Ancestrally Challenged

Time 2020-12-10 18:04:13

Web Name: Ancestrally Challenged

WebSite: http://ancestrallychallenged.com

ID:129898

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Ancestrally,Challenged,AncestrallyChallenged

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This is a really interesting story on an unknown grave in Aiken Co. SC, You can see a picture of the grave on our Dicsussion ForumAccording to Boyd and Diane Gunter, president of the Horse Creek Historical Society, a train came through Aiken Station - then located in Warrenville - carrying, among others, a little boy. The boy, who was approximately 12 years old, was traveling alone and was too sick to speak. He didn t have any form of identification with him so he was taken in by Henry Senn, an area wagoner whose wife operated the Graniteville Hotel, to be nursed back to health when he d be able to tell his story. The little boy s fever never broke, and he died a few days later. He took his identity and the purpose for his trip with him to his grave, which was provided by the people of Graniteville. The village folk nickeled up and had Mr. Lawrence Quimby, the coffin maker, build a coffin, Boyd said. In addition, William Gregg, the founder of Graniteville, donated a burial plot in the cemetery. As was the case with other families that couldn t provide a gravestone, Gregg provided a cedar marker until the people of Graniteville saved enough money to purchase a permanent stone for the Little Boy.This is another element that has added a sense of intrigue to his story. Time had passed, and no one could remember the day he died, so his stone reads, The Little Boy, October 1855, Boyd said.The generosity of Graniteville didn t stop with the interment of the Little Boy. Over the years, the grave has been visited by many adults who leave flowers and children who leave coins, toys and other small gifts. This is probably the most visited grave in the cemetery, Gunter said of the final resting place of many, which also includes 83 Confederate soldiers. As part of preserving the history of Graniteville and Aiken County, the historical society has maintained its monuments. The grave and tombstone of the Little Boy are no exception.Enduring vagrants and vandalism are factors in the deterioration of the Graniteville Cemetery, which is only open to visitors during the day. Time and natural erosion ultimately have been the biggest culprits in the diminishing aesthetic beauty. The Little Boy s tombstone, the one which replaced the original cedar marker, broke over the years and is currently propped on the grave.The historical society and the Graniteville Cemetery Association are in the process of buying a new tombstone. In addition, the historical society will beautify the grave by covering it with gravel, planting three crape myrtle trees and installing a bench for visitors.Dedicated to the preservation and upkeep of the Little Boy s grave, not to mention his story, Boyd and Gunter are quick to point out there are so many more stories to tell. Many can be found in Graniteville Cemetery. Tombstones do talk, Boyd said of the symbolism and literal information they possess. There is so much here, a lot of history, Gunter said. But this is what everybody knows - the Little Boy. Mocavo.com will let users search more the 50 billion words, including names, dates and places, within seconds. The service searches thousands of genealogic sites including national and state archives, Ellis Island, message boards used by genealogists and family trees posted online, according to a press release from the company. Mocavo.com has the capacity to index every single piece of free genealogy content found anywhere on the Web, and will be growing by leaps and bounds in the coming months, Shaw said.I have tested out the claim of indexing free genealogy content, and as of right now I can report that it s definitely missing some stuff. I run 3 genealogy sites with free content and when searching for something I knew for a fact was on there, it didn t bring up any of them. I got results from the ancestry message boards, genforum, and findagraveI will reserve judgment until I see what results come up when they have been around a little longer, but it cannot hurt to check it out. On March 11, 2011 the Georgia legislature approved a bill that COULD result in the Ga Archives closing to the public. Below is a letter from FOGAH Chair, Virginia Shadron that was posted on FOGAH:The Fiscal Year 2012 budget that passed the Georgia House of Representatives on March 11 as HB 78 includes budget reductions that could result in the State Archives closing its doors to the public. The budget contains two items that together would reduce the Archives’ budget by at least $300,000.The Archives’ base budget, after preceding budget cuts, is $4,643,588. Over 65% of that goes to pay fixed costs (such as rent) that cannot be reduced. The current bill proposes an additional cut in “personal services and … savings from reduced hours …” in the amount of $260,458. The second way in which the Archives’ budget is eroded is that the House budget does not fund the annual increase in the Archives’ rent, an amount of more than $40,000 for FY12.Altogether, the additional cuts to personal services and the failure to fund the rent increase means that the Archives’ sustains a critical $300,000 in cuts. You might wonder, “What is the fuss about?” That shortfall can come from one place only—and that is staff.Without intervention the Archives will almost certainly be forced to close its doors to the public, reduce scanning operations and preservation activities, and eliminate most transfers of records from state agencies—the records that protect Georgia financially and legally.The House version of the budget now goes to the Senate for adjustment and passage. Call and write your state senator immediately and ask that a minimum of $300,000 be restored to the Archives budget! Go to http://www.legis.ga.gov and click on Find Your Legislator to find your senator.- Virginia Shadron One of our forum members, John, posted a link for this site recently. I think its a pretty cool thing, and you can read about it and see some examples HERE DMK Heritage is a company that is doing a huge favor to some of us. They are automating old genealogy books, read their About Us page to see all the details.We take each book, scan it, use a word processor to make the document searchable and put it into an easily readable Times font. We also index the book and provide for easy navigation in Adobe Reader 5.0 (free off the internet) and Apple (Mac) Preview.They also offer free updates if they ever update a CD that you buy from them, you can t get better customer service than that!!DMK also offers a selection of small free genealogy books that you can download to your computer. Those books can be found here: http://gallery.me.com/dmkheritage You simply click on the book you want and then click download on the page it takes you too and it will prompt you to download a zip file of the edition. The books they offer at the moment are: Georgia 1. •History of Crisp Co. DAR 1916 2. •History of Washington Co. by Ella Mitchell, 1924Kentucky 1. • History or Russellville Logan Co. by Finley 1878 2. •Old Kentucky Deeds: Lincoln Co. 1779-1787 3. •Old Kentucky Deeds: Fayette Co. 1782-179North Carolina 1. • Marriage Bonds of Tryon County NC from 1769-1870. 2. •Friends Records of Births and Deaths, Cane Creek, NC 3. •St. Bartholomew’s Parish, NC 4. •Bertie Co. Wills (1795-1840 abt.) NCHGR 5. •Bertie Co. Marriages 1762-1834 (1809-1819 missing) NCHGRSouth Carolina 1. • Annals and Parish Register of St. Thomas - St. Denis SC 2. •St. James Church, Goose Creek, SC 1706-1909 3. •Marriage Notices in SC American General Gazette 4. •Chronicles of St. Mark’s Parish Santee Circuit Williamsburg Township, SC. 5. •French Swiss Protestants in Charleston the Santee, SC Naturalization Records 1695-96 6. •Vestry of St. Matthew’s Parish, SC 1769-1838 7. •History of Grandal Shoals (Cherokee Union Co., SC 8. •History of Fairfield Co., SC by Ederington 9. •The Parish of St. Michael, SC 10 •South Carolina in the Rev. War. by A. SouthronTennessee 1. • History of Overton County, Tenn. by Goodpasture. 2. •Reminiscences of Early Settlements Settlers of McNairy Co., Tenn. by Gen. Marcus WrightVirginia 1. • Lunenburg County, Va. Wills 1746-1825 2. •Frederick Parish, Va. 1744-1780, Churches, Chapels, etc. 3. •Revolutionary Soldiers and Sailors for Northampton Co., VA 4. •Virginia Wills Before 1799 by Wm. M. Clemens 5. •Historical Sketches of “Old Bruton Church” Williamsburg, Va. 6. •Williamsburg Wills Abt. 1750-1825 7. •Old Surry, Va. 8. •History of Hampton Eliz. City Co. Va. Tyler 1922 9. • Scotch-Irish in the Valley of Virginia by Waddell 10. •Some Emigrants to Virginia by W. G. StanardWest Virginia 1. •History of Marion Co., W. VA. by Geo. A. Dunnington 2. •Sketches of Wood Co. W. VA by S. C. ShawScotch-Irish 1. •Scotch-Irish in America by Dinsmore 2. •Scotch-Irish in the Valley of Virginia by Waddell Research Story Contributed by Stephanie Tolbert BradleyA lot of Tolbert Researchers have it WRONGI read the news article Shannon posted about and had an unavoidable pang of jealousy that I am not proud of.  The person who helped the family find their roots should be applauded.  Those of  you who read  this blog, or any genealogy blog are already fans of the “hobby” or “avocation”.  A newspaper article or TV  program reaches so many more people who are not even aware of all that is involved. I think they assume you just pick up a family Bible and it is all right there, or visit the family cemetery. Most people have NO clue that we actually use those census records they are so reluctant to fill out. They cannot imagine how eagerly we wait for a new one to be released every twelve years. It is nearly as exciting to us as awaiting the last Indiana Jones release.It often takes several years for a genealogist to appreciate world or local history. In the beginning we get so involved with finding those names and dates to add to the database, we don’t stop to think about what was going on around them at the time. We start out with an understanding that war is going to impact people, but seldom do we look at the “smaller” things that affect families. The Great Hunger, also known as the Irish Potato Famine,  Spanish Flu, Black Blizzards, boll weevils, the Depression. At some point though, it finally starts to sink in that everything we skimmed over in history class meant something in the lives of our families. Then we start research in true earnestness, with a better understanding of WHERE we need to look.I said all that to tell my own story:My 3 X great grandfather was William Marion Tolbert of Jackson County Georgia, born about 1845 and died in 1907. It is a good thing I found him early in my research or I would not be convinced he even existed. Bullying my family actually produced a picture of the gentleman hidden in some uncle’s “stuff”. Without this “backup” I would have given up years ago. Census records show him living with his brother in the home of Sarah Tolbert in 1850 and 60. BUT no one believed me. On one census he was listed as Marion and on the next as William. He actually went by “Billy”.Avid researchers know that sometimes you have to disprove something so you can prove something else.For more years (20) than I want to think I have been trying to prove or disprove a relationship with Francis Marion Tolbert/Talbert. they have always said he was the person living with Sarah Tolbert in 1850 and 1860 even though the 1880 census has his mother Isabella of SC living with him in Alabama. He applied for a Civil War pension in Alabama and from all I can tell received it, claiming he was wounded in the Battle of Atlanta. His records say he served with the 42nd GA Infantry, Co. E out of Newton County. I have checked every war record I could find both on microfilm and Footnote and Ancestry and you name it. He does not show. Period.Finally one night almost two years ago I thought I would give it one more shot and see if I could find someone who might possibly be him .so I pulled the entire 42nd GA all companies and went thru over 2,000 names. The only thing I found was a GFM Tarbutton.  I thought what the heck .went to Footnote and pulled the cards and guess what ..Gen. Franics Marion Tarbutton private. And NO there is no mistake about the name. But just to be sure I checked census records for Georgia in 1860 and 70. In 1860 he is listed as a female but same name and lives with his mother Isabella in Pickens County. In 1870 he lives near his mother, but with his wife Eliza (correct name for wife) and son William E. (also correct name and age) in Fayette County. I have now checked marriage licenses and there is one in Newton County for Francis Marion Tarbutton and Sarah J E Mitchell (correct maiden name) in 1864.His Civil war record shows he deserted and took the oath. I don t know when he changed his name, but by the time he moved to Alabama he had done so and claimed to have been wounded there is no evidence of that and I don t know WHY he changed his name. Maybe Alabama s rules for CSA pensions were not as stiff as Georgia’s. He evidently did not have to have witnesses. And in the records I found he claimed to be with a couple of different companies. So who knows ..BUT I PROVED he is not Sarah Tolbert’s son and that is good enough for me. AND his mother changed her name as well????? What on earth happened in Georgia??We tend to make a lot of assumptions when we first start out, and that is ok, as long as we go back and correct where we were wrong. Unfortunately all the researchers into this family evidently went to one single person who posted misinformation and never corrected it. But then who actually goes back to check sources once you have the information entered  into your database?? There were several Tolberts/Talberts in Georgia at the beginning of the 1800’s and little paperwork to get them all sorted out. Tapley and Sarah were both in Clarke Co. and married there.  A few years later a William “L” Tolbert married a Caroline Hutson, also in Clarke County, GA. People just assumed he was a son of Tapley and Sarah, even though there was absolutely nothing to back that up, AND this William was not mentioned in Sarah’s widow’s pension when Tapley was killed.  Nor does he show up on any early census record. This same source claimed he moved to Alabama and raised his family there. It took me years to prove that 1. The marriage license of William “L” and Caroline did NOT say “L” but “C”. This man was William Clarke Tolbert and he stayed right there in Clarke county Georgia until the Civil War at the Wilderness…..when he was killed. Caroline stayed right there until her old age when she moved to Fulton County to live with her daughter. There are widow’s pensions to back all that up. This man was the son of James Tolbert. Ok, so that is going to put the knickers in a twist of everyone in Alabama who claim  relation to Sarah and Tapley.You  now have two sets of Tolberts in Alabama who claim relation to Tapley and Sarah  who are not. This messes up at least 25 years of some folks research, if they even choose to acknowledge it. I found one woman, Melissa,….I don’t know her last name, who was pleased I had found her missing Tarbuttons. But no response from a single Tolbert researcher I have contacted. Believe me I know all too well what it is like to have to trash years of research….but I would rather do that than have my research laughed at down the line because I was too stubborn to acknowledge that I was just wrong and made assumptions I shouldn’t have.My William Marion Tolbert and his brother Andrew Jackson Tolbert? I am still trying to prove parentage for them…..Faye Poss, well known genealogist, has told me that the poor school records for Jackson County Georgia say that Sarah Tolbert was their mother. It is certainly possible, but since she never remarried after Tapley died over 10 years befor e they were born…..they were illegitimate and I honestly have NO clue who their father might have been.It is these mysteries that keep us ever searching. Just keep in mind: whoever you THINK you are, you probably AREN”T.. But they are important none the lessHow many times have we, as genealogists, read some abstract article like this one http://www.times-herald.com/close-up/Internet-connects-Californians-with-family-cemetery-near-Senoia 1455403 on how genealogy helped to connect families?  How many of those times did we say to ourselves I ve done that ?I truly doubt there will ever be an article written on the fact that I have managed to track down descendants of all 7  children born to William Redding Byers, aka Redin, and Elizabeth Banks Byers in the mid 1800 s. Or the fact that I was able to have many of those descendants attend a tombstone dedication for Redin s CSA stone.  An article was written about THAT, but not about the years I spent finding people to attend it.I met my husband in 2003, and being the lover of research that I am, I was thrilled to have a new family to research.  When it became apparent that we would be marrying, I began work and with the help of his great uncle Leelan Byers, I got a really good starting place.  I took what he had and started tracking stuff down, proving AND disproving information along the way.  There is no way I could possibly identify the hours that I (and my own mother) spent looking for information.  Libraries, historical societies, cemeteries, old age homes, the internet, newspapers and the telephone were all used as tools, each one invaluable in its own right.Redin had 7 children: Matilda Jane, Richard Marion, William Redman, Mary Amanda, Reacie Caroline, Thomas Francis and Lula A.  Of those 7, Redman and Amanda moved to Oklahoma and Arkansas. The rest scattered to different parts of Georgia, where the family had moved to in 1867, from South Carolina, where they were all born.In 2007 I finally tracked down (with help from my mama and Lynn Cunningham) where Redin was buried.  The family kept saying he was surely buried in a church cemetery where other members of the family were buried, but after extensive research, I could find no proof of that.  His death certificate stated he was buried in a cemetery 50 miles to the south.  My husband and I went over every inch of the cemetery at Tanner s Church in Conley, Ga and couldn t find him, which meant he was in one of the graves marked only with a rock.Through the goodwill of the church, we were allowed to pick an area of the cemetery to have his CSA stone, supplied for free by the VA, erected.  I cannot tell you the sense of fulfillment I had the day it was installed, but I can tell you that as good as it was, it didn t match the day we had the dedication ceremony.When the church had given its approval for placement, I stepped up finding family in earnest.  My goal was to have at least one descendant for each of his 7 kids at the dedication.  I didn t meet that goal because of logistics, BUT I did find at least one descendant for each child, the last one coming forth 1 week before the ceremony, so I know they were all there in spirit. I like to think Redin was looking down with joy as he saw so many members of his family there to honor him. The event was covered by the newspaper, those interested can see/read about it here http://www.ancestrallychallenged.com/dedication.htm The years have brought new family ties, new friendships and new revelations. Many of the people I have found had no idea their extended family was so large, and they are more than eager to learn about their ancestors and their living kin. Will I or any of these wonderful people ever have this experience written up for the world to read in a major media outlet?  More than likely not, but you know what?  The internet is a vast expanse of connections and putting it here will probably highlight it in more ways than I can count.Do you have a story?  Would you like to see it here?  You can contact me at shanifaye @ gmail.com with what you have written and I will be glad to post it for you. You ve worked hard for your research results, it should be recognized. Some new PDF s of confederate service records have been added to the AC Discussion forum Civil War Records;ALABAMAA. F. Lemberger Co. F 18th InfantryCharles Lemberger Co. D Alabama State ArtilleryARKANSASAlfred Mashbern (Mashburn) Co I 15th InfantryPerry Kay Co. A 45th InfantryGEORGIASilas B. Kent 5th Cavalry 7th InfantryDavid M. Kay Co. K 1st Rifles (Orr s)Andrew J. Lastinger Co. H 29th InfantryE. Allen Co.D Clinch s CavalryF. Allen Co.D Clinch s CavalryJames Daniel Co. I 29th InfantryJames P. Harris Co. C 34th InfantryJames A. Rowell Co. F 12th InfantryJesse B. Harris Co. E 36th Infantry (Villepigue s)Jesse B. Harris Co. O Phillip s LegionJosiah Mizell Co. G 26th InfantryJ. T. Green Co.D Clinch s CavalryPhilip Cook Co. I 4th InfantryWesley Harris Co. O Phillip s LegionW. Green Co.D Clinch s CavalryFLORIDAHenry Nettles Co. B 1st CavalryJohn B. Nelson Co. B CavalryM. Higginbotham Co. K CavlaryM.Y. Higginbotham Co. K CavalryMISSOURIJohn Coyle Co. B 4th CavalrySOUTH CAROLINASamuel Garrett Co. F 2nd Rifles I just saw a commercial for the new season of NBC s Who Do You Think You Are, showing a few of the people they are going to be doing stories on.This particular commercial showed:  Tim McGraw, Kim Cattrall, Vanessa Williams and Lionel Richie. The Associated Press also says Ashley Judd, Steve Buscemi and Rosie O Donnell will be included.Season 2 will premier Friday, January 21st  I can t wait!! Many years ago, when I started doing Byers research, I had the great fortune of finding Yvonne Mashburn Schmidt.  She had started doing research MANY years ago and though we have not actually been able to meet in person yet, over the years we have shared our info and our theories.Recently, she started her own family history site called The Mashburn Collection focusing on the Mashburns (Redin s daughter Matilda Jane married into the Mashburn family) and I encourage everyone to take a look at her site http://www.themashburncollection.comYesterday she let us know that she has been nominated as one of Family Tree Magazine s top 40 blogs for 2011 and I have to say she certainly deserves it!!  Take a minute to go over to the site and click on the vote button, it will take you to FTM s site where you can put a check mark in the box next to her blog and vote!!

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