Tuesday, June 24, 2014

While doing a little research this morning on what all the numbers in those columns at the top of the page in the 1790 census means, I discovered this little gem about the 1820 census. I did not know this!!!!
 _________    A note about the 1820 census____________

The 1820 Census has caused many a family historian to spend a considerable amount of time hunting a male that didn't exist or to follow the wrong family because of the age breakdown columns. The 1820 census added a column for Males 16-18 years of age.
*****What is not readily apparent to the family historian is that any males listed in this column are also listed in the 16-26 column.**** The government wanted an idea of the number of males that could qualify for military duty so the additional column for males 16-18 was included on the census form.
The instructions for the US Marshals for the 1820 census says: "It will be necessary to remember, that the numbers in the columns of free white males between 16 and 18 ... must not be added to the general aggregates ... the number will be repeated in the column of those between 16-26"

~Trish~

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Finding the Maiden names of Women

I just watched Christa Cowan's video on You Tube about Finding the Maiden Names of  Women in Your Family Tree, a 20 minute video and well worth watching. This is the 10 things she says to look in when searching for those maiden names.

  1. Marriage Records:  (license, certificates, announcements, banns, bonds, divorce records)
  2.Cemeteries: (burial records, tombstones, adjacent plots with other name in it)
  3.Census: (Federal and State)
  4. Land Records: (deeds and transfers within the families)
  5.Church Records: (memberships, christenings, and surnames)
  6. Probate Records & Wills
  7.  Newspapers: (Her words, "better than FB", articles that list Mr. & Mrs. that give names of in laws and such)
  8. Birth & Death Records: (look for her name and all of her children)
  9.  Military Records: (widow's pension's sometimes gives her maiden name if she has to give an affidavit because she has no marriage record) Let me add that I have personally found some great info in Revolutionary War Files where the widow gives not only her maiden name but the marriage dates, marriage place and sometimes even a brothers's name.
 10. Naming Patterns: (son's are sometimes given the mother's maiden name, or given a neighbors name or maybe named after the Dr.)

Here's the link for her video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv6BQ1vsRng...

John Thomas Hudson

John Thomas, from my mother's side, my GG Grandfather, born December 9, 1850 in Union Parish, Louisiana. Not sure what happened to his parents but at an early age he was left to live with an aunt, Lucinda Crow and her son. Listed as Farm Laborer. Age 19. This is his mother’s sister. Not sure when this photo was taken.


*OBIT* Farmerville Gazette8 Oct 1924
“MR. JOHN T. HUDSON DEAD. After an affliction that ran back into the years with that
dreadful malady – Cancer, Mr. John T. Hudson, one of the oldest and best citizens of
this Ward, passed away at his home near here on last Monday, Oct. 6th, at 1 o’clock
A.M. Mr. Hudson was well advanced in years and had lived in Union all his life. About
1873 he married Miss Susan Goyne. To this union a large family of sons and daughters
were born. He has lived all his married life at his present home, having settled the
place in the year 1874. Interment took place in the Taylor cemetery Monday afternoon
at 4 o’clock, the service being conducted by the Rev. W. K. Smith, Pastor of Liberty
Hill Primitive Baptist Church of which the deceased was a lifelong and faithful member.

[Note: John Thomas Hudson (1850-1924) was the son of Joseph C. Hudson (c1800 - 1852) and Susan Acree (c1822 - 1850s).]

Susannah Jane Goyne

  Susan is my GG Grandmother who married John Thomas Hudson (my mother's line) on Feb 7, 1873 in Farmerville, Union Parish, Louisiana. The had 10 children, eight sons and two daughters. John Thomas being the son of Joseph C Hudson and Susan Acree. Susan is the daughter of H. T. Goyne, an early resident of the county and Mary Ann Taylor. This photo probably taken before her marriage. She was a very pretty lady.


*OBIT* Farmerville Gazette27 Oct 1937
“MRS. SUSAN HUDSON. Mrs. Susan Goyne Hudson, widow of the late John T. Hudson, died at the home of her son, C. H. Hudson, near here on Tuesday, October 19th at 3 o’clock p.m., following an illness of several days duration. She was well advanced in her eighty-seventh year. She lived her entire life in the neighborhood in which she died, having been born two miles northeast of Farmerville. She was a daughter of Henry B. T. Goyne, one of the first settlers of this community and Mary Ann Murray. The deceased is survived by four sons, Charles Henry Hudson,  John William Hudson of Farmerville, Robert Lee Hudson and Elgin Dean Hudson of Monroe. Funeral services were held at Liberty Hill church six miles northeast of Farmerville, Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock, conducted by the Rev. R. W. Rhodes of
Farmerville. interment was made in the Taylor cemetery under the direction of the Kilpatrick funeral home.


~Trish~

ARE YOU RELATED TO YOURSELF?

** Originally posted on my website on May 30, 2014**

From “Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness – RAOGK USA”- a facebook page. Thomas Keil posted this: I wanted to share it.
“Of course, each of us are to varying degrees are our own cousin because our ancestry is composed of two parents, four grandparents, 8 great-grandparents and so forth increasing by doubling each generation.
Establishing our first self cousin relationship can be challenging or simple depending on our tracing our ancestry. For example, my great-grandfather’s father was his own cousin because two of his great- grandmothers were sisters. But going further back, there are at least four other instances where his ancestors intermarried due to their all being descendants of one man who had three wives and numerous children from each wife.
The likelihood of finding intermarriage of related persons increases when families remained in an area for several generations. For a person to find their future mate and still be close to home, they must select someone residing nearby. If one feels the duty to marry someone of their own faith, potential mates might be found in church. After an epidemic passes through a location, the number of survivors may include relatives who knowing or not include relatives.
We have probably all heard of Mormons, Quakers or Mennonites who chose marriage partners only within their communities or congregations. So too, are communities which are somehow isolated from others by rivers, mountains or even language”.
So are you your own cousin?

~Trish~

Old Agriculture Census

**This post and many others I am adding today are from older post on my website  originally dated  Mar 30, 2014**

  Last night I was working on some of the older Agriculture census for 4 of my relatives. Agricultural censuses, sometimes referred to as “farm schedules,” are an enumeration of U.S. farms and ranches and the farmers who owned and operated them. These census are pretty cool for showing the amount of land a person had. How the land was used. The census looked at land use and ownership.  Operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures and many other areas. It required all those who receive a census report form to respond – even if they did not operate a farm or ranch during the census year.
The first Census of Agriculture was taken in 1840. For census purposes, a farm is defined as “a place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year”.
Last night, I was working on turning four of the  1860 Agriculture census into a stories to show what kind of a farm life they would have had. For instance,  one Dennis N Finn who was the husband of my 1st cousin 4x removed and was living  in Talladega County, Alabama, He owned 55 acres of improved land and 175 acres of unimproved land. The cash value of his farm was 1000 with a value of 40 for his farming implements and machinery. He apparently owned no horses but owned two asses or mules. He also was the proud owner of 3 milk cows, 2 working oxen, 6 other cattle, no sheep and 20 swine. The value of his livestock was 275. He had 800 bushels of Indian Corn and no Oats.
U.S. agricultural schedules are most widely available for research for the years 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880.  A number of agricultural schedules for this time period are available online.  Ancestry.com, offers selected agricultural census schedules for this period for states including Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Search Google and relevant state repositories as well, to locate possible digitized agricultural schedules.
So while researching your ancestors, don’t forget this part because it may or may not be important to you. But it does tel an important part of the story of what kind of farm life my ancestors lived.

 ~Trish~

Breaking Thru My Brick “Walls”

** This post from my website posted originally on Mar 31, 2014**

 I have just had a huge break thru on my great grandfather, James Harve Smith…aka, Harve.  For several years I have had the wrong parents for him. I have had his death certificate. It gave his name as James Harve Smith born in Tennessee and it gave his parents names as George Smith and Emily Barker. I could never place grandpa Harve Smith with them in the correct census after his birth year, I had found another George with a James Smith and “placed” him there. However, the dates just didn’t match. Boy, that is the wrong thing to do and I know better. I always tell people, follow the clues such as birth, death, marriage certificates….etc. I stress to people , NEVER copy what someone else has in their family trees, which I do NOT. So Today, BAM, a light goes off…. I went back and looked over grandpa Harve’s (that’s what my dad always called him) death certificate and followed the clues. I started a new tree on ancestry and added what the death certificate says and “whoaaaa” it is all clicking into place. I have found the correct census and his parents marriage record.
So, just to make sure, ALWAYS check your records and follow the trail of the census, birth, death and marriage records. And don’t forget wills and land records. Now I need to get back on it because I will not be able to leave my laptop today!!!
~Trish~

Taking The Back Roads

** Originally posted on my website on Apr 9, 2014**

 We have done this and love it.  We have taken a few short trips in and around Wise County, Tarrant County, Erath and Eastland Counties. I volunteer to do photos on Find A Grave.  I like doing that for families who don’t live here in the area.  But I love the drive.  The other day we drove to Desdemona, once know as Hogtown. I have the deed records that my great great grandfather and his brother owned the land where this town now stand back in 1871/1875. He and his brother homesteaded 160 acres each for a period of three years. They had an uncle who also homesteaded there. It was pretty awesome for me to go there and walk on the land they once owned . We talked to an older man who now owns all of the Funderburg land and a lot more that his grandfather bought from the Funderburg brothers and other land owners that had homesteaded. The Desdemona Cemetery is on the land that was part of the Funderburg land.
The town of Desdemona is in the southeastern corner of Eastland County, is one of the oldest extant Texas settlements west of the Brazos River. Sometime around 1857 a group of settlers built a family fort for protection from the Indians on land owned by C. C. Blair. In 1873 the oldest organization of any kind in Eastland County, the Rockdale Baptist Church, was built nearby. Two years later William and Ben Funderburg acquired the old Fort Blair land, and a town began to develop. By 1877 the town had a post office. This town is now a ghost town, There is still the post office and a small cafe. We looked around, visited the old First Baptist Church there. As of 2013 three businesses remain in the town
We have gone to Breckenridge in Eastland County for genealogy research on Funderburg and Schoolcraft family.  We met a Funderburg there who is a fourth cousin to me, he is the Manager at Eastland Chamber of Commerce. We also took a trip to Palo Pinto for marriage records. Went to Stephenville for records.

~Trish~

German Ancestor Roots

** Originally posted on my website on May 4, 2014**

I am researching records for my von der Burg ancestors. It can be traced back to this record:  ”Pennsylvania German Pioneers Passenger Lists” Palatine German Immigrant Ships to Philadelphia 1742-1752: NAME: “The Thistle”. Our name was suppose to have come from the Berg and the Schloss Burg Castle. But I cannot find documentation from Germany. Peter, my 6th great grandfather, and his brother Walther Valentin (last name spelled Founderburgh on the passenger list), came over and took the oath on Sept 19, 1738. The ship sailed from Rotterdam to Plymouth England and then to Philadelphia. Sometime along the way they were said to have stopped in Ireland for a while.”I think that is why I am having so much trouble finding records. I can trace to the time they came here and “Americanized” their names, but I can’t find their German records”. Our family name was von der Burg and “Americanized” to Funderburgh/ Funderburk and other variant spellings but this is NOT a common name. The father of the two men was Adolf (possibly) but no one has documented proof.

~Trish~

Visiting The Krum Jackson Cemetery in Ponder Texas

 ** Originally posted on my website on Aprl 22, 2014**

I have been tracing and finding new records for my great grandfather, Harve  Smith’s family.  He has been a brick wall for so many years after he and Josie split up. I should say here, great grandpa Harve and my great grandmother, Josie, married in 1994, at the age of 15 or 16,  and  divorced after having 4 children, the oldest being my grandma Virgia Bell Smith who married Jesse Lee Funderburg.  Josie divorced Harve because he was said to be a mean and jealous man.  Josie feared him and thought he might do harm to her or the children after waking one night to find him standing over them on the bed in which they all slept, holding a knife and sharpening it on a razor strap. She divorced him between 1900 and 1910 and in 1911, Josie married Jesse Funderburg’s oldest brother, John Isaac. Fast forward……On April 21, 2014, my husband and I took a trip to the Kern Jackson Cemetery in Denton County Texas to check out the headstone of Harve’s parents and some of his siblings. We found many headstones. Both his parents, George Washington and Emily Rebecca (Barker) Smith and also several of the children of George and Emily. I took many photos so I could place them into my Smith/Funderburg Family and finally get the Smith family recorded and into a binder.
Grandpa Harve was born in 1879 in Tenneessee and can be found with his parents in Knox County, Tennessee in 1880. By 1900, he and Josie are living in Justice Precinct 5, Grayson, Texas, with Grandma Virgia and Cordelia. James Harve has a cousin living with them, also named James Smith. James later married Blanche, maiden name unknown at this time.  In 1930, 1935 and 1940 he and Blanche are living in Clarendon, Donley, Texas where they both died.
James Harve Smith is a work in progress and will take more researching to finish. But the trip to the cemetery helped me tremendously in find more details about his family
~Trish~

Seraching for the Ramsey’s

** Originally posted on my website on Apr 14, 2014**

Brick walls are the parts of your family tree that you have not been able to push further back in that line. One of mine is the Ramsey Family in Texas. Their daughter, Mary Angeline,  my great grandmother, married William Henry Funderburg in Palo Pinto Texas in 1863. I have set up  posts dedicated to each of the surnames I am researching, with details on some of the more important members of the family hoping others with the same surname will get in touch with me.
In the 1880 census, her name is Mary Ann in this one. it gives her Birth Year: about 1844 and born in Illinois with her father’s birthplace: Illinois and her mother’s birthplace: Illinois.
Texas Marriages, 1814-1909 shows Angeline Ramsey married Wm H. Funderburgh 8 Mar 1863 in Palo Pinto, Texas. I have searched for Ramsey’s in the Palo Pinto area before and after the 1860 census with no luck. I was hoping to find something in that time frame.  I have some death certificates for her children and only one gives the full name for her as Mary Angeline, and the rest either Angeline Ramsey or just Ramsey.
So I will keep digging and trying to break through this brick wall.

~Trish~

Grand vs Great Aunt’s & Uncle’s

 ** Originally posted on my website on May 27, 2014**

    *What do you call you grandparents siblings. The siblings of your parents are your aunts/uncles. The siblings of your grandparents were originally termed grandaunts/uncles and the siblings of your great-grand parents were great-grandaunts/uncles. But over the years those terms have gradually been replaced by the less descriptive great-aunt/uncle for grandaunt/uncle and great-great-aunt/uncle for great-grandaunt/uncle. Because it is more logical, many modern genealogists may prefer to use the older terms. Either is correct. Officially it IS “Grand”. If they are your “grandparents” then their siblings ARE your grand aunt & uncle. It shows that they are in the same generation as your grandparents. I, like so many, do call them great aunt and uncle. In fact, I still have a great aunt Dorothy alive, age 94, and that is what I call her. She  is so awesome and I am so proud to have met her still get with her and her daughter for lunches and her birthday partiy

~Trish~