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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Surname Saturday: Families of Elizabeth Anne “Doll” Brinlee and Leander Scott/Harve Mulder

Leander Scott
& Elizabeth Anne “Doll” Brinlee
b. 9 Jul 1866, Bates County, Missouri
d. 20 Sep 1950, Dallas, Dallas County, TX
|--Lora Mae Scott
|----b. Aug 1884, Texas
|----d. bef 1910

Harvey “Harve” Mulder
b. Feb 1852, Alabama
d. 19 Nov 1934
& Elizabeth Anne “Doll” Brinlee
b. 9 Jul 1866, Bates County, Missouri
d. 20 Sep 1950, Dallas, Dallas County, TX
m. 25 Dec 1887
|--Ardenie Lee Mulder
|----b. 5 Nov 1888, Texas
|----d. 11 Dec 1938, Collin Co., Texas
|---& Jesse James McDonald
|----b. 1 Nov 1886, Blue Ridge, Texas
|----d. 2 Sep 1968, McKinney, Collin Co., Texas
|----m. 1905
|----Harvey Carrol Mulder
|----b. 8 Aug 1891, Near Blue Ridge, Collin Co., Texas
|----d. 1957
|---& Cora Ethel McDonald
|----b. 28 Jul 1888
|----d. Dec 1978, Bonham, Fannin Co., TX
|----m. 1909
|--Willie Mulder
|----b. 23 Dec 1893, Texas
|----d. 11 Aug 1989
|---& Marion Luther Truelove
|----b. 8 Oct 1893, Blue Ridge, Collin, Texas
|----d. 4 Oct 1953, Dallas County, TX
|----m. 1916
|--Albert Leon Mulder
|----b. 1 Jan 1897, Blue Ridge, Collin Co., Texas
|----d. 5 Nov 1972, Sherman, Grayson Co., Texas
|---& Edna Hunter
|----b. 21 Apr 1902, Texas
|----d. 16 Nov 1978, Sherman, Grayson Co., Texas
|----m. 1921
|--Orous Ambert Mulder
|----b. 12 Apr 1901
|----d. 29 Oct 1985, Fort Worth, Tarrant Co., Texas
|---& Edna Hendricks
|----b. 1901, Texas
|--Odessa Beatrice Mulder*
|----b. 24 Feb 1904, Texas
|----d. 19 Jun 1970, North Richland Hills, Tarrant, Texas
|---& C. A. Sanford
|----b. 1903, Texas
|----m. 1929
|--Odessa Beatrice Mulder*
|----b. 24 Feb 1904, Texas
|----d. 19 Jun 1970, North Richland Hills, Tarrant, Texas
|---& Guyton House Hunter
|----b. 19 Mar 1900
|--Odessa Beatrice Mulder*
|----b. 24 Feb 1904, Texas
|----d. 19 Jun 1970, North Richland Hills, Tarrant, Texas
|---& Hilyard Wakefield Eubanks
|----b. 9 Aug 1901
|----d. 5 Sep 1973, North Richland Hills, Tarrant, Texas
|--Lonnie Odell Mulder*
|----b. 7 Jul 1907, Texas
|----d. 25 Oct 1985, Dallas Co., Texas
|---& Katherine Bessie Cassteel
|--Lonnie Odell Mulder*
|----b. 7 Jul 1907, Texas
|----d. 25 Oct 1985, Dallas Co., Texas
|---& Hellen Virginia Mullinix

Elizabeth Anne Brinlee was the second child of Hiram Carroll Brinlee Jr. and Diza Caroline Boone. Harvey Mulder was the son of George D. Mulder and Angeline Walker. Harvey’s first wife was Eveline Langham; they had children George Monroe, Elizabeth (who apparently died as an infant), Oscar, and James Calvin.

There are several mysteries, or at least some missing information, connected with this family. To begin with, I do not know anything about Leander Scott – parents, dates, or what happened to him. Doll Brinlee was a widow when she married Harve Mulder, so Leander Scott must have died some time between 1884, when his daughter Lora Mae was born, and 1887, the approximate year when Harve Mulder and Elizabeth Brinlee Scott married.

I also do not know what happened to Lora Mae, though it appears she had died by 1910, since the 1910 census indicates that one of Doll Mulder’s children had died by then, and the others are accounted for. I do not know when Lora Mae Scott died or whether she had married before she died.

The final mystery is who the parents are of the Duckworth grandchildren living with Harve and Doll on the 1910 and 1920 censuses, as well as an adopted Duckworth daughter shown with them on the 1930 census:

Claud/Cloyd and Roy Duckworth, grandsons, both age 9, are living with the family on the 1910 census.

Claud, grandson, age 19, and Jessie, granddaughter, age 15, are living with the family on the 1920 census.

Lora, adopted daughter, age 9, is shown with the family on the 1930 census.

Might Claud, Roy, and Jessie be children of Lora Mae Scott (they would have been the right ages – born between 1901 and 1905 – to have been her children)? And perhaps Lora was the daughter of Claud or Roy?

I would love to share information with anyone related to/researching this family; you can contact me at my e-mail address, which can be found by going to my profile page (there is a link to that page in the About Me section to the left).

[Many thanks to Debbie Blanton McCoy for corrections in some of the locations associated with this family - some much appreciated assistance from a very kind fellow Texan!]

Friday, July 30, 2010

Follow Friday: Genealogy’s Star

I was not going to do a featured blog this week. That is, until I found out that I was featuring more or less every single post by James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star over the course of the busy and productive preceding week:

(1) He provides a useful list of online genealogy education materials and courses in “No excuse for not learning how to do genealogy.”

(2) He has introduced a virally popular expression for the lazy, sloppy genealogy habits that take the place of learning how to actually do genealogy in “The genealogy video game” (and expands on it using the expression introduced in a comment by Karen at Genealogy Frame of Mind in “Click and Claim – the genealogy video game”).

(3) He warns us to “Think twice about CDs and DVDs as storage medium.”

(4) He asks “Are there limits to genealogical research?” This was inspired by the common claim to have one’s genealogy “back to Adam.” This post includes some interesting points on recognizing limits and allocating our research efforts wisely.

And this is just a representative sample of what Genealogy's Star has to offer; Tanner posts a comparable volume of highly informative “must read” material week after week on the top issues of concern to genealogists and family historians.

This week

Lynn Palermo of The Armchair Genealogist sounds off on on Public Member Trees this week in "Monday Madness: Is There Chaos Online?" and "Tuesday's Tip - Online Family Trees, Public vs. Private" (an outstanding outline of the pros and cons).

Also on the subject of public vs. private trees is Julie Cahill Tarr’s article “The Online Family Tree Conundrum & A Lesson in Genealogy Research: A Two-for-One Special” at GenBlog.

My solution? For the lines on three of my grandparents, I am doing Public Trees. I will include some of the original research I have done on these trees and will include as many sources as I can. For my paternal grandfather’s line, however, I will do a private tree; this is the line where I have done a lot of original research. And I’m not being stingy with this information – it’s all over this blog, for one place, and quite a bit is on messages boards, for another.

Read about the chaotic start of Astrid’s trip to Spain and Norway in “Genealogy Trip – Day 1 and 2” and about the next leg of the trip in "Genealogy Trip - Day 3 and 4" at Of Trolls and Lemons.

The latest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings was about “your ideal genealogy trip.” Well, for a lot of people it would be to Hawaii. Oh, wait, you don’t have any ancestors in Hawaii. That’s OK, at least you can do it vicariously: Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy wrote about her “Genealogy Trip to Hawaii, Day One.” There is also "Genealogy Trip to Hawaii, Day Two" and "Genealogy Trip to Hawaii - Day Three." And, oh yes, Happy Blogoversary, Heather!

At Clue Wagon, it’s coincidence time when Kerry relates “How I Found An Ancestor On eBay.”

At Photo Sleuth, Brett Payne has written about “walking photos,” in particular, pinpointing the locations featured in those photos, in “Spotlight Photos Ltd. – ‘Walking Pictures’ in Derby.”

At Moultrie Creek Gazette, Denise Olson describes how to “Establish Provenance with Metadata.”

LindaRe’s post “Allie’s Education – Getting the Shipskin” at Between the Gate Posts is a touching portrait of an inspiring woman and the story of how she overcame obstacles to get an education is good medicine for one of those days when we might be tempted to feel sorry for ourselves.

Kim at Ancestors of mine from Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky & Beyond gives us some insight on how her research process is organized, including for trips to repositories, in “Organizing My World – Part III” (I took notes on stuff to bring on one of those trips).

Happy Second Blogoversary to Julie at GenBlog!

This week I started following Calling All Cousins.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: On the way to Vermont...



I took this picture for my daughter. She knows why.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Surname Saturday: James Edward Brinlee and Ida Rosalee Brock

James Edward Brinlee
b. 3 Apr 1864, Collin County, Texas
d. 11 Feb 1908, Pauls Valley, OK
& Ida Rosalee Brock
b. 2 Jul 1871, Georgia
d. 27 Dec 1940, Aubrey, Denton, Texas
m. 26 Aug 1901
|--Ira Mae Brinlee
|----b. 4 May 1902, Texas
|---& Marshall Smith
|----b. Alabama
|--Audry Lawton Brinlee
|----b. 18 May 1904
|---& Viola Dora Matlock
|--Jimmie Gladys Brinlee
|----b. 15 Dec 1907, Van Alstyne, Texas
|----d. 30 Nov 1999, Lamar County, Texas
|---& Tonie Melvin Moore
|----d. 18 May 1976
|----m. 7 Jun 1924, Denton, Texas

This is the family of James Edward Brinlee (my paternal grandfather’s oldest brother) and his second wife, Ida Rosalee Brock. Ida’s first husband was George Washington McClerry; their children were Luther Pinkny McClerry, James Walter Lee McClerry, and Mattie L. McClerry. I would especially like to know more about Audry Brinlee’s wife Viola Dora Matlock, since I am related to a Matlock family that ended up in Texas.

I would love to share information with anyone related to/researching this family; you can contact me at my e-mail address, which can be found by going to my profile page (there is a link to that page in the About Me section to the left).

Friday, July 23, 2010

Follow Friday: 23 July 2010

This Week

At Find My Ancestor, A. C. Ivory is starting a series on the “Family History Library: Getting Started,” a guide to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for newbies.

A must-read: “1851 Dilemma, Are Your Dresses Draggley or Turkish?” at Carol’s Reflections from the Fence.

In “Not So Long Ago or Far Away: Six Degrees to Slavery,” Nolichucky Roots examines her own connections to slavery and the impact it has had on her life; the original inspiration for this came from Finding Josephine, where Dionne wrote about discovering relationships between the slave owners of her ancestors in “Treasure Chest Thursday: Six Degrees of Slave Owner Separation.”

“Archaeology on the cheap,” “dumpster diving,” “junking,” or, as Tipper at The Blind Pig and the Acorn calls it, “Treasure Hunting for Old Bottles” – a fun way to explore the past.

At a3 Genealogy, Kathleen Brandt provides some great pointers on how to prepare for a research trip by checking out various state and local research resources in “Research in Mississippi?”

At FamHist Lee Drew reminds us that we should always look for ways to back up the information provided on death certificates in “Faulty Memories and Death Certificates.”

Another thought-provoking post from Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations – A Genealogical Blog: “Quantum Genealogy” – dealing with the probabilistic, with winding paths, with how increased knowledge of a past life makes in more difficult to reconcile new knowledge that does not fit our expectations. And how do we change already lived lives with our examination of them? Fascinating questions.

At TransylvanianDutch, John Newmark has some good advice on how to make sure your genealogy notes and photo labels are not confusing or ambiguous in “Don’t use shorthand, abbr., or otherwise leave out” (I am so often guilty of doing just that!).

Lots of helpful information on turning blogs into books and “herding photos” this week:

At I Will Remember, Kathy shows how she turned the first six months’ worth of posts on her blog into a book in “Treasure Chest Thursday – A Blog Book” (Blurb was also the subject of an article by Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy; her book is shown at the right side of her blog).

At Before My Time, T.K. writes about her progress on her Blurb book project in “Blurb Blurb.”

And at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog, Lorine McGinnis Schulze writes about “How to Create a Photo Collage in Picasa.”

I’m inspired by all these posts to get going on book and photo projects!

Around the Genea-Blogosphere

Happy Second Blogoversary to Elyse at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog!

Happy Blogoversary to The Genealogy Gals! (And check out the “Blogiversary” post to read about genealogists’ special take on certain words.)

For more suggested genealogy blog reading, check out John Newmark’s “Weekly Genealogy Picks” at TransylvanianDutch and Randy Seaver’s Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings.

This week I started following these blogs:

Between the Gate Posts (love the inspiration for the blog name)

Genealogical Research – past, present, future…

Layers of the Onion – A Family History Exploration

Search For Agnes (search4agnes)

The Generations Project Blog

I would like to echo a request made by Carol at Reflections from the Fence for prayers for members of our GeneaBlogging community and their families, particularly Gini at Ginisology, whose mother is gravely ill, for the recovery of Linda's (Flipside) son Aric, and for recovery and good health for footnoteMaven.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Whirlwind Family Connections: My Big Fat Genealogy Adventure

Making new family connections through family research means adding on relationships. Some of these relationships are more casual, and may just involve exchanging pleasantries and a bit of information, perhaps even a few pictures. Some ripen into long-term research collaboration and even friendship. And of those, a select few may shake us into reevaluating our research and rethinking our approaches.

For a while I had been the only person I knew of who was actively researching my great-great-great grandfather from my mother’s paternal line, Samuel Moore (d. 1828) of Greenville, South Carolina. There were other Moore family researchers who were interested, but online resources seemed to be exhausted, and none of us had the time to do the onsite or repository research that was necessary to advance our knowledge of Samuel Moore.

I had plans to do so eventually, but real life kept intruding, and it seemed that it would be years before I could take my dream research trip to Greenville.

That all changed a month or so ago.

The connection came not through my blog nor through a genealogy discussion board nor through Ancestry with its various ways to connect with other researchers.

It was just a modest little “connection” note through Footnote.

Someone else was descended from Samuel Moore. Wha….? I had encountered other researchers who knew that they were descended from one of Samuel Moore’s descendants, but not anyone who knew that they were descended from Samuel Moore himself, who I believed to be known only to me and the circle of researchers with whom I am in contact.

Perhaps it was a mistake. There were at least three other Samuel Moores present in Greenville at various times in the early part of the nineteenth century. It would be easy to confuse them. There had been a couple of other researchers previously who had mistaken one of these guys for my Samuel Moore.

The researcher’s name was Paula. I wrote a reply saying I would be happy to figure out how her line fit in if she would tell me about her Moore line.

Paula wrote back. She knew exactly how her line fit in. She is descended from Samuel’s son Manson Moore. The name brought a shock of recognition, but it was not a name I had yet entered as a son of Samuel Moore. Most of my knowledge of Samuel Moore was based on his will, which mentioned my great-great grandfather Spencer and his sisters Elizabeth and Susannah … and some other guy. I knew that Spencer had a brother named Bud Mathis Moore – that was how I found Samuel in the first place – and at first I thought it might be referring to him. But the name looked a little more like Manson or Maryon. However, the probate materials mentioned a B. M. Moore, so I just shrugged my shoulders and assumed the clerk had made a hash of the name Mathis.

Ah, the probate materials. They had another copy of the will – I checked, and the name Manson was much clearer on that copy. Meanwhile, Paula had written back with some additional information – she had a land document of Manson Moore’s from Georgia witnessed by a B. M. Moore (Bud Mathis lived in Georgia for several years) and a military document wherein Freeman Manson Moore listed Greenville as his home town. Whoa – three data points – triangulation.

I had to rearrange my thinking on the Samuel Moore family. Another brother. Remembering the “extra males and females” (= enough to be more than the two sons and two daughters I knew to be Samuel’s children) on the 1800 through 1820 censuses, I realized that Samuel had probably already settled land and goods on his older children (Bud and probably others) and in the will was most likely taking care of only his younger children. The John Moore who administered Samuel’s estate was possibly a son, as was the Andrew Moore shown living near Freeman Manson Moore on early Henry County, Georgia censuses.

But even more interesting than the reversal of my view of Samuel Moore’s family was what transpired in the course of a few e-mail exchanges between Paula and me.

By about the third or fourth exchange, we were planning a research trip to Greenville. The sooner, the better. Due to various commitments on both sides, we settled on early fall. So, unless something happens to drain our finances or make a stronger claim on our time, it’s a go. And we’re each taking a family member or two. Power in numbers! This Big Adventure will take a lot of planning, but we’re stoked!

This was probably the kick in the pants I needed to send me off to Greenville.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Surname Saturday: James Edward Brinlee and Mary Ann Sims


James Edward Brinlee
b. 3 Apr 1864, Collin County, Texas
d. 11 Feb 1908, Pauls Valley, OK
& Mary Ann Sims
b. 19 Aug 1863, Collin County, Texas
d. aft 11 Mar 1900
m. 21 Oct 1884, McKinney, Collin County, Texas
|--Alfred Elonso Brinlee
|----b. 22 Nov 1886, Grayson Co., TX
|----d. 22 Nov 1886, Grayson Co., TX
|--Cela Brinlee
|----b. 21 Jun 1888, Texas
|----d. 26 Aug 1928, Sherman, Grayson Co., TX
|---& Thomas Ferlin Sweeney
|----b. 10 Jan 1882, Kentucky
|----d. 25 Mar 1959, Sherman, Grayson Co., TX
|----m. 27 Sep 1904, Collin County, Texas
|--Disa Caroline Brinlee
|----b. 19 Jan 1890, Pauls Valley, Garvin Co., OK
|----d. 11 Jan 1961, Waco, McLennan, TX
|---& Ross Dolphus White
|----b. 6 May 1882, Rome, Georgia
|----d. 30 Mar 1952, Collin County, Texas
|----m. 1910
|--Clarence Edward Brinlee
|----b. 10 Apr 1892, Sherman, Grayson Co., TX
|----d. 22 Feb 1980, Holdenville, Hughs, OK
|---& Ethel Lena Bennett
|----b. 11 Oct 1886, Brightstar, Miller, Arkansas
|----d. 28 Feb 1985, Holdenville, Hughes, Oklahoma
|----m. 19 Jan 1911, Holdenville, Hughes Co., OK
|--Hiram Carroll Brinlee III*
|----b. 1 Aug 1894, Holdenville, OK
|----d. 25 May 1972, Holdenville, OK
|---& Mary Ethel Russell
|----b. 28 Mar 1904
|----d. 23 Jul 1960
|--Hiram Carroll Brinlee III*
|----b. 1 Aug 1894, Holdenville, OK
|----d. 25 May 1972, Holdenville, OK
|---& Pearl Allstate Spear
|--Lena Patricia Beatrice Brinlee
|----b. 8 Sep 1897, Indian Territory, Oklahoma
|----d. 5 Nov 1989, Kimberling City, Stone Co., Missouri
|---& Isaac Newton Barber
|----b. 30 Jun 1892, Texas
|----d. Feb 1981, Ft. Worth, Tarrant, Texas
|----m. 1921
|--Menard Cecil Brinlee
|----b. 11 Mar 1900, Pauls Valley, Garvin Co., OK
|----d. 20 Sep 1901, Pauls Valley, Garvin Co., OK

James Edward Brinlee was the oldest son of Hiram Carroll Brinlee, Jr. and Disa Caroline Boone. Mary Ann Sims was the daughter of Robert Brown Sims and Margaret Leek Brinlee. Margaret was the older sister of Hiram Brinlee, Jr., so James Edward and Mary were first cousins.

I would love to share information with anyone related to/researching this family; you can contact me at my e-mail address, which can be found by going to my profile page (there is a link to that page in the About Me section to the left).

(Photo courtesy of several cousins who have been kind enough to send it to me.)

Friday, July 16, 2010

Follow Friday: GeneaBlogie

GeneaBlogie, authored by Craig Manson, was one of my first genealogy blog discoveries and it is still one of my absolute favorites. Craig’s latest project is the “Grand Genealogy Journey” – a little bit like his original “Big Train Trip” series, but this time a “virtual genealogical dream trip” which details both the sights he would see and the (research) sites he would visit. Craig knows a lot about these places and has done the research; the advice on how to prepare for the research part and what things to see is first-rate.

GeneaBlogie includes genealogy news, reports on Craig’s own family research, thought pieces and personal observations, and articles on a number of different genealogy-related subjects. His education and professional background are amazingly broad and deep, and it shows in his command of the subjects he covers and superb writing. Both on GeneaBlogie and as a guest columnist on Shades of the Departed, he has written on many of the legal issues that come up in the genealogical community. On of these articles covered a subject that always inspires discussion (and controversy) among genealogists: “The Discussion about Standards, Certification, Maturity, etc.: Useful or Divisive? Elitist Envy or Intellectual Inevitability?”

One of my big regrets is that Craig used to live in my neck of the woods, but now lives out on the other side of the country from me (in my old home state!), but I still have hopes that we’ll meet at a genealogy convention some day. Meanwhile, I’m with him in spirit on that great train trip….



This Week

Lots of lists this week – the What I Do meme from GeneaBloggers is still going strong, Randy Seaver’s SNGF assignment is to list our top genealogy sites (actually, to rank a list of sites provided in an NEHGS poll), and Elyse at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog has “10 Things I Can’t Live Without.”

Happy First Blogoversary to Renate at Into the Light. Renate has written a very thoughtful post on how blogging has helped her to grow as a writer and researcher but also brought some pain. I know I join many other readers of her blog in wishing her all the best and hoping fervently that she will return to blogging soon.

In “Four Tried and True Systems for Organizing Genealogy Research,” Denise Levenick of The Family Curator describes and provides links to four systems for taming the disorganized genealogy beasts and includes “Ten Tips for Organizing Genealogy Research” for good measure.

At Ernie’s Journeys, Ernie Margheim writes about his return to one of his favorite hobbies after a couple of years of overcoming some health problems in “Back to My Passion of Gardening.” I know that the subject is not genealogy, strictly speaking, but for those of us who have been following Ernie’s latest “journey,” this is welcome news and there are lots of pretty pictures!

Carol at Reflections from the Fence gives the real scoop on how much work goes into volunteer projects such as county cemetery books in “The Queens of Do-Overs!”

Nolichucky Roots addresses one of the biggest worries of genealogists, preserving our research, in “Madness Monday: If I Die….” The topic is continued over at Documenting the Details in “Preserving Your Research for Posterity.”

In “The Holy Grail: New Genealogists,” Marian Pierre-Louis at Roots and Rambles provides pointers on how genealogy-related organizations can attract new people to genealogy.

In “Timelines,” The Ancestral Archaeologist (Liz Haigney Lynch) writes about the stretching out of generations that often runs counter to our expectations concerning time between generations.

Read a heartwarming story in “We Did It! Reuniting a MIA soldier’s dog tags with family” at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. It is especially fascinating to see the various elements of the story come into play: the gentleman in Germany who purchased the tags, the relatives in this country and what they knew about the soldier, and how everything came together.



Around the Genea-Blogosphere:

Sincerest condolences to Kathleen of Tracing Descendants on the loss of her grandmother.

Happy First Blogoversary to Leslie Ann at Lost Family Treasures!

Happy Blogoversary to Jenna at Desperately Seeking Surnames!



This week I started following these blogs:

Family Epic (and added it to the Texas Team)

Leaf, Stem, Branch, and Root (and added it to the Texas Team)

Passage to the Past’s Blog

The Jones Genealogist

Monday, July 12, 2010

What I Do

Well, I have a Mac (two, actually, but one of them is a 4th hand-me-down laptop that does not even stay closed unless I put heavy books on top of it and is missing the “B” key and has a sticky backslash key) and use Reunion. And beyond that, I cannot tell you intelligently what I do have. It is not nearly adequate to my genealogy needs, but I barely have enough time to do research, let alone think about and plan technology purchases; that is what my husband is for. The regular stuff on our computers is pretty good, I think, but to list all of it would require that I ask my husband what we have, and that just aggravates him. I do know that I have lots of sticks in pretty colors and an extra box that I back stuff up onto and a printer-scanner-copier (only the printer part no longer works with my computer because my husband updated the operating system on my computer and we can no longer get the driver that makes the printer work with my computer).

The other thing that I know is that I now have enough places to plug all these different little doohickeys and other assorted electronic stuff into, thanks to the two little guys below:





(Thanks to Thomas MacEntee at GeneaBloggers for passing on this meme. Sorry that I fail so dreadfully at it….)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Surname Saturday: Elijah Norman and Margaret Agnes Kinsey

Elijah “Lige” Norman
b. 11 Jan 1874, Alabama
d. 15 Feb 1953
& Margaret Agnes Kinsey
b. 26 Jan 1874
d. 28 Sep 1918
m. 18 Oct 1894
|--Walter Denton Norman
|----b. 7 Dec 1895, Meyers, Garland, Arkansas
|----d. 4 Mar 1968
|---& Viola Irene Buck
|----b. 2 Dec 1904
|----d. Sep 1987, Crossett, Ashley, Arkansas
|----m. 4 Jul 1923
|--Joseph Ellis Norman
|----b. 7 May 1898, Arkansas
|----d. 2 Oct 1979
|---& Ida Mae Johnson
|----b. 29 Jan 1904
|----d. 4 Jul 1990
|----m. 29 Jan 1920, Garland County, Arkansas
|--Mary Susan Norman
|----b. 18 Feb 1901, Meyers Creek, Garland Co., Arkansas
|----d. 13 Jan 1980, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
|---& Gilford Elijah Powell
|----b. 20 Dec 1899, Montgomery Co., Arkansas
|----d. 4 Nov 1992, Richardson, Dallas Co., Texas
|----m. 3 Jul 1918
|--Elvia Prudence Norman
|----b. 15 May 1903, Meyer Comm, Garland Co., Arkansas
|----d. 8 Oct 2002, Mount Ida, Montgomery, Arkansas
|---& Isaac Lester Standridge
|----b. 8 Oct 1893, Arkansas
|----d. 17 Dec 1981
|----m. 2 Jul 1921, Montgomery Co., Arkansas,
|--Manuel Alexander Norman
|----b. 17 Jun 1905, West of Hot Springs, Garland Co., Arkansas
|----d. 30 Jul 1985, Norman, Montgomery, Arkansas
|---& Lydia Fryar
|----b. 17 Jun 1906, Arkansas
|----d. Oct 1983
|----m. 24 Dec 1925, Montgomery Co., Arkansas
|--Nancy Olive Norman
|----b. 8 Dec 1907, Arkansas
|----d. 15 Mar 1968
|---& William Elmer Milholen
|----b. 4 Sep 1904, Arkansas
|----d. 2 Mar 1961

This is the family of Elijah “Lige” Norman (son of Joseph Madison Carroll Norman and Mary Patterson) and his first wife, Margaret Agnes Kinsey (daughter of Jessie Sanford Kinsey and Susan Emeline Wacaster). Margaret’s sister Lillie Catherine Kinsey was the second wife of Lige’s brother Newton Leonard Norman, and two of the children of her sister Prudence married into the Norman family: Simon Peter Tallent married Josephine Rebecca “Josie” Cannon, a daughter of Susan A. “Sudie” Norman, and Caldonia Emeline “Callie” Tallent married Lige’s half-brother Jessie “Judge Spivey” Norman.

I would love to share information with anyone related to/researching this family; you can contact me at my e-mail address, which can be found by going to my profile page (there is a link to that page in the About Me section to the left).

Friday, July 9, 2010

Follow Friday: Personal Past Meditations – A Genealogical Blog

One of the posts I’d like to feature this week happens to have appeared on the blog that I am featuring this week, Personal Past Meditations – a Genealogical Blog, by Daniel Hubbard, so I’ll start with that post: “Independence Data.” (Many of the post titles on Hubbard’s blog involve some sort of play on, or slight distortion of a familiar term or phrase, and this one is no exception.) This is a subject that we genealogists – who in an ideal world make supporting evidence a major focus of our research – should pay very close attention to. I know that I have made the mistake/oversight addressed here, and I imagine quite a few others have as well. While I try not to steal too much of other bloggers’ thunder by quoting too much from their posts, I’ll have to say that there is a lot of quotable material here. However, let me provide just two key statements: “As soon as one bit of information is derived from another they are not independent” and “Mistakes often gain the power to convince by being repeated.” Hubbard uses the 1900 census to illustrate his point.

Much of what genealogists and family historians seek in their research is context and perspective, and this is precisely what is explored in depth at Personal Past Meditations. Moreover, the “perspective” Hubbard provides is often slightly skewed, compelling us to take a fresh look at what we are doing. It is both easy and difficult to name favorite posts – just take any at random, but then too many good ones are left out; however, a couple of recent “super-favorites” are “A Genealogist in Mathmagic Land” (Part 1 and Part 2) and “A Brief History of Oops.”

If you are serious about genealogy, Personal Past Meditations is a must-read.

This Week

Excellent advice from Ruby Coleman on attending genealogy conferences at the You Go Genealogy Girls in “The Conference Experience.”

You Go Genealogy Girl #2, Cheri Hopkins, muses about sparking an interest in genealogy among family members in “Involving Family” at The You Go Genealogy Girls. Sounds like she’s having some success!

In “Madness Monday: ADDing Roots,” Nolichucky Roots describes tracing signs of ADD in relatives through report cards. I have heard of using genealogy to trace inherited diseases, but this is an interesting new twist!

James Tanner аt Genealogy’s Star gives us “A Tour of the FamilySearch Beta.” I really need this – have been chasing the databases from site to site and not sure exactly how things are divided up… (And Randy Seaver brings up another source of confusion - "Is the IGI on the FamilySearch Beta Site?" at Genea-Musings.)

Read the scoop about turning pro in Sheri Fenley’s post, “Perhaps I Can Join the Circus In My Next Life,” at The Educated Genealogist.

Ian Hadden at Ian Hadden’s Family History goes into the specifics of “2011 Census of Canada Gone Wrong.”

At GeneaBloggers, Thomas MacEntee has introduced the “What I Do” meme (what technology we use for our profession and/or hobbies and how we use it) with a genealogy twist and it is making the rounds. (Too embarrassing for this blogger to show how “un-with-it” she is. But I’m working on it – I’m taking notes from other bloggers’ posts, especially those who use Macs.)

Really disturbing news and efforts that are being made to save the situation are detailed in "Cutbacks at the Dallas Public Library" at Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.

Happy 2nd Blogoversary to Amy Coffin at We Tree!

Happy third Blogoversary to Denise Levenick at The Family Curator!

This week I started following these blogs:

Discovering Family Roots

Genealogy Leftovers

Mary Ann’s Menagerie

Spirits of the Old

Turn the Hearts

Who Am I …

Will’s Genealogy Blog

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Wordy Wednesday: Favorite Places, Favorite Music



The Opera Company of Philadelphia at Reading Terminal Market: "Flash Brindisi."

Monday, July 5, 2010

Memory Monday: Iced Tea



“Got any tea?” This was often a greeting, or at least a response to a greeting, in my home town of Seymour, Texas. You knocked on your relative’s/neighbor’s/friend’s door, they answered “Why, hello! Come on in!” and you asked “Got any tea?” Only it was pronounced more like “Gotneetea?”

This was the South, so we are not referring to hot tea, but iced tea (“ice tea”), the nectar of the South. And it was always sweet. However, contrary to the belief of many Northerners – who may only have experienced presweetened tea in chain restaurants or out of bottles – homemade iced tea is not icky sweet. To avoid “icky sweet” tea in restaurants, my husband the New Yorker and I always order our iced tea unsweetened and then add sugar, but it does not quite get the same effect.

Homemade iced tea had its own little ritual of preparation, and I was surprised when I later learned about Russian tea customs to see that there were actually some points of similarity – well, at least in the preparation. Two separated ingredients are prepared and then combined – the sweet water and the concentrated tea.

The sweet water does not start out cold, because the sugar will not dissolve as well as it does in hot water. Usually very hot water from the tap will be sufficient not to leave any undissolved sugar at the bottom, but you do have to stir for a good while. Ideally the proper combination of sugar and hot water is learned over time in the course of trial and error – it will result in tea that is exactly “sweet enough.” We had a clear glass pitcher and an extra large spoon that were reserved solely for making iced tea.

Next comes preparation of the tea concentrate – and this is the part that is like the Russian zavarka. This is an area where most Southerners are not purists when it comes to bag vs. loose tea leaves and a strainer – you can use either. The main thing is to make sure that the tea concentrate is very strong, because you can always add water if it is too strong, but weak tea is, well … pointless.

I remember that Mom and I had a mangy little pot that we used to boil our tea in. It was made of something more sturdy than aluminum, but it was old, small, dark from repeated use, and kind of banged up. But we knew exactly the right amount of water to put in it, so we never used anything else.

While the tea was heating up, we would toss a few ice cubes (not many) into the sugar water to lower the temperature a bit. The tea concentrate was then added and stirred, and a few more ice cubes were added to bring the temperature down again. The result was not iced tea – that’s what the ice cubes in the glass were for – but the temperature would be something approaching lukewarm, and that could be moved to the refrigerator without disaster or poured over ice cubes without melting them to the point of weakening the tea too much.

This was the drink over which socializing was done. By socializing I mean talking, and by talking I mean mostly gossiping. This was a small town, after all. If someone came over to visit, the TV and radio were turned off. It was a social convention that I never questioned. Visitors received our full attention, even if they were relatives whom we saw several times a week. And besides, full attention has a way of bringing out the juiciest morsels of information from the speaker.

In the course of a visit, one guest, Mom, and I could polish off a full pitcher of tea and make a significant dent in a second one. Our corner of Texas is very dry and large infusions of liquid are always a good idea.

I miss those leisurely Texas social customs. Visiting wasn’t something that was crowded in between work and “activities” – it was the main entertainment and activity outside of work. And to me, “Got any tea?” will always mean “Let’s talk!”

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Surname Saturday: Newton Leonard Norman and Lillie Catherine Kinsey

Newton Leonard Norman
b. 15 Jan 1871, Alabama
d. 4 Jan 1959
& Lillie Catherine Kinsey
b. 22 Jun 1882, Arkansas
d. 20 Mar 1915, Arkansas
|--Carriel Sanford Norman
|----b. 8 Aug 1903
|----d. 14 Apr 1904
|--Dallas Edgar Norman
|----b. 11 May 1905, Arkansas
|----d. 2 Mar 1968, Hot Springs National Park, Garland, Arkansas
|---& Jewell Faye Dodson
|----b. 28 Mar 1913, Arkansas
|----d. 8 Apr 1997, Hot Springs National Park, Garland, Arkansas
|----m. 10 Jun 1929, Garland County, Arkansas
|--Joseph Seymour Norman*
|----b. 29 Dec 1907, Arkansas
|----d. 28 Aug 1994, Dallas, Dallas, Texas
|--& Estella Mable Vandevier
|----b. ca 1911
|----m. 6 Oct 1934, Garland Co., Arkansas
|--Joseph Seymour Norman*
|----b. 29 Dec 1907, Arkansas
|----d. 28 Aug 1994, Dallas, Dallas, Texas
|---& Mildred Inez Foster
|--Rellis Gradie Norman
|----b. 10 May 1910, Arkansas
|----d. 1 Dec 1961, Irving, Texas
|---& Susie Anna Ritchie
|--Horace Fay Norman*
|----b. 23 Oct 1912
|----d. Jan 1987, Lorenzo, Crosby, Texas
|---& Cora Gertrude Keen
|----b. ca 1916
|--Horace Fay Norman*
|----b. 23 Oct 1912
|----d. Jan 1987, Lorenzo, Crosby, Texas
|---& Emma L.
|----b. ca 1907
|--Jessie Lessel Norman
|----b. 8 Apr 1914
|----d. 6 May 1915, Arkansas

This is the family of Newton Leonard Norman, son of Joseph Madison Carroll Norman and Mary Patterson (and half-brother of my great-grandfather William Henry "Jack" Norman) and his second wife, Lillie Catherine Kinsey, the daughter of Jessie Sanford Kinsey and Susan Emeline Wacaster.

I would love to share information with anyone related to/researching this family; you can contact me at my e-mail address, which can be found by going to my profile page (there is a link to that page in the About Me section to the left).

Friday, July 2, 2010

Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 2 July 2010

Research

I’ve been extremely busy with both work and research this week, so blogging has taken a back seat. Lots of stuff happening on the Moore and Brinlee lines, plus I have to do some research before FGS in August and a planned research trip to Greenville, SC in September.

Moore

Contacted by yet another Moore this week – through comments on my blog. One problem is that there was no way to contact her back (her profile included no e-mail, and she has started a blog, but it has no posts, so I cannot comment on it). The solution was found when I looked in my Moore family tree on Reunion and found her – I had made a note that she has a Public Member Tree on Ancestry, so I went to the tree and contacted her through Ancestry.

Spoke to the cousin who is descended from the “new Moore brother” – aka Cousin Paula – and I think that I will start advertising that family and see whether we can dig up more descendants from that line. We are starting very gradually to plan our research trip to Greenville.

Brinlee

Have been working with another Brinlee cousin to find descendants of Benjamin F. Brindley of Putnam County, Tennessee. We do not know whether or not he is related to the Brinley family in Tennessee with whom we are connected as indicated by DNA results, but it is possible and we would like to use DNA to find out one way or the other. If you are a descendant of this Benjamin F. Brindley and are reading this – you can get a DNA test and there is someone who will pay for it, so please contact me!

Follow Friday: 2 July 2010

Another "abbreviated" Follow Friday due to a heavy work and research week.

We have another poet in our midst! Leah Kleylein at Random Notes has written a poem – an illustrated poem, no less! – on her frustration at waiting for death certificates from the NY DOH (did you read that they way I initially did?): "And now, let's see what's happening in 'Poetry Corner.'" Click on the illustration to enlarge it and get a good view of the captions. Familiar emotions….

Cindy has a really perplexing mystery at Everything’s Relative – Why was her father placed in foster care (in Frederick County, Maryland) for several years? Several suggestions on places to check have already been provided; anyone else who might have dealt with a question like this have any ideas? “Madness Monday: My Foster Care Frustration – Can Anyone Help?”

Alarming news about the future form and availability of the Canadian census is covered by M. Diane Rogers at Canada Genealogy, or, ‘Jane’s Your Aunt’ in “Are Canada’s Future Historical Censuses in Jeopardy?”

The eternal question – what do we do with tons of photographs – is posed by Lorine McGinnis Schulze at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog in “Floundering in a Sea of Photographs” and some excellent suggestions are provided in the comments.

California researchers: Check out the list of "California Oral Histories" at Rainy Day Genealogy Readings.

Check out Lisa Alzo's accounts and photos of her trip to Slovakia at The Accidental Genealogist. And Happy Blogoversary, Lisa!

Happy 3rd Blogoversary to Valerie Craft of Begin with Craft!

Happy Blogoversary to Tina at Gen Wish List!

This week I started following the blog Genealogy.