Randy posted his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge… and it’s based on one of my posts! Neat! So, here are the rules: Dana Leeds on the Enthusiastic Genealogist blog asks “Did/Do Your Children Know Any of Their Great-Grandparents?“ I thought that would be a great Saturday Night Genealogy Fun question – so please share your response with us in a blog post of your own, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post. For extra credit, or in case the answer is “No,” then please answer the question for yourself, or your parents Randy,...
Paula Stuart-Warren posted about the birth of her first great grandchild. Then, she talked about how many great-grandparents her children knew, and how many great-grandparents she knew. That got me thinking about the relationship my daughter has had with four of her great-grandparents. (I only had one great-grandparent living when I was born, but she lived across the country and died when I was less than 2 months old.) One of my husband’s grandmother’s died when my daughter was about 14 months old. Sadly, she had an advanced case of Alzheimer’s. She kept thinking my baby girl was a baby...
As a child, I loved to watch Grizzly Adams on television along with his pet bear, Ben. I had no idea that my own ancestor, Robert Stewart, also had a pet bear! His bear’s name was “Bruin” (which means “bear”) and they lived in Pennsylvania in the mid-1800’s. While doing research, I uncovered an article titled “Mike Swartz and the Black Bear” in “History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania” which was published in 1883. The “black bear” in this story was Bruin, and I’m assuming things turned out alright. Robert died about 30 years before this book was published,...
William Porter Dickson enlisted in September of 1861 to fight as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. In the supplement to his 1911 Civil War Questionnaire he listed eight battles in which his company, Company D of the 12th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, took place. I am going to learn more about his company’s role in the Civil War by researching these eight battles. from William Porter Dickson’s 1911 Questionnaire The fourth battle on his list is The Battle of Perryville in Kentucky. Along with battle #3 in Richmond, Kentucky, this was a part of the Kentucky Invasion. Kentucky, as...
I have been having a lot of success lately with newspapers.com, my favorite site for newspaper research. Their search engine seems to work better than than the other sites, or at least I’ve figured it out better! Or maybe they just have more newspapers that are relevant to my family! Ben Payton and family, Haskell News, Haskell, Oklahoma, 04 Oct 1917, page 5, column 3; digital image newspapers.com, (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 14 Sep 2014) This weekend, I decided to research some of my husband’s family members and I came across the above article about one of his ancestors, Ben Payton. It...
William Porter Dickson enlisted in September of 1861 to fight as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. In the supplement to his 1911 Civil War Questionnaire he listed eight battles in which his company, Company D of the 12th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, took place. I am going to learn more about his company’s role in the Civil War by researching these eight battles. from William Porter Dickson’s 1911 Questionnaire William Porter Dickson’s third battle was the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky, which took place on August 29th & 30th, 1862. This was a battle over the state of Kentucky. Kentucky,...
Let’s face it, when we research our family histories we don’t know what we’ll uncover. And, when you get beyond the names, dates, and places, you might find some incredible stories. You might find stories of an ancestor who was a war hero or someone who abandoned his friends. You might find true love and Christian sacrifice, or someone who disappeared and is later found with another wife and additional children. You might find a Civil War nurse or a prostitute. And, you just might find a murderer. I did. I’ve made multiple posts now about the brother of my...
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve probably read my last two posts about my great, great grandmother’s brother, Ephraim, who killed his sister’s abusive husband, Nathan L Buchanan. (The posts are “A Reason for Murder” & “Sister to Asylum; Brother to Jail.”) One of the newspaper articles I shared explains that Bennett was moved to a different county’s jail “to escape the vengeance of a mob which was supposed to be organized for the purpose of lynching him.” (In case you haven’t read the other articles and the family story that was passed down, Nathan L Buchanan was abusing his...
As I mentioned yesterday in “A Reason for Murder“, I had spent hours trying to find another newspaper article about my great, great grandmother’s brother, Ephraim Bennett, murdering his brother-in-law, Nathan L Buchannan, in 1893. As I concluded the post, I went back to newspapers.com and tried again. And, this time I got a hit! I don’t know if I tried different search terms or not. I narrowed it to “Missouri” newspapers and set the year to 1893. And then I searched for “Bennett” and “murdered.” Anyway, I have a lot more information now! A Terrible Crime, The Springfield Democrat,...
The day I discovered my great, great grandmother’s brother, Ephraim Bennett (abt 1841-?), had been convicted of 2nd degree murder, I hoped it was for a ‘good’ reason. I had recently watched two episodes of “Who Do You Think You Are?” Cynthia Nixon had discovered her female ancestor had killed her abusive husband after he told her she wouldn’t see another sunset. Maybe she could have ran away with her two young children or gotten to safety in some other way, but this was better than Jesse Taylor’s discovery that his ancestor probably killed his aunt over an inheritance! About...
