Eva Jeffery homesteads in South Dakota!

Made a discovery while I was searching for Dad's Jeffery relatives [we're looking in Ohio, Wisconsin and Nebraska].  His great-great-grandfather John Jeffery had a couple of half sisters that decided to homestead in south Dakota late in the 1800's!
Turns out that Eva's sister Mary Ann married Francis DeVoe and that may have been the reason Eva went up to Dakota Territory.  Because her sister and brother-in-law went.  Turns out that Francis DeVoe's brother George homesteaded land right next door to Francis and Mary Ann.  Eva was just a little bit aways in the same section.
So, how did I find all this out?
Well, a great aunt left her genealogy notes from when they where searching out family facts in the 1960's.  And one of these notes mentioned that the Jeffery girls came out to Nebraska and then went to South Dakota to homestead near Yankton.  That was all it said though!
Here these two women went off and did something women wern't supposed to be capable of doing.  Survived on a claim up in the Dakota Territory.  That would mean living ruder than folks down in the States.  The weather up there could be harsh.  Droughts, freezing winters, blizzards - all kinds of fun stuff!  And Eva went up and stayed on her own claim, no man around [she never did marry].
So, it was time to hit the Dakota Territory census and the BLM GLO records.
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov
the BLM patent search has a new setup now, with a few more fun tools.  And even though Eva Jeffery's homestead patent hasn't been indexed yet [therefore no image of the paperwork available yet], it does have this neat interface to look on a map and find just where our ancesters homestead was!

So, there's all the BLM info for Eva's homestead and a little map of the section and where it sits in today's world.  From this info a person can write to the National Archives to get the land patent info or to the local historical / genealogical society to find out more about and ancestor that made such a brave move [I chose the latter - I hope to get a little more info about Eva's life on the homestead, and if I'm lucky, they might be able to lead me to some photos!]

From the 1880 Yankton Dakota Territory census, it looks like Eva [called Rachel in some census] supported herself as a school teacher and lived with her sister's family until she could get her own claim [which is about right because the BLM records say she filed on her claim in October of 1882].
So there's more to look for.
In this same census we can see that their mother, Sarah Jeffery was living with the family also. It seems from the records that Eva Jeffery and her sister's family stayed in South Dakota for about twenty years and then moved to Deer Park, Washington.  Well, what was in Washington that brought on such a change in living places?
Sarah Burney Jeffery is buried next to her husband William Jeffery in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Waverly, Lancaster County, Neb.  I surmise that she died in Yankton and that not long after, her girls moved to Washington State.
Now to find out what was out west!

The Family History Researchers Lament

The Family History Researchers Lament
by C.Garner
Those family books where in boxes, under tables, and in files with papers flopping about.
They sat on the kitchen table and covered all the counters, forcing me to eat out.
There's census copies in my car and little note books here and there.
There's even papers I have to move,
when I want to sit in a chair.
I've got files and folders and folios,
and I've gone and filled them too.
And there's still so many relatives out there,
What's a researcher to do?
Why, make friends at the local copy shop!
Get an office supply discount card.
And buy a big ol' bookshelf.
Because quitting's awful hard.

Carla

Tell us why this is so important

There's the little things we miss if we don't pay attention.  What did Grandma say about that piece of silverware or the old clock on the mantle.  What was Dad telling you about the postcard that Grandpa sent back to Sweden.  If we really listened to those stories we've heard in family gatherings or at the dinner table, what clues would we find?
How about letters saved and sitting in a box somewhere?  Are there clues to a family member's life adventures?

I find and record these genealogical facts and dates and locations so I can tell the stories of those who have gone before.  Ordinary lives that have become extraordinary - and important.  How did Great-grandma survive the Depression.  How did Great-greatgrandpa make that trip across the prairie?  How did great Aunt survive the relocation and boarding school life she was forced into?  Does Uncle remember what he thought when Rosa Parks wouldn't sit in the back of the bus? What did Dad do to get past the time in the military?  How did Mom help you through the effects of The Big One?

Did someone tell you a story?  Did someone show you a tool or an article and describe what it was for and who used it?  Do you remember?  Have you written it down?

It's all part of a larger story.  One that you will want to leave for your grandkids or greatgrandchildren, or even the children of others, who will very soon be running this world.  What kind of values and ideas do you want to leave for them?
How will they know unless you record it?
Write it down. Record it.  Take a picture.

Tell us why the things Grandma did back in the Old Days is important to us today. 

The McNutt Mystery

A new little part to the Levi James McNutt mystery came to me the other day.
A person named Gardner is a Find A Grave volunteer over in Mississippi.  She found Sarah Frances Hopkins grave stone!
Sarah Frances Hopkins is the daughter if Elisha and Elizabeth Smithwick Hopkins.  She is also the only Sarah Hopkins that was the daughter of Elisha and Elizabeth Hopkins, the Grandparents of Levi James McNutt. This makes it possible that this is the grave of LJ McNutt's mother.

This graveyard is in Guntown, Lee County, Mississippi. It's an old graveyard and apparently abandoned even though it is right in town.  An interesting thing was the good condition of the gravestone.  I said that someone must have put a new stone there since the one placed there in 1874 would have been well worn by now.  I was hoping there might be living relatives still in the area. Gardner wrote back and mentioned that the gravestone was an example of pottery markers.  Apparently these where found in northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Alabama. Pottery markers are glazed and weather well compared to marble markers.
http://hillcountryhogsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/loyd-style-stoneware-or-pottery-grave.html
I will be writing to Guntown city hall to find out if they know anything about the folks buried in the field across from them...

Did the Snare family go to Nebraska?

The whole herd move from Illinois to Nebraska!
Mary Ann Snare [b:1832 in Licking County, Ohio] married William Maxwell Reed [b: 1827 in Newark, Licking County, Ohio] over in Licking County, Ohio.  They moved over to Knox County Illinois about 1855 where children, Mahala, Nora, William, Otis, Effie and Hulda where born. 

Then as a family, the Reeds moved to Nebraska about the same time as the Jeffery's, whom they had married into, came from Grant County, Wisconsin.  I was wondering if the Snare's moved to Nebraska along with the other families.  It looks like John Jeffery even took his father-in-law Jacob Hall to settle in Nebraska territory. So there must have been a number of ox drawn wagons going west to Lancaster County, Nebraska a little before 1867.

Daniel and Mary Ann "Polly" Crowell Snare moved with the family from Licking County, Ohio to Knox County, Illinois about 1855.  Daniel and Mary Ann didn't go to Nebraska though.  They both died in Harmon, Knox County, Ill. 
So the next question is, did any of the Snare kids go to Nebraska [besides Mary Ann].


Hummm.  No, Melissa Snare got married to William C. McElrea and they lived out their lives in Harmon, Knox County, Ill.
Sidney Whipple Snare ended up in Grand Junction, Mesa County, Colorado. He married Sarah Ellen Babbitt.
Sarah Ellen Snare married Martin Milam and ended up in San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California.
So what happened to Laura, Lyman and Reevis?
Did they stay in Ohio?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Time to do some census review and a little looking in the Licking County OH and Lancaster County, Neb archives on
www.usgenweb.com
Guess I'd better go find out!

Genealogy fun while unpacking, Brown and Palmer

I couldn't help it. Even while I am still unpacking and trying to get the house in order I had to look around on the internet. In an Ancestry.com newsletter someone mentioned state census.' I have had a good time looking at the state census related to the places our folks have lived because you never know what kind of information you will find. Some are as plain as the early Nebraska state census, where people where named and the places they lived where listed, and that was it. But the early Iowa census was another matter. I found my many time great grandparents Fred and Susan T. Knowles Brown with all their kids. Not only that, but the 1885 Iowa State Census had as much info as the Federal Census. Profession, where born, what county if they where born in Iowa, whether their parents where native or immigrant and if they could vote [males only]. It also showed that males where subject to military duty. And while perusing this document I happened to glance down the page and see Claude and Mary Palmer where living nearby. Mary is the daughter of Susan T and Fred Brown. Nice bit of extra information there, because I didn't know that Claude and Mary had a daughter named Carrie.

Moving genealogy stuff

Ok, Moving isn't the greatest fun I've ever had. But this time it went a little better. I had family papers in files if they weren't in the books yet. There's plastic hanging file boxes that a few hanging files slip right into. They're nice because you can use the carry handle to tote them right off to the latest place of research or pack into the right size box just as they are.
This time, photos where in the proper photobook or in a central repository [a large plastic file] so they could be safely transported. I even got everything into the boxes in some sort of order so that when I got the chance to work with the information over here at the new place, I would know what it was! [Where not talking the most tidy mind here - I'm the "pile it, don't file it" kind].
Now if I could only find my camera and memory sticks and such...

Isn't it neet to come upon some surprises sometimes?
Here we have a picture of my Aunt Kathy and her father Arthur Lovell Martin. She has this photo in a frame in her home office. I asked her about it in an offhand way. She surprised me with a story about the photo and several stories related to it.

Experienced genealogical researchers say to talk to living family members first and see what kind of information and artifacts they may have in their possession.

My Aunt was always in my life. I took her for granted. I never thought to ask her any questions about family because she didn't offer any information. And here she turned out to have a treasure trove of memories and on top of that, a few shoe boxes of wonderful photos!
When I sat and looked at these photos with her I got to ask more questions which lead to more memories, and even more places to search.
Remember, never take anyone in your family for granted...

Finding People

When I got the cardboard box with what remained of my Great-Grandmother Blythe Stillwell's articles I was blessed that mounds of photos survived. I guess no one saw the value in these photos, but I did!
I didn't know all the people in those photos but I knew enough [and had my Mother to ask about others]. Thus started my genealogical journey finding out about the family I never knew.
And while I was looking for the people I knew I kept the photos of those I didn't.
This is one of the photos I put aside for later. I'm glad I did because the writing on the back of this postcard turned out to be a clue to the identity of one of the fellows pictured!

It was written to John Hinkley, Great Grandma Nonnie's adoptive father. On the back it says, " April 19, 1910. Can you pick Guy out? This is his force of men. He is the foreman of NP freight house. He has seven men under him. He first had this taken today.
Angie
He wanted me to send you one."

I had some pictures of William and Angie Hinkley at verious times of their lives. William was John Hinkley's brother. At one point I followed them through the US census. When John T. and Sallie Delaney Hinkley moved from Missouri to Nebraska, his brother William along with Angie Phillips Hinkley and their kids moved up to Butte, Montana! So I looked through further census for them in Montana, and what do you know? Guy is their son! I got that box out and looked through to see where I had read that name before and there was the postcard.

The clothing Guy's crew is wearing tells me that NP is a railroad.
A lookup on Google for NP railroad revealed a Wikipedia listing of original Montana railroads and their successors. NP was the Northern Pacific & Montana Railroad.

Keep those old photos with the people you don't know, because if you look long enough, you will!

World War One Draft Cards

Did you know one of the best ways to find out about your early 20th Century male ancestor's physical characteristics? Find out if he has a WWI Draft registration card! Not only that but the information included on these cards could lead to other family members information.

This is the WWI Draft Card of my Great- great Uncle, Opie Hicks.
On the back of this card the examiner recorded information about eye color, hair color, complexion and build. On the front is nearest living relative, draftees birthplace, father's birthplace, place of employment.

From this card I learned that Opie had brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was 5 foot 8 inches tall. He was a farmer with a place near Farnam, Nebraska. He was born 10 Aug 1896 in Jonesborough, Tenn [where his father was also born] and that his father was W.R. Hicks.

You can confirm lots of theories about a male ancestor using these cards.
A good start for looking at these cards is

Online World War One Indexes & Records
http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwarone/index.html

This and many other sites can be found by Googling World War One Draft Cards.
Lots of fun!

Looking up Western Land Records in BLM GLO

When you go to the BLM GLO Records site the first thing you need to look for is the "Search Land Patents" link at the top of the page. Luckily, they designed the site so that the necessary links are always at the top of the pages [bless you folks!].
When clicking the link brings you to the search page, it's just a matter of picking the state where your ancestor lived, filling in their last name [and if you need to narrow the search, putting in their first name] and pushing the search button.
The reason you may only want to use a last name is because it allows you to read the list of land records under that name in case siblings or spouses may have homesteaded [yes, women did this too!].

Here we can see that I've entered L.J.'s last name only and Oklahoma for the state. That's because I knew that he and his family left Mississippi and settled in Kiowa County, OK. It was just a matter of finding out when.


The next image shows the Land Patent Details that resulted from the search. This gives the date and information about the land title. But look at the tabs at the top.
There's one for legal land description and one for Document Image. Legal land description will tell you exactly what section your ancestor got in their land grant or purchase. Document Image is a copy of the paperwork our ancestors received when they paid for the land [or met the requirements for homesteading].

There are also survey records and plat maps to be had. This may take a little more work to understand, but it is well worth it!

Go ahead, try it! I'll bet you'll be printing all kinds of paperwork if your family migrated west.

Looking up Land Records - BLM

This is one of the land records that relates to L.J. [Levi James] McNutt's purchase of land in Kiowa County, Oklahoma in 1908. Kiowa was one of the last Oklahoma counties to be opened for homesteading.
There's a wonderful tool provided by the BLM that lets you research your ancestors homesteading activities in the western states.
The BLM GLO Records.
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
This site only relates to land titles that where transferred from the Federal Government to individuals, and only relates to certain western states. "This site does not cover the thirteen colonies, their territories, and a few other states."

They are scanning and adding documents at a rapid rate so if your ancestor's land record, for the listed states, doesn't show up on the first search, come back again [often there will be a listing that says, scanning in progress].

The next couple of articles will explain how easy it is to use the Land Patents Search.

The River Running

So, while I was traveling back across Colorado I got to see, and record, the river. All the waterways around here are very high because of the record high temps that have caused quick snow melt, and now pouring rain! The rain pounded me for two-and a half days! It was hard to see over the hood of that little truck. Even though I enjoy the rain, I was glad when the sun got to come out.
I stopped to sleep in Frisco and when I woke I could hear the river outside the truck window. I decided to go investigate and found a nice little area down the embankment.
The sound is soooo cool!

Regency Rellies and Relocation

While I was off to the Front Range for the last four days trying to find a place to live, I realized that I already have some pictures of individuals in clothing from certain eras.
I make paperdolls for fun! And even better, I have historic clothing or international costumes, depending.
Here is Vinny in Regency clothing, about 1810 [copy-written, of course].
Can't you see him up on the back of a great black charger, cantering about the estate?

What our Ancestors Clothing Looked Like

Here's something I think will be new to family trees like Ancestry.com. In the space for media you can include photos and other media types related to your family member. Of course there is not likely to be a picture of family that lived before photography was invented [unless they had the money for portraiture]. So, in family tree software, if the only picture you have is a photo of the person's gravestone, that ends up being the primary photo. Yuck!
When I'm looking at an ancestor's info I don't want the only thing I see about them to be a gravestone.
So I came up with the idea of researching the clothing they might have worn when they where living their lives and decided on drawing color pictures to put in the photo section of the media files!


Luckily there are many re-enactors and historians who have put information about historic costumes up on the web. Costumers Manifesto is one great site. Memorial Hall Museum Online, American Centuries...view from New England is another fun site for looking at our former dress and learning lots of other things about our New England ancestors. [This is where I got the pictures for my two drawings that appear here].


Sooo, I'll have to think about the furniture and utensils that they might have used and the places they lived. Did you know that the early new England settlers lived in homes that consisted of one room where everything went on? Not necessarily because they where poor [tho that was true for some at the early part of the English settlement] but because people then didn't have the same ideas of privacy that the American culture does today.
Interesting, eh?

Looking through the WHOLE census!

I had some fun yesterday!
I printed out all of the pages of the Swinney, Washington County, TN 1960 census [there was only 22].
Why? Because I was looking for my many times great-grandfather James Hicks again.
See, there's a conflict here. There's two James Hicks who are one year apart that are living in Swinney. James Hicks, 19 years, son of Eli and Susannah Walker Hicks is living with his parents and siblings in dwelling number 798 on page 122. Simple right?
Nope, my cousin Janelle [who is a Walker], thinks the correct James Hicks for our family is the one that is 18 years old and living as a laborer with William and Matilda Walker.
Now I'm pretty sure the James Hicks living at home with his brothers and sisters is the right one, but the interesting thing I found while looking at the individual census pages online was that there are Walker children living with Eli and Susannah Hicks!
Then I started looking through other pages and found the Keys [James Hicks would marry Mary E. Keys when Mary Matilda died somewhere around 1874]. Then I found the Whetsels and Whites! [William Hicks, future son of James and Matilda Cox Hicks would marry Indelee Whetsel, daughter of Samuel and Hannah Eliza Woods Whetsel. Hannah is the White and Gibson family relation.]
See, all these people lived near each other and didn't move around like we do today. So if you find a family member on a long ago census, look at the other pages for that area. You might find a treasure trove!

Family Photo Fun

This is the only image I have of our Great-g-g-grandpa, James Hicks of Washington County, Tenn. He was born in 1841 in Jonesboro, Washington Co., TN and died in 1915 there.
When I got this photo from my cousin Linda who, in turn, got it from Lyla Dawn, I noticed that James Hicks is sitting out in a yard somewhere.
When I looked to the bottom to see where the photo was taken, I found Gate City, VA. Shipley was the photographer.

Now the interesting thing is, James Hicks lived in Washington County TN his whole life, as far as we know [except for his enlistment with I Co., 8th Tenn Cav.] We don't know of his having ever lived out of the state of Tennessee [census confirm that he was residing in Washington County at least every ten years].
So what was he doing having a photo taken in a yard in Gate City, VA?

I decided I needed to know where Gate City was. Looking it up on the www.rootsweb.com
city/county locater I quickly discovered Gate City is in Scott County.
Hummm.
Looking for it on a map from Google images search engine, I find that Scott County VA and Washington County, TN weren't anywhere near each other!
So what was James doing up there?

The Shipley name is familiar to our family because Rhetta Shipley married George G. Hicks, one of James and Matilda's sons. Rhetta was the daughter of Adam and Elizabeth Robinson Cox Shipley - they also lived in Washington County, TN. No Shipley relations living in Scott County, VA that I can find.

So what was James Hicks doing there in Gate City, VA having his photo taken during his later years? He looks to be in his early or mid 50's in this photo. The card type and the clothes he is wearing support that idea.
The beard is "the scraggly beard those guys wore in those days," my Dad commented. This was a style Civil War vets commonly kept even in their later years.

Since I didn't get any answers looking for Hicks, Hix or Shipley in the census for Scott County around this time, I decided to look into photographers that once worked in Gate City, VA.
Nobody has any listings or paperwork for any Shipley photographers in Gate City, VA!

Now I have two mysteries to work on over the next couple of days...

GenForum

The last free genealogy site that I mentioned in today's initial post was GenForum.
http://genforum.genealogy.com
When you get to the home page you will see that there are forums for many many surnames and also forums for states and counties!
These are forums where other genealogy researchers are posting queries and/or information related to that surname or counties and states where those family members lived.

I can spend hours looking through the sites related to my ancestors.
For Fred and Susan T Knowles Brown there are many places to search in GenForum.
Under Surnames
Brown
Knowles
Under States
Ohio
Iowa
Under Counties
Ringgold
or Trumbull
or Ashtabula
(the last two being the counties in Ohio that Fred and Susan lived in prior to moving to Iowa)

This is also a great way to find out about female family members. Women often lost their last name and legal rights under English law.
Write the woman's married surname to bring up that forum, then write her maiden name in the search box related to that particular forum. Often information about their parents or siblings can be found. Then search the surname forum related to her maiden name and use her married surname to find out if others have information about her.

Fun eh?

Using RootsWeb

The second place to search and see if others have posted their information about our ancestors is
www.rootsweb.com
Looking under
Family Trees (World Connect)
one can see
Search Family Trees
This is the place to put in the name of the person we are looking for.
Now if one wrote, Fredrick Brown they would get a list of family trees with various Fred Brown's. If they wrote Iowa as his death place they would narrow results down and among those results would be the family tree I have uploaded.
These family trees are fun to look through and can offer info [always look for real sources to see if the info is true], plus, the person who uploaded the family tree might have left their email for further contact.
This is a free database [sponsored by Ancestry.com] that relies on volunteers uploading their GEDCOMs.
If you use family tree software to record your family findings then you are able to create a GEDCOM and can upload it to sites like these.

Fun, Free Genealogy Searches

Ok, lest everyone think I spend all my time hanging around graveyards, I'll show you some of the research I do to find out about people, when they were living their lives, and what kind of mark they've left behind. [That's what all this about anyway, isn't it?]

And while I'm at it I'll dispel the myth that the only way a person can do online genealogy is to pay for subscription search sites. Not true! These sites are defiantly more direct and make it easier to collect paperwork on the person, but they're not the only route to finding out about our ancestors.

Since I started searching for information about my family I have been a part of
www.usgenweb.com
www.rootsweb.com
and
www.genforum.com

I have contributed transcribed wills and court documents for the Washington County, Tenn GenWeb site. I've contributed photos and transcribed letters to the Nebraska GenWeb county sites. And I've gleaned much information about my own family from others contributions to the various US GenWeb sites.

A good example is my six-times great Grandparents, Fredrick Avery and Susan T. Knowles Brown [seen above]. They were the children of Ohio Reserve Settlers and part of the group that grew up and made their way west to settle in Kellerton, Iowa in 1868.
How did I learn that? I wrote to the Mt Ayr Public Library about Kellerton, Athens and Ringgold County. They sent me back all kinds of good stuff including the section of Arthur Lesan's 1931 book "History of Athens Township." Which just happened to list Kellerton's pioneers and have the above picture of my Brown ancestors! That very same information can now be found under Ringgold County on the Iowa GenWeb site.
http://iagenweb.org/ringgold/history/hist-kellertonroots.html
Someone volunteered the information and the Ringgold site manager [who is also a volunteer] put it up for everyone to see.

This is a good way to find out about the places our family lived and what part they played in the area's history.

And sometime a searcher my find that the county they are searching has nothing about their family members. Well, if they have some info they have saved, they might think about making that information available to the county volunteer maintaining the pages where their ancestors lived. Then those coming along behind can be delighted by the discovery of that contribution!

Memorial Day photos

Dad and I went out to the local cemeteries to take Memorial Day photos.
The strange one was the car show being held at the Grand Junction Memorial Gardens.
This was amongst the hot dog grill and the hamburger line under the shade of some large trees near a little lake.
"Kinda' inaproprate to have a car show here, isn't it?" Dad asked.
"Well, this is the cemetery's efforts to get the living more involved with the dead. Many cemeteries are having tours or events to draw people."
We walked past some stones and I left Dad talking to the owner of a 57 Chevy while I moved around the lake to get a shot of the bagpiper.

Google Earth and Graveyards

Ok, the last for today, but the best fun I've had with GPS and photographs.
Google Earth is a genealogy researchers best friend!
You can look up those mysterious places you've never seen, maybe even a place where your ancestor lived [I toured Paris, France one day!].

The latest fun I've been having is looking for those cemeteries where I have ancestors buried. Of course we cant see what it was like "then" but we can look at the places now, which is still intriguing to me.

Take the Forest Hill Cemetery in Boston, MA that was just being discussed in my earlier post.
All I do is write the name of the cemetery or town in the "Fly to" Search box. In this case I wrote the name Forest Hills Cemetery in the Business search box.
It came up with an aerial view of the area where the cemetery is located.
From there I can either look for the little photograph icons and see pictures others have taken of landmarks [in this case Sam791 took the photo of the Forest Hills entrance] or I can double click on the aerial view map until I hit ground level, where, if I'm lucky, there are camera icons! This indicates that there have been street level photos taken in sequence of the surrounding area!
I was able to do this for Congress Cemetery in Wayne County, Ohio [the topmost picture].

This all can be printed out and included in my family books. [And I've been spending lots of my extra time looking up these places I've never been to, so I can see where my people once lived!]

Now this won't happen for every place out there. Roosevelt, Oklahoma is one of the graveyards that has no street level pictures because the town is slowly drying up. But you can still tour downtown in places like this. [I looked up Kellerton, Iowa to see where my Great great-great grandparents, Susan T and Fred Brown lived and worked. It was cool!]

Old Stones for African Americans and Others

The search for our ancestors gravesites is not always a simple matter. For those who have African ancestors who where brought to America as slaves in the South, there is a chance that they where buried on the plantations where they labored. Often without the benefit of grave markers. A majority of the time slaves where buried separate from the white families they served in the surrounding woodland or fields.


In the North during the colonial period those African American ancestors that where slaves may have been buried in known graveyards with simple things written on their stones, sometimes a date of death or their first name and "Servant of..." This was another way of saying slave. Wording might be
"Josh Mills
Servant"
or
"Josh
Servant of
Milo Mills."


There where free African Americans living in the New England states back during the colonial period. These people most often would have been buried in separate graveyards from those of the white colonials.
Fairview and Mount Hope Cemetery in Dorchester, Suffolk Co., [Boston] MA two of these burial grounds where started for this reason.
There several notable African Americans are buried in Mount Hope including Roland Hayes, the first commercially successful Black American Classical singer.
Find A Grave Memorial# 27654832
www.findagrave.com

Now an interesting find is at Forest Hills Cemetery. Local historian, Anthony Sammarco, says that buried there are European and African Americans along with other minorities and immigrant ancestors. He says it is an intigrated burial ground - the only limitation was the family's ability to afford burial there. [Economics is still a point of separation, even in death.]

Elma Lewis [shown above] is buried there. 1921 to 2004
She was an Arts Educator and "...In 1950 she founded the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in Roxbury, which taught art, music, drama, costume and dance to the youth of Boston's African-American community for the next forty years."
[Find A Grave Memorial# 8233700]

In many parts of America there are separate burial grounds for our immigrant ancestors. Either because they where not included in the mainstream of society or because they chose to be buried separately to preserve their cultural burial practices from "The Old Country". Often these groups bought land and developed their own burial grounds.
From the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts site, "...first Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts, Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery, founded in 1843. Located in East Boston and home to the largest Jewish population in turn-of-the-century New England."
http://www.jcam.org/Pages/Foundation/foundation_home.htm
This might be the place to look for your Jewish ancestors who settled in Boston.

There are other graveyards that where set up for specific groups, often by those groups. On the west coast of the US, Asian immigrants where not always welcomed with open arms [especially the Chinese] even though they where a major part of the development of the industrial west.
San Francisco was the arrival point for many of our Asian immigrant ancestors who came to work in the gold fields and on the railroads. Many of them died here in the US and their bones did not make it back to China. [There's a disproportionate number of Chinese people buried in Boot Hill in Tombstone, AZ of all places!].

In San Francisco there are many immigrant burial sites:
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hcmidx.htm
In Texas there was a group of immigrant Germans who where against slavery during the time Texas was Confederate. There was, and still is, a large Jewish population that settled in Texas.

Could your ancestors be in one of these many nation-of-origin specific cemeteries in the US?

Looking at Old Stones

It's irony that I'm sitting here listening to 80's Pop music [some of the liveliest made] while looking up ancestors gravestones.
That's what keeps our family alive though, remembering them and including them in works of today. Above is the marker for my grandmother Betty Blythe Hicks Martin. She dies young in 1967. I never thought much of spending time with graveyards until I went on that trip with Dad. Graveyards, in the daytime, are an indicator of the society and times of our ancestors. Compare the cemetery marker for my grandmother in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, LA Co., CA Samuel Mason in Kickemuit Cemetery, Warren, Bristol Co., RI. Samuel died in 1744. The European settlers [particularly the Pilgrims] saw death a different way then we look at it today and their gravestones reflect that.
Both of these photos come from Find-a-Grave. This is a great resource for those of us who can't get to these places for whatever reason.
At www.findagrave.com you can use the search to look for individuals graves or for whole cemeteries. Since this is all voluntary you may not find an ancestor's gravesite. This is where you can participate. If you know where the person is buried you can build a memorial for them and either upload a photo of the grave or request that one be taken by the many volunteers connected with Find-a-Grave. I am one for the Grand Junction, Colorado area.
The wonderful vista photo of my Grandma Betty Martin's marker was taken by David [Memorial# 52253524] and the Samuel Mason stone photo was taken by Julie for a memorial [# 21740252]started by one person and now maintained by another.
When you add photos and information about your family members who have passed on, you are keeping their memory alive and making them part of the family for future generations.

Yellville, Marion County, Arkansas

Here is a 2007 picture of Dad walking in the same place his Grandfather Claude Eugene Cowdrey walked during the late 1890's. These are the same buildings that where there when Claude was residing in Yellville in his younger years!
This trip was an eye opener for me because I knew little about my father's family except what I'd found in the records. When Dad said we should take a 2500 mile jaunt across the US to meet his living relations and look for the places those now gone had come from, I said yes with a little trepidation. See, we covered that 2500 miles in just two weeks! Idaho to Mississippi, in some of the worst summer rains or summer heat depending on the location.
But the pictures I took and the things I learned on that trip connected me to my father and his side of the family. I am glad we went.

Family History and American History

This is going to be my Family History blog.
I have been researching my family [maternal and paternal] since 1996. My father has been working on his for about ten years longer.
From this hobby I have developed a love for American History and have found excitement in the search to relate my family members to the times they lived.
I haven't been willing to recreate my Family History pages after Lycos destroyed them, so maybe I'll be more involved with this newer format.I've looked at others pages and been very impressed.
Let's see if I can do something entertaining, at least.
Smiles!
Carla