From the Will to the Estate Packet - Part 4: "Should He Be Living"

In the next document that appeared on the screen, Preston Moore granted power of attorney to Commodore W. Moore.

Preston had been found. He was living in Izard County, Arkansas.

I kept cranking, through settlement papers and Commodore Moore’s Petition for Final Settlement, Discharge, Etc. (that's the actual name of the document).  The amounts ultimately paid out to the heirs were not large. Legal fees, of course, ate up much of the proceeds. The date was March 7, 1878, more than six years after the death of William Spencer Moore. Bleak Farm.

There was one last, small section. The section heading paper simply said: “Margaret A. Moore.” Who was she? The document, dated 17 October 1878, was Margaret A. Moore's application for guardianship over the estate of minors William B. Moore, Charles K. Moore, “in the sum of Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars, with W. H. Lewis, H. P. Moore, J. S. Lewis, J. B. McCurdy and R. S. Guy as sureties.”

She was the widow of Preston E. Moore, and these were his children. Apparently in the course of the years it took to settle the estate, Preston E. Moore had died.

One last page – Taxation of Cost – and words I never thought I would be glad to see at the end of the microfilm strip: “End of This Estate Packet.” There were 90 pages of documents in all, not counting all the extra printouts that had to be made in order to capture some of the larger pages.

I spent another full day on Wednesday doing research, and on Wednesday night read through the estate packet; we were to leave Greenville the next morning. The document on delivery of the mortgage indicated that it was “recorded in office of Register Mesne Conveyance of Anderson County, December 10th 1874 in Book No. 4 Page 634:635.” There should be a record of this in the land documents! To my husband: “Um, dear, one last short trip to the library.”

At 9:00 sharp the next morning I ran up to the Hughes Library's South Carolina Room, pulled the microfilm with the land document index, and began to scroll. It wasn’t indexed. Then I pulled the roll that covered the date. The paging was different, so I went by date; just when I thought it would take all day, there it was: the last document, ceding the property. I printed it out and added it to the fat folder containing the William Spencer Moore estate packet.

Parties in this case:

Commodore Worth Moore – Born 17 February 1848. He graduated from Lutheran College, Walhalla (later Newberry), South Carolina (I believe he was the only one of the siblings to attend college) and was a teacher, merchant and farmer. According to his obituary, he was also connected with Alabama Polytechnic Institute, which later became Auburn University. He died on 22 December 1923. His death certificate contains an interesting error: the name of his father is given as “Perry Moore.” A book of abstracts of newspaper articles contained this item from the June 28, 1877 issue of The Anderson Intelligencer: “Married: On Thursday the 21st inst., at the residence of Col. T. J. Roberts, the bride’s father, by Rev. W. H. Strickland, Mr. C. W. Moore and Miss Nora Roberts, all of Anderson County.”

Harlston Perrin Moore – Born 4 December 1845. During the Civil War he served in the Second Battalion, South Carolina Senior Reserves. He married Martha E. Lewis, whose brothers W. H. Lewis and J. S. Lewis signed together with H. P. Moore “as sureties” for Margaret A. Moore. He was a farmer. He moved to Texas in 1877 with his wife, children, and his wife’s siblings. He never again owned land – in Texas he was a tenant farmer, and based on testimony in his Confederate Soldier’s Application for a Pension and family memories, the family was quite poor. He died 12 December 1921.

William Brewster Moore – He was born 9 May 1851. During his life he was a farmer and also worked in a cotton mill. The book of newspaper abstracts contained this Anderson Intelligencer article from around the time of the final settlement of the estate: “Obituary, Thursday, August 22, 1878: We regret to announce the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Moore, wife of Mr. Bruce Moore of Hopewell Township, which occurred on last Sunday after an illness of several weeks from fever. Her remains were interred at Hopewell on Monday in the presence of many friends and relatives who mourn the departed one.” This confirmed something I had suspected, that Bruce Moore had been married before his marriage to Mary Elizabeth Shirley. William Brewster “Bruce” Moore died on 27 July 1924.

Anna Jerusha Moore – Born on 12 January 1854. She married William Riley Cartee and they had seven children. She died on 17 September 1889.

Preston E. Moore – He was born in 1843. He served in the Second South Carolina Rifles and later the 37th Virginia Cavalry in the Civil War and suffered from illness during both terms of service. At the time of William Spencer Moore’s first will (25 July 1865) he had not returned home. He must have returned at some point; the family must have learned that he was alive and have had some way of knowing that he had been in Texas.

And here is the continuation of the Preston Moore story:

I found Preston and Margaret A. Moore in the 1870 census for Izard County, Arkansas, with children William B. Moore and Ulysses Moore. (A strange name for the child of a Confederate veteran? There is another story here – the story of the Moore family’s Unionist sympathies, which were pointed out to me by another researcher who is not related to the family.) So Preston Moore was not even a “reverse orphan.”

The census indicates that Margaret and her parents were from South Carolina. It also shows that Preston was a schoolteacher; it seems the Moore boys were evenly divided into farmers and teachers. By 1880, Margaret was a widow living with her three sons (William, Charles, and Edgar) in Dallas, Texas. By 1900, she is living with Edgar, and the census indicates that she had given birth to five children, of whom two were living – in addition to Ulysses, one of the other three known sons must have died by this time.

During my research in Greenville, one of the “brick walls” I had resolved was the fate of Martha E. Lewis Moore’s youngest sister, Cora, for whom I found a death notice indicating that she had died at the age of 18. That left only two of Martha’s sisters – Margaret and Lenora/Nora – with “fate unknown.” But the fate of one of them, Margaret A. Lewis, may soon be found – I believe she married Preston Moore. Not only did two Lewis brothers sign as sureties for her, but on the 1880 census she is shown living very near J. S. Lewis. I am in the process of searching for proof of this relationship.

The estate packet contains many small details about the estate and the legal proceedings; the facts that it revealed about the family were huge. Did the estate packet help me resolve any brick walls?

It has brought me closer to learning the ultimate fates of Preston Moore and Margaret A. Lewis. You might also say that my entire view of this family was a brick wall, one that I didn’t even know existed, created by my own overactive imagination and lack of facts.

And the estate packet definitely crushed that brick wall.



Sources:

Death Certificates

Commodore Worth Moore, Certificate of Death No. 19836 (1923), State of South Carolina, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State Board of Health.

Harlston Perrin Moore, Standard Certificate of Death No. 33259 (1921), Texas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.

William Bruce Moore, Certificate of Death No. 12082 (1924), State of South Carolina, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State Board of Health.

Pension Application

H. P. Moore, Soldier’s Application for a Pension, File No. 24304, filed January 25, 1913. Reproduced from the holdings of the Texas State Archives.

Extracted marriage and death information:

Early Anderson County, S.C. Newspapers, Marriages and Obituaries 1841-1882. Abstracted by Tom C. Wilkinson, Index prepared by Mrs. Colleen Morse Eliott. (Death of Elizabeth Moore – p. 238; marriage of C. W. Moore – p. 212; death of Cora Moore – p. 209)

Will and Estate Packet

Will and Estate Packet of William Spencer Moore, No. 2838, microfilm. 90 pages. Accessed at Hughes Main Library, Greenville, South Carolina.

Obituary

Obituary of C. W. Moore, The Greenville News, 24 Dec 1923, p. 3, “C. W. Moore Dies at Vaughnville.”

Census

P. E. More household, 1870 U.S. census, Izard County, Arkansas, population schedule, Rocky Bayou Township, dwelling 62, family 63; National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 55. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

Maggie A. Moore household, 1880 U.S. census, Dallas County, Texas, population schedule, Enumeration District 66, dwelling 16, family 17; National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 1299, p. 291B. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

Maggie A. Moore household, 1900 U.S. census, Dallas County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct 5, dwelling 137, family 139; National Archives microfilm publication T263, roll 1626.

e-mail message

Kim Wilson, “Re: Will of William Spencer Moore of Anderson County,” to author, 5 June 2006.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Submitted for the 98th Carnival of Genealogy, "Document Analysis," hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.

From the Will to the Estate Packet - Part 3: "176 Acres More or Less"

I remembered the words with which I had ended my series of posts on “Searching for Preston Moore”:

“That is the last I know of Preston E. Moore.

I doubt if I will ever learn his ultimate fate: when and where he actually died and is buried. Some day I hope to visit the area of the Nashville battlefield, which has not been preserved but does have a few roadside historical markers. Preston may have been buried in an unmarked grave somewhere nearby, or he may have made it partway home to South Carolina, desperately ill and fighting the bitter cold, before he died.

I think of Preston every Memorial Day and remember him often at other times.

His name will not be forgotten.”

Well, I can still say that his name will not be forgotten.

In the Affidavit of Absence of Defendant, Commodore Moore said on oath that Preston E. Moore “when last heard from resided in the state of Texas and was not settled down, and his address and his whereabouts is not known.” Texas! I remembered all the fruitless efforts my cousin Jo Ann and I had made to locate Preston in Texas.

I continued to scroll through the microfilm images: 

• The Order of Publication against Preston E. Moore, Harlston P. Moore et al (publication of the names of the parties of interest in the Anderson Intelligencer for six weeks to give the absent Preston Moore advance notice that he was a party of interest).
• The Petition of Anna J. (Moore) Cartee, who was a minor at this time, for appointment of her husband William R. Cartee as guardian ad litam and her separate answer agreeing to the need for partition. 
• The Summons in Partition for the defendants to appear at Anderson Court House on 1 November 1873 to show cause that the real estate of William S. Moore should not be partitioned.

At this point, after scrolling through and printing out more than 50 pages, I ran over to Paula and Carolyn with news of “the bombshell.” They were also amazed, both at the story and at what a windfall we were coming into.

More scrolling – as each image came up on the reader, it was as though another layer was being peeled off of my old image of the family and a new image was emerging.

The next pages to appear were the Order to Sell the Real Estate of W. S. Moore Deceased. I had always wondered why my great-grandfather Harlston Moore had left the farm in South Carolina and moved to Texas. What was the incentive? Was it that life was so hardscrabble in South Carolina? A map of Hopewell and Garvin Townships in Anderson County from 1877, the year that my great-grandparents moved to Texas, indicated that H. P. Moore owned the land:




(The name “H. P. Moore” appears just south of Twenty-Six Mile Creek, right above the “O” in Hopewell.)


Next came the Report of Sale:

“One tract of Land Containing (176) one hundred and seventy-six acres more or less which was bid off by P. H. Moore for the sum of (1480) Fourteen hundred and eighty Dollars he being at the time the highest and last bidder for the same. And upon his compliance with the terms of said sale I executed and delivered to him a deed of conveyance for the said tract of land, All of which is respectfully submitted Dec 5th 1873, Wm. McGukin, Sheriff.”

So my great-grandfather had placed the winning bid. But the next Report of Sale showed a less rosy picture:

“… and up to this time the purchaser has failed to comply with the terms of said sale, he having only paid me the sum of one hundred and fifteen Dollars, that amount not being the Cash payment on the purchase money of said tract of land according to the terms of Sale therefore the terms of Sale not having been wholly complied with, I have not executed to him any deed of Conveyance for said tract of land….”

The Order for Resale of the Real Estate of William S. Moore followed. Then the Mortgage of Real Estate, turned over by H. P. Moore to Wm. McGukin, and the document of delivery of the mortgage to the sheriff until payment of the penal sum of $2730. The date was 10 December 1874. More than three years had passed since the death of William Spencer Moore.

It was a story that had already been played out, yet it seemed to be taking place before my eyes. By this time, after squinting at and cranking and adjusting the many pages, it seemed as though the tale must be coming to its sorrowful end.

But there was more.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4

From the Will to the Estate Packet - Part 2: "Share and Share Alike"

As described in recent posts, the trip to Greenville was my first real research trip. I was excited by the opportunity to do research together with two newly discovered Moore cousins, Paula and Carolyn.

We did a good bit of planning beforehand, printing out library finding aids, indices to land deeds and probate packets, and information on other local resources. Our plan was to start by finding and copying all the documents (for known members of our Moore family and a few closely associated families) listed on the indices that were not online (Greenville has put images of many of the documents – but not nearly all – online). We also went through a number of books with Greenville and South Carolina information – church minutes, plat books, extracts of marriage and death information from newspapers, and others.

With three of us working from morning until nearly closing time (9:00 p.m.), we were able to get most of the heavy Greenville microfilm work done on the first day (of two days for Paula and Carolyn and three days for me). This was a rich haul of quite a few land documents with some surprising new Moore names and the full estate packet for William Spencer Moore’s brother Bud Mathis Moore.

By mid-morning of the second day, I realized that while Paula and Carolyn were perusing plat books and transcribing some key land documents, I could start working on Anderson County microfilms pertaining to my William Spencer Moore branch of the family.

The William Spencer Moore Estate Packet was at the end of the microfilm roll. I didn’t expect to have many pages to print out.

Wrong again.

I scrolled through the now familiar will.

Then the next page came up:

“By A. O. Norris Esquire, Probate Judge.

Whereas, Commodore Moore made suit to me, to grant him Letters of Administration with will Annexed of the Estate and effects of William Spencer Moore.

These are therefore to cite and admonish all and singular the kindred and creditors of the said William Spencer Moore deceased, that they be and appear, before me in the Court of Probate, to be held at Anderson Court House, on Monday the 21st day of October instant, after publication hereof, at 11 o’clock in the forenoon, to shew cause, if any they have, why the said Administration should not be granted.

Given under my Hand, this fifth day of October Anno Domini, 1872.

Published on the tenth day of October 1872 in the Anderson Intelligencer.

A. O. Norris, Judge of Probate.”

Commodore Worth Moore, the third son and middle child of William Spencer Moore and Emily Tarrant, was suing to be made administrator of the estate. Why wasn’t the oldest surviving child, my great-grandfather Harlston Perrin Moore, serving as administrator? Was he too busy running the farm?

This was followed by Commodore Moore’s Bond of Administration, Letter of Administration, Warrant of Appraisement, the appraisal bill of the estate by John S. Harper, Aaron Y. Shirley, and Peter R. Brown, Commodore Moore’s Oath of Administration, Petition to Sell Personalty, the Order for Sale on 8 November 1872, the Sale Bill of the Personal Property of William Spencer Moore (listing items bought, by whom bought, and selling price), and the First Return of Administrator dated 28 November 1872. All well and good; things were moving along in the matter of administering the estate.

The next page that came up on the microfilm machine took my breath away: It was an Affidavit of Plaintiff of Absence of Defendant to support a Petition to Partition. The significance of these documents caused me to stare in disbelief: Commodore Worth Moore was bringing suit against his siblings to be able to sell the real estate – the farm of William Spencer Moore – and split the proceeds from the sale. This was not the family I thought I knew, and the name heading the defendants was the biggest shock of all:

Commodore W. Moore against Preston E. Moore et al.

The phrases from the will – “Share and Share alike” and “Preston E. Moore (should he be living)” – echoed ironically in my mind.

Preston E. Moore, my special “reverse orphan,” did not die in the Civil War.

Part 1
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From the Will to the Estate Packet - Part 1

Wills are often the documents that help us break down brick walls. At the very least, they usually contain a lot of key information, such as lists of children, or at least confirm information we already have or suspect. The will can, in a certain snapshot form, tell a story.

But the will does not tell the entire story. I learned this the hard way.

The will of my great-great grandfather, William Spencer Moore, was signed on 25 July 1865. William Spencer Moore died on 31 October 1871. It appeared to be your basic will, with the simplest possible instructions for taking care of his wife and surviving children:

Will of William Spencer Moore

In the name of God Amen. I William Spencer Moore of the State of South Carolina and Anderson District being of feeble body but sound mind and disposing memory calling to mind the certainty of death and the uncertainty of life and feeling disposed to will deed bequeath all that it hath pleased Almighty to place in my hands, in manner following Viz

Item first. I will and bequeath unto my beloved wife Emily Moore all my Estate, both personal and real to remain as it now is during the natural life or widowhood of my said Wife, but should my said wife ever marry then I will and bequeath that said Estate both personal and real be sold and the one third of the proceeds thereof be given by my hereinafter Administrator to my said Wife and the remainder thereof be equally divided among my beloved Children Share and Share alike Viz Preston E. Moore (should he be living) Harlston Perin Moore Commodore Worth Moore William Brewster Moore & Anna Jerusha Moore.

Item Second. I will that my said Estate be Administered upon with this my last Will annexed so soon after the death or marriage of my said wife as practicable and that distribution thereof be made according to this my last Will and Testament.

Item Third. I will that my said Administrator pay all my just debts out of means that there may be on hand, should there be any means on hand, but if there should be no means on hand, then I will and bequeath that so much of my personal Estate as may be necessary be sold as will pay my just debts out of what can be best spared from the family.

Item Fourth. I will and bequeath my body to be decently buried as my family may wish and my Soul I commend unto God in the Hope of blessed immortality beyond the Grave.

Item fifth. I publish this my last Will and Testament hereby revoking all former Wills by me at any time made, and declare this to be my last and Testament written on Three pages of paper and signed, sealed and published in the presence of the subscribing Witnesses this 25th day of July 1865.

W. S. Moore (LS)

Testes
W.B. Long
J. N. Shirley
L.D. Harris

The State of South Carolina ) Probate Court
Anderson County ) Probate Will

Present Honorable A. O. Sims Probate Judge for the County of Anderson.

Personally appeared L. D. Harris subscribing witness to the annexed instrument of writing purporting to be the last Will and Testament of William S. Moore, late of Anderson County, deceased, who being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that he was present and did see the said instrument of writing duly executed by the said William S. Moore. And deponent further saith that said William S. Moore at the time of executing the said instrument of writing was to the best of deponent’s knowledge and belief of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding and that L. D. Harris (the deponent) and W. B. Long and J. N. Shirley in the presence of each other and of the said William S. Moore and at his request signed their names as witnesses to the due execution of the same.

Sworn and subscribed to before me this Ninth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and Seventy two.
L.D. Harris

These were the notes I made right after I obtained a copy of the will, based on my own observations and additional information provided by a couple of people with whom I shared the will:

“Items of information:

Witnesses are:

W.B. Long – Wiliam Berry Long (1828-1901, m. Jane Smith) was a school teacher, then Baptist preacher. Witnesses to the will of Samuel Moore, the father of William Spencer Moore, were George Long, Alfred Long, and Brasher Henderson, who was probably married to a Long. This points to a probable family connection to the Longs.

J. N. Shirley – William Brewster Moore, the son of William Spencer Moore, married into the Shirley family and they lived nearby. J. N. Shirley was John Newton Shirley (b. 1834, m. Elizabeth Jane Masters); Masters was the daughter of Baptist Rev. George Washington Masters, who lived at Five Forks/Lebanon (info from Kim Wilson).

L.D. Harris – Lorenzo Dow Harris (1837-1913) m. Rachel Elizabeth Shirley, sister of J. N. Shirley. They lived in Hopewell Twp.

William Spencer Moore was in poor health at the time of the will but did not die until 31 October 1871 and apparently ran for office between the date of the will and the date of his death. He may have taken ill with one of the diseases epidemic in the country during and after the Civil War.

Preston E. Moore, the oldest son of William Spencer Moore, most likely was Missing in Action in the Civil War. This may have been an additional blow to W. S. Moore’s health.”

Beyond these items, the will helped me to form an impression of the William Spencer Moore/Emily Tarrant family. The key phrase was:

“… the remainder thereof be equally divided among my beloved Children Share and Share alike Viz Preston E. Moore (should he be living) Harlston Perin Moore Commodore Worth Moore William Brewster Moore & Anna Jerusha Moore.”

I saw a loving father counseling his children to “share and share alike” who was probably also in a state of grief that two months after the end of the Civil War, his oldest son, Preston Moore, had not returned and most likely had perished. The tragic perception of the loss of Preston Moore inspired me to start a long quest to learn his experiences and fate in the war. This was recounted in “Orphans and Orphans: Searching for Preston Moore” and “The Two Preston Moores.”

This tender view of William Spencer Moore grew into an image of a close-knit family, some of whom eventually – perhaps in response to the hardships of life in the South of the Reconstruction – left the home place and struck out to find better fortunes elsewhere.

So much of this image was wrong. And it was the estate packet that told the full story.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Surname Saturday: Family of Ambert Hatler Brinlee and Rosa Ella Roper

Ambert Hatler Brinlee
b. 17 Apr 1878, Bowie Co., Texas
d. 19 May 1964, Anna, Collin County, Texas
& Rosa Ella Roper
b. 22 Aug 1878, Collin County, Texas
d. 25 Mar 1946, Anna, Collin County, Texas
m. 4 Jan 1906
|--Ray Ambert Brinlee*
|----b. 25 Oct 1906, Collin County, Texas
|----d. 16 Mar 1991, McKinney, Collin County, Texas
|---& Opal Bernice McGee
|----b. 1 Sep 1908, Duke, Jackson Co., Oklahoma
|----d. 24 Feb 1941, Precinct 3, Collin County, Texas
|----m. 3 Oct 1925, Collin County, Texas
|--Ray Ambert Brinlee*
|----b. 25 Oct 1906, Collin County, Texas
|----d. 16 Mar 1991, McKinney, Collin County, Texas
|---& Amma Lucille O’Neal
|----b. 6 Oct 1906, Cherokee Co., Texas
|----d. 17 Dec 2000
|----m. 31 Mar 1945, Dallas County, TX
|--Lewis Gerald Brinlee
|----b. 10 Jul 1914, Anna, Collin County, Texas
|---& Bonnie Fay Johnson
|----b. 1 Jun 1918, Collin County, Texas
|----m. 18 Dec 1937, Durant, OK
|--Arba Dennis Brinlee*
|----b. 3 Oct 1919, Collin County, Texas
|----d. 21 Jan 1994, Henderson, Texas
|---& Reba Imogene Williams
|----m. 30 Sep 1938
|--Arba Dennis Brinlee*
|----b. 3 Oct 1919, Collin County, Texas
|----d. 21 Jan 1994, Henderson, Texas
|---& Hazel Lillian Baker
|----b. 14 Nov 1919, Ohio
|----m. 8 Sep 1951

Ambert Hatler Brinlee, who was the half-brother of my grandfather Lawrence Carroll Brinlee, was the son of Hiram Carroll “Dink” Brinlee, Jr. and Diza Caroline Boone. Rosa Ella Roper was the daughter of Lemuel Frederick Hawkins Roper and Virginia Caroline Humphries. I believe that “Bert” was married to a Susan Howard prior to his marriage to Rosa; he and Susan may have married around 1898, but I do not know when she died or whether they had any children. After Rosa’s death he married Lydia Ellen Stroud.

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).

Newsletter Friday: My Cup Runneth Over

And so do my genealogy folders.

I’m up on the ceiling (no brain), my arms want to flap spastically, and the synapses are firing wildly. This is the “Happy Dance” in fast forward. I have returned from an enjoyable and successful research trip with a great story to tell about one of many discoveries, and I want to tell the story in coherent form, but right now I feel like a hyperactive child trying to come down from a sugar high.

But someone keeps feeding me chocolate bon bons.

Before we left, a cousin sent me a picture of my grandfather L. C. Brinlee when he was young; this was the grandfather whom I had never seen a picture of when I was growing up; cousins sent me the first picture of him I had ever seen earlier this year.

Then when we got back from the trip, I received some information as well as copies of letters and articles on the family of a great-great grandfather, George Floyd, who had been a big brick wall up to now. One of the letters was written by a son of this great-great-grandfather – my great-grandfather, Charles Augustus Floyd. There were typescripts of several letters written by his daughter, Lannie Angelina Floyd, my grandmother’s sister. These were passed to me by a descendant of George Floyd’s half-brother, Ransom Floyd, as was a summary of research on this Floyd family done by another descendant of Ransom Floyd. I was able to share photos of some of the people they knew through the letters, as well as the Floyd house in Hutchins, Texas, which had been mentioned in the letters.

And my husband has been researching the Virginia continental line (he says he finds the organizational history a total mess, very difficult to untangle) to better figure out the history and timeline for my 4g-grandfather, William Lewis, who was a major in the Virginia Continental Line. He wants me to get on the ball and print out William Lewis’ records from Footnote.

So now I have to take a deep breath, sit down, and try to get some research done this weekend.

To George, Raymond, Edna, and Gail, my ever-generous Brinlee cousins, to Randy and Richard, my wonderful newly discovered Floyd cousins, to Paula and Carolyn, my fabulous, fun Moore cousins, to my husband, and to all the cousins who generously share their research, memories, and pictures: Thank you. You are wonderful.

Follow Friday: 24 September 2010

This Week

Kerry Scott at Clue Wagon cracks me up. Consistently. This week she did it again with “Confession: I Hired a Genealogy Psychic.” And the second half – “Was The Genealogy Psychic Worth It? You Be the Judge” – is just as funny. Can we get a T-shirt series: “Well I consulted a Ouija Board!”

James Tanner brings a note of reality to paranoia about identity theft in “Don’t ever put personal information online? What?” at Genealogy’s Star. While we should be very careful in posting information online, we probably take a greater risk each time we use our credit cards.

At Olive Tree Genealogy Blog, Lorine McGinnis Shulze has a great idea for those of us (and I’m thinking this is probably quite a few of us) who find that genealogical research on their own family is being pushed aside by other things in “A Month Without Genealogy is Like a Day Without Sunshine.”

For Wisdom Wednesday, Sassy Jane says at Sassy Jane Genealogy says: “Hire A Translator.” I couldn’t agree more!

Susan Petersen at Long Lost Relatives asks “Why Do Singles Do Genealogy?” It is an intriguing question and the comments contain some interesting answers.

Happy Fifth Blogoversary to Renee Zamora at Renee’s Genealogy Blog!

Happy Blogoversary to Becky Jamison at Grace and Glory! And don’t miss her beautiful post on “My Second Blogoversary Dedicated to My Son.”

And finally, I have no words to describe how Thomas Macentee’s eloquent “My Visit with Mom” at Destination: Austin Family touched me. Important words for all those who have suffered losses and are facing those losses.

This week I started following these blogs:

Adventures in Genealogy

AncesTree Sprite

Blades and Handy Clippings from the Past

Coloring Outside the Lines (from Southwest Arkie)

Lynn’s Genealogy Tips

Threading needles in a haystack

Family History Research by Jody

Genealogy Tools.com

My Genealogy Family

My Genealogy Girl

The Traveling Genealogist

Main Street, Greenville, USA

A few photographs we took on Greenville’s beautiful Main Street:

A view down Main Street in Greenville. A canopy of trees shades much of the length of this very pedestrian-friendly street.


A statue of Joel Roberts Poinsett, physician, botanist, and US statesman (the Poinsett Bridge in Greenville is named for him).


Some of the wall art on Main Street.


Statues dedicated to the Sterling Pride Society, which is devoted to the history of Sterling High School (1896-1970), the first black public high school in Greenville County.


A statue of Max Heller, who came to this country as a young Jewish refugee from Austria and became mayor of Greenville, serving from 1971 to 1979. You can read the story of his life as presented on the panels next to his statue here.

Researching in Greenville

It must be Beginner’s Luck. You know, those fated finds or serendipitous successes that get you hooked into something. This was my first real genealogy research trip. Just as I got addicted to genealogy starting with a couple of lucky early discoveries, on this first trip everything just came together and worked.

It started with my cousins, Paula and Carolyn. Paula and I met online just a few months ago through my Footnote Page for my great-great-grandfather William Spencer Moore. We had both, through separate paths, found the will of Spencer’s father Samuel Moore (also the father of Paula’s great-great-great grandfather Freeman Manson Moore) on the South Carolina Department of Archives and History website.

Within a week of first contact, Paula and I were planning a trip to Greenville. There was some preparation involved. We downloaded indices to microfilm of land and probate records from the Greenville County website and made lists of resources in Greenville. Greenville has a lot of documents, indices, and databases online, so we were able to reduce the volume of films we needed to look at and documents we needed to copy. I also e-mailed one of the librarians to ask for advice. Unfortunately, we didn’t even make it to the Greenville Historical Society or the Greenville History Museum. There were so many resources and we were finding so many things in the Hughes Main Library of Greenville that I couldn’t tear myself away. So they are on the list for the next trip – oh, yeah, my husband and I are planning another trip. Don’t know when, yet, but there will be plenty more to do and see.

We did take part of an afternoon to visit the Special Collections and Archives section at the James B. Duke Library at Furman University. Paula called ahead to request pulls for any material involving our Moore family as well as on the local churches. There were no materials on our family, but they did have some microfilm of church record minutes that we were interested in. One of the rolls was barely legible, and by the time we got to the second one it was getting late. We’ll probably use inter-library loan and/or a visit to the Anderson County Library to pursue these. We were still glad that we got to visit the campus of Furman University, which is absolutely beautiful.


View from the steps of the James B. Duke Library at Furman University


Paula and Carolyn left Greenville a day ahead of us, but we had two full days together in the Library. Being able to work with other researchers has a real multiplication effect, both in the effective division of labor and in the “multiplied energy.” Paula and I have somewhat different, but complementary approaches: she is a bit more name-oriented and I am a bit more location-oriented. It was very helpful for us to bounce ideas off one another. On the evening of the Sunday when we all arrived, we got together at our hotel, pulled out all of our Moore and Greenville materials, and made a plan of action. We also exchanged family pictures and genealogy program-generated reports on our respective families. Monday morning we dove in, pulling books, maps, and microfilm. Every time we made a big find, we had to run over to share it: “Greta, you’re going to have a heart attack when you see this!” “Paula, Carolyn – I’ve just stumbled onto a bombshell!”

When it was time for Paula and Carolyn to leave, we had an emotional parting – at the Library, of course; it was where my cousins knew they could find me. They brought me the last pile of Xerox copies of the materials we had printed out from the microfilm. The librarians had gotten to know us pretty well by this time and kindly offered to take pictures of us.

So, what did we gain from our trip? Quite a bit.

- We didn’t find the wife of our Samuel Moore, but we did find a number of new (and surprising) names of Moores, most of which are in all likelihood related to our Moores. Now we have to find out exactly how they were related and what happened to them. We found further information on a number of families descended from Samuel Moore who had reached a premature dead end for us. We found Freeman Manson Moore associated with Bud Mathis Moore in Greenville, and not just in Henry County, Georgia. We also found more information about associated families who may be related. These were on land deeds, in probate records, and in church minutes.

- We (actually I) learned a lot about research trips (Paula and Carolyn are pros at this): how long I can work without getting cross-eyed (about 11 hours), how to operate a microfilm machine (yes, I was a “noob”) and balance microfilm squinting time with less stressful-on-the-eyes resources, how to pack the most fun into breakfast/lunch/dinner/afterhours so that there is still an element of vacation, how to prioritize and organize research so that I am not jumping around too much (couldn’t help jumping around just a little bit – this was a sort of Genealogy Candy Store, after all), how to actually map out my day’s activities, and how to quickly scan documents for clues that might lead to other documents. Some other things I learned:

1. Bring more change. Lots more change. Even though I brought our very impressive (and heavy) collection of change from home, it wasn’t enough. Tuesday morning got three rolls of quarters at the bank. It wasn’t enough. (“Paula, remember that offer you made to give me some of your quarters and I said that was OK, I wouldn’t need them? Uh, I was wrong.”). Wednesday morning got four more rolls. Well, OK, I brought almost two full rolls home, but at least it’s real money.

2. Bring paper clips and sticky notes. (This was a real “duh” moment for me. Again, Paula and Carolyn saved the day.)

3. Don’t forget to eat! Luckily, Hughes Library has a little café – inexpensive and good food. But still, lunch always ended up being at 2:00 or later.

4. Review, review, review your new materials to find hints on still more documents. I won’t say stick strictly to your research plan, but refer back to it and amend it as necessary as you proceed.

5. Take advantage of the many conversations you have with people in the area (well, I certainly ended up talking to lots of people) to mention why you are visiting; you may find a fellow genie, someone who is knowledgeable about the area’s resources and/or sights, or even a relative or someone who knows a relative (I didn’t find the last one, but you never know).

6. The “magic wand” (scanner) did get a workout, but it was all from books, particularly when there were extended sections of things like church minutes where taking notes didn’t capture enough information. I did learn that you have to make the surface as flat as possible, and if the inner margin is tight, that part may be distorted on the final scan. When the curve of the book is too great, the scanner interprets that as time to turn off; so I would place the book with one side flat, which I would scan from the outer margin to the inner margin, and the other half held perpendicular so as to reduce the curvature of the pages on the flat side.

7. It is particularly effective to have someone to whom you can describe your findings, hypotheses, and questions. I was lucky to have my cousins and husband along. If I had been traveling alone, I would have used my blog and e-mailed cousins and other interested researchers.

- And last, but certainly not least among the things gained: For my family line, there were two, possibly three, Great Big Bombshells. But more on that later.

Before this trip, I was addicted to genealogy. And now I am addicted to genealogy research trips.

Greenville Love

A little while has passed since the end of our vacation/research trip to Greenville, South Carolina. Time that we needed to rest, recuperate, and think. And now that I’ve thought about it, I can put it in perspective.

Best. Vacation. Ever.

We fell in love with Greenville, and are missing it already. We packed a lot of activities, research, and picture-taking into a short period of time, so it will probably take several posts to cover it all.

Right now Greenville is my favorite city in the United States. It is small, beautiful, and friendly. It has an interesting history with some fascinating characters and there are small touches of thoughtfulness and beauty all around the city. For a researcher with ancestors in the area, it is a real Mecca. The Hughes Main Library of Greenville is simply fabulous, with a friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful staff. They have extended operating hours – 9:00 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and 2:00 to 6:00 on Sunday. The Library’s online presence is incredibly helpful (though finding aids are on the Library’s own website, some of the South Carolina Room materials are actually located on the Greenville County Government website). The shelves in the South Carolina Room contain tons of hard-copy and microfilm references for the South Carolina researcher. The place was actually my “home away from home” for three days and a little (that “little day” – the last morning of our stay – is actually a story in itself).

Despite those almost “9 to 9” days, however, we got to walk around and see and experience a good bit of the town. On the day of our arrival and thereafter early each morning, at lunch and dinner, and even after the Library closed we tried to cover different areas of the city.

There are a number of lovely hotels on Main Street and my cousins had tremendous praise for the hotel where they stayed just outside the city, but I would recommend our hotel, the Hampton Inn at River Place. It also had a wonderful staff, and we ended up having long conversations with a couple of people who work there. One was a lady who I believe is a supervisor there; she struck up our acquaintance at breakfast on our last day and had lots of information on the area. Our first night we came back quite late from a walk down Main Street and struck up a conversation with the young man at the front desk. It turned out that he had just started to take advantage of Ancestry’s offer of free access to immigration records and is very excited about pursuing his family history, which largely consists of immigrants from Hungary, Poland, and Austria (we told him that with that combination of countries, he must be “nash” – “one of ours,” i.e., from the Rusyn-Carpathian background of many members of our church). I gave him some hints for websites to check and we talked for at least a half hour about genealogy. Have to take every opportunity to encourage young people to research their families! We repeated this “stop and talk” experience all over the city – at restaurants, stores, the Library, and even the bank (where they got to know me well, as I ended up stopping there three mornings in a row for more quarters). If our daughters were still little and had accompanied us on this trip, it would have been the Ninth Circle of Hell for them, the one in which Mom Stops and Talks Endlessly with Strangers in Public.

To return to the subject of our hotel, the location is just superb – right on the Reedy River just where Main Street passes over the river. This area has been converted into a spot of beauty that is wonderful for families, tourists, joggers, artists, and everybody else. The water motif is incorporated into the design; here (and elsewhere downtown) there are little manmade waterfalls, water sculptures, and fountains that enhance the beauty and make the town feel cooler and more comfortable on hot days.

Below are a few pictures of the area around our hotel and at the Hughes Main Library (plus one taken on the way to South Carolina). More on Greenville and our adventures and research there will follow.



The Trucker’s Chapel at a truckers’ stop in North Carolina; taken on our way to Greenville


Our hotel, the Hampton Inn at River Place


The view outside our hotel



The steps and manmade waterfalls leading down from our hotel to the river bank.


The little falls and wading area at the bottom of the steps. This area is part of the 13.55-mile Swamp Rabbit Trail run by the Greenville Hospital System. Our section of the trail led from a delightful children’s park/garden in an underpass area (!) in the west to the Greenville Zoo in the east (pictures later).


The remains of the old C.F. Sauer Building, part of the old Huguenot Mill complex; it has now been transformed into the Wyche Pavilion, a venue for special events. Together with a couple of other buildings from the original mill, it is managed by The Peace Center.


The Peace Center Amphitheatre right next to the Wyche Pavilion. Both are located across the Reedy River from our hotel. On Wednesday evenings they show movies here. We would have watched the movie on Wednesday night, but decided to give “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” a pass.



The walking path bridge that passes over the Reedy River and the far bank of the river from our hotel. Little landscaped areas like the one at the lower right are tucked in everywhere throughout the downtown area.


The Reedy River as it passes under the Main Street Bridge.


Ducks enjoying the early morning sun on the Reedy River.



My “home away from home” during our stay in Greenville: The Hughes Main Library of the Greenville County Library System.

Follow Friday: 10 September 2010

This Week

Deborah Large Fox at Help! The Faerie Folk Hid My Ancestors explains why it is essential to enlist the help of other people – sometimes people whom you would not ordinarily consider as sources of genealogy-related information – when you are researching in the context of scant and scattered records in “With a Little Help from my Friends.”

Susan Petersen at Long Lost Relatives discusses how to use a “Kindle for Genealogy.”

At The Ties That Bind, Terri muses about inheriting, possessing, and letting go of family heirlooms in “The Mystical Power of a Treasure – Can you let it go?”

In “Ellis Island Oral Histories,” Leah at The Internet Genealogist describes how this new database on Ancestry can provide a rich background for an immigrant ancestor’s experience, even if the interviewee is not your own ancestor, but perhaps came over on the same ship, from the same general area, or in the same general time frame.

Only Amy Coffin of The We Tree Genealogy Blog could tie these disparate subjects together in a coherent post: “Family Search, Football and Milestones.” And in the process, she makes a great case for the benefits that volunteer transcribers both provide and derive from this activity! There’s probably a future for me there, Amy – I like mediocre baseball teams. (There is also an interesting follow-up article on doing arbitration: “Family Search, Football and Arbitration.”)

A way to put together all the links, stories, photographs, pages and whatever else there is to see and know about an ancestor? According to The Ancestry Insider, this technology is being developed by a group led by Family Search (“Killer Cool! Wow”).

I (and probably a number of other readers) will be watching West in New England to see how Bill West’s idea works out for using a page on Facebook devoted to his grandparents to see whether or not he can lure some cousins to contact him with more information on this couple; the idea is described in “A ‘Social’ Experiment.”

At Escape to the Silent Cities, the author poses an open question for discussion: “To Enhance or Not to Enhance that is the question…. I want your opinions” (no, not enhancing our figures, but gravestones).

An intriguing and unusual topic is featured on Beyond the Ghosts...A Cemetery Blog: “Cemetery geocaching: Has treasure hunting gone too far?”

Instead of highlighting a single post, I’d like to direct anyone who has not yet seen Becky Wiseman’s series from Alaska and Canada at kinnexxions, yet (if there is anyone out there who hasn’t) to go and immerse yourself in these wonderful stories and photographs. Do not miss the glaciers. Amazing.

Happy Sixth (!!!!!!) Blogoversary to Craig Manson at Geneablogie!

Check out Flowers from My Area, the new blog of Barbara Poole at Life from the Roots.

This week I started following these blogs:

Gravestoned

An American Mutt

Beyond the Ghosts…A Cemetery Blog

Restore the Ancestors Project

Saving Stories

Escape to the Silent Cities (Love the blog name and thanks to Gail Wall at Digital Cemetery Walk for linking to this blog!)

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.

Wordless Wednesday: End of Summer

More on the New Toy

I realized I should have included more information on the wand scanner, so here is the blurb from the box:

Brookstone Portable Document and Photo Scanner

- Creates sharp, photo-quality files up to 600x600 dpi
- Easy – features one-touch scanning
- Fast – color scans in as little as 3 seconds, b/w scans in as little as 2 seconds
- Stores images on microSD card up to 32GB (card required, not included)
- Includes Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software for Windows that converts text documents into editable files (note: included OCR software not Mac-compatible) [waah]
- Uses 2 AA batteries (not included)
- Includes USB cable
- Scanner is compatible with Windows 7, Vista and Mac OS X 10.4+

The scanner costs $99 at Brookstone and we got a 4GB microSD card at Office Depot for $18.

My husband put the stuff in and started it up; he says that it was easy to do.

The instructions are simple: hold down the Power/Scan button for 2 seconds to turn it on and do the same to turn it off. To scan, place it on the document, with the document resting on a flat surface and located between the scan guides. Press the Power/Scan button once (a green light on the indicator means it’s on) and move it slowly and evenly over the document. If you are moving it too quickly, you will get a red light. When you reach the end of the document, press the Power/Scan button once to stop the scan.

You then use the USB cable to upload the images to your computer in much the same way as you would with your camera. I did make one mistake at this point; whereas I only have to turn my camera off to disconnect, the computer recognizes the scanner as an external device and it has to be disconnected from the desktop before you turn it off, or you get one of those “Device incorrectly disconnected” messages.

(Note: I am not associated with Brookstone; just a Techno-Dummy who is delighted to have a small, simple-to-operate scanner.)

My New Toy

Ever since I started planning my research trip to Greenville I have been thinking about getting a wand scanner for scanning documents. I had also heard recommendations on using a camera on the “Macro” setting for this purpose.

Helpful Husband said he would buy a wand scanner this weekend as an early anniversary present, but first I decided to see what I could do with my camera. I used a printout of a will typescript as my sample specimen. The ultimate results with a camera were pretty good, but clarity definitely depended on amount of light; the first image was rather fuzzy, and I had to have strong overhead light to produce the results you see below.




So, being a “belt and suspenders” type of gal, I decided to take Husband up on his offer.

To my delight, the first experiment produced the two images you see below. The first is the jpeg image that comes up in Preview, and the second is a photographic image that comes up in iPhoto.





Some of the documents and images I will be scanning/photographing are bound to pose challenges, but I’m hoping that the combination of methods will ensure some readable results.

Smith Family Sunday: Hugh Smith and Mary Ann Cavin of Hawkins County, Tennessee

This is the fifth family in n Group Number 1 (best fits) of “candidate families,” who could be the families of my great-grandmother Susan Elizabeth Smith (m. 1st Bonner, m. 2nd Hiram Carroll Brinlee, Jr.).

If you are researching this family and found this blog through a search, please contact me - I would like to know more about this family and whether or not it is actually the family of my great-grandmother. Even if all you know are a few details, they might help. 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).

Parents:

Hugh Smith, b. October 1840 at Church Hill, Hawkins County, Tennessee
Mary Ann Cavin, b. 15 August 1847 at Church Hill, Hawkins County, Tennessee

Children:

Elizabeth – b. ca 1867 in Tennessee
Mary Etta/Marietta, b. ca 1869 in Tennessee
Robert – b. April 1874 in Tennessee
Wallace – b. ca 1878 in Tennessee
James – b. June 1880 in Tennessee
Lucy – b. June 1883 in Tennessee
Melvin O. – b. February 1888 in Tennessee
Elbert Hale – b. July 1889 in Tennessee

Hugh appears to have been the son of Alexander Smith (1793-1880) and Mary Polly Goddard (1795-), with siblings Francis, Elizabeth (1814-), Joseph (1828-), Lucretia (1830-), George (1832-), and Rebecca (1840-).

Here is the family in the 1870 through 1910 censuses:

New Canton, District No. 5, Hawkins County, Tennessee, p. 2, 15 August 1870

Line 38 17 17

Smith, Hugh 29 M W Day laborer TN Cannot read or write
Mary A. 21 F W Keeping house TN Cannot write
Elisebeth 3 F W TN
Mary E. 11/12 F W TN Sept.

16th Civil District, Hawkins County, Tennessee, ED 78, p. 31, 1 June 1880

Line 17 280 283

Smith, Hugh W M 40 Laborer Cannot write TN TN TN
Mary Ann W F 30 Wife Married Keeping house TN TN TN
Elizabeth W F 12 Dau Single At home Attended school Cannot read or write
TN TN TN
Marietta W F 10 Dau Single At home Attended school Cannot write TN TN TN
Robert W M 7 Son At home TN TN TN
Wallace W M 2 Son TN TN TN

1900 US Federal Census, McPheeters Bend, Civil District 5, Hawkins County, Tennessee, ED 80, p. 10A, 16 June 1900

Line 45 160 161

Smith, Robert Head W M Apr 1874 36 M 5 TN TN TN Farmer 3 Yes Yes Yes R F 145
Parilee Wife W F Apr 1881 19 M 5 2 2 TN TN TN Yes No Yes
Bettie Dau W F Oct 1896 3 S TN TN TN
Baranchie Son W M Nov 1898 1 S TN TN TN
Line 49 161 162
Smith, Hugh Head W M Oct 1840 59 M 36 TN TN TN Farm laborer Yes No Yes
O F F 146
Mary A. Wife W F Aug 1847 52 M 36 10 8
James Son W M June 1880 19 S TN TN TN Day laborer 0 Yes Yes Yes
Lucy Dau W F June 1883 16 S TN TN TN Yes Yes Yes
Melvin O. Son W M Feb 1888 12 S TN TN TN Farm laborer No No Yes
Elbert H. Son W M July 1889 10 S TN TN TN Farm laborer No No Yes

1910 US Federal Census, Civil District 6, Hawkins Co., Tennessee, ED 121, p. 6A, 22 Apr 1910

Line 29 94 94

Smith, Mary A. Head F W 62 Md 32 10 8 TN TN TN Eng Farmer Gen. farm Emp.
Yes No O F F 73
Lucy A. Dau F W 26 S TN TN TN Eng. None Yes Yes
Melvin D. Son M W 21 S TN TN TN Eng. Farm laborer Home farm W No 0
Yes No
Hale M W 19 S TN TN TN Farm laborer Working out W No 0 Yes Yes
Line 33 95 95
James N. Head M W 21 M1 6 TN TN TN Farm laborer Working out W No 0
Yes Yes R H
Mollie Wife F W 29 M1 6 2 2 TN TN TN Eng. None Yes Yes
Julius K. Dau F W 5 S TN TN TN
Charlie M. Son M W 2 S TN TN TN
Line 37 96 96
Wallis Head M W 32 M1 8 TN TN TN Eng Farmer Gen. farm OA No No
O F F 74
Alice W F W 26 M1 8 5 4 TN TN TN Eng None
Nellie Dau F W 6 S TN TN TN
May Dau F W 4 S TN TN TN
Daniel Son M W 2 S TN TN TN
Arthur Son M W 9/12 S TN TN TN
Hugh Father M W 75 M1 32 TN TN TN Eng None Was in Confederate Army

Surname Saturday: Family of John Ewing Brinlee and Dovie Edna McDonald

John Ewing Brinlee
b. 18 Dec 1875
& Dovie Edna McDonald
b. 27 Feb 1881
d. 15 Sep 1970, Temple, Cotton, Oklahoma
m. 24 Sep 1905
|--Chester Brinlee
|----b. 15 Jul 1906
|----d. 11 Nov 1915, Near Rockwall, Texas
|--Lester Randall Brinlee*
|----b. 20 Jun 1908, Collin County, Texas
|----d. 22 Jan 1986, Wilson, Carter, Oklahoma
|---& Bertha Akin
|----b. 1912
|----m. 1928
|--Lester Randall Brinlee*
|----b. 20 Jun 1908, Collin County, Texas
|----d. 22 Jan 1986, Wilson, Carter, Oklahoma
|---& Bessie F. Gober
|----b. 11 Jan 1916, Sangerton, Texas
|----d. 30 May 1997, Wilson, Carter, Oklahoma
|----m. 30 Sep 1940, Cotton Co., Oklahoma
|--Aline Brinlee
|----b. 1919, Oklahoma

John Ewing Brinlee, the son of Hiram Carroll Brinlee Jr. and Diza Caroline Boone, was my grandfather Lawrence Carroll Brinlee’s half-brother. Dovie Edna McDonald was the daughter of John Jerman McDonald and Mary Elizabeth Wallace. She was previously married to William E. Sanderson and had two children from that marriage: Arvel W. and Hazel Edna.

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).

Follow Friday: 3 September 2010

This Week

In “A Day Spent at Findagrave,” Apple at Apple’s Tree does the venting that so many of us must long to do about some of the less attractive practices of certain Findagrave contributors.

"Myrtle" at DearMyrtle’s Genealogy Blog has posted an outstanding series on interviews with her friend Elsie (and has also devoted a blog to Elsie’s recollections and memorabilia at Elsie says…). Interviews don’t always go according to plan, and this is a wonderful demonstration of how to adapt your interviews to your subject.

“Interviewing Elsie: tender times”
“Interviewing Elsie: revised plan”
“Interviewing Elsie: plan c”
“Interviewing Elsie: friends come to call”

Daniel Hubbard of Personal Past Meditations – A Genealogical Blog delves into one of my favorite subjects, onomastic evidence in genealogy, in “Making Names for Ourselves.”

Randy Seaver has posted some thought-provoking articles at Genea-Musings on citing derivative sources or the original sources (English parish records) used by the derivative sources and inspired some equally thought-provoking responses, both comments and articles, to: “Confessions of a Name Collector – English Sources,” “Confessions of a Name-Collector: Adding Families to my Database” and “Citing My English Sources – My Preference.” (Bart Brenner’s resonse is “Name Collecting – ‘Mythology’ or the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Option” at Stardust ‘n’ Roots.)

At Rainy Day Genealogy Readings, Jennifer has written a beautiful rant: “Online Family Trees: Good, Bad or Ugly? Or, a Rant in D-Minor.”

Becky Jamison has a stunner for us at Grace and Glory: “My All-time Biggest Surprise in Genealogy.” Some of the most mind-blasting moments in genealogy hit close to home!

Lorine McGinnis Schulze at Olive Tree Genealogy asks my favorite question of the week: “Is Genealogy a Hobby?” There is also an excellent post on this by John Newmark at TransylvanianDutch: “Defining the Genealogical Pursuit.”

For those researching ancestors in countries where documents are scarce and/or difficult to access, Nolichucky Roots demonstrates how photos can be used as evidence of kinship in “The Hricak Girls Save the Day!"

An extremely interesting discussion by Thomas Macentee (and visitors who commented) of High-Definition Genealogy (“Is There a Perceived Age Demographic in Genealogy”) and Marian Pierre-Louis (and visitors who commented) at Roots and Rambles (“The Perceived Age Demographic in Genealogy”).

Over at Family History Writing, read about the author’s participation in a neighborhood experiment in living like our ancestors – no trips to store or gas station, no electricity – in “A Taste of Yesterday.” Intriguing!

This week’s Open Thread Thursday (which feature, by the way, has become one of my “must reads” – fascinating topics and interesting responses) at GeneaBloggers is “The Content Wars.” Quite a few bloggers have responded with posts on their own blogs, perhaps too many to list here, but let’s hope they all link to their posts in the comments.

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

This week I started following these blogs:

Daily Genealogy Transcriber – this one, by Michael John Neill, is so much fun!

Long Lost Relatives

ProGenealogists

d kay s days

Family Tree Folk

Identifinders

MacArthur’s Genealogy Services

Nina’s Genealogy

On Being a Bridge Builder

Pioneer Portraits – Miller/Swain Family History

The Passionate Genealogist

The Scottish Emigration Blog