The Family Tree

The tree that best exemplifies my family research is the holly tree. No, make that THE holly tree. Not just any holly tree, but the holly tree in my front yard.

We have a much larger and more beautiful holly tree in the back yard. But it’s missing something.

No, that’s not right. The big holly tree is NOT missing anything. And that’s why it doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to my family tree as my research reveals it - because there are lots of gaps in my research.

So the poor holly tree out front is the more apt symbol. The winter before last, during Snowmageddon, the weight of the snow caused one of the three main branches to break off so that one side was left almost completely bare. It looks a bit better now, as though some of the twigs and small branches on the other two sides are trying to bend around and cover the bare branches out of modesty.

But it’s still a lopsided tree, and so is my family tree.

The Front Holly Tree, minus one branch which is flopped over and covered with snow, bottom right

The brick walls are awfully low in my family tree; there are a few really long branches, but for for many lines, “growth” stops with pretty recent ancestors. We’re not supposed to call them “brick walls,” so let’s call them “dead-end branches.”

My biggest dead-end branch is my great-grandmother Susan Elizabeth Smith Bonner Brinlee. I also have four great-great-grandparents who are dead-ends: Hiram Brinlee Senior, Emily Tarrant, George Floyd, and Jerusha Elizabeth Neely. And by the great-great-great-grandparent level, there are two more of those little stub thingies: Samuel Moore and John Finley.

This post turns out to be not just an excuse for milking the tree metaphor for all it’s worth. The listing of dead-end branches is basically an outline for where I want to focus my research. The only family missing in this list are the Lewises. I know my gggg-grandparents in this line - William Lewis and Mary John - but I am more interested in figuring out the list of children of my great-great-great grandparents Elisha Lewis and Rosannah Dalrymple Lewis, as well as the fates of the daughters of William and Mary Lewis: Rachel, Sarah, Mary, and Leah Lewis. You could say that this is a long but skinny branch.

Add a few intriguing gggg-grandparents into the mix, and that’s my research plan for the coming years. With names like Smith, Moore, and Lewis prominent in this list, this is not going to be a piece of cake. Or, to put it in more arboreal terms, it’s going to take one heck of a green thumb to get this tree to grow right. Ever tried to prune a holly tree or clean up the holly leaves that collect on the ground? Those pointy little leaves can be really nasty. But I won’t get discouraged. I want a tall, magnificent tree, covered with a thick mantle of dark green leaves. And lots of those little red berries would be nice, too.

The Lopsided Holly Tree as it appears today

Submitted for the 110th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, sponsored by Jasia’s Creative Gene.

The Seasons of Genealogy: It’s Okay to Daydream

Last Sunday I wrote a post on “My Top 5 Genealogy Research Books.” Three of them are books I use to find resources and plan research projects and trips.

There is a lot of planning going on right now.

Also known as “daydreaming.”

As in: “It would be so nice to take a trip to South Carolina or Texas or Tennessee or Kentucky or Illinois.” Or: “It would be so nice to be able to take a week off to spend at the National Archives.” Or even: “I wish I had even just a day to spend looking up ancestors on Genealogy Bank.”

I daydream research plans. Moving Moores around a chessboard and connecting them with a spiderweb of lines to various associated families is a game I often play in my head. But my favorite daydreams are research trips: where should we go, how much time should we spend, which repositories, museums, and historical societies should we visit, and what information will I be looking for.

I’m in the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer in my research.

During the early season of my research - my “research spring” - I gleefully skipped around from website to website, shot off request letters to various repositories, got in touch with lots of relatives. The results were glorious. Ancestors sprang up all over. I identified where a lot of research had already been done and made some new discoveries of my own. I went from the bare dirt of almost total ignorance of my family history to a lush garden full of ancestors, dates, and places.

But now the season has changed to summer. Hot, sultry summer. A time of big ambitions but slow movement.

I want to do a lot of serious, organized, and sustained research, but things (work, children, house, miscellaneous appointments and obligations) keep me from doing everything I want to do, kind of the same way that the hot weather keeps me from getting my yard in shape.

This is not exactly the same as summer doldrums. My research is moving. And the thing is, besides adding what often seem like minor snippets of information, there have been several significant developments over the past year. To stretch the metaphor a bit (and I love to do that - even to the breaking point), these developments are the fruit of seeds I planted earlier.

I posted information in various places on my Moores, and a distant Moore cousin got in touch with me and provided the impetus I need to take a research trip to Greenville, South Carolina. I’m still working on the filing box full of documents I copied there.

I posted information on my Floyds, and a distant Floyd cousin got in touch with me who provided information on all of my great-great grandfather George Floyd's siblings, as well as copies of letters written to the Vermont branch by my Texas Floyds. This inspired me to get back in touch with my Floyd second cousins in Texas, who dug up lots of interesting court materials on our Texas Floyds from some clues I found in Genealogy Bank.

I kept in touch with some Brinlee cousins, and when our Texas Brinlees got a DNA match with some Tennessee Brinleys, we started working on those Brinleys to try to find a common ancestor and break down our Brinlee brick wall.

I posted information on my Normans, and was contacted by my wonderful cousin Rebecca, who provided me with a goldmine of family information when we met in Orangeburg.

I contacted fellow Fichtelmann researcher Mary Lou, who eventually figured out which Fichtelmann was the father of my husband’s great-grandmother and much, much more - all of which she shared with me. I followed her example to find a lot more information on my husband’s Koehl family.

But despite all of this activity, it feels as though my own efforts are just moving too slowly. I did almost no research at all this past week; I was too busy trying to get some chores out of the way so that I would actually have a free schedule for research.

So in odd moments here and there I daydream about what I am going to do when I have the time. If we get to take a trip to Dallas, where will I go besides the Dallas Public Library? How am I going to go about finding Elisha Berry Lewis’ mystery siblings? What are the next steps I should take to find the parents of my great-grandmother Susan Elizabeth Smith?

I call it planning.


Oh, and for the record: when I daydream of research trips, they are always in the chilly early spring or crisp late fall. Because I have so many ancestors in the South. And the South is hot. And I hate the heat.


Submitted for the 107th Carnival of Genealogy, created by Jasia of Creative Gene and hosted by Bill West of West in New England.

105th COG: My Lean, Mean Genealogy Machine

I was going to write a modest little piece on the modest little set of technology that I use for genealogy. Well, I  am still going to do that. But I am writing this with a little less confidence than I had even the day before I sat down to write this.

As you will see from the post below, there was an “incident” with comments on this blog - apparently one of the blogs that appeared on my blogroll has been found by Google to have some sort of virus. And the fact that a link (now deleted) to it appeared on my blog had made my blog suspect as well.

Last week I was informed by my e-mail service that my e-mail had been hacked and that I would have to go through a process to reset my password and restore my access (not too painful, but it did involve providing a piece of information that I would preferred not to have provided).

This was my primary e-mail address, and together with my blog, it is my main form of communication; I am not super-active on Facebook nor do I tweet. That these two events happened within a week of one another was distressing.

My husband and I attempt in various ways to back up all of the computer stuff that is important to us, but these incidents have left me feeling uneasy.

Still, I love my “technology,” especially my new (well, new from Christmas, anyway) MacBook Pro.

My Baby.
(Apologies for the shady picture - I never remember to take pictures

when there is still daylight.)

Computer: And why do I call my MacBook Pro “My Lean, Mean Genealogy Machine”? Mainly because I consider its main purpose to be doing genealogy. Although I still do most of my e-mail correspondence on this machine, I do not intend to do much else here or to save anything other than genealogy-related documents to it. Exceptions would be iTunes (can’t work without music!) and uploading photos taken on trips, since I do plan to take the laptop with me when I travel (or at least on genealogy-related trips).

That means documents related to anything else I have ever used the computer for - school, Scouts, language-related stuff, and other family “business” - remain on/go to my old Mac Mini desktop setup. Most scans and new photos go to the desktop as well. The desktop is already a bit slow (probably needs a “tuneup” or housecleaning), and I want to avoid this on my laptop.

My desktop (Mac Mini) setup

Of course, there are a lot of genealogy-related things remaining on my old desktop. My husband has set up Time Machine on our household network to overcome this problem, so I can now access all of my archived genealogy documents directly or even duplicate them on the laptop through Time Machine.

Browsers and bookmark organization: That still leaves my browser bookmark system in a bit of chaos. On the desktop I have a super-extensive set of old bookmarks of all types - but especially genealogy bookmarks - on Safari, and there are quite a few on Firefox as well, not to mention the new ones I have managed to accumulate on the laptop. Although I have exported/imported bookmarks before, I don’t think I will do that in this case, because many of these bookmarks are old and need to be cleaned up. I loved the old bookmark organization system on Safari, but am not so fond of the Firefox system or the new Safari system. Therefore, as I clean up the various sets of bookmarks, I will probably copy them to the Genealogy Toolboxes on my blog and on the website I have created at Weebly.

Software: I use Reunion as my genealogy database. I am also working on trees on Ancestry and hope to eventually have a website (Weebly or something else) with trees and other information as well. So far I have not added any transcription or note-taking software or any other research “helper” applications.

For photos I have iPhoto on both computers. I am getting a bit alarmed at how many photos we have in digital form on various computers in our family. My husband and I back them up through Time Machine, but I know that our college daughter also has tons of photos on her very vulnerable laptop.

Although we have Microsoft Office on our computers at home, we also have iWork and I am becoming more and more attached to these applications. In particular, I may use Keynote for some modest digital scrapbooking.

Websites: I have subscriptions to Ancestry, Footnote, and Genealogy Bank. State archive websites (South Carolina, Texas, and Illinois, among others) are big favorites with me. I also love many of the local library websites (Greenville) or library-affiliated websites (GenFriends of Plano Libraries) as well as Findagrave and outstanding individual cemetery sites such as the one for Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Camera: I have a barebones camera - a Nikon Coolpix LI8 - and it seems to be enough for me. I can take a decent picture of a tombstone and, on the macro setting, a decent picture of a document.

Phone: Nothing genea-helpful here. It’s a Plain Jane type of phone probably will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Other hardware: There is my beloved wand scanner pictured below and described in “My New Toy” and “More on the New Toy.” To this I will most likely add a Flip-Pal Scanner; the current plan is to get one next Christmas, but I may give in and get one at the upcoming NGS Conference because I would be able to use it to scan pictures at my in-laws’ house when we visit later in the summer. Perhaps some day I will get my own flatbed scanner, but right now I am using my husband’s HP 8500 All-in-One Wireless. I noticed when I scanned some documents with fuzzy handwriting for some cousins that the digital copies were clearer than the originals, so I’m thinking this is pretty handy for my use.



Future plans: An iPad would be nice some day; it might be the ideal “take along to the library” item for me when the time comes. Some day I might get a fancier camera and the dedicated scanner that I mentioned. I’m not too keen to update my phone, yet. I see a digital scrapbooking class in my future. Maybe something on website design as well if I do not find a simple (=simple-minded) way for me to set up a family genealogy website.

Slowly, surely, by asking around and reading what my fellow genealogy bloggers have to say on the subject, I am getting a good idea of what kind of technology will work for me. It will never be terribly elaborate with all of the latest gizmos, but I think it will be pretty decent.

Live from Beautiful Falls Church, Virginia: It’s the iGene Awards!

(Our Special Reporter is reporting on the Fourth Annual iGene Awards ceremony. This Fab Event, which is just one part of the Mega-Event known as the Carnival of Genealogy, is celebrated each year all over the country by members of the Academy of Genealogy and Family History, an elite and exclusive organization of genealogy bloggers run by a mysterious and powerful coterie of Genea-Blogging Celebrities. One of the most mysterious and powerful members of that coterie is Jasia, author of the Creative Gene blog and the alleged mastermind behind the Carnival of Genealogy and the iGene Awards. Informed sources report that it is she who dictates the categories for the awards: Best Picture, Best Screen Play, Best Biography, Best Documentary, and Best Comedy.)

We’re reporting from the Red Carpet in glamorous Falls Church, Virginia (well, actually, from nearby less-glamorous Fairfax County), and I just cannot adequately convey the excitement and buzz generated by the Awards this year. And coming down that carpet I think I see ... can it be? Oh, my goodness, the humanity, you will not believe the major Genea-Blogging celebrities who have just graced the carpet and us with their brilliant, overpowering presence, why, it’s

BZZZZZT

[Black screen.]

One and a half hours later...

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for staying with us through the unforeseen technical difficulties caused by ice and snow on the power lines here.

Unfortunately, this lost time has seriously cut into the time we have for long-winded acceptance speeches and silly routines tonight’s entertainment, so we are just going to cut to the chase and hand out the awards:


The iGene Award for Best Picture goes to:

A photographic study of the pernicious effects of nepeta cataria addiction on an intimate circle of felines as demonstrated by a single evening of dazed decadence (aka, the New Year’s Eve our cats got stoned on catnip):

Silly Saturday: New Year’s Eve Nip Party

The iGene Award for Best Comedy goes to:

The best comedy is musical comedy, and this year’s winner, a light-hearted take on the travails, traps, and travesties of family research, is no exception:

Ode to My Family’s History: Through the Lens of Gilbert and Sullivan

The iGene Award for Best Screenplay goes to:

An intimate portrait of family life and an exploration into how a seemingly insignificant item can lead to a major emotional outburst resulting in revelation and new insights for the family:

Memory Monday: The Flower Bowl

Special acting awards go to Jane Lynch as the mom with the “tempest-in-a-flower-teapot” temperament and, as the bewildered daughters, six-year-old Dakota Fanning and three-year-old Elle Fanning.

It should be mentioned that the voting was quite close (that’s what happens when you have 10 nominees in this category), so the Academy would like to mention two deserving runner-ups:

Memory Monday: The Missing Mermaid and the Children Who Would Not Sleep

and

Memory Monday: The Tree in Our Basement.

The iGene Award for Best Documentary goes to:

A complex and nuanced, yet dramatic study of the research process drawn out over four installments in the style of the old cliffhanger serials:

From the Will to the Estate Packet: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

(Commentator’s gratuitous aside to the viewing audience: There is a delicious irony to the victory of this multipart series: The winner of the Best Screenplay Award at last year’s iGene Awards was the two-part series “Searching for Preston Moore.” One of many shockers delivered by “From the Will to the Estate Packet” was that Preston Moore had not, in fact, died in the Civil War!)

(Note for you serious cinephiles out there: The Director’s Cut Version DVD of this movie includes the following bonus features:

Bonus Post: “Researching in Greenville” - the documentary behind the documentary!

The Cinematographer’s View: “Greenville Love” and “Main Street, Greenville, USA”)


The iGene Award for Best Biography goes to:

A loving tribute to a favorite uncle:

Billy Jack Brinlee, 1934-2010

The Runner-Up for this category is:

There’s One - or Two - in Every Family: A Visit with Bun and Square Brinlee

(The Academy denies that there was any nepotism involved in choosing two posts on members of the same family.)


And finally, the Academy would like to institute its own humanitarian award, the Genea-Bloggers’ Act of Genealogical Kindness Award, and present it to two very deserving recipients:

Tracy at The Pieces of My Past for asking a friend for information on my Tarrant line and sending me the material the friend provided.

Cynthia at Heritage Zen for helping me out with the Stepanishen family.

(Thunderous applause by the audience. Because this is the award that really counts.)


My humble thanks to the mysterious mastermind Jasia for making these Awards and the Carnival of Genealogy possible.

2010 and 2011: Review and Preview – 101st COG

The topic for the 101st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: My genealogy research/writing plan for 2011. Figure out what you think you can accomplish in 2011 and write it up on your blog.




Well. This is more serious than New Year’s genealogy resolutions, which I usually just break, anyway. To tell the truth, I took a peek at last year’s resolutions, and that actually helped me to formulate a plan, because I can see where I tend to fall short and what kinds of resolutions actually get done. And there is a second phenomenon at work here: Last year’s work and accomplishments determine and create many of this year’s to-dos.

For instance, one of my accomplishments last year was to take my first genealogy research trip (which, significantly, was not on my resolution list or in my plans – it was a spur-of-the-moment thing after my cousin got in touch with me). It was very successful, which meant that my cousins and I found a lot of material. Now recording, analyzing, and exploiting that material has to be one of the main tasks on my research and writing plan for 2011.

I saw from my 2010 resolutions that I am very weak at the transcription thing. This is a necessary chore – as in, I have to do it but it is not going to be a lot of fun. Part of my writing plan is going to be to use the Amanuensis Monday/Transcription Tuesday prompt to keep me on track with transcription. Another writing resolution was to do more research-related posts – this will be the other part of my writing plan.

I carried out the resolution for finishing inputting information on the Joseph Madison Carroll Norman family, but have only made a bare start on the Hiram Brinlee, Sr. family – this must get done this year. I did more work on my Lizzie Smith brickwall, but almost nothing on the Elisha Lewis-Rosannah Dalrymple family.

Yet another resolution was to take advantage of my Footnote subscription – I did that fairly well and have to continue, primarily in digging up everything I can on my 4g-grandfather William Lewis’ Revolutionary War record so that my husband can use it to find out more about his time as a British prisoner. And there is a parallel this year – I now have a Genealogy Bank subscription, which has proven very useful and needs to be used consistently in my research.

Another “unplanned accomplishment” was the progress that was made on Floyd family research. Much of this was due to a “cousin ex machina” e-mail from a distant cousin that contained invaluable information on George Floyd’s family and scans of family letters. This spurred me and my Dallas Floyd cousins to do more research, which resulted in pages of court transcripts and newspaper articles … that have to be transcribed and analyzed. Again, unexpected progress was made but resulted in more work to be done.

My first resolution was to make time for my research and writing, and that will be critical to the success of my research and writing plan. Part of the solution is to make more efficient use of my time. For example, earlier this year I tried to carve out more research time by making my Follow Friday posts (which are, admittedly, pretty time-consuming) more of an occasional thing. So when I started using the early evening hours for research instead of working on the post, I realized that later in the evening I am too tired to do research, anyway, but could still summon up enough concentration to use that time to read and write about blogs. Thus, a compromise was achieved that served both research and writing goals.

I am also hoping to find extra research and writing time without compromising family time (i.e., we all sit in front of the TV with our laptops in front of us – yes, it is family time because we definitely do talk to one another while we are doing this – what can I say, we all have short attention spans in this family). My hope here is that the new MacBook Pro that my husband bought me for Christmas will enable me to do this. While we are on this subject, does anyone out there have any suggestions for syncing Reunion databases on two computers? I tried looking up solutions online, but so far have found only outdated information on this subject.

In brief, my 2011 genealogy research plan boils down to this: consolidation and filling in the gaps for my family lines to the great-great-grandparent level. For my great-grandmother brick wall, this means taking the research as far as I can (without a research trip) to find her parents. I would also like to get inputting on my Ancestry trees caught up to what I have input on Reunion, since these trees have actually turned out to be useful in my research.

The writing plan will consist of two parts: (1) transcribing the tons of documents and newspaper articles I have acquired and posting some of them on the blog, and (2) blogging about research projects and results. And finally, to serve both ends, I need to find more time, make better use of the time I have, and take full advantage of my paid subscriptions such as Footnote and Genealogy Bank.

There’s One – Or Two – In Every Family: A Visit with Bun and Square Brinlee

My recent research on three of my main family lines, carried out with the help of cousins, has been a lot of fun. In addition to the usual “names, facts, and figures,” we have uncovered some family rifts and scandals.


But amidst all of these peccadilloes, alienations, and transgressions, and among all the rapscallions, scapegraces, and criminals, I would like to take a break and just enjoy some lovely characters: people who were loved by and left a positive mark on those around them, in their own unusual way.



It’s time to write about the Brinlee brothers: Guy Leon Brinlee and Vernon Argos Brinlee, aka “Square” and “Bun” Brinlee.


Fortunately, quite a bit has been written about the Brinlee brothers (you can see the list of sources at the bottom of this post), especially in newspaper columns and the like; a book was even written about them. Unfortunately, a lot of this material is contradictory from one source to the next. That seems to be a natural result of being a local legend: everyone seems to have his or her own idealized, larger-than-life image of the two men. And, it must be admitted, the brothers do not seem to have been averse to engage in a little bit of “leg-pulling” with their interviewers. I tend to give the most credence, however, to a couple of gentlemen who were boys and young men when they got to know and visited the brothers: Richard Van Dyke, with whom I have corresponded, and Joseph Faulds, the author of the book about them, Conversations with Kid Cougar and Lim Hang High. While both idolized the Brinlees, they seem to have been careful in correspondence to sort out the exaggerations and hooey from the way the brothers actually were.

But instead of trying to distinguish truth from fiction, perhaps a better way to get acquainted with the Brinlee brothers would be to imagine a visit to their ranch. This visit would have taken place in the 1970s, when the brothers were in their 70s and retired from all occupations except taking care of the farm. (Square was born on October 17, 1899, and Bun was born November 9, 1903.)

First we have to get there, and that isn’t always easy, especially in bad weather.
A 1976 article (by Holly McCray in The Times of Blue Ridge, cited below) describes the route to their house:

“Guests must turn off a gravel road northeast of Blue Ridge and drive a mile and a half along a dirt road which steadily becomes narrower and more overgrown with brush and trees. They cross two rickety wooden bridges and make a sharp S-turn [which curved, Van Dyke points out, in order to get through the trees] before reaching the home. When it rains, the dirt road is impossible to travel, and those who do attempt to drive it become hopelessly bogged down in black mud. But the Brinlees are always glad to see people when they do arrive.”

Dallas Morning News columnist Frank Tolbert describes their farm, located northeast of Blue Ridge in Fannin County, Texas:

“They live happily on their 457 acres, inherited from their pa, the late Hoss Brinlee, off in the back roads of Fannin County, between the hamlets of Nobility (population 21) and Frog Not (population 6).

“The house is served by no utilities and with no plumbing and an old-fashioned well over a spring for their water supply.”

The newspaper writers loved to emphasize the fact that the brothers had no utility bills to pay. McCray reports that the brothers made the decision not to wire the house for electricity when their elderly parents were still alive:

“The brothers bought the wire and meter box many years ago to wire the house for electricity. Bun said, ‘Mother and Daddy were invalids and we were gone working a lot. I told Square, what if the house was to catch fire and they were to burn up. You know, that’d be pretty hard to take. So I just never wired it up.’”

Tolbert recalls the old house and the adventures one could encounter in getting there:

“I drove through some of the Brinlee boys’ woods the other day and entered the clearing around the old bachelors’ 1857 dwelling, a mauve-colored frame which seems to ‘grow’ out of the wintery landscape. Those 457 acres have a lot of varmints in residence, especially in the timber of Indian and Pot Rock Creeks, for the Brinlees don’t ‘bother’ the coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and other wild creatures.

“When I honked, the Brinlees’ pack of savage dogs set up a harsh, yet somehow harmonious orchestration." Tolbert and others speculated that some of the dogs were products of interbreeding with local wolves and coyotes: “… when I came down the final quarter mile of spongy-looking roadway in the creek bottom I saw a large, orange-colored wolf or half-breed coyote trotting casually in a pasture about 10 yards off the lane. He didn’t increase his pace at the sight of me.”

Van Dyke recalls their pack of feral dogs: “When we [teenage boys] would walk up, the dogs would hardly look up. Lord help an adult come up.”

Memories of the pleasant atmosphere of the farm and house seem to coincide. McCray describes it thus:

“The Brinlees burn wood [allegedly only from dead trees around the farm or scrap lumber brought by friends] in a sheet iron heater and cook on a wood-burning stove. The rich smell of wood smoke permeates the air around their home. Kerosene lamps provide their light, and a well off the side of the porch furnishes their water. ‘Well water is just as wet as it can be,’ Square joked.” Van Dyke also remembers the well water as the “coolest and best tasting drinking water anyone ever had.”

Contrary to Bessie Sims Sheppard and some of the newspaper accounts, the farm wasn’t quite a “no-kill zone.” The Brinlees allowed young visitors to fish in the “The Falls” with its giant catfish and also to hunt, mostly for food to bring back home to their families. However, the laissez-faire attitude with regard to the wildlife of the area was apparently true. The brothers had a great respect for and rapport with animals; Faulds noted that they shared his high regard for horses as “just four-legged people.”

Visiting took place mostly on the famously rickety front porch or in the main room (one of three rooms in the house) around a pot-bellied stove which gave out a hickory-scented fragrance. One of the questions jokingly asked of the brothers was: “Who has fallen through your front porch lately?”

Inside the house were mementoes from the brother’s varied former professions: cowboy gear including chaps, ropes, and bridles, as well as sombreros and rodeo posters. Though in later years Bun was slowed down by old injuries and Square had arthritis, they had been very active in their younger days. Bun spent 16 years on the rodeo circuit (according to some visitors, both brothers did); his rodeo name was “Kid Cougar.” Both brothers shod horses for a number of years and played music at square dances. One of many explanations for Square’s nickname was that he had been a square-dance caller. In addition to working as a barber, Square was a vaudeville dancer who went under the stage name “Lim Hang High.” He claimed that at one time he could do “35 different professional dancing steps.”

In addition to their respect for animals, abstention from cutting live trees, and life in a house with no running water or electricity, a couple of eccentricities were ascribed to Square in McCray’s article:

“’I eat raw eggs,’ he said. ‘ Three or six at a time, right out of the shell. They’re good for you.’

“Besides unusual eating habits, Square has a unique handwriting style which he developed himself. ‘We’re original-minded men. We don’t copy nobody,’ he said. Individual letters of the alphabet are drawn and shaded in with meticulous care, and Square draws pictures to illustrate various events, such as a wild animal’s head to show what animal he saw by their home one day, or a log to record that they chopped wood. He keeps a record of what the brothers do each day, who visits them and what the weather was in his special writing style on a wall calendar.” [These entries in the squares of the calendar dates are another explanation for his nickname.]

There were numerous rumors and legends in circulation about the brothers when they were alive. Van Dyke respected the brothers’ honesty and Faulds praised their values and spirituality, and both tend to believe the stories of the brothers scaring off visitors who were not honest and did not have honorable motives for their visits.

As one family story I have heard goes, Bun allegedly married a girl in secret, then was too afraid to tell his parents, so he just came home and pretended that he had never married. Bessie Sims Sheppard did write in her article that he married a Mary Josephine MacDonald on 17 September 1928, and I did find a person named Mary Argos Brinlee on Ancestry who theoretically could have been a daughter (Argos was Bun’s middle name), but Bun appears on the 1930 census with his parents as single. This is one mystery that I’d definitely like to find the answer to!

More than one guest noted that visiting the Brinlee brothers was like visiting another century, more like 1876 than 1976. And visitors were keenly aware that the brothers were a connection to a world, time, and way of life that was fast disappearing.


Sources:

Census

William L. Brinlee household, 1900 U.S. Census, Collin County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct 8, dwelling 40, family 40; National Archives Microfilm Publication, Roll T623_1621; Page 2B; Enumeration District 24. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

W. L. Brinlee household, 1930 U.S. Census, Fannin County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct 3; dwelling 217, family 224; National Archives Microfilm Publication, Roll 2331; Page 11A; Enumeration District: 18. Image: 151.0. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

Articles

- From The Times, a Blue Ridge, Texas newspaper:

“For the Brinlee Brothers of Blue Ridge: Water and Light Bills Zero!” by Holly McCray, 7 March 1976.

- From “Tolbert’s Texas,” a column written by Frank Tolbert for the Dallas Morning News:

“Styx town named for river in hell,” 21 March 1976.

“About the lifestyle of Bun and Square,” 23 March 1976.

“An Indian poet’s book on two old palefaces,” 15 July 1976.

“Around the wood stove with the Brinlee boys,” 6 January 1977.

“A low, soggy Indian visits Brinlee ranch,” 27 October 1977.

- From Alice Ellison Pitts and Minnie Pitts Champ, eds., Collin County, Texas, Families, two volumes (Hurst, Texas: Curtis Media, 1994):

“Brinlee, William Leon (Hoss),” by Bessie Sims Sheppard, p. 49, Volume I.

E-mail

“Bun and Square,” e-mail exchange between Richard Van Dyke and author, 16-17 May 2010.

“More information about Bun and Square,” e-mail exchange between the author and Richard Van Dyke, 17 May 2010

“Brinlee cousins,” e-mail exchange between the author and Richard Van Dyke, 21-22 May 2010

“Bun and Square Brinlee,” e-mail exchange between the author and Richard Van Dyke, 29-30 May 2010

Other

World War I Draft Registration Card of Guy Leon Brinlee, National Archives Microfilm roll 1953353. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

Guy Leon (Square) Brinlee obituary, Farmersville Times, 17 November 1978.

Submitted for the 100th (!!!) Carnival of Genealogy, fabulously hosted by the inimitable Jasia, whom I thank for all the encouragement she has given and continues to give to her fellow genea-bloggers. Speaking of people who give encouragement, thanks also to the one and only footnoteMaven for the really neat poster for this COG!

Timeline Portrait of Lizzie Smith: Stitching the Gaps Together

Lizzie with husband Hiram Brinlee, Jr. and sons Odell and Austin ca 1918 (courtesy of Edna S.)

Up until the time when Lizzie Smith Bonner married my great-grandfather Hiram Carroll Brinlee, Jr., every single bit of information about her – every single date – is a guess and an estimate.

It starts with her birth. If you go to the entry for her tombstone at Findagrave, you will see that the date given in the transcription section is April 4, 1860, whereas if you look at her tombstone, the year of her birth is given as 1856.

I don’t believe either one. The first date comes from her obituary and the second may have appeared in a family Bible. The age given on her marriage license and the age indicated on the earliest census on which I have been able to find her (1910) contradict these dates and indicate something closer to 1868 or 1869; the 1920 census age is consistent with this. And the birth of her youngest child Cecil Odell in 1908 makes those early dates a real stretch.

Lizzie’s age starts creeping up on her Application for a Confederate Widow’s Pension and continues through the 1930 census to her death in 1958. The Findagrave entry gives Knoxville as the place of Lizzie’s birth; I would love for that information to be accurate, so that I would at least have a starting point for my research, but I don’t know whether or not I can trust that piece of data, either.

As indicated by the note shown below, Lizzie was probably not trying to inflate her age for the pension application but had genuinely forgotten how old she was:


“leonard tex sep 10th, 1929
dear sir i will wright to yu in regard to my pension i have lost my corect age i am some where in 60 i am not 75 if you can help me any way i shure wood be glad i have no help a tall.
yore friend
susan E. Brinlee”

This uncertainty and confusion continues throughout her early life. You can see how often I have mulled this information over and run through the various permutations in two of my previous articles on Susan Elizabeth Smith “Lizzie” Bonner Brinlee: Lizzie Smith Timeline, which I will reproduce below for reference in this article, and Brickwall Workshops by the Fairfax Genealogical Society, which was a reproduction of the write-up I submitted to the brickwall workshop panel.

Based on a total of 24 Smith-tagged articles, you would think that I have covered Lizzie thoroughly enough; time to drop it for a while! But I will never feel I have done enough and I cannot drop it.

There are several bits of information about Lizzie that help keep this obsession alive. One is the date of her death: July 29, 1958. I was a little girl then. She was still alive when I was born – the only one of my great-grandparents who was – and yet she is the only brickwall great-grandparent.

The second piece of information that haunts me is this item, hidden among some online genealogies as a Post-It note submitted by a second cousin based on information she had heard from her grandmother (Cecil Odell Brinlee’s wife): Lizzie “was from Tennessee and had lived with a family that had taken her in to help work, where she washed dishes by standing on a bucket. Therefore, she had to have been fairly young.” This reveals an additional mystery for Lizzie: Why was she working out as a young child? Was she an orphan or a child of a very poor family?

The third item is merely a family rumor – that Lizzie was part Native American. It’s one item of family lore that I have always cherished and fervently hoped was true. But the genealogical myth-buster in me triumphed and after checking out the Dawes and Guion Miller Rolls with no success, I abandoned that avenue of research. However, at the Brick Wall Workshop sponsored by the Fairfax Genealogical Society that I attended, the first response I got was: What is she doing in Indian Territory in 1891? And especially with a name like Smith? Check those Rolls! So even though I had no success in finding her the first time around, there is a legitimate reason to suspect some Native American connection.

The timeline work for Lizzie has been particularly useful in following a possible lead on her first marriage (“to a Mr. Bonner” according to family researchers, probably based on her name as “Mrs. S. L. Bonner” on the marriage license with Hiram Brinlee). If she was born in 1868-69 and married at age 17 as indicated by the 1930 census, this would give a year of 1885-86 for her first marriage, and there is an 1886 Tennessee marriage record for a Lizzie Smith and a W. T. Banner (I have found no Banner families but did find Bonner families at the location given).

Some time between those years and Lizzie’s marriage to Hiram Brinlee, Mr. Bonner died. And Lizzie ended up in Indian Territory. Were the Bonners Sooners, or did her presence have something to do with Lizzie’s (possible) Native American background?

Between the first “known” date on the timeline, the date of Lizzie’s marriage to Hiram Brinlee, and her death in 1958, all the information falls into three categories: the births of her children, census information, and information provided on her pension application.

And between the birth of daughter Cordelia in 1895 and the birth of son Austin in 1904, there is a gaping hole right where the 1900 census should be. Oh, I have located where the family was, then – Britton Township in Oklahoma Territory – because Hiram, son Louis from his first marriage, and a hired hand are shown living there. But I can’t find Lizzie and the children anywhere else and I suspect they were actually living there, too. So my best hope for nice, juicy information on Lizzie’s month and year of birth is dashed. And one of the most tantalizing things is that, according to the 1910 census, Lizzie had had a total of seven children, of whom only four were living in 1910. Might one or two of those children have been alive in 1900 and have appeared on this census?

The gap in the early years, when Lizzie probably spent time working for another family, and the gap during which she probably gave birth to the children who died, haunt me the most. Why did her maiden name have to be Smith? Why didn’t she appear on the 1900 census? Why couldn’t someone have asked her more questions about her past when she was still alive? I am still trying to stitch those gaps together.


Lizzie with sons Odell, Austin, and Lawrence, sometime in the 1930s? (Courtesy of George B.)

Timeline

4 April 1868: Birth of Susan Elizabeth “Lizzie” Smith in Tennessee (state from US Federal Censuses 1910, 1920, 1930 and Susan E. Brinlee’s Widow’s Application for Confederate Pension, day and month by hearsay from family Bible, now believed to have been burned, and year based on age reported on marriage license of H. C. Brinlee and Mrs. S. L. Bonner).

1885/1886: According to the 1930 census, Lizzie first married at the age of 17; I would guess this happened in Tennessee. [According to Tennessee marriage records, a W. T. Banner married a Lizzie Smith in October 1886 in McMinn County, Tennessee.]

3 December 1891: Lizzie marries Hiram Carroll Brinlee, Jr., in White Bead Hill, Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma.

29 January 1893: Son Lawrence Carroll Brinlee born in String Town, Atoka, Oklahoma (Paul’s Valley is given as his place of birth on his WWI Draft Registration Card).

8 June 1895: Daughter Cordelia Lee “Cordie” Brinlee born in Oklahoma.

25 June 1900: Hiram appears on the 1900 US Federal Census for Britton Township, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Territory; Lizzie and the children may be living with him.

1902: The year Hiram and Lizzie may have moved from Oklahoma to Texas, as reported by Lizzie on her Confederate Widow’s Pension Application.

6 April 1904: Son Austin Franklin Brinlee born in Farmersville, Collin County, Texas.

23 September 1908: Son Cecil Odell Brinlee born in Collin County, Texas.

4 May 1910: Hiram and Lizzie appear on the US Federal Census for Justice Precinct 2, Hunt County, Texas.

22 August 1913: Hiram Brinlee files Confederate Soldier’s Application for a Pension in Grayson County, Texas.

30 January 1920: Hiram and Lizzie appear on the US Federal Census for Farris, Atoka Co., Oklahoma. Hiram had died on 20 January, but the census-taker must have been following the instructions, which indicated that “individuals alive on 1 January but deceased when the enumerator arrived were to be counted.”

27 July 1925: Lizzie files her Confederate Widow’s Pension application from Collin County, Texas.

10 Sep 1929: Lizzie writes a letter requesting assistance with her Pension application; the location is given as Leonard, Texas (Leonard is in Fannin County).

21 April 1930: Lizzie appears on the US Federal Census living with her son Austin in Fannin County, Texas.

9 April 1953: Lizzie’s son Lawrence Brinlee dies.

29 July 1958: Lizzie dies in Plano, Collin County, Texas. She apparently had lived for some years with her youngest son, Cecil Odell, who signed the application for her mortuary warrant and her death certificate. Her death certificate indicates her stay in Plano as “several years.”

Sources

- Marriage License of H. C. Brinlee and Mrs. S. L. Bonner, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, 1 December 1891. Photocopy.

- Certificate of Marriage of H. C. Brinlee and Mrs. S. L. Bonner, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, 3 December 1891. Photocopy.

- Widow’s Application for a Confederate Pension No. 41103 for Susan Elizabeth Brinlee, Collin County, State of Texas, 27 July 1925.

- World War I Draft Registration Card of Lawrence Carroll Brinlee. Registration Location: Fannin County, Texas. Roll 1953353. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

- Certificate of Death of Lawrence Carroll Brinlee, 11 April 1953, State of Texas, State File No. 24235. Digital image accessed via Family Search Record Search.

- Certificate of Death of Cordie Lee Clinton, 25 May 1961, State of Texas, State File No. 26177. Digital image accessed via Family Search Record Search.

- Certificate of Death of Austin Franklin Brinlee, 17 November 1976, State of Texas, State File No. 82039. Digital imaged accessed via Family Search Record Search.

- Application for Social Security Account Number of Cecil Odell Brinlee, 454-26-3341, 6 January 1940. Photocopy.

- Hiram C. Brinlee household, 1900 US Federal Census, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Territory, population schedule, Britton Township, dwelling 191, family 191, Roll T623_1340, Page 10B, Enumeration District 158. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

- Harm [Hiram] C. Brinlee household, 1910 US Federal Census, Hunt County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct Two, dwelling 283, family 288, Roll T624-1566, Page 19B, Enumeration District 119. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

- Hiram C. Brinlee household, 1920 US Federal Census, Atoka County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Farris Township, dwelling 295, family 297, Roll T625-1452, Page 15B, Enumeration District 7. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

- Austin F. Brinlee household, 1930 US Federal Census, Fannin County, Texas, population schedule, Precinct 3, dwelling 295, family 302, Roll 2331, Page 14B, Enumeration District 18. Accessed via Ancestry.com.



The above is submitted for the 91st Carnival of Genealogy, “A Tribute to Women!” March is women's history month and a great time to honor the women on our family trees. This is will be the 4th annual edition on this topic so we're going to change it up just a bit to keep it fresh... Write a biography about a woman on your family tree starting with a timeline of their life. Thank you to Jasia at Creative Gene for hosting and to footnoteMaven for the beautiful poster.

New Year’s Genealogy Resolutions for 2010

So little time, so much to do. That’s the first thought that occurs to me as I reflect on the accomplishments and shortcomings of the past year and try to plan and make resolutions for my genealogy research in the coming year.

During the past year I have I have devoted more time to genea-blogging, and it has definitely paid off. It achieved one of my stated blogging goals, putting me in contact with other researchers and especially with relatives: my younger brother and many newly found cousins – generous Brinlee cousins who have kindly shared family pictures with me, GeneaBlogger cousin Vicky Everhart, and Ethelene Dyer Jones, a cousin through my Dyer line. In addition, blogging has provided me much needed practice in writing about genealogy. I loved the research – the thrill of the hunt – but had not been disciplined enough to write up the results. Also, having to write up research results often provided the necessary prod to put the final touches on my research and tie together all those little scraps of paper. The articles are not always perfect, but they do the job and I have even been happy with the results for a few of them. It was especially gratifying to write about the things I had learned about my great uncles William Henry Lewis and Preston E. Moore, to outline my brickwall smashing strategies for my great-grandmother Lizzie Smith Brinlee, and to actually record some memories for descendants to read in the Memory Monday posts. Genealogy blogging carnivals, Amy’s blogging prompts, and Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun have truly helped to focus both my research and my writing efforts. (A special nod to Randy – there were a number of SNGFs that actually ended up in something resembling a real research outline – I never expected that!)

Work has been responsible for taking a chunk of time away – sometimes for travel and sometimes simply because I am so tired after work that I cannot sit down at a computer and concentrate. The final thing that has reduced genealogy time for me has been something that I can only describe as a guilt complex – the feeling that there is always some household or yard chore that I should be doing or errand I should be running before I can indulge in the luxury of sitting down to do genealogy. Yes, sometimes I actually feel guilty doing genealogy because I enjoy it so much!

So my first resolution is to make more time for time for genealogy research as well as for genealogy writing. This will definitely include devoting a large block of time to transcription, which was one of my resolutions for last year. This resolution was only partly carried out; I did transcribe a large number of obituaries that I ordered over the course of the year, but did next to nothing on the Civil War service records and pension applications or any of the newspaper articles on Sheriff Henry Lewis. Those must be made a top priority this year.

Though there were some research accomplishments this year (mostly on the Samuel Moore project), a lot of it was scattershot and many projects suffered constant interruptions. So, unlike last year, I am going to make some specific project-related resolutions:

- Finish inputting information on the Joseph Madison Carroll family. The day after Christmas I learned that the Heritage Book for Garland County Arkansas has been published and is available for purchase, so I immediately sent in my order. I’m hoping it will provide a wealth of information on my Normans.

- Input the information for the Hiram Carroll Brinlee Sr. and Betsy McKinney family, which will wrap the great-great grandparent level of data entry.

- Push my Lizzie Smith brick wall research as far as I can. Try to track down the origin of “Knoxville” as her place of birth. If this is credible, focus on Smith families in that area. Also work up a database on promising Bonner (first husband) families and try to correlate them. A large map of Tennessee with color-coded push pins may be in my future….

- One of the “big” projects on the next (great-great-great grandparent) level I want to work on is the Elisha Lewis-Rosannah Dalrymple family. Many (perhaps all but one) of their children may be “backward orphans,” which was a subject of the 85th COG, so this will definitely be a research project of love for me.

General resolutions and plans:

- Join at least one additional genealogy society (I belong to the Fairfax Genealogical Society), either NGS or a local one in an area of interest.

- Having taken advantage of the half-price deal for a Footnote subscription, now I really need to make that thing pay for itself. Also need to do a serious survey of online newspaper resources to see which, if any, are available for my geographic areas of research (thank you, Miriam Midkiff of Ancestories, for taking up just this very subject with your new website and blog!).

- Serious photo scanning may have to wait until finances are favorable for the purchase of a high-quality scanner, but I can at least do some photo organization to get ready for that.

-Blogging: Continue with regular features such as Family Newsletter Friday and Follow Friday and occasional features such as Please Keep These Things. I will continue with Memory Monday as much as possible, but may occasionally substitute with Amanuensis Monday (nod to John Newmark) to highlight some of those documents that I am going to be transcribing… Do more research-related posts. And, to mention my other failed resolution from last year, I would still like to become a more technologically proficient blogger (maybe switch to 3-column format?).

Submitted for the 87th Carnival of Genealogy.

Dear Genea-Santa: 86th Carnival of Genealogy

We can't go into the Christmas holiday without our genealogy wish lists for Genea-Santa!!! So write up a list of what you'd like Genea-Santa to bring you and share it in the COG :-)

Dear Genea-Santa:

This is my second letter this year to Genea-Santa, but I think you must be a different Genea-Santa, because that other one is kind of stingy. He only let us ask for one thing. So, in order to improve the odds that I’ll get at least something that I ask for this year, like a little kid who has received a refusal from one parent and has decided to do an end-run by approaching the other parent with the same request, I am going to write to you, too.

I also have to admit that you have already started out the Christmas season for me with a bang when you fixed it up with my Brinlee cousins for me to receive a picture of my Grandfather Lawrence Carroll Brinlee. That was so cool and a big surprise, too, and I am so grateful. Then there was the picture of my great-great grandfather Joseph Madison Carroll Norman that was also sent to me this year by a Norman cousin. Awesome!

I do have to start out with my Number One Request: I would like one document – any type of document, but I would like for the document to have had a reliable source – that provides the names of my great-grandmother Susan Elizabeth Smith Bonner Brinlee’s parents.

The pictures reminded me of a couple of other things that would be nice to have. Since I now have pictures of four of my great-grandparents, it would be great to have a picture of the other four: Harlston Perrin Moore and Martha E. Lewis as well as William Henry Norman and Sarah Jane Sisson.

If it is not too much extra trouble, I would love to have a really good clue that would help me find the wife of Samuel Moore (d. 1828) of Greenville County, South Carolina.

And, like many other GeneaBloggers, I think it would be wonderful to have a lot more time to devote to genealogical research and preserving my family history.

Although there are many other things I would like, I’ll save them for other years, Santa. This seems like plenty for you to do and I think it would keep me quite busy, too. With just a little more time and a few good clues, I could take it from there.

So take it easy and rest up, Genea-Santa. If you only answer a fraction of the requests on the GeneaBloggers’ wish lists, you’re going to be a busy guy.

Yours faithfully,

Greta

Carnival of Genealogy 85: The Continuing Saga of Orphans and Orphans

As I suspected, there is at least one “Orphans and Orphans” post I missed, and it has several intriguing twists, so you won’t want to miss this one: Charles Hansen’s “Orphans for the Carnival of Genealogy #85” at Mikkel’s Hus. (This is cross-posted in the main Carnival post and as a separate post). The biggest mystery in Charles’ story of his great-uncle Laurits Hansen is this: How can one of a pair of twins, the one who was reported as dying at five days after birth, have survived to become father to a family of a family of 11 children? The path to the solution of this mystery involves twins, an early christening, a flood, and one of the pitfalls of research using microfilm. My apologies for missing this one, Charles - it's a humdinger!

85th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Orphans and Orphans

Many thanks to Jasia for all her encouragement and to footnote Maven for coming up with another wonderful COG poster.

Welcome to the 85th Carnival of Genealogy. I cannot describe how excited I am to be hosting this edition, which deals with a subject that is very dear to me, particularly in the context of genealogy: Orphans. (Even the problems with the blog carnival site have not been able to dim my enthusiasm.) Participants were invited to write about one or both types of “orphans” we encounter in genealogy:

The first type of orphan refers to those ancestors or relatives who lost their parents when they were young.

The second type of orphan would be those siblings or cousins of our ancestors who could be called “reverse orphans.” They are the relatives who, for whatever reason – death at a young age, never having married or had children, or having children who did not survive to provide descendants – have no direct descendants of their own, so it falls to us, their collateral relatives, to learn and write their story.

And, with her usual ingenuity, footnote Maven has come up with a third type of orphan in genealogy!

No matter what type of orphan, their stories are touching and often inspiring. In addition, these tales often carry a mystery within them. I am delighted to see what a strong emotional hold our “orphans” have over those of us who do genealogy research. The message comes across loud and strong in these articles – whether expressed in so many words or demonstrated by the loving care devoted to the research – that the stories of these people deserve to be told. As these articles demonstrate, studying these relatives also improves the quality of our research as a whole. It was also striking how groups such as the Graveyard Rabbits and geneablogging themes such as “Tombstone Tuesday” help to perpetuate the memory of people who might otherwise be forgotten.

If you submitted an article to the Carnival of Genealogy using the submission form and do not see your article below, my profound apologies. The blog carnival submission site stopped worked after the first few days. Just let me know and I will include your blog in this article as well as post it in its own separate article.

Now let the stories begin:

In “Tombstone Tuesday – John S. KINNICK,” Dr. Bill Smith of Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories describes a mystery involving a “reverse orphan” ancestor in which a family legend is smashed by a tombstone. You’ll have to read the story to see what that means!

Cathy Palm of Cameron Collections tells of a wonderful relative she was privileged to know personally in “Who Else Would Tell Her Story? Adelia McCrea – Renowned Mycologist.” Adelia, a pioneer in the field of science, was quite an accomplished woman - you can even take a look at one of her patents! This is not Cathy’s first Carnival post, but it is the first for Cameron Collections.

Over at the Folk Archivist’s Blog (this is a new blog to me, and am I glad to find it!), in “Spinster and Bachelors, not just lifeless limbs in our family trees,” Liza Painter provides a superb analysis of the importance of our spinster, bachelor, and childless relatives, emphasizing equally the important roles they played in family life, the contributions they made to society as a whole, and how they enrich our family research.

Dorene from Ohio has written a touching tribute to a young football player who life was cut short by an automobile accident in “Chester John Thompson, Football Star” at the Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay. This article illustrates how the work of Graveyard Rabbits and GeneaBloggers can help to preserve the memory of people like Chester, who died too young to marry and have a family.

The Carnival provides an introduction to another interesting new blogger: J. Mulder over at Tracing My Roots. Her “Orphans” COG entry is “The Forgotten Uncle” – love that title! J. M. writes: “I choose the second definition of Orphans, the reverse orphan. This ancestor fits the bill exactly, and so I decided to write an article about him. It brought some surprises, to say the least!” Imagine finding out that you had an uncle you had never heard about before. J. M. was able to locate pictures and several documents, and has used them to put together an informative and moving portrait of her “forgotten uncle.”

Far from being forgotten, the memory of an aunt who died as a baby has been preserved and cherished, as described in Joan Hill’s article “Carnival of Genealogy’s Orphans and Orphans: Baby Irene” at Roots’n’Leaves. Joan’s telling of the story of Baby Irene’s short life packs a powerful emotional punch and skillfully conveys the “need to tell the story” that compels us to write about these orphans. It involves a picture of a beloved family member, family stories, and, what is quite fascinating, the possible genetic explanation behind Baby Irene’s death and the family childbearing pattern.

At Reflections from the Fence, Carol’s story of her “orphan” relative in “85th Carnival of Genealogy, Orphans and Orphans” is particularly intriguing because the relative to whom she has written a wonderful tribute is both a “reverse orphan” and a “regular orphan.” Carol’s story of a talented and witty woman whose life was cut short too early has some dramatic twists and turns that will draw you in.

John Newmark at TransvylanianDutch, who seems to have a full plate of orphan relatives of both types, need no prodding to preserve the memory of “reverse orphan” relatives; he has already posted a number of articles on his great uncles Mandell Newmark and Samuel Van Every. Moreover, in “Orphans” he outlines a fascinating “orphan-related” (or more precisely, “orphanage-related”) mystery in his family history. The ultimate fate of another family of orphans also remains unknown. Given John’s sleuthing skills, we can look forward to reading about how he gets to the bottom of these mysteries.

Apple’s touching story of “Rose” at Apple’s Tree really tugged at my heart because it reminds me so much of my own brick wall great-grandmother. It is an irresistible combination of mystery – actually, several mysteries – with a heartrending tale of how her great-grandmother had to experience the fate of an orphan even though her parents were still living. Apple has done some outstanding detective work to fill in the blanks in Rose’s life, and her yearning to learn the remaining “whys” and “what-ifs” is contagious.

Katrina’s tale of the McQuarrie twins at Kick-Ass Genealogy, “Ausker and Olive McQuarrie: Carnival of Genealogy 85 (Orphans and Orphans),” demonstrates how compelling we find the stories of those we research, even when we’re not quite sure that we are related to them. Katrina details her efforts to explain discrepancies in records and we are left wondering if the continual reappearance of the twins in her searches is their way of telling her that they want their story told. You’ll have an itch to learn the true story of these twins.

Ruth Stephens’ thought-provoking and affectionate article at Bluebonnet Country Genealogy, “85th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Orphans and Orphans,” poses the question that must nag at so many researchers: “What if?” Ruth has orphans of both kinds in her family history and has compiled a brief photo history of each of them. By the way, I am embarrassed to admit that I did not original include Bluebonnet Country Genealogy in my list of Texas-connected GeneaBloggers (“The Texas Team”); that has been corrected.

In “Miss Johanna Tieking,” Bev Bird of Tieking – Stevenson Families pays tribute to one of the very people who accumulated the family treasures that Bev is now able to use to learn and write her family history. Bev eloquently expresses the sense of responsibility many of us feel for keeping our childless and single relatives’ memories alive.

At The Pieces of My Past, Tracy spins the tale of how a paper with seven names gave but a hint of the tragedy-laden story that lay behind the list in “COG 85: Orphans and Orphans.” Tracy also makes a good case for looking at all the family circumstances when we form our definition of an “orphan.” An excellent example of weaving a story from all the little bits of information!

In “Orphaned by Another Means,” TCasteel of Tangled Trees presents the challenge of learning more about a great-grandmother who lost one parent and was abandoned to a harsh fate by the other parent. There is a family legend and some conflicting scraps of information – a familiar paucity of information to anyone who has researched a brick wall. As I also have a great-grandmother who was said to have had to work for another family at a young age, this story touched me and I am eager to learn more.

In “COG: Lee Rutter – How Do You Connect?” Jen of ShawGenealogy shows the tenacity that genealogists need to have when they pursue the story of an “orphan” relative whose story consists of puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together. And, of course, the compulsion to learn more never goes away, no matter much meticulous research may have uncovered, as Jen so ably demonstrates.

Bill West of West in New England pulls together all the pieces of information on his Grant Aunt Winnie, who died at around age forty without every marrying, in “Winifred McFarland.” Bill’s article is a good example and reminder to assemble and record all the documents, photographs, and oral history about each of our relatives who may still be present in the keepsakes and memories of the living.

The beautifully told and poignant story in Tonia’s article for the COG, “Orphans and Orphans: A Sad Bit of History,” at Tonia’s Roots, begins and ends with headstones. What I especially love (among other things) about this article is that it puts the story of the family in question into historical context.

At Genea-Musings, Randy Seaver’s “Orphans of two kinds” recounts the histories of both types of orphans who have appeared in his family tree. He has posted previously on these orphan relatives and you should click on the links to the articles if you have not read them already in order to experience the full poignancy of all these short lives. The recounting of the causes of death alone is enough to make you grateful to be alive in the 21st century.

Jasia of Creative Gene honors her Aunt Gee in “Remembering an Aunt with Many Names.” This beautiful tribute is a wonderful way to remember a generous and beloved aunt who had no children of her own and at the end of her life did not even have a funeral or memorial. My wish for all of our “orphan” relatives would be to be remembered in just this way.

footnoteMaven, ever alert, has caught an omission in my typology of orphans. There is yet a third type, described in her contribution, “An Orphanage.” I am definitely eager to follow fM’s progress as she tries to identify her orphans. (From now on I will always think of any collection of orphan photos as an orphanage.) Good luck with your quest, fM, and please keep us updated on what you learn and how you learn it!

Preston Moore was the first “reverse orphan” ancestor I ever researched and he is the one who pulled me into this obsession. It just did not seem fair that my cousin and I knew what happened to all of his siblings and knew nothing of his fate. My ignorance about Civil War military units and lack of experience in genealogical research probably made my search for him more circuitous than it needed to be, with some false starts and dead ends along the way, but I am glad I never gave up. I have recorded the tale of this search and its results in “Orphans and Orphans: Searching for Preston Moore” and “The Two Preston Moores.”

As I suspected, there is at least one “Orphans and Orphans” post I missed, and it has several intriguing twists, so you won’t want to miss this one: Charles Hansen’s “Orphans for the Carnival of Genealogy #85” at Mikkel’s Hus. (This is cross-posted in the main Carnival post and as a separate post). The biggest mystery in Charles’ story of his great-uncle Laurits Hansen is this: How can one of a pair of twins, the one who was reported as dying at five days after birth, have survived to become father to a family of a family of 11 children? The path to the solution of this mystery involves twins, an early christening, a flood, and one of the pitfalls of research using microfilm. My apologies for missing this one, Charles - it's a humdinger!

That concludes the 85th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. My thanks to all who participated; I am certain that readers will enjoy your submissions and learn from them, as I have. And now, you all know what comes next:

Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: The Other Holiday Happenings! Often times December to mid-January birthdays and anniversaries get over shadowed by the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year holidays. So we're going to shine a spotlight on those family members and ancestors this time around. Select one or more December to mid-January birthdays and/or anniversaries on your family tree. Write a short tribute to or memory of those birthday guys and gals and write a toast to the anniversary couples. Share it in the COG!

And this edition will have a Part 2 as well (separate blog post)! We can't go into the Christmas holiday without our genealogy wish lists for Genea-Santa!!! So write up a list of what you'd like Genea-Santa to bring you and share it in the COG :-) The deadline for all entries is December 15th. This edition will be hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Blog Carnival Site Problems and COG Deadline Extension

Since the blog carnival website has been down and I may have to spend time "scooping up" any articles that did not get submitted via e-mail any way, I am extending the submission deadline by a day "or so." So keep those e-mail submissions coming!

Carnival Submission Site Still Not Working

As far as I can tell, the Carnival submission site is still not working. I have received several e-mails from people who have received no confirmation of their submissions, and no notification has been sent to me for these articles, either.

If you do not receive e-mail confirmation when you submit your article, that means that I have not received notice of your submission.

For the time being, it is probably best to notify me by e-mail (with the URL of your blog) that you are submitting an article to the Carnival of Genealogy.

I am "trolling" blogs the best I can and making note of "Orphans" articles I find, but I may miss some. I apologize again for any convenience.

If you are encountering problems with the Carnival of Genealogy submission form

just send me a note (by e-mail using the Contact button at the left or in a comment on this article) with the URL for your blog and I'll include your article in my list of submissions.

Thanks to Apple and Carol for alerting me to this problem!

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Sunday afternoon update: The COG submission site still seems not to be working, so please feel free to submit articles in an e-mail to me using the Contact button on the left of the blog or in a comment, and I'll make sure you are included on the list. I sent a message to the Carnival site team, but have not received a reply yet.

Call for Submissions for the 85th Edition of the COG: Orphans and Orphans

(Many thanks to footnote Maven for once again creating the perfect poster for the subject of the Carnival of Genealogy.)

I am thrilled to be hosting the 85th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic, “Orphans and Orphans,” can be interpreted as follows:

The first type of orphan refers to those ancestors or relatives who lost their parents when they were young.

The second type of orphan would be those siblings or cousins of our ancestors who could be called “reverse orphans.” They are the relatives who, for whatever reason – death at a young age, never having married or had children, or having children who did not survive to provide descendants – have no direct descendants of their own, so it falls to us, their collateral relatives, to learn and write their story.

Submit your blog article to the Carnival of Genealogy using the Carnival submission form. If you have any questions, see Jasia’s “FAQs About the Carnival of Genealogy,” which contains complete instructions for submitting a post, or you can use the Contact button on the left side of this blog to contact me.

I look forward to reading your submissions and hope that we will see some first-timers for this edition of the COG!

The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2009.

Note: As noted in the comments, there have been some problems with the Carnival submission form site. If you do encounter any problems, just send me a note using the Contact button on the left and I will make sure that your submission is included.

What the Carnival of Genealogy Means to Me

The following post is submitted for the 84th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.

The first Carnival of Genealogy I ever participated in was the first one for this year, and the subject was New Year’s resolutions for genealogy research and blogging. “This is a good idea,” I thought. “It will be a reminder and a prod to do what I need to do with genealogy.” To keep my goals within the realm of the attainable, I made only two resolutions: to transcribe more materials and to become more technically proficient at blogging. Then, at the last minute, I added “commit one memory a week to paper [which] will show up on the blog for ‘Memory Monday.’”

That last-minute resolution was the most successful of the three and ended up being one of the main recurring features of this blog. And it has resulted in something that I would never have accomplished otherwise: writing down my own life story for my family and descendants. Despite all the best intentions, this is something I never would have done. On the other hand, it has always been easier for me to break large tasks down into smaller ones. And by taking one small subject, event, or memory at a time, I have been able to focus on making that account more immediate and, I hope, more “memorable.”

The theme of my first Carnival of Genealogy entry was significant because it has helped me to set research goals and plan and focus my research more effectively. Even COG topics that deal with the actual stories of our ancestors’ lives compel us to try to write up research results in a way that will be interesting and appealing, rather than just a dry enumeration of facts. It’s not enough just to find the information on our ancestors; we have to pass it on and do it in way that will engage our readers, make them reflect, and make them want to know more.

Not every post I have submitted for the Carnival of Genealogy has been as artfully written as I would have liked, but all in all, I have a sense of accomplishment when I reflect on what I’ve written over the course of the past year.

There have been 12 Carnivals of Genealogy in which I have participated (clicking on “Carnival of Genealogy” under “Labels” below will bring them all up). I enjoyed writing all of them and wish I could have participated in more Carnivals. My favorites were probably My Three Aunts: Nobody’s Fools, Uncle, Uncle – William Henry Lewis: A Little Man Who Stood Tall; Tinner Hill: Desegregation, Graveyards, and My Fireplace; My Mother, the High School Graduate; and More on the Fiddling Moores.

My favorite part of each Carnival of Genealogy is reading all of the different posts on the same subject. The variety of approaches taken by the different genea-bloggers is astounding: heartfelt memories, poems, spoofs, cliffhangers, you name it. This reflects the infinite possibilities of writing about our families. It reveals the truth about family history: it is fascinating.

It just so happens that the next Carnival of Genealogy is one that I will be hosting, and I am honored to wind up my first year of participation in the Carnival of Genealogy this way. The topic I have chosen is one that is near and dear to me: “Orphans and Orphans.” The first type of orphan refers to those ancestors or relatives who lost their parents when they were young. The second type of orphan would be those siblings or cousins of our ancestors whom I think of as “reverse orphans.” They are the relatives who, for whatever reason – death at a young age, never having married or had children, or having children who did not survive to provide descendants – have no direct descendants of their own, so it falls to us, their collateral relatives, to learn and write their story.