Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 8 January 2010

I have changed the name of this feature in response to a comment on a recent Family Newsletter Friday post that began, “Sorry to butt in on your family newsletter…” Why, hon, you’re not buttin’ in at all, you’re absolutely welcome here! So now “Friends” has been added to the title. It started as mostly a summary of research I had done each week, so I figured people who were not researching these lines (that is, not cousins or “family”) might not be interested. However, other items – some blog highlights, other happenings and bits of information that would be of more general interest – gradually got added in. Right now I don’t really want to split them up into separate features, because one or the other is often rather scant some weeks. Another change is that I will be starting with general-interest items first.

Blogs/Follow Friday

They That Go Down to the Sea is definitely back and going strong. One of my favorite posts is Treasure Chest Thursday: Gram’s Christmas Present. Not only does it exhibit the glorious writing style and strong story line that characterize this blog, but it holds the promise of a source of plenty of material to inspire future posts. You’ll have to read the story to see what that source is. (And I already had this post written before the following post on Down to the Sea was written, so there was no collusion here!)

Transcribing

I actually got one of the Sheriff Henry Lewis articles from the Dallas Morning News transcribed and posted this week!

Miscellaneous

Most interesting genealogy-related Google search of the week: Ludwig’s angina, a cellulitis infection of the tissues of the floor of the mouth that is sometimes fatal. This was the cause of death of Ernest Elbert Wheeler, the young husband of a distant cousin.

Research

Norman

Sort of finished up on the J. J. Norman-Martha King family. (Though not quite; J. J. and his brother Thomas Frank had identically named sons named for their father: Joseph Madison Carroll Norman. In looking for one – TF’s son who is said to have left home at age 18 and was never heard from again – I found the other on the census, with more children. Still looking for the first one, though.) I’m trying to tie up various loose ends, especially with the help of Inez Cline’s Norman Family History. However, her history only covers 5 of J.J.’s 12 children, so there are still some blanks to fill in. (And there still remain many – if anyone reading this is descended from this family, I’d love to hear from you!)

Now working on the Thomas Frank Norman family – like my great-grandfather, a son of Joseph Madison Carroll Norman and Rebecca Monk. I did not know about this family until I connected with Gary B. through Ancestry and then later obtained the Inez Cline history. Cline says that they had 9 children but only 4 survived to maturity. I’d like to find the other 5.

An interesting find on Sunday: by searching for Normans in Texas who are from Alabama, I found Thomas Frank – as Franklin T. Norman, a widower with the four surviving children Vinie, Jessie, Joseph M., and Donald. And what is really intriguing is that they are shown as boarders in the household of a Webster E. Lee, whose father was born in Alabama. Family patriarch Joseph Madison Carroll Norman had two stepbrothers, Lafayette and Samuel, from his mother’s second marriage to a Matthias Lee. I don’t think this Webster is a son of either of them (since he is shown as having a brother William Lee who is too old to be a son of either), but still … there could be a family connection, especially since there were also older step-siblings through Matthias Lee. (And up above on the same census page there is a Samuel – too young for the half-uncle, but could still be related.) Also, if Thomas Frank died in 1912 as stated by Inez Cline, that means his children would have been minor orphans.