had ancestors in the Civil War but I still had no investment in it even if I was proud of this fact. Now the investment is there. And maybe at the time, the Civil War, to me, was too recent of history. Until I started to sink into the thrilling world of family genealogist that is. Now, I have the investment and over the past five years I have had a gaining curiosity about the history of the States. This is solely because of my ancestry. I would never have known a thing about Manakin, Virginia, had I not found I am a descendent of William Witt. He is on the Huguenot Society webpage as unproven as a first settler there. I have always been interested in the Revolutionary War but politics, I have to say, bore me to death and that is always a big part of a War. I never tested well in my History classes. Dates, names and places, eh, okay, they are important but I always wanted to know about the people, not just the famous but Joe Smith that no one knew. My thirst for knowledge these days is unquenched. And it is broadening. Two years ago finding the Unit my ancestor in was enough, now I want to learn about that Unit. And, a tiny confession here, I missed the first part of Geneabloggers Blog Talk Radio this past Friday evening so I was listening to the podcast of it today at work and I think I might have gone a little fan girl crazy listening to Angela Walton-Raji. She has such enthusiasm in her voice and her knowledge bank is amazing, when she talks about her specialty topics she promotes that enthusiasm and I will say that sitting at my desk was very hard to do, I wanted to get right home and dive into some research. Thank you, Angela, and I look forward to hearing more of your talks.

Also, yesterday, I sat in on Michael Hait's webinar about Researching Your Civil Was Ancestor's and he mentioned a couple scenarios' I might have. One, an ancestor that may have fought for both army's and two, Jane Edwards Duncan was on the 1890 Veteran's Schedule Census and her deceased husband, George Washington Duncan was a Confederate Soldier. In this webinar it was mentioned that usually this Schedule was mainly listing Union and on some occasions Confederate's were found on this Schedule. In this case, lucky me!

So now I am revisiting these three men to take another more educated look at them.

So, these folders. I have a father and son: George Washington Duncan (father) and William Franklin Duncan (son). And then there is Hugh Wilson Baldwin. George and William were born in North Carolina. The family moved to Tennessee (Washington County in 1860) and it looks like William stayed in Tennessee when the family went back to North Carolina. William was 18 on the 1860 Census in Washington County, Tennessee, and Hugh Wilson Baldwin lived in Tennessee (Bradley County), I am unsure yet where he was born.

So let's start with George and William. In the Civil War Questionnaire that I have for William, he stated George had fought in the Mexican War. I haven't started to research that yet but he said nothing about the Civil War which surprises me. Then comes the confusion about George. I overlooked his service several times because the age of George Duncan was 29 and he couldn't be that young. But then milling through the records at Footnote, I came across his service record and sure enough it was my George Washington Duncan as that file was holding the documentation of his wife applying for his pension. George died in the war of illness in Knoxville, Tennessee. I have yet to find out where he is buried. So either a clerical error was made in his age or that was what he told them. He would have been approximately 39 when he mustered in. The next thing.. George fought for the Confederate Army 29th North Carolina Regiment and William fought for the Union Army 4th Regiment Tennessee Calvary. I am left thinking about these two men and what kind of relationship they might have had. They were both in Washington County Tennessee when the 1860 US Census was taken. What made George go back to North Carolina and muster in? He ended up fighting and dying in Tennessee. And what made William decided to be a Federal serviceman? His Civil War Questionnaire gave no clues to either his relationship with his father or the choices he made. The only thing I see is that he did not mention George being in the Civil War.

Then I have Hugh Wilson Baldwin.. My man of two armies. Maybe. I am not yet convinced. First there is the Confederate service record in Co. A, 62nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (Rowan's Regiment). He was 19 and enrolled in Sweet Water Tennessee, Bradley County. In this he became a prisoner of war at the Battle of Vicksburg and signed a document stating he would not take up arms against the United States of America again. This is dated July 8th, 1863. I have his pension file and it states he enrolled at age 23 the 3rd day of February, 1864 at Charleston, in Co. I 10th regiment of Tennessee Calvary Volunteers. The ages have me a bit hung up and there is no mention of his Confederate service in this file but this file is full of information given by his wife Deborah Louise Cowden Duncan and his friends in affidavits about his failing health once home after the war was over. He died when he was 40. Only one thing will prove any of this for me and that would be finding his signature. I have his signature on the Vicksburg Prisoner of War document. He was already deceased by the time this Pension application was started so I don't have his signature there. I found some documentation on Footnote but no signature there either. So that will be a project finding some other legal document he would have signed.

And then a funny coincidence. See the Captain's signature on Hugh's Prisoner of War document below? I about fell off my chair at first thinking my William Duncan signed the same document that Hugh W. did. Wouldn't that be something!? This William Duncan was of an Illinois unit and my William Duncan signs a very bold "William F. Duncan" on every document I have found with his signature. It is always a full signature. That would have been a great family story because of the future. William Franklin Duncan's son, David Washington Duncan, married Hugh Wilson Baldwin's daughter, Carrie Anne Baldwin.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 9: Sounds

2011-04-14T16:21:00.001-07:00

Do you know that sound? Listen. You hear fingers dipping into a bowl of cellophane wrapped candies to take one. Like peppermints or mixed hard candies. Listen again, do you hear it now? That distinctive sound of the wrappings rubbing against each other and crinkling? Whenever I hear that sound, say if a candy dish is out at work, the first thing that comes into my mind is wondering if that is Grandma Willie in the candy dish. Then I smile. She was the sweetest woman. She was my Grandmother's step Mother and my Grandmother took care of her until she died. She was the second wife of Edward Alexander Cummings Fender and she worked with my Great-Grandfather at Tasty Bread Company in Akron Ohio. After my Great-Grandmother passed away, he married Willie. She is Willie Clay Moore Fender of Tennessee. I am not sure what brought her to Ohio. She was almost completely blind by her old age I remember. She had to hold her phone book up to her nose to read it and it took her a while to decipher. She always smiled, she always wore an apron and even though she couldn't see, my Great-Grandfathers picture never left her bedside table.

Summer traffic. My Grandmother lived on West Exchange Street in Akron, Ohio. It was a three story house with an apartment on each level and I would seriously love a place like that today. It was a big apartment. The front section of the house was the living room with double doors that opened to a front porch that was the entire width of the house. My sister and I played out there countless hours. The next section back was a formal dining room with bay windows along one wall with a window seat and the length of it was covered with potted plants. Through a swinging door on the left side of the dining room you came into the dinette "room". The inside wall of this room was glass door cabinets were all the china and serving dishes were. And, my grandmothers soft boiled egg cups. Something I still have today and cherish. Through that room then you stepped into the kitchen. On the right hand side of the dining room was the doorway to the hall that went to the back of the house on the right side. Down this hall were two bedrooms and a bathroom in between. The hallway had a huge linen closet. And old wood trim. Delicious! It smelled like old wood, you know that old house smell that I am talking about? Sometimes when the traffic is busy like it was on West Exchange Street, i will hear a horn blow or some traffic sound that triggers my memory and brings me back to this place. Every time I go back, it seems to be back into my Grandmother's world.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 3: Cars

2011-04-14T16:08:00.001-07:00

I didn't get my license until I was 19. I was a very young wife. Married at 16, living in Germany as an Army wife by 17 so I never did get my license before I went overseas. One of the Army wives that I made friends with taught me how to drive a stick shift Volkswagen station wagon while I was there. I am so glad we did not get caught! I remember one day I let the car get a little out of control, then got nervous and we went driving through this small German town and many buildings are right on the street in Europe. It went into a curve and we both screamed, I was going a tiny bit too fast compared to the driving space I had. I managed to slow down and do clutch/gear shifting without hitting a building or pedestrian!! Needless to say I pulled over when we came out of village and asked Ruth to drive again. She gratefully took the drivers seat. I can laugh about it now and we probably laughed about it then.

When I got stateside again. I took my drivers test and my first car was a used Plymouth Volare. It was in perfect condition and it had all the bells and whistles. Pin stripping, maroon velour seats, electric everything. This was in 1979. The car was hawt. The day I got my drivers license in the mail I finally got to drive my car! That solo drive I still remember to this day, over 30 years later. I felt like a big shot, I felt so cool and I felt so free! I was so excited but had nowhere to go, so I went to the store to buy milk I didn't need, haha. Anything to be Queen of the road for 15 minutes!

And a silly story about cars. One that has come up in family laugh fests for a great many years. My parents were members of the Porsche Club of America when I was a child. There were races year round, places to go, big gatherings. I remember we went to Boston for one Club event when I was about 10 years old. This race was before that and was local, at Watkins Glen here in Western NY. My mother handed over the camera to me with a full roll of film and told me to take picture of cars. So off my sister and I went. Did we take pictures of the cars on the track? No. The shiny Porsche's being shown off? Nope. So time passes, my mother picks up this set of pictures and we get home and I am all excited for her to see my work. She starts looking through the pictures and the look on her face was classic and I mean classic! Yes, in my excitement of being a budding "non" photographer I took pictures of the cars in the parking lot. Station wagons, and the old family cars of the day. Not one spiffy race car type. She looked at me and at least was kind. She told me I did a great job but maybe next time I could get a few pictures of the race cars. I expect she still has that set of pictures somewhere. I will have to go through them sometime.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 12: Movies

2011-04-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

Period History movies are me. Good or bad, I love them. Braveheart, my favorite. Rob Roy, another favorite. Both of those movies I went to the theater to see over and over again just so I could see Scotland on the big screen. To this day I still watch them often. Rob Roy is my go to "put in DVR, lay in bed and fall asleep 10 minutes later" movie. Dangerous Beauty, Elizabeth, Elizabeth the Golden Age and The Other Boleyn Girl; even Somersby and it wasn't a great movie! Patriot is another one! I can go on and on.

Anything that takes me back... love 'em. The shocker of all. Transformers. I know! Insane, right? I didn't even want to see it but I went with my friend because he wanted to go see it and I remember I had a migraine and when the fighter plane went sideways between buildings of the City I thought for sure I would be sick right there. But when we walked out of that movie, I had a new favorite movie and I have no idea why!! I used to vaccuum up Transformer pieces when my son was a child. I had no bond with Transformers other than the damage of my foot when I stepped on pieces. It is not the greatest movie ever but it is on my top 5 list. Sad, isn't it? Haha.

I do miss Drive-In theaters. They are gone from my area and I think they were one of the best things going. It is a shame how some things fade out of style then disappear. A summer night at the drive in was a great place to be.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 7: Toys

2011-04-13T15:43:00.001-07:00

I am of the Barbie Generation. My daughter had the better Barbie stuff when campers and houses came along. For us it was shiny vinyl black "closet" cases. I have mentioned this memory before but my Grandmother, Elizabeth Fender Duncan, totally rocked as a Grandmother and would indulge us, and insist, that we put on a Barbie fashion show for her. At Christmas Santa would bring us Barbie clothes. She made a few things for us and knit a few things for us and religiously on our trips to Ohio there would be a fashion show put on for the family to show off all the new clothing our Barbie's and Skippers had. My sister and I would be so excited and my Grandmother would have us describe the clothing and enunciate. She was a stickler for proper speech and would encourage us to be descriptive in our presentation of each outfit. She made it fun and it helped me in my College writing down the line. I look at a sentence and wonder if I have described enough. She would applaud and expect us to take our bows for our performance. I love that woman with all of my heart. I miss her so much, she was my safety zone.

The only other toy I can remember being "it" for me was hula hoops. I could do anything in one of those things during my young teen years. Walk to the mail box, run, just anything!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 6: Radio and Television

2011-04-13T15:41:00.001-07:00

Radio and Television.

I am a product of the 60's and 70's when it came to watching television. I loved the Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family. The Brady Bunch was a Friday night ritual in our house. I loved Bobby Sherman just as much as Marcia did. Now that I am over 50 (barely) I can still be caught watching them if they happen to be on the TV when I surf by them. There, my most embarrassing secret. E V E R ! ! !

For radio, I am going to talk about old shows that I had never heard of until I was living in Germany and Armed Forces Radio was the only entertainment I had aside from my stereo that blew out Peter Frampton, Yes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, David Bowie, Genesis and Electric Light Orchestra. I was 17 and would have considered these shows from the "olden days" and they were for me. Fibber McGee and Molly was one, the other was the Twilight Zone. I did not grow up with radio programming really. My parents listened to the Beatles and Herb Albert and the Tijuana brass. They were a hip 1960's couple. We didn't listen to radio "shows". Rock and Roll radio stations were the rage for me. Today I have internet radio and can listen to 80's and 90's Alternative and I am a happy camper. Still I look back on those radio shows with fondness. Once I got past the oldness of them I couldn't wait until the nights they came on to sit and listen and too, it gave me a taste of life with just radios and no television. Today I can appreciate that "step back".

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 5: Food

2011-04-13T15:28:00.001-07:00

Page 2

Strange but true, there is a recipe in my family with unknown origin (to me) that is called "Page 2". It was on Page 2 of some handwritten cookbook/spiral notebook and called "Page 2". Crazy, I know!! It is a very 60's recipe and I believe that is were it dates from. I remember eating it when I was 8. It is something I wouldn't think of eating today and I remember I might have made it once or twice early in my career as a wife and mother.

It is a basic casserole type of recipe and goes like this:

Make a pot of mashed potatoes.
Brown ground beef and chopped onions; drain.
Add a can of green beans and a can of corn; stir.
Add two cans of Campbell's tomato soup; stir.
Salt and pepper.
Pour into a casserole.
Drop big spoonfuls of the mashed potatoes onto the mixture.
Sprinkle with paprika for color.
Bake until mixture is hot and bubbly. (probably 350 degrees, 30-40 minutes)

Voila.. Page 2.

It isn't bad, I remember liking it and when my cousin's came to visit us in Rochester from Akron, Ohio, my Mother said, "What should we have for dinner?" and my sister and I were all serious in jumping up and down crying out, "Page 2! Page 2!" like we were introducing our cousins to the bestest thing on the planet. I think it was just the excitement of the cousins coming to our place in the world and we wanted them to have what we thought were the best things in our life. Thinking about it makes me laugh now. For many years it was a star in our family. Probably because it was easy to make, no thinking and the leftovers were delish. My mother could whip it together and be done with it. Maybe I should make it again to see if it holds the same appeal as it did when I was a child. Maybe, I am not a fan of high sodium or canned vegetables and tomato soup goes with grilled cheese sandwiches! (another favorite food) I do remember it makes awesome leftovers! And I think I will poll my son and daughter and see if they remember it.

Today, one of my most favorite foods is basil pesto. I love it, it is easy to put together, I don't need a recipe, it just happens in my food processor and it freezes well. Sauté a bit of chicken, veggies on hand (broccoli, zucchini, anything like that), throw in some cooked pasta and stir in pesto until it looks like you want it to look when you eat it and eat! Mm.

An old memory, Swenson's Drive In, in Akron Ohio. Once we got to Akron and settled in, my Mom was like a homing pigeon to Swenson's and we would drive there and park, the food brought to us on a tray and we would eat in the car. My sister and I thought it was such a novelty and my mother felt like she had come home. She was unhappy in her marriage to my biological father ("Dad" is reserved for my wonderful step-father who has passed away) and I think going home to Akron and something like that Drive-In food joint was a normalcy she needed and she enjoyed sharing it with my sister and I. I can say this now that I can think back and see her with an adult's perspective, this place helped her in some way. The familiar. Home.

Catch Up and Odds and Ends

2011-02-23T16:56:00.001-08:00

State of my Desk Address:

My "Re-Do" project is officially behind me now. I have started a new database in Roots Magic 4 and gone file by file of every person I have a file for and built their information based on what I physically have in hand as evidence, and everything I have is sourced and cited. I do have one file with about 5 documents to transcribe but that is it. This job took me about 6 months longer than I wanted but I am easily distracted and go through periods of leaving the family history work sit. While I do have a lot of information and dates, they are based on my mother's cousins genealogy, a woman I have mentioned many times. She did an amazing amount of work over the years but it is in book form so I have to view this information as a reference. And, there are a couple of lines I am not sure I agree with. I am forever in her debt in drawing out my interest in my 20's. I remember her visit here back then, she held me rapt with all the family stories and literally gave me the genealogy bug. She sent me home that night with a chart and a big smile on my face. Thank you, Patsy!

Now with my work separated out, now is the challenge to see how I stand up as a genealogist as I now have to tackle a lot of work needing done. I have so many lines I want to work on right now, today, immediately! I am a very impatient person. I have had some very nice people contact me about people in my tree but with my re-do project I was trying very hard not to get too sidetracked. I suppose I ought to start with the lines that people have reached out to me about. Good plan! The Cowden's and Stockton's have been neglected. My ggg-grandfather Cowden fought in the Revolutionary War on the Loyalist side. I would like to find that information. The Briggs is a brick wall. The Hensley's are a brick wall. It is assumed my Bannister Hensley is the family line that goes back to Marjorie Bruce of Scotland. I don't necessarily believe this so need to do some work to prove his parentage. My Baldwin's it is said came from Connecticut and moved down through the south to Tennessee. I have a way back Huguenot I would like to prove or disprove. The Duncan's, this line is another possible Revolutionary War soldier. This is all just my mother's paternal line, I haven't even mentioned the Scottish side of my mothers maternal side. A LOT of work to be done there. See! The list goes on and on. I love chasing the story. So now with all the podcasts I have listened to, all the classes I have been taking, webinars I have been sitting on and all the awesome Genealogists I am exposed to every day by social media and blog reading its time to get into my "zone".

Other Stuff:

Who Do You Think You Are -

Three episodes in I would like to thank NBC for cutting way back on the annoying recaps. It was almost insulting to be retold the story when back from commercial like I couldn't remember anything through the half dozen or more commercials I patiently sat through! I feel like this year they realize people are intelligent. I really liked Vanessa Williams episode. Her interest in what was going on was obvious, she wanted to learn, and it seemed she wanted to figure things out. One big thing I came away with that was a lead. My Great Grandfather, David Washington Duncan, served on the Tennessee Legislature as well and when Vanessa was shown the certificate of election, I realized that David W. might have one in the archives too so I made that a to do item in RM4.

Now, I know this will shock people but I did not know who Tim McGraw was. I am not a country music fan and I do not follow entertainment news of any kind unless the blurbs are thrust into my CNN rss feed that hits my Google Reader. Of the three episodes I liked his the least. He didn't seem invested like Vanessa and Rosie. I could see he was interested but the feeling I got was it was cool to him but not something he might do on his own, unlike the other two subjects. What I did not like about the episode came at the end. It was the Presley connection. Now that he got excited about. Again, I am not an Elvis fan, I grew up in a house were The Beatles and Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass was "it". Haha. I am passionate about my heritage and extremely proud of it. I am as proud of my Dundee, Scotland ancestors who slogged out their days in the Jute mills of the mid 1800's as I am of my lone Revolutionary War soldier and everyone in between. He was given his family history which was, to me, very interesting and exciting so when they pulled the Elvis card (for ratings?) it kind of made me say, "ugh!". It wasn't really unnecessary. When he went back to his Uncle to tell of what they found out, he sounded like that was the best part. This is just observation, I hope I don't sound too harsh. I realize they had a story to tell, I just felt the Presley on the boat connection was not needed.

Rosie O'Donnell's episode was by far the best in both seasons. She saw the work that goes into the search, she appreciated it and let everyone know throughout the episode that she appreciated the work and expertise that goes into research like this. They used a range of sources and I think going to these sources showed that this is not a quick or easy hobby or profession. Her story was interesting, she was willing to jump in and question and figure out. I feel WDYTYY is engaging the subjects more this season to be a part of the process. It was a very human story, very touching and it put her own life into a new perspective. Seeing the kind of life her family lived in the poor house in Ireland was very compelling. I have to admit that I do not know a lot about the potato famine of the time and now am intrigued to learn more about it.

This week I plan on jumping in on the Radio Chat that Thomas MacEntee is hosting. I subscribed to the show via iTunes and listened to the three prior shows today and wished I had been there. It was so cool listening to the voices that I see on FB and blogs that I follow! I promise not to become a rabid type fan girl! *smile*

Speaking of... a big thank you to Paula Hinkle and Thomas MacEntee for the Jamboree button on my blog. I can't go, I can't afford to do much traveling but I would love to get to some of these major Genealogy events! Gosh, everyone has so much fun!! I will be there in spirit!

Enough catching up.. Until next time!

Burning Questions ~ I haz 'em

2011-02-06T16:29:00.001-08:00

Below is a transcript that I found last year quite by accident and this site and all of the hard work of the site owner had opened up a brick wall for me. I have since dug in to find out more about my Edwards family. It goes slow, that big re-do project everyone is very tired of reading about and so on (this is part of the re-do project btw!!).. Grin. I do have a copy of the original document but shamelessly did not transcribe because it was already done. I ordered "Alleghany County Heritage" from The Alleghany County Historical-Genealogical Society this weekend so hoping I find a lot of information. Edwards was a prolific surname in Ashe and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina, and still is today. I would like to add these counties to my travel list. A travel list that I don't get to do much of. I am committed to burn up my vacation to Pennsic this year but plan on 2012 to be a somewhere else vacation. I wanted it to be Scotland, I won't be able to afford it by then so I will be doing some Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia travel plans. See how quick I slide off topic?

Two more books I would like to find, they have Edwards Family mentions:

History of the Davis fam. des. of John Davis, d. East Hampton, LI. By Albert H. Davis. New York, 1888.

The family of Granville H. Cox, 1822-1888, of early Ashe County, North Carolina, and Atchison County, Missouri

This document had a lot of information and one of the informants, Jane Duncan, is my great-great-great-grandmother. Within is her father, his father, their families. It was easy to source. I could attach it to a lot of places in my database!

However, in putting the information in RM4 and doing my sourcing, the questions started to arise. The document is created in 1892 with a witnessed post script in 1954. The deed was registered in 1925. That is a long span of time. Why such a long time.

And.. The big question.

What required my ggg-grandmother and her two sisters to give this information and why is it all posted in a deed book? I think I will have to figure out why this proceeding happened. William Edwards died in 1869, so why was this done in 1892? I don't know much about deeds and land and all that but I find it odd that this document exists. I am grateful for it, it is a great genealogical find! But I want to know the why of it all, I always do! It is probably a very simple reason.

Here is the transcript with the website credit to the real transcriber:

Alleghany County, NC, Deed Book 33, pp.524-525

COPY
Edwards William Descendants
State of North Carolina, Alleghany County

Interlineations by Transcriber

This day Sarah CHOATE and Nancy FENDER and Jane E. DUNCAN comes before me and each in one form of law makes oath. Mrs. CHOATE that she was born January 13th, 1809, Mrs. FENDER 16th of April 1815, Mrs. DUNCAN, September 4th, 1817, in North Carolina.

That their fathers name was William EDWARDS and was born in Orange County, North Carolina, October 15th, 1776, and that his wife's maiden name was Nancy CARTER, and that the names of his brothers and sisters were Starling EDWARDS, David EDWARDS, Elizabeth EDWARDS, who married Henry BREWER, Polly EDWARDS who married Syl or Cil BREWER, Susan EDWARDS who married Charles TOLIVER, Sally EDWARDS who married Jacob CROUSE.

That their Grandfather's name on their father's side was William EDWARDS [actually their grandfather was David EDWARDS] and that he lived in Orange County, North Carolina [true], and that he died about 1779, according to their information, and that their said grandfather came from England and settled in Virginia, prior to his coming and settling in North Carolina, and that their said grandfather had two brothers, if no more, to wit: Thomas EDWARDS and Robert EDWARDS [not true], and he their said grandfather had a sister by the name of Frankie EDWARDS, but neither one knows who she married. That their grandfather's brother Robert EDWARDS, after coming to America and staying awhile, returned to England [not true], according to the information that they received from their father, and the reports and traditions of the family, when they were little girls, and that their said grandfather married Elizabeth or Betsy MORRIS [probably true], and that he either married her in Virginia or at least she came from Virginia.

That the brothers and sisters names of affiants were Thomas EDWARDS, Nathaniel EDWARDS, David EDWARDS, Johnathan EDWARDS, Joshua EDWARDS, and the three affiants. That after the death of their said grandfather his widow then married Richard WILLIAMS and Sarah CHOAT makes oath than when she was a child or little girl she often heard the lessee of the property of Robert EDWARDS, the brother of her grandfather, speak of and that he leased it, or in some way left it, and returned to England, and soon after he thus returned to England that he died: and that the said property of said Robert EDWARDS, was in the state of New York on in the vicinity therof.

That their uncle Starling EDWARDS children were Peggy who married RIGGINS, Rhoda who married Amos HOWELL, Betsy married Henry WOODIE, Sally married Wm. WOODIE, Rachel married a LAWRENCE, Lucy married a RHOUTS or FOUTS, and that his boys names were John EDWARDS, William EDWARDS and Clisby EDWARDS.

Their uncle David's childrens names were William EDWARDS, Henry or Hal EDWARDS, Morris EDWARDS, S.O. EDWARDS, and Phoebe who married A.B. COX, Sally who married Hutch BURTON, Mahala who married Henry RICHARDSON, Betsy who married Jesse CONLEY, Thursy who married Noah WARD.

They do not know who the children of Elizabeth, Polly or Susan were, but the children of their aunt Sallie CROUSE, Candace who married John WOODRUFF, David CROUSE, Jacob CROUSE, John CROUSE, Charles CROUSE, William CROUSE, Sally who married Martin GAMBILL, Betsy, James ANDERS, Margaret married Lorenza ANDERS, Frankie married Richard CHEEK.

[Signed] Sarah CHOAT, Nancy FENDER, Jane E. DUNCAN
Attest: W.C. FIELDS, J.F. WARDEN

Sworn to before me and subscribed before me at Sparta in Alleghany County, North Carolina, this March 24th, 1892. Given under my hand and official seal of office, at office in Sparta in said County and State, this March 24th, A.D. 1892. W.E. COX, Clerk.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this May 15, 1925. A.F. REEVES, Clerk Superior Court.

Filed for registration May 15, 1925. Registered May 23, 1925. L.E. EDWARDS, Register of Deeds..

[The following is written in the margin of the deed book] Correction: David EDWARDS, Sr., was the son of John EDWARDS and was a soldier in Continental Army. He married Elizabeth MORRIS. David EDWARDS, Jr., was the son of David EDWARDS, Sr. He married Elizabeth ANDREWS and settled near Zion Church. This May 20, 1954. [Signed] Geo. W. EDWARDS. Witness: Ernest E. EDWARDS, Register of Deeds.

Pasted from <http://moonzstuff.com/edwards/william1776.html>

Margaret Anderson Update

2011-01-29T09:48:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know Duncan's, I promised you Saturday morning. I lied, Margaret is wanting my attention today and she is not taking no for an answer!

So, I found the document, and didn't find the document, that is helping with a time line:

-Affair with George Valentine.
-Produced daughter Elizabeth c. 1847. (illegitimate)
-Married William Nicoll 6/28/1851.
-David Nicoll born c 1852.
-I am assuming William Nicoll died between their marriage and 1855 when John Anderson was born, she is a widow on his birth registration.
-John Anderson born 1855. (illegitimate).

The document I found is the marriage record for William Nicoll and Margaret Anderson in Brechin, where she was born. Date 6/28/1851. Unfortunately I have the search and the record number but when I went to look at the record it was not the correct record. I reported it to ScotlandsPeople so hopefully I will get a hold of the actual record at some point.

Additional searches found nothing. I searched for:

David Nicoll's birth record.

William Nicoll's death record but I don't know enough about him to know if any of the search finds are him and the deaths are recorded in a book not really giving next of kin information.

Re the 1861 Census, I searched David Nicholl, David Anderson, John Anderson, John Nicoll, Margaret Nicoll, Margaret Anderson. I just can not find this census.

Margaret Anderson afterward Nicoll

2011-01-28T06:34:00.000-08:00

My plans to get serious on my redo of my database were hijacked by things that were more fun. I sat down this morning to work on plugging in my Duncan's of Tennessee into my database… read, finally… to drift back to Scotland to my maternal Grandmother's line. I collect clues, put them aside and then promptly forget and then out of nowhere a switch goes off and it is like a gate at a horse race opening, I am off, on it, going to move that brick wall along and out of my way! This was one of those days. Sorry Duncan clan, Saturday morning Is for you, I promise!!

Margaret Anderson, I have posted about her before. Mystery, her son, my great-great-grandfather, John Anderson whose birth record says he is illegitimate. I had a message through Ancestry about a year ago from a nice gentleman that suggested we share the same Margaret Anderson and to take a look at a site he had with the information he had on her. Seriously, it has taken me almost a year to follow up? I have too many lines I am trying to work on, lol. My family history could and would be my full time job if not that I need to eat and pay rent, alas, work once again in the way of my hobbies! It's a crime I tell you! So I finally looked and then slid into ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk to poke around. The thing about Margaret is John's birth certificate. John is her third child, she states she is widowed. So is Anderson her surname or married name? Usually the Scottish records show for example: Elizabeth Dewar Anderson M.S. Spalding. I can not find John's death record which might have more clues. Without the 1911 census I can't pin point him being alive or dead and searching 30 years of John Anderson death records would be hugely expensive, the search comes up with like 94 John Andersons!

But.. I digress, a habit of mine. This information on the site was extremely helpful. The thing is, I can not find any of her event records, or couldn't. The information given to me from this site was hugely helpful. She and George Valentine had a daughter in c. 1847, Elizabeth. I found her death certificate that states her as illegitimate but her father is listed as George Valentine. Interestingly, her death certificate doesn't list her with a maiden surname but her married name, Milne, and her father is listed so I wonder what name she used growing up. I expect Anderson. I suppose I could hunt down her marriage record to kill that curiosity. I have not looked into George, I don't know if he was married or not. So Elizabeth is one of the two children before John. Being 1847 when she was born and 1855 when John was born, I am assuming Elizabeth is the first born, the second in between them I am also assuming is a girl since John has the name of Margaret's father. George Valentine was listed as Elizabeth's father, John's birth record had no father mentioned. So was George his father too? And who is the mystery man, William Cameron, stated as John's father on his marriage record? Later, she married William Nicoll. Her son David is how I found her on the 1891 census. William died before the 1871 census. Margaret was a widow on that. She had a lot of addresses and different jobs, I can not imagine she had an easy life especially when she was with men she was not married to.

So after tracking down her children who are not of my family line, I do have her birth and death records! I can't find a thing that has to do with her and William Nicoll. I do have her birth record. Her maiden surname IS Anderson. All this led me to her death certificate, finally. Her parents are John Anderson and Helen Gibb.

It is the 1861 Census I think will have the most information for me regarding the before William Nicoll period. I can not find it to save my life. Searching it in ScotlandsPeople is not working out. The 1871 Census has her a widow with David Nicoll (18) and a younger son John Nicoll (15) with her. And yikes, a second son named John?? I can't find 1881. 1891 Census she is living with David, he is a widower with 6 children, 5 boys, of course, one named John! Haha.

((Oh wow! I was just proof reading this post and realized that second boy John is my John! He was born in 1855. ~One of my more duh and dense moments here for the world to see, haha.~ Now I am more confused. David is older than John and he is a Nicoll? Or… She and William never had children and David is the third illegitimate child but he used Nicoll whereas John kept his name Anderson, I have census' for him… gads, now I need David's birth record! I am on the hunt again!))

John Anderson Birth Record:
John Anderson, (present), Male, 1855 June Third, 4h 0m A.M.
Greystone, Parish of Monikie, Forfarshire
(Illegitimate)
Margaret Anderson, Widow, Her 3rd Child, 29 years, Brechin
Margaret Anderson, her X mark, mother
John Sturrock, Witness
James Cowper Witness
1855, July 13th At Monikie
(Signed) W.M. Alexander, Registar

His Marriage Record:
1879 on the Twenty Seventh day of June at Laurel Bank, Dundee
After Banns, according to the forms of the Free Church of Scotland
(signed) John Anderson, Railway Pointsman, Bachelor; 24, Victoria Street Carnoustie
(signed) Elizabeth Spalding, Jute Winder, Spinster; 23, 24 Dallfield Walk
William Cameron, Ploughman; Margaret Anderson afterwards Nicoll
James Spalding, Yarn Bleacher (deceased); Elizabeth Spalding, M.S. Dewar (Deceased)
(signed) James Ewing, Officiating Minister
(Signed) William Lindsay Johnson, Witness; (Signed) Maria Spalding, Witness
1879 June 30 at Dundee; Dav(?) Scott, Registar

Elizabeth Anderson/Valentine Milne death:
Elizabeth Milne married to Charles Milne, General Laborer
(Illegitimate)
1909 June first 3 h 0 m A.M., 4 Stonewell Road, Dundee
F; 62 years
George Valentine, Carter (deceased)
Margaret Anderson afterwards married to William Nicoll, Ploughman (deceased)
Cancer of the liver, about 6 months, as best by James H W ? MD
(cant read name), daughter, present
1909 June 1st at Dundee
Jas Murray, Registrar

The Mother Load - Tennessee Historical Committee Civil War Questionnaire

2010-12-18T15:59:00.001-08:00

It has taken me forever but I have -finally- transcribed a document I have had a year or two. This is part of my Re-Do project that is taking me way too long. Way too long! So I did it.. I picked up William Franklin Duncan's file to add to the new database exactly what I have as documentation. Once done with this new database project I will then compare it to all the information I "know" and don't have proof for it and I will go find it, then start on the holes! Phew. I am exhausted!

Here is a lesson about letting documents sit too long without transcribing. Can we say missing out on a lot of information??

George Washington Duncan and Jane Elizabeth Edwards will be fun to sort out. Looking at dates, he could have been in the Mexican War if I have his birth date right, abt 1820. The death information I have for him from the book "North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865, A Roster" compiled by Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr. has him listed dying at 29 years old during the Civil War. And, truthfully, do you know how many George Washington Duncan's there are? The North Carolina State Archives sent me this tidbit photocopy of George's death when I was tracking down Jane Edwards Duncan pension claim.

This is a very long post, my apologies….

State of Tennessee

Tennessee Historical Committee

Department of Libraries, Archives and History

John Trotwood Moore, Director

NOTE – Should this Questionnaire fall into the hands of one who is not a Veteran of the Civil War, or who did not live during those days, you will confer a favor on this Department by giving it to some Solider who has not received a copy, or return to us.

The chief purpose of the following questions is to bring out facts that will be of service in writing a true history of the Old South. Such a history has not been written. By answering these questions you will make a valuable contribution to the history of your State.

In case the space following any question is not sufficient for your answer, you may write your answer on a separate piece of paper. But when this is done, be sure to put the number of the question on the paper on which the answer is written, and number the pages on the paper on which you write your answer.

Read all questions before you answer any of them. After answering the questions here given, if you desire to make additional statements, I would be glad for you to add just as much as you desire.

State your full name and present post office address: William Franklin Duncan, Tasso Tennessee.
State your age now: I am Eighty years and four months old.
In what State and county were you born? In Ashe now Alleghany County, North Carolina.
Were you a Confederate or Federal soldier? Federal Soldier, Civil War.
Name of your Company? M? 4^th Tenn Cav (B) Number of Regiment? 4^th Regiment Tennessee Cavalry Volunteers. I was credited to Washington County Tennessee.
What was the occupation of your father? Farmer
Give full name of your father: George Washington Duncan Born at Sparta in the County of Ashe now Alleghany State of North Carolina. He lived at in Ashe County, NC and Washington County, Tennessee. Give also any particulars concerning him, as official position, ware services, etc., books written by, etc. He was a farmer and ex Mexican Volunteer Soldier.
Maiden name in full your mother. Jane Elizabeth Edwards. She was the daughter of William Edwards and his wife Nancey Edwards. Who lived at Near Gap Civil, Ashe County, North Carolina.
Remarks on ancestry. Give here any and all facts possible in reference to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., not included in the foregoing, as were they lived, offices held, Revolutionery or other war services; what country the family came from to America; first settled, county and State; always giving full names (if possible), and never referring to an ancestor simply as such without giving the name. It is desirable to include every fact possible, and to that end the full and exact record from old Bibles should be appended on separate sheets of this size, thus preserving the facts from loss: (answer) John Duncan great grandfather a soldier of Revolutionary War 1776. John Duncan Grandfather soldier of 1812. George W Duncan father volunteer Mexican War. William Edwards great grandfather an Englishman first settled in New York. William Edwards grand father first settled in Penn and then in N.C. Nancy Edwards and Duncan was from Ireland.
If you owned land or other property at the opening of the war, state what kind of property you owned, and state the value of your property as near as you can: Father owned a farm.
Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many? No, did not own slaves.
If your parents owned land, state about how many acres: About 100 acres.
State as near as you can the value of all the property owned by your parents, including land when the war opened: About 100 acres worth $500.00.
What kind of house did your parents occupy. State whether it was a log house or frame house or (can't read)…the number of rooms it had. (Can't read) Country Log House.
As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm.. (copy blacked out): As a boy I worked on the farm… public and private school… (copy blacked out)
State clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember, that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc.: Father George W Duncan was a farmer, owned land and mill worked on the farm and run the mill at times. Mother done house work cooking spinning and weaving making our wearing apparel.
Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many? No slaves, only domestic white girls.
How was honest toil – as plowing, hauling and other sorts of honest work of this class – regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable? Yes respectable by every body.
Did the white men of your community generally engage in such work? Yes.
To what extent were there white men in your community leading lives of idleness and having others do their work for them? No idleness was not tolerated.
Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did not own slaves? In verriable did associate together as friend and citizens.
At the churches, at the schools, at public gatherings in general, did slave-holders and non-slave-holders mingle on a footing of equality? In verriable so without (can't read) up to 1860.
Was there a friendly feeling between slave-holders and non-slave-holders in your community, or where they antagonistic to each other? Naborly and friends up 1860.
In a political contest in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help hire in any winning the contest? I think not.
Were the opportunities good in your community for a poor young man, honest and industrious, to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in business for himself? It was and enough (can't read) person takin advantage of the opportunity.
Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something out of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders? Every body was encouraged to work and be honest.
What kind of school or schools did you attend? Public schools 3 to 5 months and private schools after public schools expired.
About how long did you go to school altogether? More or less each year to 1860.
How far was it to the nearest school? Four to Five miles.
What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood? Public and private subscription schools.
Was the school in your community private or public? Public and private.
About how many months in the year did it run? Three to five… months.
Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly? They did
Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or woman? Men.
In what year and month and at what place did you enlist in the service of Confederacy or of the Federal Government? I William F Duncan was enlisted for Company M. 4^th Regt Tenn Cavalry United States Army May 6^th 1864 and Credited to Washington County Tenn. I was offered $750.00 to be credited to New York City as substitute for New York.
After enlistment, where was your Company sent first? To Nashville Tennessess to Camp Catleft(?).
How long after enlistment before your Company engaged in battle? Stoneman Raid into Georgia in June or July 1864. Sherman Campaign.
What was the first battle you engaged in? I was on Detached service at a block house guarding a R R Bridge near Decatur Ala. Until Battle of the Gulphen(?) (?) and capture of the 3^rd Tenn Cav
State in your own way your experience in the War from this time on to its close. State where you went after the first battle – what you did, what other battles you engaged in, how long they lasted, what the results were; state how you lived in camp, how you were clothed, how you slept what you had to eat, how you were exposed to cold, hunger and disease. If you were in hospital or in prison, state your experience here.: While on Detached service sergeant in charge of 100 one hundred men having to occupy to Block House contracted fever and bowel trouble and was in a rail road and injured treated in hospital at Nashville Tennessee and AL Jeffersonville Ind(?)
When and where were you discharged? July 12^th 1865 at Nashville Tennessee
Tell something of your trip home: I landed at home in Jonesboro Washington County Tennessee in July 1865.
What kind of work did you take up when you came back home? Work on the farm (?) corn for a nabor for one peck of corn per day.
Give a sketch of your life since the close of Civil War, stating what kind of business you have engaged in, where you have lived, your church relations, etc. If yo have held any office or offices, state what it was. You may state here any other facts connected with your life and experience which has not been brought out by questions.: I began work on the farm farming merch clerking in a county store in Washington County Tennessee I have lived in Bradley County Tennessee 40 years was Census Enumerator in 1890, 1990 and 1910 Justice of the Peace Member of County Court(?) Notary Public for years Depot and express Agent seven years Pension agent or Attorney. Clerk in store and assist Post Master at Tasso Bradley County Tennessee for last ten years up to the present time. A Master Mason Chatatta Lodge F&H M(?wondering if this means Free Mason, David W, his son, and John Foster Duncan, his grandson, were Masons as well -- transcribers comment). Member of the Christian Church,
On a separate sheet give the names of great men you have known or met in your time, and tell some of the circumstances or meeting or incidents in their lives. Also add any further personal reminiscences. (Use all the space you want.): (2 attached sheets but had to do with both of his wives, not this question.)
(can't read this question but it is about the Roster of his company and when people died. I will try to transcribe at another time, there is a lot of black copy to try to read through).
Give here the NAME and POST OFFICE ADDRESS of living Veterans of the Civil War, whether members of your Company of not; whether Tennesseans or from other States: (In this space William writes.. Isn't it fabulous!?) I, William F Duncan Co M 4^th Regt Tennessee Cavalry that is living that I know any thing of at present time. When I left Hospital I was sent to Vicksburg Miss and to New Orleans La there to Fort Barrancus Florida thru to Mobile Ala then marched by (?) to Baton Rouge La then to Nashville Tennessee by boat. Excuse me for taken up so much time, yours very truly, Wm F Duncan, Tasso Tennessee. My own hand writing, age 80 years old.

Attached Sheet 1:

Honorable John Trotwood Moore

Director Nashville Tenn

1,1 1923 Dear Sir

In reply to yours of (?) date I give you further history of myself after the Civil War. I was 1st Lieut of Co E 2nd Regt NC State Troops and (?) of the Regt and was elected Lieut Colonel of same. I married Martha Jane Hensley Sept 28th, 1865. She was mother of one sone David Washington Duncan borned March 24th 1867. He was a member of lower house of Tennessee Legislature. He was killed by Rail Road train near Cleveland Tennessee March 24th 1922. On his birthday on a crossing. He was stock inspector for Tennessee appointed by Capt Peck and Governor A A Taylor. I am yours truly,

William F Duncan

Tasso Tennessee

Attached Sheet 2:

Honorable John Trotwood Moore

Nashville Tennessee

1, 1 1923 Dear Sir,

On March the 12th 1871 I was married to Malissa Christina Briggs she was the mother of Martha E Duncan borned 8, 13 1873 now living John Thomas Duncan born January 21 1877 living William L Duncan 1, 17, 1879 living Marvin D Duncan 11, 22, 1881 died 7, 6, 1902 Isham F Duncan 1, 1, 1884 living. Oscar L Duncan 2, 16, 1886 died at Donelson Tenn 3, 31, 1921 Fredric R Duncan April 8, 1889 died 6, 8, 1890 Evan P Duncan 2, 12, 1892 now living.

My wife Malissa Christina Duncan died Nov. 5 1921. Member of the Christian Church

I am yours William F Duncan

Tasso Tennessee

Neglect and Paying it Forward - Find a Grave

2010-12-04T11:28:00.001-08:00

I have taken a few months off of research. Yet again. What was a couple of weeks has turned into quite a while but I tend to do that with everything I do. I knit like a fiend for a couple of weeks, spin like a fiend for a couple of weeks, research like a fiend for a couple of weeks, rinse and repeat. At one point I thought I should give up a hobby to balance myself out but I have come to accept my "cycle of life".

With that comes some guilt. I have gotten some leads from some very nice people. Emails and posts on Ancestry boards and one on this blog even! Blogging, people! If you are not a blogger, you should be. I had no idea what or why I wanted to do a blog but you know, I don't have anything important to say and I am not a teaching type blogger but I have gotten some very significant leads on my research from those Googling my ancestors! And there have been a few inquiries on my Duncan surname and ugh, I feel so bad because last week I wanted to sit at my spinning wheel, not here. One gentleman I let know I haven't been working on my research and was taking a short break, I can just imagine him scratching his head and looking at his other half and saying, "Whatta mean she is taking a break?" Do researchers do that? It boggles the mind.

I will say it is the research community on blogs and Facebook that keep me inspired and chomping at the bit to get back at it. I see some very productive people on my Facebook feed and many times sigh and say, "Gosh, come on Lighthouse, let's get moving here already!" Please don't look at my feed, it is all Frontierville. (Hangs her head in shame.)

To, my redo project is stalling me. I have posted on this project before. Brand new data base, the only thing going into this database is what I -actually- have as documentable proof in the new data base. I have gotten to the heavy material files and there came the …. Errrch… stall, let's go do something else mode. If I could train myself to even do a half hour a day when I get home from work to get these documents into RM4 and sourced, I would be so much farther ahead. Do I hear a New Year's theme coming? 2011 is going to be "Lets improve a little bit of everything", not a resolution but lifestyle enhancement. I really think I need to clean up the old information before I go for new information so… that is my plan even if it is taking months longer than I expected or allowed myself. I am very distracted by shiny. I need supervision.

All is not lost to the research community, however. For the time not spent at this desk researching, and or goofing off online, I have been running about my county as a Find a Grave volunteer. I can't tell you how much joy and pleasure I get from doing this. It is something I do with my 20 year old daughter, she enjoys it just as much and she is very good at finding the headstones we are looking for. I am sure she finds them more than I do. Her friends think I am "cool" because I hang out at cemeteries. College kids think I am cool!! It is good quality time with her and we have fun. We have stories that make us laugh and some day she will look back on these days and remember, and smile, while maybe, just maybe, doing this with her future daughter. And, it is good therapy, when I step into a cemetery on the hunt, the world goes away and family stress can be forgotten for a little while. The holidays this year is turning out to be very difficult so there has been a lot of Find a Graving!

For those of you that might be thinking about doing Find a Grave picture requests, you should! It is fun and a wonderful way to pay it forward. I have had some very nice people collect headstone pictures for me in Tennessee, only one of my original eight requests is still there unfulfilled and you learn the cemeteries in your area.

Yesterday we went to a very small cemetery that is no longer taken care of. I couldn't find the stone that was requested and I will report to the requester what I found. It saddened me that a cemetery could be so overgrown and neglected it. It is right behind a house, in some trees and very overgrown with thorn bushes, it is a mess and it shouldn't be that way. The majority of the stones are broken, laying in pieces or no longer readable.

So now after my word purge, I am going to work on the Briggs a bit I think! Woot for research!

Current leads:

Delothe "Dolly" Briggs may be the daughter of Frederick Briggs hung in 1789 in Virginia for horse thievery. It could be, I have her birth figured to be about 1785. I have her 1860 census saying she is 75 and her 1870 census were it looks like it says she is 80 so one or the other census is incorrect. I am still looking for more censuses. I have guessed she died in 1885 (per information of another family researcher in my family) but have not found her on the 1880 census as yet. She has been a mystery ancestor of mine and I wish I could have known her. Never married and with 5 children I think it is without looking at my records. How did a woman in the early 1800's not marry like that and what was her life like. I am dying to know.

Elizabeth "Betsey" Stockton. A very nice man from the Stockton family has contacted me with some valuable information. I had a bit of the information but no documentation. This documents my line, always a good thing; she is of the Stockton family of Virginia. They were very wealthy in their time.

And the Duncan clan. I have been contacted by other Duncan researchers also descended from my John Duncan to George Washington Duncan of North Carolina line. There is a reunion every year for ancestors of John Duncan; he had a lot of wives during his time. I have asked my sister to think about it and I think we may plan a trip to NC in 2011 for this reunion, which means, I better get some more work done on this line so I can walk into this reunion sounding like I know what I am doing when it comes to my Duncan's!! :)

Happy Holiday's to you and yours, whatever your Holiday of choice may be!!

Some pictures of that cemetery I mentioned above, Benham Cemetery, Ontario County NY:

Marriage - William W Baldwin & Elizabeth "Betsey" Luttrell

2010-09-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

This was sent to me from Knox County in 1983. The paper it was printed on faded badly over the years so I photo copied on the darkest settings. I will just reorder at some point but I wanted to put it in a post. I have never seen a marriage record like this.

State of Tennessee
County of Knox

Know all men by these Presents, That we William Baldwin and
Elijah Harris
all of the county and state aforesaid, our heirs, &c, are jointly and severally held
and firmly bound unto His Excellency the Governor, and his Successors in Office,
in the Penal sum of Twelve Hundred and Fifty Dollars, void on condition there be
no lawful objection why William Baldwin and
Betsey Luttrell may not be joined together
as man and wife in the holy estate of Matrimony.

Witness our hands and seals, this 25th day of March 1809.

(signed) William Baldwin
(signed) Elijah Harris

----------

State of Tennessee
Knox County

To any Regular MINISTER of the Gospel, have the cure of Souls, or JUS-
TICE of the PEACE for said County, GREETING:

By the virtue of the full power and authority in me vested, I hereby authorise and
empower you, or either of you, to celebrate and perform the rites of Matrimony
between William Baldwin and Betsey
Luttrell and join them together as man and wife in the holy
estate of Matrimony, he having given bond and security as the Law directs.

Given at Office, the 25th day of march in the
Year of our Lord, 1809 and in the XXXIII Year of our Independence

(signed) can't read

Transcript of Pension File - Hugh Wilson Baldwin - Part 1

2010-09-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

Page 1

State of Tennessee } In the Pension claim
County of Bradley } No 282.217 of Deborah
L Baldwin wido of Hugh W Baldwin of, Co. I
10th Tennessee Cavy personally appeared before me
an acting justice of the Peace in and for the
afforesaid County and State. Marshal Lawson
a citizen of Bradley County and State of Tennessee
well known to me to be Reputable and Entitled
to credit and who being duly sworne, declares in
relations to the afforesaid case as follows that I
was a first Lieut in Co. I of the 10th Regt of
Tennessee vol cavy age 39 years and my Post offis address
is Climer Tennessee and that I was personally and
Intimately acquainted with the said Hugh W Baldwin
for the last twentyfive years and from all apperance
the said Hugh W Baldwin was a sound man prior to
or at the time of his Enlistment. affiant futher states
that on or about the spring of 1865 the precise date
not remembered while at Natchez Mississippi the
said Hugh W Baldwin claimed to be suffering very
much with hemorrhoids or diorhea I advised the said

Page 2
Hugh W Baldwin to report to the Doctor for treatment
and by so doing that likely he would be able for duty
in a few days. affiant futher states that since and
after his discharge the said Hugh W Baldwin has
not been able physically to do manual labor and I
make this affidavit with full knowledge of the facts
from personal observation while in the servis and
also for a period of five years since his discharge
before he moved to Rhea County Tennessee. affiant
futher states that I have no itnerest in the above
case nor am not conserned in its prosecution.
(signed) Marshal Lawson

Sworn to and subscribed before me this the 7th day
of february 1889 and I herby certify that the contence
of the above delcaration were fuly maid known to
him before swearing and that I have no interest
in this case nor am not conserned in its prosectuion.
(signed) W N N Baker J P For
Bradley County Tenn

Page 3
State of Tennessee } In the Pension claim
County of Bradley } No 282.217 of Deborah
L Baldwin widow of Hugh W Baldwin of Co I
10th Tennessee cavy personally appeared before me
an acting justis of the Peace in and for the
afforesaid county and state. E. S Broyles a
citizen of Bradley Count and State of Tennessee
well known to me to be Reputable and Entitled
to credit and who being duly sworn declares in
relation to the afforsaid case as follows that his
age is 37 years and his Post offis address is Stamper
Bradley County Tennessee and that he was a privet
in Co I 10th Tennessee cavalry and has ben intimately
acquianted with the said Hugh W Baldwin from my
erliest recollection from the fact we were raised up
in the same Neighborhood and from all appearance
he was a sound man prior to or at the time of his
Enlistement affaiant futher states that in the
Spring of 1865 while at Natches Mississippi the said
Hugh W Baldwin claimed to be suffering very
much with Hemorrhoid or diorhea

Page 4
affiant further states that he was with
the said Hugh W Baldwin often times after
he was discharged from the servis for a period of
about seven year at which times the said
Baldwin moved to rhea county Tennesseee.
affiant futher states that the said Baldwin
were still complaining of his diseas affiant futher
States that he saw the said Hugh W Baldwin twice
after the said Baldwin moved to Rhea County
and the said Baldwin then told him his
diseas was getting worse affiant futher states
that he has no interest in the above case and
not conserned in its prosicution.
(signed) E. S. Broyles

Also Nathan Palmer appeared and declares
in the afforesaid case as follows that his age
is 36 years and Post offis address is Grief Bradley
County Tenn and he is a citizen of Bradley
County Tennessee and that he has ben personally
acquainted with the said Hugh W Baldwin
for 25 years affiant futher states he was a
privet in co I 10th Tennessee cavy and that
while at Natches Mississippi in the Spring

page 5
1865 the said Hugh W Baldwin was
complaining of Hemorrhoids or diohrea very much
affiant futher states that also that while at
Johnsonville Tennessee after they left Natches Mississippi
the said Hugh W Baldwin was still complaining
of Hemorrhoids and diorhea, affiant further stats
that the said Hugh W Baldwin was complaining
more or less for a period of about seven years
after his discharge at which time the said
Hugh W Baldwin moved to Rhea County Tenn.
affiant futher states that he assisted the said
Baldwin in moving to Rhea County and while
there the said Baldwin employed him to do some work
on account of his disability. affiant further states
taht he has no itnerest in this case and is not conserned
in its prosecution.
(signed) Nathan Palmer

Sworn to and subscribed this the 21 day of February 1883
and I certify the contence of the above declaration were fuly
maid known to the above named affiants befor
swearing and that I have no interest in this
case and not conserned in its prosecution.
(signed) W N N Baker JP
for Bradley County

page 6
This is to certify that W H H Baker whose
genuine signature appears to the foregoing
affidavit is and was at the date thereof an
acting magistrate in & for said County. He
was duly elected commissioned and sworn
& full faith & credit [?] all his offis as
....(there appears to be a line cut off in copying the document)

Given at offices 1st day of
March 1883. J H Rucker [?]

Page 7
1869 Hugh W Baldwin to } I solemnized this Rites
Aug 28 Deborah L Cowden } of matrimony between the
} within named parties on the
} 29th of August 1869
} (signed) W B Ballinger M.S.

State of Tennessee } I J H Rucker Clerk of
Bradley County } the County Court of said
County do certify that the
forgoing is a correct copy of the marriage
records of my offics and that I am well acqu
inted with W B Ballinger and know him to be
a regularly ordained Minister of the Gospel
and that his signature to the original license
is genuine and that the same are on file
and of record in my offics & that I have
no interest in the prosecution of this claim

Given at offics in Cleveland
under official seal this 22 June
1881. (signed) J H Rucker Clk.

Page 8
State of Tennesse }
County of Rhea } S.S.

In the matter claim No. 282.217
Deborah L Baldwin

On this 24th day of
January A.D. 1882 personally appeared
before me a Justice of the Peace in and
for the aforesaid County & State duly authorized
to administer oaths. J. C. Abernathy M.D.
aged 58 years a resident Rhea Springs
in the County of Rhea and State of Tennessee
whos Post office address is Rhea Springs
Tennessee will known to me to be a
Physician and Surgeon and to be reputable
and entitled full credit and who
being duly sworn declares in relation
to the aforesaid case. On examining my
bookos I find Hugh W Baldwin charges with
[?] [?] dated Sept 5th 1874 The childs
name is Ida H Baldwin, and on February
the 10th 1878 John A Baldwin was born.
I being the attending physician
Mrs Deborah L Baldwin is the mother of
the above named children, and wife
of Hugh W Baldwin dead. And I am
not concerned in the prosecution of this
case.
(Signed) J C Abernathy M.D.

Page 9
Sworn to and subscribed before me this day
by the above named affiant, and I certify
that I am in no wise interested in said
case nor am I concerned in its prosecution
and that the said affiant is personally
known to me to be a creditable person.
(signed) Wm W Lowe JP

State of Tennessee County of Rhea
I certify that W.W. Lowe Esqr
who hath signed his name to the
foregoing declarations and affadavit
was at the time of so doing a Justice of
the Peace in and for said County & State
duly commissioned and sworn that
all his official acts are entitled to full
faith and credit and that his signature thereout
is genuine Winess my hand and seal of
office this 24 day of January 1882
(Signed) W. S Gillespie
Deputy County Clk

Page 10
State of Tennessee }
County of Knox } SS

In the matter
of claim no 282.217 of Deborah L. Baldwin.

On this 17th day of January A.D. 1882
personally appeared before me a Justice of
the Peace, in and for aforesaid County of
Knox and State of Tennessee, duly author-
ized to administer oaths, Dr. J. H. Johnston
aged 28 years, a resident of Ball Camp
in the County of Knox and State of
Tennessee whose post office address is Ball
Camp Tenn well known to me to be respecta
ble and entitled to credit, and who being
duly sworn, declares in relation to the afore-
said case that he was present on the 14th day
of June, 1871 and waited upon Mrs. Deb-
orah L Baldwin, Wife of Hugh W Bald-
win at the birth of her first born child
named Carry A Baldwin and that I have
no interest, direct or indirect for which this
affidavit is made. My book account shows
the date as herein given.
(signed) J. H. Johnston M.D.

Page 11
State of Tennessee County of
Sworn to and subscribed before me, t his day
by the above named affiant and I cer
tify that I read said affidavite to the officer
before me executing the same and that I am in
no wise interested in said case, nor am I
concerned in its prosecution and that the
affiant is a creditable person. (Signed) C. Morris
Justice of Peace

I certify that C. Morris Esqr, who
hath signed his name to the above declaration
and affidavit was the time of so doing
a Justice of the Peace in and for said
County and State duly commissioned and
sworn, that all his official acts are enti
tled to full faith and credit and that his
signature thereunto is genuine.

Witness my hand and Seal of Official
This 30 day of January 1882
Signed J F J Lewis
Clerk of County Court

Page 12
On this 24th day of January AD 1822
personally appeared before me a Justice
of the peace in and for the afforesaid
County & State duly authorized to administer
oaths Y. L. Abernathy MD aged 36 years
a resident of Rhea Springs in the County
of Rhea and State of Tennessee whos Post
Office address is Rhea Springs Tennessee
well known to me to be a Physician and
Surgeon and to be reputable and entitled
to full credit and who being duly sworn
declare in relation to the aforesaid case
that Feb 1lth 1876 James
E A Baldwin was born and Aug
16th 1880 Emma B Baldwin was born.
I being the Physician in attendance
in both cases. I find the dates upon
my books. Their Mother Mrs Deborah
L Baldwin was the wife of Hugh
W Baldwin deceased. I have no interest
in the prosecution of this claim
(signed) Y. L. Abernathy
M.D.

Page 13
Sworn to and subscribed before me
this day by the above named affiant
and I certify that I am in no wise interested
in said case nor am I concerned in its
prosecution and that said affiant is
personally known to me to be a creditable person
(signed) Wm W Lowe, JP

State of Tennessee County of Rhea,
I certify that W.W. Lowe, Esqr
who hath signed his name to the foregoing
declaration and affidavit was at the time
of so doing a Justice of the Peace in and for
said County and State duly commissioned
and sworn that all his official acts are
entitled to full faith and credit and that
his signature thereunto is genuine
Witness my hand and Seal of Office this
24 day of January 1882.
(signed) W.S. Gillespie
Deputy County Clk

Transcript of Pension File - Hugh Wilson Baldwin - Part 2

2010-09-04T09:58:00.001-07:00

Page 14

State of Tennessee } In the matter of Deborah

County of Bradley } L Baldwin widow of

Hugh W Baldwin late of Co I 10th Tenn

cavaldry whose number of claim is 282.217 on this the 30th day of October

1882 Personally appeared before me an acting

Justice of the Peace and for the afforesaid

county duly authorized to administer

oaths W H H Baker aged 40 years

a resident of Grief in the County of Bradley

and State of Tennessee whose Post offis

address is Grief Bradly County Tennessee

and Joseph J W Baker aged 44

years a resident of Grief with County

of Bradley and State of Tennessee whose

Post offis is Grief Bradley County Tennessee

well known to me to reputable and

entitled to credit and who being duly

sworn declare in relation to the aforesaid

case as follows W H H Baker states he

was well acquainted with the said

Hugh W Baldwin from the time

said Baldwins came home out of the servis

until the year 1873 at which time he

moved to Rhea County Tennessee

page 15

an in a short time after he came home

he told me he was suffering with

diarrhea and hemorhoids which gave him

a [?] of trouble I was more or less

with him from the time he was discharged

up to the year 1873 from the fact we were

near neighbors and during the years of

1871 and 1872 and part of 1879 he lived

on my farm and worked some with

me at times he complained very

much I think that up to the year

1879 he was not disabled from performing

manual labor upon our avridge more

than one fourth but from the year

1871 up to the year 1873 I think he was

disabled about one third & I further

state taht Deborah L Baldwin widow

of Hugh W Baldwin has never married

since the death of her husband.

Joseph J W Baker States he was

well acquainted with said Hugh

W Baldwin from the time he was

discharged up to the year 1873

page 16

and was with him often and

herd him complaining from the

fact we lived joining farms part of

the time he labored some but was

complaining at times very much

the first few years after his discharge

I don't think he was disabled for

performing manual labor more than

one fourth. But during the last two

years he remained here I think

probably he was disabled one third.

And I further state that Deborah

L. Baldwin widow of Hugh W Baldwin

has never remarried since the death

her husband.

We further declare that we have no interest

in said case and are not concerned in

its prosecution

(signed) W H H Baker

Joseph J W Baker

affiant signature

page 17

State of Tennessee County of Bradley

sworn to and subscribed befor me this

day by the above named affiants and

I certify that I read said affidavit to

said affiant and acquainted them

with its contents before I executed the same

I further certify that I am in no wise

interested in said case nor am I

concerned in its prosecution and that said

affiants are personally known to me and that

they are credible persons

(Signed) F. M. Routh

JP For B. C.

This is to certify that F M Routh whose genuine

signature appears to this above affidavit is & was

the date therego an acting Magistrate in & for

in County he was commissioned 18 Aug 1822 &

(some cut) same will expire 18 Aug 1888 [?] [?]

[?] [?]

Given at offics in Cleveland

1st November 1882 & I certify that

I have no interest in this claim

J. H. Rucker Clerk

Bradley County Court Tenn

Page 18

State of Tennessee }

County of Rhea } S.S.

On this 9th day of

April 1881 personally appeared

before me a notary public for and

in aforesaid County & State J. G.

Ewing and W. K. Fugate both

respectable citizens of the County

and State above named who

after being duly sworn according

to law declares that they seen

Hugh W Baldwin late R2 M

Sergt Co I, 10th Tenn, Cavy US Vols No. claim

for pension 296.675 In death on

the 14th day of March 1881 and that they

seen the said Hugh W Baldwin

Buried on the 16th day of March 1881 and

that their Post office address is

Rhea Springs Rhea Co, Tenn, and

that they have no interest direct

or indirect in the matter that calls

for this affidavit. (signed) J G Ewing

W. K. Fugate

Sworn to and subscribed before

me this 9th day of April 1881 and I

hereby certify that the contents of the

aforegoing affidavit [?]fully made

to the affiants before swearing thereto

that the affiants is to me well known

to be respetable and worthy of credit

and that I have no interest direct or indirect

in the prosecution of this claim.

(Signed) J. B. Peters

Notary Public

Page 19

I R L Allen Dept Clerk of the

County Court in and for afore

said County and State do Certify

that J B Peters Esqr who hath

signed his name to the foregoing

[?] uses at the time of so

doing a Notary Public in and

for said COunty & State duly

commissioned and sworn

that all his official acts

are entitled to full faith and credit

and that his signature thereto is genuine.

Witness my hand and seal

of office this 22nd April 1881

(signed) R L Allen Dept

Clerk of County Court

Rhea Co Tenn

Page 20

State of Tennessee }

Bradley County }

Feb 12th 1881 }

In the case of Hugh W

Baldwin. I will state that I was acquainted

with him before the war, and up till the

war commenced and considered him at

that time a healthy man. Have known

his family for a long time and

from my knowledge of him and the

family I believe he was a healthy

man. I however did not see him for

a short time before he inlisted and

consequently can not state his condition

at this time of enlistment.

I have no interest in the clam.

(signed) A McNabb MD

Sworn and subscribed

before me this 12 February

1881 & I certify that I have

no interest in the prosecution

of this claim

J. H. Rucker Clk

Page 21

State of Tennessee

Department of Public Health

Nashville

Certified Copy Number

P5419

1. Place of Death

County Bradley

Civil Dis. 3rd

City Cleveland.

Registration District no. 40603

Primary Registration District No. 40603

File No. 9584

Reg No 28?

2. Full Name. Mrs Deboroah Louisa Baldwin

Residence: Tasso Tenn

3. Female

4. Color or Race: W

5. S, M, W, D: Widowed

6. Date of Birth: July 18 - 1852

7. Age: 87 Years, 2 Months, 12 Days

8. Trade, profession etc: House Keeping

12 Birthplace: Bradley County, Tennessee

13. Fathers Name: James C Cowden

14. Fathers Birthplace: N.C.

15 Mothers Name, Maiden: Henrietta Chilcutt

16 Mothers Birthplace: Bradley Co, Tenn

17. Informant: Frank [Simmons?], Cleveland Tenn Rd #2

18. Burial, Cremation, or Removal: New Friendship, Date 5-2, 1939

19. Undertaker: [?] Funeral Home, Cleveland Tenn

20. Filed 6-6, 1939 Mattie Bryant

21. Date of Death: April 30, 1939

22. I hereby certify, That I attended deceased from [?] 1937? to April 30, 1939.

I last saw her alive on Apr 30, 1939, death is said to have occurred on the

date stated above at 7:18 (can't tell am/pm)

(can not read the physicians hand writing....)

I hereby certify the above to be a true and correct copy of the original recoard on file in

this office. Not valid unless countersigned by Director, Division of Vital Statistics.

(Signed) W.C. Williams, Commissioner.

(Sighed) W W Hubbard, Director, Division of Vital Statistics

Date Issuesd 5/24/39

(The Division of Vital Statistics was established January 1, 1914)

Page 22

War Department

Adjutant General's Office

Washington, D.C. Dec 27th, 1880.

Sir:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt from your Office of

Application for Pension No. 296.675, and to return it herewith,

with such information as is furnished by the files of this Office.

(can not read this sentence until Hugh's name) Hugh W

Baldwin was enrolled on the 3 rd

day of Feby, 1864, at Charleston, in Co. I

10th Regiment of Tenn Cavy Volunteers

(a line through the next lines to handwritten notes)

Present June 30/65. Return May 65

not on file. Company was at Johnsonville Tenn

May & June '65.

Mustered out Aug 1/65 Nashville Tenn.

The records of this office furnish no evidence of

alleged disability.

Lazy Genealogist

2010-09-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

This is the year I clean up my act, I mentioned the big "redo" before or should I call it the Great Migration of "My Stuff" from the published family history. The published version by my Mothers Cousin has been my crutch and I really need to sift out what I have proof for and if I don't, get it.

This brings me to this file I ordered from the National Archives dare I say 25 years ago? I glanced at it, I put it in my file box and I am not sure why I never did anything with it, other than I meant too but then put the Genealogy away for about 20 years. So in this quest for documenting and sourcing, I pulled this file out (25 pages worth) and started to read it. Blink. Blink. Blink. I think I may have seen the branch of the service this said he was in and put it aside, the published book had Hugh W Baldwin in the 62nd Tennessee Mounted.. and... I am now convinced that is the incorrect Hugh W. Baldwin. Now, if you follow my blog at all, you will see I agonize over his father, Hugh Lawson Baldwin, a lot too. I feel a trend here. So, I read this file, it is his Pension Claim file that his wife, Deborah Louise Cowden Duncan, took a long time to get. I will have to go to the published book and find the excerpt about Deborah being awarded the pension. It does the heart good after so many years forced to live a meager existence.

It is the documentation in this file that is outstanding. Sworn, in front of Justices of the Peace, Lawyers, County Clerks and so on, this legal proceding offers me the following documentable events:

1. Marriage of Hugh Wilson Baldwin to Deborah Louise Cowden.
2. Death date and Burial date of Hugh Wilson Baldwin.
3. Three affidavits by the Physicians that attended Deborah during the births of their five children, my
great-grandmother Carrie Ann Baldwin Duncan being one of those children.
4. His service record given by the War Department, in Co I, 10th Tennessee Calvary.
5. A photocopy of Deborah Louise's death certificate.

Today.. finally, I transcribed all 25 pages! I do have to say I like Transcript 2.3. I did have a problem with it not saving after three or four pages so would have to close and reopen the program. I looked at the website and it hasn't been updated in quite some time. The Dell I used it on is finicky so it could be the machine.

Marriage of Hugh Wilson Baldwin to Deborah Louise Cowden:

Birth of Carrie Ann Baldwin Duncan:

I will have to look at Footnote again. I didn't see this file there before but I did see the other Hugh W Baldwin File. Hugh Baldwin seems to be a popular name during the time. I recall chasing another Hugh L Baldwin thinking it was my Hugh Lawson.

This post is really an Amanuensis Monday post but I am too darned pleased to have this file finally transcribed! (As an off-topic aside.. I am the Amanuensis for Pennsic 40! That was the title I was given for being secretary to the Mayor for next years event.)

PS. I realize the background for my blog is missing.. I will get it fixed soon.

Find A Grave (Written and never posted - 7/16/10)

2010-09-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

Find A Grave (Written and never posted - 7/16/10)

I have wanted to volunteer for a long time and finally did. I did this because I was requesting headstones from Tennessee and thought I should "give back", finally. I have often posted on various boards that I would be willing to trod out to snap photos for people. It is an easier way to help out the headstone seekers without daring my sacroiliac joint to inflame with anger. Small hunting projects. So eagerly I have been waiting for my own results, excitingly checking my email daily to find no notice of any head stones there but within a hour of clicking the volunteer button, I had three requests and from the two cemetery's that I am sandwiched between. Seriously, I have a cemetery one road to the north and one road to the south from me. Within walking distance, how cool is that! This morning I fulfilled two of the requests and when the page said the requester would be notified I saw a link for her other requests and popped that open for a peek and wow, she has about 30 requests that have been sitting there for months not claimed by a volunteer! Two I can do for her as they are local to me. And it not one place; Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York (too far for me to travel), Delaware, Vermont and Maryland. Now I am wondering if anyone will pick up my requests for my scattered places in Tennessee (wait until I start on NC and Virginia)! And ugh, I just looked, none of them are claimed!

I will have to poke around and see if there is a way I can figure out if there are long standing unclaimed requests for my area for other people. (Never mind, figured it out!)

(Update - 9/3/10 and Pennsic in between!) Since then a couple of wonderful people have uploaded pictures of graves from my requested photo's list. And I have visited quite a few cemeteries in my area hunting down that elusive stone for people far away. Also, while I am there for the requested photo, I take pictures of the family members around them and upload them too in case they are useful, since I am there, I am happy to do it. While a few have not turned out to be their people, the stones are there for the next seekers and I feel it is such a worthwhile investment of my time and a way to give back and pay it forward. Genealogists, in my experience, are the nicest kind of people. I have printed a few requests to go find this weekend!

Some of the bounty (I asked for 8 stones and have 6 so far, and that was only Tennessee, I have a couple more states!)

David Washing Duncan and Carrie Ann Baldwin Duncan

William Franklin Duncan

(some great stuff about Deborah Louise Cowden Baldwin and her husband

Hugh Wilson Baldwin in the next post!!!!!!)

SNGF

2010-07-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight I used the post about my ex-husbands passing, just a short year ago this past week.

I write like
Margaret Atwood

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

You try it! http://iwl.me/b/31ac0f16

Catching up - Bad Blogger

2010-05-14T08:25:00.001-07:00

That last couple of months has been hit or miss. I am currently undergoing an issue with Sacroiliac Joint Syndrome. I hate it, I don't like it. Pain is an every day thing and that is where I am now, finding a pain management routine that works for me. Two cortisone shots (that did not work) later I was scheduled for an RPN this morning (it doesn't sound pleasant at all, let me tell you!) but!! my insurance company DENIED the procedure. Just a very small rant then I am done… This insurance company (and my employer) made a nice program for us. If we listen/watch a series of videos we get a benefit check back. So, I saw they had a half dozen virtual blurbs on pain management and watched them all so that I might learn something and every one of them say "Follow up with your doctor, follow their prescribed regimen… blah blah blah" to turn around and deny my treatment from my Doctor? It boggles the mind. Seriously. So anyway, enough of that, I realize pain is my only problem, there is no fixing the joint, it is damaged, it is a maintenance thing. Constant pain is a depressant and some days I don't do a thing because it saps my energy but at the same time, I don't have a serious disease like so many other brave souls fight every day so in that, out of respect, I won't feel sorry for myself. A bad day of pain is certainly better than a chemo treatment.

What I have been doing….. Certificate in Genealogical Studies-Scottish Records at National Institute for Genealogical Studies. I have purchased the basic package of classes so far. I started the third class this week. So far I am enjoying it and right now is a lot of back tracking. I have to do the basic classes for the certificate and already have the basic knowledge though I will say doing a case study in Methodology I was an eye opener. I clearly think in a different pattern but come to the same conclusions.. eventually. Riddles frustrate me, the obvious is never my first choice, I have a very complex analytical mind and I always seem to think out before in. I always blame it on being a Virgo! Ha! I wonder if that is why I make people crazy with frustration towards me! When it comes to sitting down and digging into the research, I am tireless and I will hunt, scratch and scrape until I find what I am looking for. So in the end I do accomplish what I set out to. The bulk of the classes I am looking forward to start in December, so I will be juggling three classes I think it is. That is the one draw back of my program, the Scottish classes are not as often and what I really want to take is really far away. I have electives to take so in between the Scottish classes I have plenty to keep me busy. With that though, I am very happy with the content and look forward to earning my Certificate. I have just started my family line which I am including the Ahnentafel at the end of this post.

I was told my Baldwin's started in Connecticut. I really want to sit down and bridge that gap from Tennessee to Connecticut but I have a feeling that Virginia is in between. The last Baldwin I have proof of is William Baldwin, I think his father is Ezekiel Baldwin. He moved to Tennessee and purchased land there so consider him "penciled in" until I know for sure. So if this is his father, connecting Virginia to Connecticut would the next step:

Name:	William W Baldwin1–4
Sex:	Male

Individual Facts
Birth	bet 1779 and 1780	Amhearst Co Virginia2
Residence	1830 (about age 51)	Rhea, Tennessee5
Death	28 Jan 1851 (about age 72)	Meigs County Tennessee - Rhea Springs2
Burial		Goodfield Cemetery, 4 miles south of Decutur, Meigs County, Tennessee

Marriages/Children
1. Elizabeth Lutrell (1788-1867)
Marriage	25 Apr 1809 (about age 30)	Knox County Tennessee2
Census (fam)	1840 Census	Meigs County Tennessee - Rhea Springs
Children	Hugh Lawson Baldwin (1809-1890)
	Elizabeth F Baldwin (1812-1889)
	James Churchill Baldwin (1814- )
	Rhonda Ann Baldwin (1816- )
	Sarah C Baldwin (1819- )
	John L Baldwin (1821-1886)
	William Jr Baldwin H (1824- )
	Robert Simeon Baldwin (1826-1875)

Hugh Lawson Baldwin still stumps me and I have he is having way too much fun side stepping my pinning him down! I do have land records for him, he sold a lot of land during the 1860's so I am thinking he moved on to Texas long before I thought.

The Duncan's are still a brick wall. It is assumed my George Washington Duncan is the son of John Duncan of North Carolina. John may have been in the Revolutionary War, he was there during that time frame, I think. I also assume he is the Duncan that came over from Scotland. My family story was that three Duncan brothers came to the Colonies and settled near Bee Log, NC.

I still need to do my Duncan line "re-do" from a prior post. Starting a brand new data base. File by file rebuilding the database with DOCUMENTABLE sources. Then use my second cousins book as a reference and find these documents. I have an inkling one line might be incorrect. And I know there have to be others that I can track to the Revolutionary War to supplement them into the DAR.

I heard from a distant relative from my Sheufelt line. I haven't done any research on my fathers side, my mothers side keeps me very busy. Bernadine Sheufelt was my paternal grandmother. This relative and myself share the same great-grandparents and she was so nice and emailed me photographs of them! I have not sat down and really followed the Ancestry trees for the Sheufelt, it seems many research various branches of Sheufelt/Hubble lines which is where my line goes. My fathers paternal side already has me in Croatia but… there are not enough hours a day.

And then there are all the non-genealogical things I do… knitting, spinning and garb for the SCA for three people for a Pennsic that is coming at me full steam ahead!

Something I LOVE - Windows Office OneNote. Type here, upload into blog.

And most importantly - today - HAPPY ROBIN HOOD DAY! Which is where I am going this morning, to see Robin Hood. This is epic, I NEVER go to the theatre opening day of anything, I hate it, I don't like crowds, I don't like people I don't know too close to me! Haha.

And enough, I shut up now… -smile!- Back to my exam I am procrastinating on with blog posts!

Generation 1

1. Elizabeth Dewar Spalding FENDER-1: born 21 Mar 1909 in District of St. Mary, Dundee, Scotland; died 3 Mar 1984 in Rochester, Monroe, NY.

Generation 2

2. Edward Cummings Alexander FENDER-2: born 19 Jul 1878 in District of St. Andrews, Dundee, Scotland; married 18 Dec 1903 in Dundee, Scotland; died 10 Apr 1952 in Akron, Summit, Ohio.

3. Elizabeth Reid ANDERSON-3: born 11 Apr 1880 in Carnoustie, Scotland; died 31 Jan 1933 in Akron, Summit, Ohio.

Generation 3

4. George FENDER-5: born 20 Dec 1851 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 9 Jun 1871 in District of St. Clement, Dundee; died 9 Nov 1920 in Parish of Liff-Benvie, County of Forfar.

5. Jane Watt ALEXANDER-6: born ca 1852 in Forfarshire, Dundee; died 12 Jan 1915 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

6. John ANDERSON-10: born 3 Jun 1855 in Greystone, Parish of Monikie, Forfarshire, Scotland; married 27 Jun 1879 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

7. Elizabeth Dewar SPALDING-12: born 17 Oct 1855 in Parish of Monifieth in the County of Forfar.

Generation 4

8. George FENDER-13: born 20 Mar 1817 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 26 Nov 1843 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

9. Jean/Jane BEATTS-14: born 18 Feb 1817 in Ferry Port on Craig; died 18 Mar 1898 in District of St. Mary, Dundee, Scotland.

10. Alexander ALEXANDER-24: born 20 May 1820 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 24 Jan 1842 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

11. Margaret WATT-25.

13. Margaret ANDERSON-26: born ca 1826 in Brechin, Scotland.

14. James SPALDING-27: born 3 Oct 1827 in Foveran, Aberdeenshire; married 17 Dec 1854 in Monifieth, Scotland.

15. Elizabeth Lamb DEWAR-28: born 17 Jul 1836 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

Generation 5

16. George FENDER-50: born ca 1787.

17. Elizabeth SMITH-51: born ca 1791.

18. James BEAT-40: born 24 Sep 1789 in Ferry Port on Craig; married 22 May 1816 in Ferry Port on Craig.

19. Isabel MURRAY-41.

20. Thomas ALEXANDER-38.

21. Elizabeth MILNE-39.

22. Angus or Andrew??? WATT-37.

28. Alexander SPALDING-44.

29. Maria ADAMS-45.

30. David DEWAR-46: married.

31. Helen CUTHILL-47: born 26 May 1804 in Montrose.

Generation 6

36. William BEATT-42: married 23 Jan 1787 in Ferry Port on Craig.

37. Jean GORIE-43.

62. James CUTHILL-48: married.

63. Janet MATHER-49.

Preparer:

Sharon Stevens Lighthouse

Please do not reproduce without my express permission.

s1klight@aol.com

Researching an Illegitimate Line

2010-03-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

My Grandmother's family line brings me to Scotland. I have been having good luck in collecting the first few generations birth, marriage and death records from ScotlandsPeople. But I am finding I have to figure out how to be a super sleuth in records I have little experience with.

My great-great-grandfather of the maternal side was John ANDERSON. His birth record shows him as Illegitimate, his marriage record shows William Cameron being his father. The first mystery to solve is to identify his mother, Margaret Anderson.

John Anderson's birth record reads as follows:

John Anderson, (present), Male, 1855 June Third, 4h 0m A.M.
Greystone, Parish of Monikie, Forfarshire
(Illegitimate)
Margaret Anderson, Widow, Her 3rd Child, 29 years, Brechin

Margaret Anderson, her X mark, mother
John Sturrock, Witness
James Cowper Witness
1855, July 13th At Monikie
(Signed) W.M. Alexander, Registar

His Marriage Record:

1879 on the Twenty Seventh day of June at Laurel Bank, Dundee
After Banns, according to the forms of the Free Church of Scotland

(signed) John Anderson, Railway Pointsman, Bachelor; 24, Victoria Street Carnoustie
(signed) Elizabeth Spalding, Jute Winder, Spinster; 23, 24 Dallfield Walk
William Cameron, Ploughman; Margaret Anderson afterwards Nicoll
James Spalding, Yarn Bleacher (deceased); Elizabeth Spalding, M.S. Dewar (Deceased)

(signed) James Ewing, Officiating Minister
(Signed) William Lindsay Johnson, Witness; (Signed) Maria Spalding, Witness
1879 June 30 at Dundee; Dav(?) Scott, Registar

So, Margaret "should" be findable but I am having a hard time tracking her down. The Marriage Register shows she was afterward Nicoll so she did re-marry after John was born? Did she re-marry after John was grown and gone? And as far as her name when John was born. Is Anderson her maiden surname? Would she have given her deceased husband name to another mans son's name? I have her approximate birth date of 1826 as she was 29 when John was born but was she born an Anderson or another surname? Searching a Margaret in Brechin comes up with a lot of Margaret's! And how do I figure out for sure that William Cameron is truly his father? I expect that is something I will never know. I have been searching the 1861 census for her as Anderson with a 5-6 year old son named John and two older children. I have been searching for her as Nicoll with three children, one being John Anderson. I have been searching for a death record for Margaret Nicoll. I feel like I have enough clues to crack the mystery but so far I am not having any luck. In the last week I have burned through at least 60 credits at ScotslandsPeople and have birth records for a couple Margaret's and a death certificate that could almost be her but by the age 10 years off, and a few census' that are not even close to being her. So tonight I have been poking around through Ancestry's Scottish census' looking for a clue in 1861 but I think I am going to move into 1871 and see if I can find her and her Nicoll's husband there!

It feels like it should be so easy.......

((Bloggers note: And gosh, not even an hour later I found her in someone's family tree on Ancestry. Major clues to identify her as my Margaret Anderson! An ahhhh moment! *and happy dance*.))

The Great "Do-Over" Adventure??

2010-03-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

I love RootsMagic 4, I love everything about it but I messed up a file - - big time. Bruce Buzbee and a few others were so nice by posting to my panicked questions in GenealgyWise and I was all ready with info on how to fix my error. It was totally operator error by the way, I think everyone should use RM4.

Long ago and far away in time (like 18 months ago) I accidently imported someones family tree into my family tree on Ancestry. (Note: I no longer use the tree seriously on Ancestry, I really don't like the idea of all this information sharing that isn't proven). After that "Erk, crap, what the heck did I just do?" moment, I thought I could fix it by downloading my now messed up file and fix it in RM3 and now you see where this is going? So all "my" stuff, that I am questioning again and will be discussed next in this post, and "their" stuff is now all in one file but hey! I can fix it! Famous last words.

I got busy deleting family links and realized there is a way to do this properly and not the way I did it. Unlink doesn't mean delete and vice versa so looking at the people list down the left side of my program, there are about 1000 people that "may" belong to me but no one is going on my family tree until proven by me. So anyway.. a month or so of dabbling at the file to get rid of all these people and doing the troubleshooting reports to find out I had about a hundred duplicates. Truly, I am pretty good with computers and figure out programs quickly but somehow this was like a raging fire out of control! I even had to laugh at how absurb my perdicament was with, to me, what should be easy (and is easy!). So, I merged.. and merged and merged again. And I will say this file mess was a good teaching tool of just what you can do with RM4, lol. So now I realize that "Mr. So and SO" who was record 6 once upon a time is now record number 1934 or something like that. Clearly I have to work on the merging feature.

So finally I had the file fixed!

Until...

A family I didn't even have trouble with, the Fenders... George Fenders father was George and his father was George. They are from Scotland and must have all been first sons to name after the grandfather. Anyway, my first George ended up being generation 1, 3, 5, AND 7 and when looking for problems it says something about George couldn't be married to "Miss So and So" because he was 143 years old. Hands were thrown up in the air in defeat. The file wins. And sadly, all along I thought it just might but I was focused on perserverence!

So now it was time to make some serious decisions. The problem started when I merged my entire family tree (Four surname files into one big Master file was the plan) and picked up that other tree by accident. And in the meantime I kept adding new information I found, yes, I compounded the problem! Lol. So I am back to four files, one for each of my grandparents surnames. As of this writing one has been created and almost finished.

The next major decision.

My Duncan-Baldwin lines. My mothers Cousin, Patsy Crox Underhill, did a tremendous amount of work over a lot of years to assemble the family tree to enable her and now our acceptance into the DAR. She is also in the Colonial Dames and my Great Grandmother was an Eastern Star. So this family history is documented enough for these organizations but I don't have any of the documentation. I have the book that Patsy put together and it is also in the DAR Library but that is my "source" for much of my famiy history. Over the years I have collected some documentation on my own but I decided to make these new RootsMagic files my major overhauling "Do-Over" project. My reasoning is that after 20 years past Patsy's research there is a lot more information available and new sources could be found and personally I want to see the documents and there is a lot of the family not done but I just don't know what has been found and what hasn't. So the "book" will be my reference. And the rule is..."If you don't have a document in your hand, the info does not go into the new RM4 surname file!" I am the WORST at following my own rules, btw.

So here is my list of rules...

1. Must have a document in my hot little hand to enter anything into that file. The notes feature will be used for a lot of this information I have until proof is in my hand.

2. Source! If I can not take the time to source right there, do not enter the document until I do.

3. At the same time, make a pin in Google Earth! (Well, I was good for the first 10 records I think but will go back on Individual summarys and use collected addresses from there. Told ya, I am the worst at my own rules.)

4. Transcribe into the source as they are entered. So far I think this was the best rule, admittedly, the longer documents have not been done. (I just love that source text button!)

5. Scan and attach image to source as I go. Well, I haven't done this yet, it became a rule after I took a break on Sunday so I do have to go back and do those before I start the next surname file.

6. USE the to-do list feature. I am so lazy and always assume I remember everything and I remember nothing. Sad but true.

7. Stamp the back of the document with the date I put it in RM4 so I don't keep going back when I get disorganized to do the same thing over and over.

8. Do a happy dance when I see the progress at my detailed files!!!

So it is a major overhaul but I think I will be much happier and starting fresh and organized will help me focus on what I really need to do.

Admittedly, I did the easy Surname first, the Scotland line. I haven't collected a lot of documents yet or really delved into the research other than birth, marriage, death and census. The Duncan-Baldwin line will take a few days at least to make a usable file but I am up for the challenge!

One more life to add to the other

2009-11-11T07:13:00.000-08:00

Good grief, one more thing. I joined Second Life. Ugh!!

I have a handful of friends that keep asking me to come into the fun of Second Life. I would sit in the group with them listening them talk about it and while it did sound intriguing, I held to my belief that I just have too much I never get done as it is, things I whine and complain about regularly on my blogs, and that I have no business adding yet one more thing to take my attention from no less than spinning, knitting, family research, SCA research (that never ever gets done), AOL roleplay (that gets too much done!), 16th century garb for myself and my daughter, Turkish embroidery (hardly touched) and so on. Oh yes and that I have a full time job and a 19 year old daughter still at home and not much of a social life. So do I really need to be in Second Life? Then, I heard a lot about it this weekend in PA at the Pennsic Staff meeting I went to.

The culprit who tipped the scales much is Genie Weezles, much to the joy of my friends who have been telling me I should be in Second Life. My excuse was I don't have control over my first life, why do I need a second????!!!! Lol. Genie writes one of my favorite blogs, I have her tool bar too and I like it, btw. I met her in SL on my first night there and found her to be extremely nice and helpful. I am looking forward to sitting in on meetings and chats but right now I am all about figuring out the game. I rode a train in a 1885 Victorian village and went to Scotland though I was transported out by accidently walking onto private property. Heh.

One thing SL has awakened is my inner Barbie. Yes. My three nights in SL have been little more than shopping and dressing. Do not be surprised if I sit in on a Genealogy discussion dressed like Marie Antoinette. I have gone very period in my shopping. I have a nifty Tudor ensemble now and a pirate girl outfit. See, this is why I should not be in a place like this. It does remind me though of my Grandmother (Elizabeth Dewar Fender Duncan) who used to settle in for a night of my sister and I putting on a Barbie fashion show. Those are some of my best memories. She would have us narrate our outfits with details as we walked Barbie along the edge of the shiny black case like a runway and would ask questions about the garments. Those were wonderful times.

So, if you see an overdressed or perhaps underdressed, you just never know with me, character with a different hairdo every day named Genea Moorsider, that would be me!

Once Upon A Wall

2009-11-09T06:35:00.000-08:00

The anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down reminds me that I have knowledge of history and how will my descendents know this unless I tell my story. Another one of those duh moments. We chase those links to the past but I know I forget that someday someone will want to know this about me.

I have seen this wall. I toured it when I was 17 and a young army wife while my husband was stationed in Ansbach. I saw the wall that kept East Germans inside their borders and I remember this tour 33 years later. I remember being afraid as being 17 I clearly remembered my European Studies classes in high school.

I boarded the bus and sat next to a window. I was excited and scared at the same time. The tour guide asked us not to make any gestures towards the watch towers or anyone guarding the wall saying that the bus could be apprehended and by law no one had to let the US government know we were in custody for 48 hours. This alone terrified me and being an impressionable teenager I took this as gospel and was actually afraid to lift my hand to eat the peanut M&M in it! Too, I had a baby on my lap. Our bus driver, however, was of a different mind and he was beeping the horn and making all sorts of gestures towards the soldiers the entire trip and I wondered if the man had a death wish for everyone on that bus! I have never been religious but I do remember looking up and mentally begging for a safe trip home and promising to never hit my sister again and so on. Come on, I was 17 and out of the nest way too soon and in a foreign country! I couldn't imagine why the bus driver would do all this, risking our lives, as that is what I thought he was doing. It is very easy to think this when you are looking out the window at men standing in uniform and holding a machine gun. Today I wonder what they thought. Were we just another bunch of American's to dislike or did they envy the freedom we had? If I had been older, I would have asked a thousand questions of the tour guide. What a missed opportunity being that I was of an age where I really had other interests and this was part of my arrival orientation to live in Germany with the Armed Forces.

The tour consisted of seeing the sights and hearing of the horrors. I gazed at innocent looking chain link fences. There was nothing innocent about them. They were razor sharp and would take the fingers off anyone trying to climb the fence. If they happened to get to the top they would get no further with barbed wire and a rolling tube waiting to keep them inside. Wide open fields would be seen and I would wonder why anyone could not just run and make it out. I did not realize it was not one solid wall around the country but then again, I was young. These areas were patrolled by Russian Wolf Hounds trained to eat from the trainers throat then left hungry enough during their time on duty. As explained, they were attack dogs. I never looked at the family dog again in quite the same way. There were towers where armed men would shoot to kill should anyone make a run for it. Then there were the check points and the wall. I was moved by it. I remember feeling so bad for the people behind it given no choice. I heard the stories of families and friends separated by just the placement of the wall; neighbors one day and then of different worlds the next. The Autobahn lined with slab walls and dynamite to set off stopping anyone who tried to leave or come in. I know there was a lot more but it was so long ago I don't remember it well and it was part of my very forgettable "first life" that I call it.

What I do remember clearly was the story about truck drivers. If they were delivering or picking up outside of the wall their families were put in protective custody to ensure the driver and the truck came back. That was what bothered me most out of everything I learned that day. Why are peaceful hard working people terrorized like that. This is where I come back to that bus driver that scared the life out of me with his outward behavior to the guards at check points all along this bus route. He was one of those truck drivers and he smuggled his wife and children out of the country in the truck he drove out. The sheer act of such bravery astounds me. Would I ever risk everything, the very lives of my family, to make a getaway like that? He knew what he was up against and the risk he put his family in. I can't begin to touch upon how this family must have felt through the planning and eventual escape. There had to be people they left behind. The bus was parked when the drivers story was told. What he got for it was a standing ovation and a pride so strong and seeing clearly the reason why we were there. The fear I felt by his actions that day melted away to a huge respect and feeling he was well in his rights to celebrate as he did every day driving that bus.

When the wall went down I knew I had been a tiny part of history. I could say, "yes, I have seen it with my own eyes." Twenty years later I realize just what a big part of history it was. I realize the importance of that wall coming down. As many wish over the years, I wish when I saw that wall at such a young age that I truly understood the weight and importance of it and its time and place in history.

Transcription - G. W. Duncan - Coffin and Grave

2009-11-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

I guess my previous post was what I needed to shed my mood. Tonight I decided to look at what I had saved in Footnote and to start transcribing. This file has 12 pages of information. I did find a clue or two in this information. I am seeing very clearly why transcribing is important, especially for a skimmer like me. I can pinpoint Jane Edwards Duncan to Hendersonville, NC in 1862. I will see if there are newspapers from there in any archives.

{Edit: Oh discrepancy! I wonder if his age was written down when he mustered in or if he gave the wrong age. By taking the age of 29 that he was listed as when he died, that places him born abt 1832. His wife was born 1817 and their son William Franklin was born in 1842. That would make G.W. 10 years old?? More research to be done. In the statement below it is mentioned he was 42 at time of death.}

From North Carolina Troops
1861-1865
A Roster

Compiled by Weymouth T Jordan, Jr.
Vol. VII
Infantry

Duncan, George W., Private

Born in Ashe County and resided in Yancey County where he was by occupation a farmer prior to enlisting in Yancey County at age 29, July 26, 1861. Died n hospital at Knoxville, Tennessee, June 20-27, 1862 of "diarrhoea."

The reference card:

Duncan - G.W.

Co. G. 29th N.C.

(Confederate)

Reference Card

See Manuscript No. 1687 Page …

Coffin and Grave

Dated - July 16 1862

Statement:

I certify that the within named George W Duncan a private of Capt E H Hampton's company (G) 29th Regt NC Troops was born in Ash County in the State of NC. Age 42 years five feet nine inches high. Fair complexion blue eyes black hair. And by occupation a farmer. Was enlisted by M Chandler at Day Brook in Yancey County in the State of NC on the 26th day of July 1861 to serve one year and died at Knoxville Tennessee in regular hospital of dioreiah on the 27th day of June 1862. A left the following effect {viz} two suits of clothes, two blankets and 36 dollars in money all of which was hand over to his leagal adminstrator, Jane M Duncan except one suit of clothes which was used in burying him. Given in duplicate at Beau Station, Tenn this 8th day of July 1862. E.H. Hampton, Capt. Comdg Comp 29th Regt, NC Troops.

Auditor/Comptroller Document:

The Confederate States

To George W Duncan, deceased, late Private of Capt. Hampton Co G 29th Reg't, North Carolina Troops Dr.

For pay from 1st May the date of which he was last paid by Capt. Neill A 2 M to 27th June, 1862 the date of his Death.

1 month & 17 Days @ $11 per Month		20.90
Commutation for Clothing		20.99
		41.89

Per Certificate of Capt Hampton herewith.

Payable to B. M. Edward (?), Attorney of Jane E Duncan the Widow of said deceased Hendersonville N.C.

Treasury Department

Second Auditor's Office

June 6th 1863

C W Johnson, Clerk.

Comptroller's Office

June 9th, 1863

S.H. Boykin(?), Clerk.

Taming The Runaway Brain

2009-11-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

I think maybe I am overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel like I do things over and over and I think I take good notes and I put everything in RM4. I don't have the best filing system but I am not disorganized either, I can find everything. One thing that I know I am struggling with and my common sense just jumped out with an answer the other day. My DAR line is documented by my mothers cousin. While I have the family history she wrote many years ago, I have never seen any of the documentation. Recently I found my Edwards line by a website (a great website!) done by someone else but still I have no documentation. So while it is "done", to me it is not "done". So I was putting a lot of thought into "should I redo research?" Well duh, yes! What if I find a new clue or new information and how would I know if it is new or not never having seen documentation! And, we should always double check our resources, etc.

So clearly I do know what I should be doing.. But maybe my brain is having problems in knowing where to start. And, as you can see, this is frustrating me because I am watching all my subscriptions ticking away, haha. Too, I am missing the boat on a lot of things. I do the primary look ups, chase down a lead with excitement when I have one but then I seem to drop the ball. I see all these fantastic Genealogist's uncovering all these documents I never get around looking for. So clearly my research skills have not rounded out yet.

I need a master checklist of all the things I can do to find an ancestor that I can use. I have one but can't say I like it that much so I will keep searching for something that covers everything I want with some minor tweaking of my own. Sometimes I think there is just too much information out there and I feel I am on overload. So when I feel like this about anything, back to basics seems to work for me.

So, I am allowing myself this down time but! it will not be wasted time. I have assigned myself three jobs. One, to put all my folder files into notebooks like DearMyrtle does on her January 2009 checklist. Two, I am going to get all my surnames and regions on mail lists. I have about 6 or 7 but I can do much better. Three, I am going to get all the forums I watch on my RSS feed in Bloglines.

It's a start.. I crave to research, I see so much potential in my family tree and so much missing information. So once I do these tasks, I guess I will pick a family line and start from scratch. In the mean time I will continue to write a blog when topics interest me or I feel I have something to share. The blog prompts are a fantastic thing.

I read about all these great collections being scanned for the world to see.. how do people get jobs like that! Lol.

If you read all the way through this.. thank you for listening to me ramble!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-07T05:29:00.000-07:00

Blog Prompt #39: Did your ancestors come by boat? Talk about the documentation that records their departure and arrival.

2009-10-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

Two family's that I know of came to America by boat in the 1900's. On my mothers side was my Great-Grandfather Edward Fender. Edward came over the first time with his oldest child and only son, George Fender. They came over in steerage and decided during that trip that my Great-Grandmother, Grandmother and Great-Aunt would come over by first class passage. Edward was a Mason and the most memorable event about his arrival was that they took his trunk and opened it to inspect his luggage. Upon finding his Mason's apron, his baggage was closed up as it was and he was escorted through customs.

I have been very lucky to find the documents for this families passage. The interesting thing is that both my grandmother and great-aunt were listed 2 years younger than they were. A small mystery though I am guessing that the clerk was misinformed. If my great-grandfather booked the passage, perhaps he just couldn't remember how old they were. I know in the family history of my mothers cousin my sister and I are also listed by two years off.

The second family would be my Great-Grandmother and Great Grandfather Stivic that became Stevens. They too came through Ellis Island and settled in Detroit, Michigan.

(this is the information filled in on a #29 line blank passenger list form, Excel is giving me issues and not pasting like the table I made. Each line numbered, first is Zivco, second is Marianna.)

1 11 12

2 Stivic Stivic

2 Zivco Marianna

3 26 19

4 M F

5 M M

6 Labourer Housewife

7 Yes Yes

7 Yes Yes

8 Hungarian Hungarian

9 German German

10 Vodincia (?) Same

11 Anna Landakic same

11 Mother Mother-in-law

12 Michigan same

12 Detroit same

13 11 12

14 Yes Yes

15 Self Husband

16 $50 comment about Husband

17 No No

17 - -

17 - -

18 Acqua Kocian Anton, Guton? Acqua

18 Hendrick St 32, Detroit Michigan

19 No No

20 No No

21 No No

22 No No

23 No No

24 No No

25 5' 7" 5' 5"

26 dark dark

27 fair fair

27 blue blue

28 no no

29 Lapovac (can't read handwriting)

Daughters of the American Revolution - Verified!

2009-09-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

Exciting news came by email this week! My local chapter had word from the NSDAR in Washington that the genealogists had verified!!! our applications and our member numbers will be coming.

This alone crosses off a "to do" on my life's list that is over 20 years old. My mother had her applications from 1989 I think they are dated that her cousin had helped her with. At that time Patsy was a Chapter Registrar and was helping my mother join. She put them in her safe and there they stayed. I had mentioned them many times over the years but I had at that point not done any genealogy work at all. So then when I picked up the family history baton once more I decided it was time to finish this project and while we were at it to get every female that was eligible in. May as well do this only once, right?

There were a few times I hit some frustration. A few times I wondered why I was doing this for four people.. I couldn't get what I needed or there was no support or any appreciation. This is a lot of work for one person but in the end, I have brought about a huge accomplishment.. one that I have wanted for a very long time because I am very proud of my heritage. So!! My mother, sister, daughter and myself are now Daughters.

My mothers cousin also says I qualify for the Colonial Dames, perhaps I will persue that down the road. The Hugoenot Society might be in the future as well. One of our ancestor's, William John Witt, is thought to be one of the first Huguenot's of the Manakin Colony, Virginia, I am not sure we have the proof of this. The last I looked at the Huguenot website, The Huguenot Society of the Founders of Manakin in the Colony of Virginia, he was listed but with a ? denoting there was no proof for him.but I do see the surname "Vaux" on the list as well and he married a Vaux in France.

That is the news for Society's. Next week I will be going to my first DAR meeting. I am looking very forward to it.

Saturday Night Fun - 8-29-2009

2009-09-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't met many of my ancestors but here goes. I really enjoy doing Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Fun and have been trying to be more on top of it for if nothing else, it keeps me blogging during down times. Currently sitting and sifting through census images annoy me so the spinning wheel has my attention. That is how my mind works.. I am either spot on with research or feeling like my brain doesn't like to work. When this happens, I have learned it is time to be creative until the research bug hits again. Basically, why fight the tide.. be productive no matter where your head is at! Anywho..... I digress a LOT.

I took my Ahnentafel and see I have met six of my ancestors.

Number 1 and 2 are my parents. Since they are still alive they are being listed.

Number 3 and 4 are my paternal grandparents. I met them when I was very small and do not remember them and my father did not stay in touch with them that I know of.

3. Bozidar (Theodore John) STIVIC (STEVENS)-422: born 1913 in Michigan; died in Detroit Michigan.

4. Bernadine Vevione SHEUFELT-785: born 29 Sep 1914 in Detroit Michigan; died 2 Jan 1997 in Bullhead City, Mohave, Arizona, United States of America.

My maternal grandparents. My grandmother was the most important person in my world. My grandfather was a Southern Gentleman and had this very charming way about him. I have posted seperate blogs about them in this blog previously.

5. John Foster DUNCAN-313: born 27 Dec 1906 in Bradley County Tennessee; died 28 Sep 1995 in Rochester, Monroe, New York, USA.

6. Elizabeth Spalding Dewar FENDER-5: born 21 Mar 1909 in District of St. Mary, Dundee, Scotland; died 3 Mar 1984 in Rochester, Monroe, New York.

As you can see, my post is very late!

Tombstone Tuesday

2009-09-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

James C Cowden

13 Nov 1805 in Williamson, Tennessee, USA

23 Nov 1862 in Chestuee Creek, Bradley, Tennessee, USA

Parents:

Tom Cowden 1775–1879

Nancy Crewse 1785–1878

Spouse:

Henrietta Chilcut 1806–1891

Children:

Angelia Cowden 1842–1930

Minerva Jane Cowden 1843–1902

John G Cowden 1846–1925

Deborah Louise Cowden 1852–1939

Madness Monday - Hugh Lawson Baldwin

2009-08-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

One frustrating man....

Born 6/14/1809, Amhearst County, Virginia.
Married Betsey Stockton June 15, 1832 in Rhea County, Tennessee.
Census 1840, Meigs County, Tennessee
Census 1860, Bradley County, Tennessee.
Died 6/15/1895, Lancaster, Texas.

His tombstone is in Edgewood Cemetery and I have spoken with two people but do not have a picture of it and not sure I have the entire inscription on the stone but it says husband of S.E.

From an email (7/29)

Byrum's has given me your letter requesting info on Hugh Lawson Baldwin.
I have an H. L. Baldwin 12/29/1809-6/14/1895 buried on lot 53.
m marker says his spouse is S. E. Baldwin. There are no other burials on
this lot - it is a large lot......

And another email (7/29)

The lot #53 that H. L. Baldwin is buried on - the owner is listed as Routh ?. Could a Routh have been a relative that purchased the lot? It is an 8 grave space with only this one marked grave. There could be other burials on it but unless they have a marker we wouldn't have records that far back.

Just a thought.

So this is what I have. I don't have any family by that Routh name so I am betting that is the second wife's maiden name so will do a little research to see if I can find a marriage something for them. I haven't gone back to Virginia to find his birth record yet and I do know who is parents are: William W Baldwin and Betsey Luttrell. (It is the Luttrell line that is my DAR application line.)

I am very stuck on his Texas years. I can not find him on any census, no death information other than that headstone and since I don't know what all is on it, I am not sure if there is another clue on it. His family knew he went to Texas and died there. I am guessing he went there after Betsey Stockton died but I can't find him on anything after the 1860 census.

This is one very elusive man.

Look what I found...

2009-08-21T12:32:00.001-07:00

This was hiding on a comment that I had missed. I have been going through this blog today trying to make changes to it that make blogging on it easier for me. So in trying to figure out something, I happened to find this comment with this award.

This is from Tammy. A blog I follow as well in my bloglines feeder.

Thanks so much Tammy! I am sorry it took so long to thank you!

Saturday Night Fun - August 8, 2009

2009-08-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here is my generation 5.. (16 ggg-grandparents)

17. Anna Landekic: married. Croatia

20. James Sheufelt: born Jul 1846 in , , Ontario, Canada; married 28 Dec 1867 in , Sanilac, Michigan, USA; died.

21. Frances Wilson: born Apr 1846 in , , Ontario, Canada; died.

22. William Oliver Hubel: born 25 Jun 1845 in Norwich Twp, Oxford, Ontario, Canada; married 1872 in Greenleaf, Sanilac, Michigan, USA; died 23 Mar 1913 in Berlin, St Clair, Michigan, USA.

23. Ella Alice Harris: born 1 Jul 1854 in Austin, Sanilac, Michigan, USA; died 2 Aug 1931 in , St Clair, Michigan, USA.

24. William Franklin Duncan: born 1 Sep 1842 in Sparta, Ashe Co NC; married 28 Sep 1865; died 25 Oct 1924 in Clevelend Tennessee Bradley County.

25. Martha Jane Hensley: born 1848; died 25 May 1870 in Bee Log NC, Yancy County plot at foot of Bald (Bold) Mtn..

26. Hugh Wilson Baldwin: born 23 Jul 1841 in Meigs County Tennessee - Rhea Springs; married 29 Aug 1869 in , Bradley, Tennessee, USA; died 14 Mar 1881 in Rhea County , Tenn.

27. Deborah Louise Cowden: born 18 Feb 1852 in Bradley County Tennessee; died 30 Apr 1939 in Clevelend Tennessee Bradley County.

28. George Fender: born 9 Jan 1852 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 9 Jun 1871 in Dundee, Scotland; died.

29. Jane Watt Alexander: born 1852 in Dundee Scotland.

30. John Anderson: born 3 Jun 1855 in Monikie, Forfar, Scotland; married 27 Jun 1879 in Dundee Scotland; died 10 May 1935 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

31. Elizabeth Dewar Spalding: born 17 Oct 1855. Scotland.

I am a mix. The missing three will all be from Croatia as I have only figured out my great-grandfathers mother so far. Scotland is a big percentage for me. The Duncan's of Tennessee are from Scotland a few generations back and the Baldwins were English through Connecticut though that link is not made yet. There are only so many hours in a day.

This exercise did teach me how to drag and drop in RM4 so now I know how to fix up my insanely messed up saved files!

SNGF ~ Good Genealogy Luck

2009-07-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight's Fun Assignment

1) When have you had a dose of good genealogy luck? What document or resource did you find just by happenstance or chance? By being in the right place at the right time? By finding a family history treasure in your family's attic or basement? By finding a helpful document or reference without even looking for it?

2) Tell us about it in Comments to this post, in Comments on Facebook, or in a blog post of your own.

My good luck was posted on this blog entry... an OMG! moment.

George W Duncan had been a hard man to track down and his wife was even worse since his son referred to her as "Miss Edwards" in his civil war applications. She turned out to be Jane Edwards. George was a man that I had spent 20 years off and on poking around trying to find him.

Tired of looking for him I thought I would see if there was any pension information out there for Jane and she lived and died in North Carolina. So I spent a night looking for all of the Duncan men on the North Carolina state archives website and finally thought to look for Jane Edwards. I was so excited when I found her civil war widows pension application so ordered a copy to be sent to me. That seemed all well and good, progress, another document to put to her life on my family tree. She had been difficult for years too and suddenly in a couple of weeks I had figured out who she was AND!! found that line of family history already documented by another family historian!

So mail day! In came the envelope and when I pulled out Jane's information, the WONDERFUL person at the North Carolina Archives thought to put a copy of the page from a book showing George W Duncan's death!! He died in Tennessee, I had been looking in North Carolina for years! It was not expected and it was an important find and solved the mystery of "just was that man the G. W. that went to Texas??" I was so glad that he wasn't!

Google Thyself - Saturday Night Fun on Tuesday

2009-07-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.geneamusings.com/2009/07/saturday-day-night-genealogy-fun-google.html

I always want to do Saturday Night Fun but then I forget as the weekends just seem to disappear. I realize I spend more time surfing and reading than I do actual research anymore. I spend way too much time admiring all the research other people are doing and blogging about!! And, I seem to be constantly working on this great "organization" project. I am getting organized but just not getting organized enough to get to what I want to be doing that I needed to be organized for! Phew.. that was an exhausting thought!

So, instead of researching, haha... I did the Saturday night fun from Randy Seavers blog, Genea-Musings.

I wanted to do this because I am not sure I ever remember Googling myself so I was excited and disappointed but relieved in a sense too.

The searches:

"sharon lighthouse" "Rochester, New York"
"sharon stevens" "rochester, new york"

Sadly.. I have no life. Google life that is... but I am almost thinking that is a good thing since I am not famous or a mover or shaker in any of my life's projects. By not showing up it really cuts down on crazed fans and stalkers too! So all is good in my Google-less life.

I did a few variations of the above searches and came up with ONE hit that is actually me. I showed up as a Facebook friend for one person. And it seems that there is another Sharon Stevens (my maiden name) in Rochester that is not me. There are a lot of Sharon Drives and of course.. every lighthouse of the known world showed up in my search and the images tab was completely lighthouses!

However, with this blog post I imagine now I will have a Google life!

And then a day when family historian is not fun..

2009-07-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

In searching for each document and clue, we all know there is the thrill of the chase, that "Yes!" moment and that "Ahhh!" moment that we hear so much about. But usually those are for generations gone names on our family tree.

I forget sometimes that family history is the today and the now. Sometimes I remember like when my daughter and I are doing cemetery work and we use the voice recorder. Some day, generations away, our next generations will hear our voices and think we were insane or laugh at how silly would could be.

This week family history has not been fun but it has two stories for the future generations to get an up close and personal view simply by what I write here. Someday a grand child, or great grandchild can read this blog entry and know what their Grandfather, Grandmother, Great Grandfather or Great Grandmother, and so on, went though this year on July 13, 2009.

Kevin Vincent Lighthouse
b. February 8, 1960, Rochester, Monroe County, New York.
d. July 13, 2009, Norwich CT.
Son of: Ken Franke and June Baker

This is the father of my daughter. This was a man that I loved very much and who over time became my dearest friend while we were married. We were married for 10 years. We has so much in common and in the course of our marriage we had become mini homesteaders. Kevin was a man that worked three jobs at a time and always had people asking him to work for him. He never ran out of opportunities just because he was honest and had a good work ethic. He was an avid gardener and loved to do woodwork. He enjoyed milling around antique shops and big barns full of "stuff".. he could spend an hour picking through a jar of bits and pieces that I would categorize as trash. He took the role of father to my 9 year old son who struggled with his own loneliness of an absentee father. Kevin taught my son that "Dad" is a good word. Kevin was involved with boy scouts with him and had been as a child. My son has become a fantastic father to his two children.

Kevin played Rugby and the team teased him calling him Peter Purebread because he was a decent guy. That was how I met him. The first week he was rather inebriated and I thought him silly, the next week he collected me up at the game and we were together from that point onward. We had a wonderful wedding. We were very active with friends and family and a couple years after we were married our daughter was born.

Two years ago Kevin was diagnosed with cancer. He fought hard but he had already had it quite a while before it was found. He was just 49 and it seems such a waste of a good person. There is so much more I could say about him and perhaps I will someday. It is all still sinking in that he is gone and even as his ex-wife it is a hard pill to swallow. We never hated each other, we had a rough year or two but our daughter was always the focal point which kept our perspective. Sure, we could have tried harder, perhaps we could have done things differently but things ended up as they did. I have missed our life on occasion and was happy he found his own happiness and remarried.

I was lucky enough to spend time with him before he died. Of the four days I was in Connecticut, the first two he was awake and alert. Sitting by his bed talking to him about our daughter he would pick up a blueberry from his bowl and eat it then offer me the bowl to take one. I said no thank you but he kept the bowl there looking at me until I took one and ate it. Three times he did this! The third time I said no thank you, he stared me down and I finally said "okay! okay..." I Plucked one and ate it with a look at him, he grinned then and I laughed but wanted to cry. I am very lucky to have so many good memories of him. In fact when I think of him and those blueberries I chuckle then I cry.

Kevin and Mackenzie Lighthouse (May 1993)

And this brings me to our daughter. For the last week I have watched an 18 year old girl say goodbye and stay by her fathers side until the very end. In the four days I was there, she was strong, dedicated, vulnerable and simply amazing. She took his care seriously. She had moments when she was scared yet stayed with him. She took shifts at night so he would not be alone. Shortly before he died he told her he loved her. She was offered an out when it was seen he was slipping away. She chose to stay with him until he passed. The morning of the day he died I could see in her eyes she was starting to unravel.. from somewhere she found the strength to continue her vigil. I was strong at her age but not that strong. I traveled to Germany at the age of 17 with a six month old child but I could not take a person to their end like she did. I marvel at what I have seen in her this past week. I hold a new respect for her and a pride so deep. I tell everyone, "She was amazing." And she was.

Slacker I am....

2009-04-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

I have not been blogging of late. I do that, I tend to fade then come back.. fade, and so on. I am trying to be better with the family history. It is not to say there has not been some significant progress on my Grandmother's line but I have been angry for four days and it zaps all of my energy yet re-energizes a different side of me. I am just grumpy and have a lot of attitude right now and a lot of thinking to do. I am angry at myself and this kind of makes me realize that these are the things we will never know about our ancestors. In this day in age, by reading this blog, everyone will know I am in a mood. Two generations away can read this blog and see I was in a mood. What were the days like when my great-grandmother came here from Scotland. Was she ecstatic about leaving her family to come to America. Was she excited but then have to deal with the homesickness. Did it ever seem too much to her to uproot and rebuild? It is not like they suffered. They were working class and weathered the depression pretty well. Did she have... "moods". Did she have a 10 year mood like I seem to be having? I am a ten year increment person I have decided.

I feel like I am changing yet again, or maybe I am re-emerging. Ten years ago I felt like I needed a change and that prompted a divorce. It was what I wanted but at the same time I did not anticipate how I would respond to losing my home, my house. I was silently devastated I will say. Not a lot of screaming or crying, a move to a crappy apartment that would take our cat but a silent shut down of everything I loved to do. I am a spinner, weaver, knitter, felter and an all purpose fiber addict. I had a group of four friends and we had spinning days, dying days and so on. So when we moved into this small apartment I stopped doing all the things I loved. It all sat in boxes or stuffed in a storage cubby. My wheel just sat in a corner being ignored. My friends all left the area. I took up a hobby of roleplaying. It was a good place to lose myself and found I made a few friends and could write and just have fun but then a year would go by, then another and constantly I would say... "My wheel just sits there.... I should start spinning again.." but then there went another year. One of the friendships I made is 10 years old. I have never met him face to face, I have never spoken to him on the phone yet he knows about my life and I know about his. We share stories of our kids, our frustrations and our pride in them. His wife wishes me well on holidays and I do the same to her. I love him dearly. And... we fight. It was a stupid fight but it was hurtful. Maybe it helped me put things into perspective.. today anyway, who knows if I will see this the same in three days when the anger begins to fade. It made me see what a time sink that hobby is, it makes me wonder why people who say they have such a good life seem to spend so much time in a time sink... food for thought. Things are never ever as they seem and it opens my eyes enough to ask the following questions...

Where is the woman that was an awesome fiber artist.

Why did I put her away.

Where is the woman that chased life and made it happen.

Why do I ignore the peace that these activities brought to me in the past.

What do I want to be remembered for......

Did my Grandmother, Great-Grandmother and back beyond ever feel this way about life? Elizabeth Anderson, did she? She was a widow that had an illegitimate child in 1855... her hardships had to be quite more than my week of fussing.

So as you can see, there is a lot of thinking going on here though I think that had always been one of my bigger problems. I think.. wayyyyy to freaking much. I am analytical, I will lay awake all night picking apart a discussion/argument until I drive myself insane and it makes me mad. It is hell being a Virgo, let me tell you!

I distanced myself from my friend to lick my wounds, to assume he doesn't care and is over it already and I am in the process of making some decisions to change. When I am ready I will talk to him and see if the friendship will be salvaged. I love him but today I do not care if I speak to him again. ::lying like crazy::

Why is this all in this particular blog? No reason.. vent space. I am miserable yet feeling good too.

This morning I ordered my dream spinning wheel, for it I have given up my vacation to Pennsic this year. The energy I expend will be to what I like to do. Family History, Spinning and Knitting. The roleplaying hobby will take a lesser role in my life until it disappears for good. It is time. I have sulked long enough, I think ten years is plenty of time to waste feeling sorry for myself or whatever it is that I am doing.

I am going to walk more.

I owe emails to my sister and my cousin.

And in a completely different direction.. Genealogy...(yes, finally on topic)

Finding Grandpa. I can so relate to this blog. I find I want a happy ending for she and her mother.

A woman contacted me through Ancestry about my family tree. She said she found her Aunt Leona on my family tree and her Grandfather. Leona was my Aunt as well and we share the same Grandfather. She didn't tell me who she was the daughter of. My father had four sisters and in honesty, I would not be surprised to find he might have had more children at some point. I have not seen him since I was 13 and it will stay that way. Still, she is either my first cousin or could be a half sister. I have written a message to her and I hope that she replies sometime soon.

My Grandmother's family tree is coming right along. I have quite a few generations that I have researched in ScotlandsPeople.com. I have actually had quite fun being a sleuth as I had an illegitimate child show up. My Great-Great-Great-Grandmother (Margaret ANDERSON) was a widow and her third child (John ANDERSON) was written in as illegitimate on his birth record yet his marriage record had his father listed as William CAMERON. His death record and all the census I have found on him listed no father. So... what do I do in this case? I will keep searching for something that might mention a father but if I can't find anything I suppose I will have to consider this a brick wall. In the meantime the search is on!

The Ahnentafel for my Grandmother. ( I LOVVVVE! Roots Magic 4).. see that? 6 generations with progress. Not too shabby. I have been taking a class on GenClass with David W Webster. I have enjoyed it very much and David has such an enthusiasm that it keeps me plugging away.. until the last couple days anyway.. slacker mode hit (though the knitting I have gotten done!)

Generation 1

1. Elizabeth Spalding Dewar FENDER-1: born 21 Mar 1909 in District of St. Mary, Dundee, Scotland; died 3 Mar 1984 in Rochester, Monroe, New York.

Generation 2

2. Edward Cummings Alexander FENDER-2: born 19 Jul 1878 in District of St. Andrew, Dundee, Scotland; died 10 Apr 1952 in Akron Ohio.

3. Elizabeth ANDERSON-3: born 8 Mar 1880 in Carnoustie Scotland; died 31 Jan 1933 in Akron, Summit, Ohio.

Generation 3

4. George FENDER-5: born 9 Jan 1852 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 9 Jun 1871 in Dundee, Scotland; died.

5. Jane Watt ALEXANDER-6: born 1852 in Dundee Scotland.

6. John ANDERSON-7: born 3 Jun 1855 in Monikie, Forfar, Scotland; married 27 Jun 1879 in Dundee Scotland; died 10 May 1935 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

7. Elizabeth Dewar SPALDING-8: born 17 Oct 1855.

Generation 4

8. George FENDER-9: born 4 Apr 1817 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 26 Nov 1843 in Dundee Scotland.

9. Jane BEAT-10: born 18 Feb 1817 in Ferry Port on Craig; died 18 Mar 1898 in Dundee Scotland.

10. Alexander ALEXANDER-11: born 20 May 1820 in Dundee Scotland; married 24 Jan 1842 in Dundee Scotland.

11. Margaret WATT-12: born 1822.

13. Margaret ANDERSON-15: born 1826 in Brechin.

14. James SPALDING-13: married.

15. Elizabeth DEWAR-14: born.

Generation 5

16. George FENDER-40.

17. Elizabeth SMITH-41.

18. James BEAT-38: born 1 Oct 1789 in Ferry Port on Craig; married 22 May 1816 in Ferry Port on Craig.

19. Isabel MURRAY-39.

20. Thomas ALEXANDER-36.

21. Elizabeth MILNE-37.

22. A WATT-16.

Generation 6

36. William BEAT-42.

37. Jean GORIE-43.

I come from quite a few Ship Masters. Two George Fenders and James Beat were all Ship Masters. Alexander Alexander was a stonemason. I come from the working class, I would love to take a further peek into their lives.

So there.. a long winded blog to attempt to fill in the space of the long weeks of silence.

If you read all the way through this.. woah.. I am impressed. If not.. it is so understood.

:)

Elizabeth Dewar Spalding Fender Duncan

2009-03-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

For this post I will pay tribute to my maternal grandmother. I wrote about her husband (John Foster DUNCAN) in my blog already and for she being "the" person of my life I have not yet written about her. There is so much emotion attached to her and this month would be the perfect time to bring you into the world of a woman that was not famous, she never had a lot and her retirement sucked, it was stolen by a stroke.

b. March 21, 1909, District of St. Mary, Dundee Scotland

m. January 4, 1934 to John Foster Duncan, Clarksburg, West Virginia

d. March 3, 1984, Rochester, New York

b. March 5, 1984, Webster Union Cemetery, Webster, New York.

Elizabeth Dewar Spalding Fender Duncan was a woman that came to the United States from Scotland as a teenager. Her father and older brother came to the US first in steerage and during that journey her father decided that her mother, herself and my great aunt Edna would travel first class when they moved across the pond. My grandmother came to the US aboard the Adriatic leaving Liverpool England on December 27, 1924 and arriving in New York on January 9, 1925.

My Grandmother; My Mother; Me

Until the day she died her Scottish accent was clear as a bell. She rolled the "r" in my name, Sharon. I still to this day hear the way she said it yet I can not duplicate it. This woman had an uncanny knack of looking into my eyes and seeing my soul. She saw all of my childhood fears and made me safe; she was the woman that made it all better. We lived together for the first five years of my life and then my parents, sister and myself moved to Rochester, New York and she stayed in Akron, Ohio. I don't recall it ever being easy for me that she was there and I was here though we went there many times during the year, every holiday and a week or two in the summer and she would come here to New York for her vacations.

She worked in a dental lab in Akron. She took the bus there every day and she never drove, she never had her license. She lived on West Exchange Street just down the street from Clix? (Clicks, Cliks), it was a very large five and dime sort of place. She smoked a lot, Tarryton cigarettes, and she knit. I knit now. She was fantastic with a sewing machine and I remember she made a lot of her clothing just for the pure enjoyment of doing so. She had a singer machine that set into a sewing table the size of a card table and that was always put up in the corner of her bedroom but it would come down on our visits so a mattress could be put there for my sister and I. We LOVED bunking in with her and on the weekend, one of us got to sleep with her, it was such a treat.

My Grandmother; Her brother George; Her sister Edna

She was a fabulous multi-tasker.. she would sit in her chair, catch the evening news, talk to us, knit and smoke -- all with me in her lap. She was very tolerant of my need for her attention and my adoration of her, lol. She liked her occasional "wee ticky" of scotch when my mother was there to enjoy some too. She drank her coffee black. She would pour a bit into the saucer to cool it and then poured it back into the cup until the liquid cooled enough. I remember the shape of her hands and fingers and I remember holding her hands and pressing my fingertip against the filed edge of her nail. Every morning she had a soft boiled egg and toast with unsalted butter for breakfast. I remember what the egg cups looked like that held her eggs. When we were visiting I would sit and watch her eat her breakfast; I was her company as she got ready to go to work. She always had a box of sugared donuts for us on arrival and chocolate milk.

She was very particular about her likes and dislikes. She loved shalimar perfume. She liked her linens "Crisp" as mentioned in this blog before and had the laundry sent out and delivered back just so. Linens were just something that had to be done right. Lawrence Welk, she never missed that show even if my sister and I wrinkled our noses a lot. Lawrence Welk was no Partridge family or Davey Jones! She had a lot of plants along a very large bay window in the dining room. I remember that apartment.. I would love to have it today, it was a great apartment. She always had the comics there for us from the Akron Beacon Journal and silly putty to stick to it to take up the image. Oh! And she would have me stand and sing for her and the delight in her eyes as I would belt out my current favorite song or something I was singing in the school choir. She liked to be entertained by my sister and I. She had expectations of giving it a try but was very gentle with us when we sucked at what we did. Smile. And the famous Barbie fashion shows. She would buy us clothing for our Barbie's and my sister and I would stage a fashion show and it was like our own personal Academy Awards show.

She lived alone for a great many years. My grandfather and she seperated when my mother was in her teens. They never divorced and I will never know if she found someone to spend her time with, those things were never known or spoken of back then and that is something I simply do not need or want to know. My bet would be no. She was extremely independent and never seemed to suffer for being alone and I think for the most part it suited her just fine. I remember worrying about her being alone and I would cry all the way back to New York just certain she was in pain and suffering for not having us with her or anyone. I have to say that now that I am approaching 50 and I am living alone and have been divorced for about 10 years now, I do not mind being alone, my sister is the same so maybe my Grandmother knew more than we did! She seemed happy, content and she loved my mother, my sister and I to pieces. Later in life after she retired, my grandfather asked if he could move in, she had two bedrooms so she took him as a roommate. For his choices of leaving her, he made restitition by becoming her caregiver after her stroke. He wiped his slate clean in my book and I think my mother's too.
She had a temper... I have one too. Hers was not a horrible temper but a stubbornness that would say very clearly she would not do anything she didn't want to and she would speak her mind. She was very intelligent and I remember she would put my biological father in his place with a set of her jaw that he did not argue with. Too, she was compassionate. I was not his favored child and he was cruel to me on many occasions and she tried to assure me that it was not me but him. She was my life raft. I would have given anything to live with her.

I was a child that made mistakes. I ended up pregnant and married at the tender age of 16. My boyfriend was going into the Army and we would "just die" without each other and so.. eh well, it happens! My mother was livid and I remember hearing about what would their friends think, what would my step fathers boss think! (She does regret that now, it was the 70's). It was my grandmother that put a stop to the stress and let me know clearly that I and my baby could come live with her, no need to be married, no need to worry of a thing and what I decided was.. my decision. Well, I should have gone to her in hindsight, I married the boy I couldn't live without and learned the true definition of Hell. But that is another story!

I do have regrets when it comes to this woman I loved like I did. When I was in Germany as an Army wife, I got the news that she had a stroke. I had no idea what that was and so thought little of it, I was 17 and just did not know these things. What I found when I returned home broke my heart. Her being sick frightened me and I missed so much opportunity and regret so much. Her stroke was massive and left her fully paralyzed on her left side and never to walk again. Her life became a chair with no knitting, and her independence stripped away from her which I think was the worst. Her eyes were sharp, which is cruel too, to be so sharp of mind and a body that kept her trapped. She was moved here to New York with my Grandfather and he took care of her until she had to be placed in a nursing facility. They lived in an apartment nearby and I would see her but not like I should, me of all people. I was in denial, her illness scared me and I had a crappy life with that boy I just had to marry.

The last time I saw her alive was in the nursing home facility. I had not been to visit her in a long time and she was angry at me, something I feel I deserved. She ignored me that day but I could see in her eyes that she was disappointed yet she loved me and I remember the shame I felt all because I would not face my fears and grow up, act like an adult, and so on. I was in my early 20's.. old enough to figure it out I think. I will never forget it, a nurse came in and she introduced her son-in-law, that boy I just had to marry, and did not introduce me. Awkwardly the nurse looked at me then to my Grandmother but in her stubbornness and pride she talked about his accomplishments and having made her a great grandmother. I was effectively put in my place. She gave me years of leeway and I was the one child who should have picked up the slack, we had a bond like no other in my life. I know she loved me and was teaching me a lesson. Because of this I push my youngest, my daughter, not to lose touch with her father as he had moved to another state and has been struggling with reoccuring cancer. I want her to benefit from my lessons.

Continued...

I wrote the above on the 5th of March and really found myself just missing her badly and could not get through a paragraph without getting weepy. Then that evening I "officially" started on her family tree as that is straight across the pond for research. I installed the beta Rootsmagic 4 (yippie!) and got busy. I entered her into the program and it hit me.. she was buried on March 5, 1984. Ahhhh, Grandma!

The single best thing my sister ever said to me is "When I look at you, I see so much of her..." Now if ever that wasn't the finest of compliments.

A Taste of Oral History

2009-03-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

I had the most delightful conversation with my mothers cousin last evening. I have a huge family I have never met. My grandfather moved to Akron, Ohio from Tennessee and then my parents moved to Rochester, New York. I grew up away from the extended families. And so, I sometimes feel detached. I am a relative by blood and name but I don't have all the photo's or anecdotes of memories. It is not to say we were not close with our Akron family, I spent a lot of time with cousins on my Grandmother's side growing up but the Tennessee family I know what I see on my pedigree chart. I have some articles and pictures but I don't have the experience with them. My mother went to Tennessee once as a child and while she did form relationships with them it was long distance. It is not like I didn't know any of them, I knew my grandfathers two sisters, Ruth and Bertha, they lived in Akron too. So talking to Patsy was an absolute joy.

I expected it to be business about the DAR and Colonial Dames 17th Century. I am in the process of getting my mother, my sister, my daughter and myself into the DAR and the Colonial Dames 17th Century has been a little more difficult to make contact. She gave me helpful information as to what line I want to take into the Colonial Dames as I am a colateral descendent of Ann Lee who married Thomas Youwell. Her father was Richard Lee, who signed the Declaration of Independence. And so I will try to make contact with them again once I get the DAR buttoned up.

What I ended up with from this phone call was a few stories and a smile that lasted all night long. Listening to her talk of my great grandparents was such a treat and she told me a couple of very short stories about David Washington Duncan and Carrie Ann Baldwin Duncan. Carrie is the blood line that goes back to the Revolutionary War and Colonial times.

David and Carrie were living in Atlanta, Georgia for a time. He was a postman on the railroad and he would pick up mail and sort it to be delivered. When McKinley was elected President of the United States, Atlanta began to celebrate. A man stepped from his hardware store and started banging two cast iron skillets together as noise makers. David looked over and decided he liked those skillets. The next day he went back to the store and bought them for Carrie. One Patsy gave to my mother to pass down through the family since Patsy didn't have grandchildren.

Carrie Baldwin Duncan wanted to die on the same day as her husbands birthday/death date, March 24. For days she laid on her death bed and she kept asking what day it was. Those with her would respond, Monday or the day of the week and she kept asking the date. One day she asked the date, she was told it was March 24th, she smiled and closed her eyes and died. Patsy said that Carrie loved David Duncan more than anything and that they had been a happy couple. I find it ironic that he worked so many years around the rail road and it was on the rail road that he died. His car was hit by a train when he was crossing when on the way to a meeting. Patsy said it was figured he was pressed for time, he was on his way to a cattleman's meeting, and distracted so didn't hear the whistle. Carrie hated slang of any kind, a darn or shucks around her was as good as swearing in her book. I wish I had known her.

After talking about so many other things, we left the phone call with what she likes to bake for Pam when she comes to visit. Pound cake with almond flavoring and cookies. She said to use a chocolate chip cookie recipe and substitute chopped dried bing cherries for the chips, or add both. They sound so good! I will have to make them sometime soon. Today I don't feel so deprived of family stories and I look forward to talking with her again and hearing more of her stories.

Invitation to the Kitchen (Blog Prompt 6)

2009-02-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

I remember we would travel to Akron, Ohio from Rochester, New York to visit my grandmother several times during the year. Usually we would go for the major holidays and during the summer time. My grandmother, Elizabeth Fender Duncan, lived with her Step Mother who I have spoken of before in this blog, Grandma Willie. She was legally blind but I remember holding papers right up to her nose to make out letter and I remember her touching the picture of her husband who had passed away every day, also in this blog, Edward Fender. My grandmother was very proper about many things. Linens were to be starched by the laundry; I remember the laundry bag being left by the door of her second floor apartment on West Exchange Street. She liked her linens “crisp.” She rented the entire second floor. There was a kitchen, a breakfast room and a formal dining room which was where we would eat those Sunday dinners that she planned when we were “home”. In my world, “home” was where my grandmother was, she was my everything.

The dining room table was huge, or it seemed so when I was little, and it had high back chairs. The good dishes came out of the china cabinet and the pantry in the breakfast room. I don’t remember the “kitchen” ware ever being on the dining room table but I remember my grandmother’s kitchen dishes. I can see a coffee cup in my minds eye right now, with a crack and a chip out of the lip. I miss her so so much. They were white with brushed green and a person on them I think? Some sort of picture in the center but I can not remember what it was exactly. But I digress. On the dining room table was the china of hers that I own today and china that I cherish because it was hers. We had cloth napkins taken from the drawer of the china cabinet and we had to sit up straight.

We combed our hair and would come to the table nice and clean and while I don’t remember if there was a standard meal, I do know that my grandmother loved a “good cut of meat” and her occasional wee ticky of Scotch. Roast beef I remember. What I do remember most was Grandma Willies “Southern Beans”. Never did a green bean taste better when she snapped fresh beans and simmered them with onion and pork rind. While I make it too today, it has never tasted how she made them so I wonder if there was a secret ingredient or if some things simply can not be duplicated. Grandma Willie’s southern style beans will always taste better simply because it was she that made them. Without her sight she did not do a lot in the kitchen but this was one recipe she could do with her eyes closed.

This blog prompt has brought along some very good memories so I asked my co-workers to answer the prompt too and here are their memories and I will tell you there was a smile in their eyes when they told their stories.

Shirley has a story of what the dog wouldn’t eat! Karen has memories of an Italian home where hospitality was a very big part of Sunday.

Shirley’s Story:

Sunday dinners at our house were usually the biggest meals of the week. We generally ate around 2 pm. The one I remember the most, is when my mom was making new dishes and using
us as the “guinea pigs” as you were. One week, she made a salad that called for mayonnaise. No one would eat it or even try it. She was so proud of it and was hurt because no one would try it. She was so upset she told us the following Sunday she was going to serve hot dogs and French fries! I think she thought she was punishing us, but let me tell you, those were the best tasting hot dogs and French fries I ever remember eating!

Karen’s Story:

Sunday dinner in our family was an event. We usually went to my Grandmother’s house on Sunday for dinner and a visit. As soon as you walked into the house, your senses were overwhelmed by the smell of home made sauce, meatballs and freshly baked Italian bread. There was talking and laughter around the huge table in the dining room, kids running around and playing indoors and out. Though today I’m not so sure if the table was big because it was big or if it was big because I was little. My Grandmother always had a full house on Sunday’s. Not only with family, but also friends would stop in during the course of the day to visit. Her table was always full; I can remember trays of pasta, meatballs, sausage, salad, bread, and antipasto. She would also have wine to offer and coffee or espresso in the pretty little espresso cups after dinner. There were always loafs of fresh Italian bread on the kitchen table cooling, waiting to be cut. That is probably one of my favorite memories – the smell and taste of fresh bread hot and right out of the oven. I don’t think she ever made anything that anyone wouldn’t eat. My Grandmother had a way of making everyone and everything special – she was special.

Hugh Lawson Baldwin

2009-02-05T19:13:00.001-08:00

Hugh Lawson Baldwin
Born abt 1808 Amhearst Co, Virginia
Born December 12, 1809 Rhea County Tennessee
Died abt 1890 Lancaster Texas (how did he get there!)

Married Betsey Stockton Wilson (the Widow Wilson and older than Hugh.)

Hugh Wilson Baldwin (curious, was Hugh named after her husband that passed on? )

Census - 1840 Rhea County, Tennessee; 1860 Bradley County, Tennessee

Hugh Lawson Baldwin is in my "DAR" line. He would be my great-great-great grandfather and while I do know some about him, I don't know much. Betsey died aft 1860 and at some point Hugh ended up in Texas but I don't know the why and when. I have not found him on but two census' but have not yet sat down to the serious "lets find him!" research.

I have a schematic drawn showing where his grave is in Lancaster, Texas. A very nice person in Texas read a post I left about identifying this cemetery and asking for a picture. He said he would get me a photo when he can but abbreviated some of his headstone to me and it seems he had a second wife! So more to follow up on when I see this headstone. In the meantime.. I must keep searching!

My Post:

http://familyknitsnspindles.com/hlbgrave.jpg

Hello,
I am wondering if anyone can identify the cemetery in the schematic in the above link and perhaps get a picture of the grave marker for Hugh Lawson Baldwin 1808-1890. I live in Western NY State and my chances of getting to Texas any time soon are very slim. I did try contacting a Historical Society there by email but my emails kept bouncing back.
Thank you!!

Answer to my Post!:
Hugh Lawson Baldwin is buried in Edgwood Cemetery, Lancaster, TX. His headstone is as "H.L. Lawson.....h/o S.E". This cemetery is located on Nokomis Rd. near E. Belt Line Rd. The weather this week is supposed to be cold and rainy. I will try to get down there and get a picture.