Here is Randy Seaver’s (Genea-Musings) latest genea-challenge:
1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on NBC TV.
2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?
The first ancestor I would feature would be my great-great uncle, William Henry Lewis, who was the sheriff of Dallas County from 1886 to 1892. We would start out at his birthplace, Anderson County, South Carolina. Further research would put us in contact with John Hornady, the gentleman who provided me with so much information and generously passed to me the Lewis family artifacts (letters, documents, pictures) that he had in his possession. This would give us information on Henry’s adventures as sheriff – stopping two lynchings, bringing in various other criminals, and others – as well as his marriage to the love of his life, Julia Mister, and their role in bringing up the children of Julia’s good friend Bettie Curtice Rosser following Bettie’s death. That portion of the show would take part in Dallas County. It would be neat if we could locate and interview descendants of A. C. Thurman, the gentleman who wrote the letter featured in one of the posts below.
The second relative would probably be my great-great grandfather Hiram Brinlee, Sr. We would tell the story of how he and his brother George went from Kentucky to Texas with Collin and Daniel McKinney and how the two brothers married Daniel McKinney’s daughters. The second part of the story would cover their trial(s) for murder and attempted murder during the days of the Republic of Texas. Locations would be Collin County, Texas, specifically the “Four Corners” of Texas where Grayson, Fannin, Hunt, and Collin counties meet, as well as a repository holding records of the Republic of Texas.
[The genea-geek in me actually wants to cover the story of my great-great uncle Preston Moore as related in Searching for Preston Moore, but that’s probably not considered exciting enough for prime-time TV.]
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 5 March 2010
Research
Gradually getting back into my research routine after Olympics, GeneaBloggers games, and being away for a few days.
Smith
Had a “duh!” moment during the GeneaBloggers Games. I have been wanting to make a “pushpin map” of Tennessee for my Lizzie Smith project. The map would show the county lines and the pushpins would represent known 1870 residences of the families that are viable candidates to be Lizzie’s family. Since Knox and McMinn counties are of particular interest, I wanted to get an idea of which families are closest to those areas. My original idea was to create or locate a good paper map and use real pushpins. But during the GeneaBloggers Games it occurred to me – duh! – why not use the My Maps feature on Google Maps?
Blogs
Added 6 March: Ack! I see that I left out a post that I definitely intended to highlight: "The Walk Home" at Donna Pointkowski's What's Past Is Prologue. Donna illustrates an important part of capturing memories: it is not just individual events, but also rituals and routines that are important. And her description of the sights, sounds, and smells of that walk is very evocative. I'll have to use that prompt!
Bart at Stardust ‘n’ Roots has a great idea about where to display awards (in his case, he put his GeneaBloggers Games medals there): a virtual Fireplace Mantle, aka a separate page on his blog. Think I’ll steal the idea.
Kathleen Brandt at a3Genealogy talks about citation generators in “Evidence Explained Missing.” Gotta get me one of those.
Jasia at Creative Gene has a fascinating (and oh-so-true) article on genealogy as therapy.
And finally, why am I getting the feed from some blog to do with Audi? It appears to have hijacked the defunct (I think) Graveyard Rabbit of Covered Bridges blog. Sploggers, blog hijacking (there is even a blog devoted to busting those guys that I discovered when I was trying to find out why my Comment Button didn’t work), spam comments – just sick of them all!
Gradually getting back into my research routine after Olympics, GeneaBloggers games, and being away for a few days.
Smith
Had a “duh!” moment during the GeneaBloggers Games. I have been wanting to make a “pushpin map” of Tennessee for my Lizzie Smith project. The map would show the county lines and the pushpins would represent known 1870 residences of the families that are viable candidates to be Lizzie’s family. Since Knox and McMinn counties are of particular interest, I wanted to get an idea of which families are closest to those areas. My original idea was to create or locate a good paper map and use real pushpins. But during the GeneaBloggers Games it occurred to me – duh! – why not use the My Maps feature on Google Maps?
Blogs
Added 6 March: Ack! I see that I left out a post that I definitely intended to highlight: "The Walk Home" at Donna Pointkowski's What's Past Is Prologue. Donna illustrates an important part of capturing memories: it is not just individual events, but also rituals and routines that are important. And her description of the sights, sounds, and smells of that walk is very evocative. I'll have to use that prompt!
Bart at Stardust ‘n’ Roots has a great idea about where to display awards (in his case, he put his GeneaBloggers Games medals there): a virtual Fireplace Mantle, aka a separate page on his blog. Think I’ll steal the idea.
Kathleen Brandt at a3Genealogy talks about citation generators in “Evidence Explained Missing.” Gotta get me one of those.
Jasia at Creative Gene has a fascinating (and oh-so-true) article on genealogy as therapy.
And finally, why am I getting the feed from some blog to do with Audi? It appears to have hijacked the defunct (I think) Graveyard Rabbit of Covered Bridges blog. Sploggers, blog hijacking (there is even a blog devoted to busting those guys that I discovered when I was trying to find out why my Comment Button didn’t work), spam comments – just sick of them all!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Transcription Tuesday: Letter from A. C. Thurman, a Representative of the Black Community of Dallas, to Sheriff William Henry Lewis
Below are the scanned images and transcript of a letter, dated May 26, 1892, from A. C. Thurman, a representative of the Black community of Dallas, to Sheriff William Henry Lewis.
Context of the letter:
The letter was written in response to Sheriff Lewis’ actions in preventing the attempted lynching of an African-American man named Henry Miller. The information I have on this case comes from two main sources. One is my copy of an article written in tribute to Henry Lewis by Jack Hornady, husband of one of the children Henry and his wife Julia helped to raise after the children’s mother, Julia’s good friend Bettie Curtice Rosser, died. The other source consists of several newspaper articles, some transcribed at Jim Wheat’s Dallas County Texas Archives and others downloaded from the archives of the Dallas Morning News.
In 1892 Henry Miller was being held for the murder of Police Officer O. C. Brewer when a large mob, estimated at 2,500, attempted to seize and lynch Miller. According to Jack Hornady’s article, Dallas Times-Herald publisher Edwin J. Keist told the story of “how when he first reached Dallas as a young newspaperman out looking for a career, he got off the train and saw a large crowd surrounding the courthouse and jail. He worked his way through the crowd until he reached the gate to the jail yard. By then he realized that this was a mob bent on taking a prisoner from the jail and lynching him.
“Mr. Keist saw a slender little man sitting on the jail steps with a rifle across his knees. Then he heard this man say to the crowd: “I will shoot the first man who comes through that gate – even if he’s my brother.” And no one dared go through the gate because they knew he meant it. Soon the crowd dispersed.”
This is the event to which Mr. A. C. Thurman was referring in his letter.
Jim Wheat’s Dallas County Texas Archives also contains a reference to A. C. Thurman on a page of transcripts of newspaper articles on African-Americans in Dallas. There are also several other articles on the Henry Miller case that can be located by going to the Dallas Archives page and searching for “Henry Miller.”
United States Post Office,
Dallas
Dallas County
State of Texas
May 26, 1892
Mr. Henry Lewis (Sheriff)
Sir your actions in the preventing the collard man Henry Miller the murderer of Policeman Brewer from being takend from Jail and hanged at the hands of an infuriated mob certainly meets the approval of all colared citizens of Dallas.
Not because the colared people desire for him to escape punishment but mainly because it is claimed, especially by men at the north that colored men here are mobbed without trial and the officers and the leading white citizens all in favor of mob law. Dallas put herself on record Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans all have alike let mobs disgrace their good names.
Allow me again to congratulate you and all the better element of our white citizens for the suppression of the mob.
Dallas should feel proud of so noble such an officer.
I am very Sincere
A.C. Thurman
a colard man
Context of the letter:
The letter was written in response to Sheriff Lewis’ actions in preventing the attempted lynching of an African-American man named Henry Miller. The information I have on this case comes from two main sources. One is my copy of an article written in tribute to Henry Lewis by Jack Hornady, husband of one of the children Henry and his wife Julia helped to raise after the children’s mother, Julia’s good friend Bettie Curtice Rosser, died. The other source consists of several newspaper articles, some transcribed at Jim Wheat’s Dallas County Texas Archives and others downloaded from the archives of the Dallas Morning News.
In 1892 Henry Miller was being held for the murder of Police Officer O. C. Brewer when a large mob, estimated at 2,500, attempted to seize and lynch Miller. According to Jack Hornady’s article, Dallas Times-Herald publisher Edwin J. Keist told the story of “how when he first reached Dallas as a young newspaperman out looking for a career, he got off the train and saw a large crowd surrounding the courthouse and jail. He worked his way through the crowd until he reached the gate to the jail yard. By then he realized that this was a mob bent on taking a prisoner from the jail and lynching him.
“Mr. Keist saw a slender little man sitting on the jail steps with a rifle across his knees. Then he heard this man say to the crowd: “I will shoot the first man who comes through that gate – even if he’s my brother.” And no one dared go through the gate because they knew he meant it. Soon the crowd dispersed.”
This is the event to which Mr. A. C. Thurman was referring in his letter.
Jim Wheat’s Dallas County Texas Archives also contains a reference to A. C. Thurman on a page of transcripts of newspaper articles on African-Americans in Dallas. There are also several other articles on the Henry Miller case that can be located by going to the Dallas Archives page and searching for “Henry Miller.”
United States Post Office,
Dallas
Dallas County
State of Texas
May 26, 1892
Mr. Henry Lewis (Sheriff)
Sir your actions in the preventing the collard man Henry Miller the murderer of Policeman Brewer from being takend from Jail and hanged at the hands of an infuriated mob certainly meets the approval of all colared citizens of Dallas.
Not because the colared people desire for him to escape punishment but mainly because it is claimed, especially by men at the north that colored men here are mobbed without trial and the officers and the leading white citizens all in favor of mob law. Dallas put herself on record Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans all have alike let mobs disgrace their good names.
Allow me again to congratulate you and all the better element of our white citizens for the suppression of the mob.
Dallas should feel proud of so noble such an officer.
I am very Sincere
A.C. Thurman
a colard man
Monday, March 1, 2010
New Black History Page
You may have noticed that I have added a new page to this blog: Black History. Luckie at Our Georgia Roots has challenged researchers, particularly those with Southern roots, to take the opportunity of researching slaveholder ancestors to unearth information on the slaves of these ancestors and share it, including putting it online. A number of subsequent discussions and responses have been prompted by the initial discussion on Our Georgia Roots. Several online sites, including Afrigeneas, have been suggested as appropriate recipients of the information.
I am a “relative-but-not-total-newbie” to genealogy, having started about four and a half years ago. I spent most of my first year in genealogy getting a general idea of what was known about my family lines and also made a few discoveries of my own. In the second year, I started to research each level going backward in time and entering that information in my genealogy program, and am currently entering information on all my known great-great grandparents. This is not yet in-depth research, but it helps to clarify which families I wish to investigate more closely. Much of the “low-hanging fruit” for families with less common names has already been picked, so a lot of what I plan to do is to work on brick-wall ancestor with surnames such as Smith and Moore.
Luckie’s challenge therefore provides me with an opportunity to tackle some other types of interesting challenges, and for that I am grateful. This is something that I hope will eventually be of use to other researchers, but it also has the potential to provide a fruitful new direction in my own research.
At the great-great-grandparent level, there are two families on which I intend to focus, the Brinlees and the Floyds. From the Slave Schedules to the U.S. Federal Census, I know that my great-great grandfather Hiram Brinlee Sr. owned slaves. Since the schedules provide only the gender and age, ascertaining their identities is probably going to require a good bit of ingenuity. I will need to learn what additional records I need to look for that could provide this information.
The other ancestor of interest in this area is my great-great-grandfather George Floyd. I have not been able to find any mention of him on the Slave Schedules, but there are family stories indicating that he was indeed a slaveholder. In addition, the 1870 census shows a Black family by the name of Floyd living nearby.
I will be posting about what I know and what I am able to find on the slaves of these families in the coming weeks and months.
Although I am aware that the most critical area to cover would be slave records, I would like to extend the scope of the information I post to include post-Civil War information to which I have access, hence the page name of “Black History.” Some of the information, such as that contained in old newspaper articles, can be found online – most of them I obtained through a paid subscription to a particular newspaper’s archives – but since I am going to transcribe these articles and use them anyway I can make the information immediately accessible. And there is at least one item that is not publicly accessible to my knowledge. It is a letter from A. C. Thurman, representing the Black community of Dallas, to Sheriff William Henry Lewis (my great-great uncle). My copy of this letter is a photocopy, but I do not know whether the original still exists and am not aware of any repository being in possession of it. This letter and a bit of background will be the subject of my next Transcription Tuesday post.
I am sure as my research pushes back through previous generations I will encounter more slaveholding ancestors, and I resolve to share whatever I can find out about those slave families as well.
The relevant posts will bear the “Black History” label and so can be accessed under the labels at the bottom of this page; the general index will be on the “Black History” page (the link is at the top of this page). One existing article has already been indexed: Tinner Hill: Desegregation, Graveyards, and My Fireplace. More articles to come.
I am a “relative-but-not-total-newbie” to genealogy, having started about four and a half years ago. I spent most of my first year in genealogy getting a general idea of what was known about my family lines and also made a few discoveries of my own. In the second year, I started to research each level going backward in time and entering that information in my genealogy program, and am currently entering information on all my known great-great grandparents. This is not yet in-depth research, but it helps to clarify which families I wish to investigate more closely. Much of the “low-hanging fruit” for families with less common names has already been picked, so a lot of what I plan to do is to work on brick-wall ancestor with surnames such as Smith and Moore.
Luckie’s challenge therefore provides me with an opportunity to tackle some other types of interesting challenges, and for that I am grateful. This is something that I hope will eventually be of use to other researchers, but it also has the potential to provide a fruitful new direction in my own research.
At the great-great-grandparent level, there are two families on which I intend to focus, the Brinlees and the Floyds. From the Slave Schedules to the U.S. Federal Census, I know that my great-great grandfather Hiram Brinlee Sr. owned slaves. Since the schedules provide only the gender and age, ascertaining their identities is probably going to require a good bit of ingenuity. I will need to learn what additional records I need to look for that could provide this information.
The other ancestor of interest in this area is my great-great-grandfather George Floyd. I have not been able to find any mention of him on the Slave Schedules, but there are family stories indicating that he was indeed a slaveholder. In addition, the 1870 census shows a Black family by the name of Floyd living nearby.
I will be posting about what I know and what I am able to find on the slaves of these families in the coming weeks and months.
Although I am aware that the most critical area to cover would be slave records, I would like to extend the scope of the information I post to include post-Civil War information to which I have access, hence the page name of “Black History.” Some of the information, such as that contained in old newspaper articles, can be found online – most of them I obtained through a paid subscription to a particular newspaper’s archives – but since I am going to transcribe these articles and use them anyway I can make the information immediately accessible. And there is at least one item that is not publicly accessible to my knowledge. It is a letter from A. C. Thurman, representing the Black community of Dallas, to Sheriff William Henry Lewis (my great-great uncle). My copy of this letter is a photocopy, but I do not know whether the original still exists and am not aware of any repository being in possession of it. This letter and a bit of background will be the subject of my next Transcription Tuesday post.
I am sure as my research pushes back through previous generations I will encounter more slaveholding ancestors, and I resolve to share whatever I can find out about those slave families as well.
The relevant posts will bear the “Black History” label and so can be accessed under the labels at the bottom of this page; the general index will be on the “Black History” page (the link is at the top of this page). One existing article has already been indexed: Tinner Hill: Desegregation, Graveyards, and My Fireplace. More articles to come.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Where Have Our Contact Buttons Gone?
When accessing Greta's Genealogy Bog today I first noticed that it took one to two minutes for the page to load. Then when I went to the "Layout" page only the top section would appear; it took another minute or two for that to load.
I googled various word combinations having to do with blog problems and finally found some advice to check Activity under Window. That revealed that the problem involved the Contact Button. It was then that I noticed that my blog no longer showed the Contact Button. I visited several blogs that I remembered having these buttons, and none of them appeared to have it any longer, either.
What's up?
Update: Today (Monday) the Contact Button seems to be working and the blog seems to load OK. Not sure what happened. Some type of Blogger maintenance maybe?
I googled various word combinations having to do with blog problems and finally found some advice to check Activity under Window. That revealed that the problem involved the Contact Button. It was then that I noticed that my blog no longer showed the Contact Button. I visited several blogs that I remembered having these buttons, and none of them appeared to have it any longer, either.
What's up?
Update: Today (Monday) the Contact Button seems to be working and the blog seems to load OK. Not sure what happened. Some type of Blogger maintenance maybe?
Friday, February 26, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 26 February 2010
It has been a busy and exciting week.
Research
Norman
Still working on the Elijah Norman family. Also completed an eight-part series on “Mystery Normans and Source Citations.”
I love that some of my “Norman men” have names like Jewell and Fay.
GeneaBloggers Games
GeneaBloggers rock, and so do these games! This has been so much fun: cheering one another on and trying to learn new things, get things organized, and collect those source citations! Bravo to the organizers for making this so enjoyable!
Blogging
Karen at Karen About Genealogy has eloquently voiced some reservations about WDYTYA in “Why I’m Not Excited About WDYTYA.”
Congratulations to all of the bloggers who were named to Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs list. I am so honored to be in the company of writers whose work I admire.
Research
Norman
Still working on the Elijah Norman family. Also completed an eight-part series on “Mystery Normans and Source Citations.”
I love that some of my “Norman men” have names like Jewell and Fay.
GeneaBloggers Games
GeneaBloggers rock, and so do these games! This has been so much fun: cheering one another on and trying to learn new things, get things organized, and collect those source citations! Bravo to the organizers for making this so enjoyable!
Blogging
Karen at Karen About Genealogy has eloquently voiced some reservations about WDYTYA in “Why I’m Not Excited About WDYTYA.”
Congratulations to all of the bloggers who were named to Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs list. I am so honored to be in the company of writers whose work I admire.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
My Final Tally for the GeneaBloggers Games
The GeneaBloggers Games have been lots of fun, but I have to wrap up a couple of days early because I probably won’t get a chance to do any more or even use the computer for the next few days.
It’s difficult to pick a favorite activity, but setting up a memorial page on Footnote as well as joining Findagrave and adding transcriptions and photos were something new and I am excited about doing more along these lines on both sites. For five of the challenges I reach my goals, and for Challenge 4 I exceeded my goal. The two best aspects of the Games were cheering one another on and learning new things.
Here are the results:
Challenge 1: Cite Your Sources! – 50 new source citations, Platinum medal
Challenge 2: Back Up Your Data! – Task A, Bronze medal
Challenge 3: Organize Your Research - Tasks A, B, D, and E – Diamond medal
Challenge 4: Expand Your Knowledge - Tasks A, B, C, D, and E – Platinum medal
Challenge 5: Write, Write, Write! – Tasks A, B, C, D, E – Platinum medal
Challenge 6: Reach Out and Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness – Tasks A, B, F, and G – Diamond medal
Best of luck to my fellow competitors in reaching their goals!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Day 11 of the GeneaBloggers Games
Finally completed Task A for Challenge 2: Prepare a comprehensive backup plan for your digital research files and a security plan for your hard copies and photos.
To sum up: I wrote a checklist for the monthly backups (flash drive, LaCie, and Mozy-type service for my genealogy program and genealogy folder plus uploading all new photos to a photo service) and a To Do list for centralizing and storing my hard-copy photos and documents.
I need to buy a good scanner and scan my photos. My photo albums, loose hard-copy photos, and old negatives could occupy an entire room all by themselves. The older family photos are all in the same waterproof container, but all the photos we have taken over the past 30+ years (plus some old negatives) need to be consolidated into one location better than they currently are.
I would like to solicit recommendations on the following:
1. A good scanner
2. Online data storage/backup service: Mozy, Google Docs, or ?
3. Online photo service: Flickr, Picasa, or ? (I have a Mac, if that makes a difference.)
Phew. Even thinking about all of this makes my head hurt.
To sum up: I wrote a checklist for the monthly backups (flash drive, LaCie, and Mozy-type service for my genealogy program and genealogy folder plus uploading all new photos to a photo service) and a To Do list for centralizing and storing my hard-copy photos and documents.
I need to buy a good scanner and scan my photos. My photo albums, loose hard-copy photos, and old negatives could occupy an entire room all by themselves. The older family photos are all in the same waterproof container, but all the photos we have taken over the past 30+ years (plus some old negatives) need to be consolidated into one location better than they currently are.
I would like to solicit recommendations on the following:
1. A good scanner
2. Online data storage/backup service: Mozy, Google Docs, or ?
3. Online photo service: Flickr, Picasa, or ? (I have a Mac, if that makes a difference.)
Phew. Even thinking about all of this makes my head hurt.
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