My grandmother, Hazel, holding her baby sister Beulah, who got me interested in genealogy Do you have family lore or legends passed down through generations? My genealogical journey began with a fascinating tale: a link to Pocahontas. This story, proudly shared in newspapers for almost a century, sparked curiosity in my great aunt Beulah. Twenty-five years ago, she ignited my passion for genealogy. A 1927 Newspaper Clipping In 1998, Beulah introduced me to genealogy and shared her digital research files. Among these was a 1927 obituary transcript for James Madison Randolph, first cousin of Josiah Randolph Coppenbarger (1844–1934)—Beulah’s maternal grandfather...
A few days ago I shared the cover and first page of the 1822 will of Willoughby Randolph of Lee County, Virginia. Here are the second and third pages, along with a transcription, which include additional names and places for me to research. [Note: In my transcription, I have put the names of people and relationships in bold print.] Lee County, Virginia, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983,” “Will Book, Vol. 3, 1800-1832,” will of Willoughby Randolph, signed 16 February 1822, unpaged, second page; database, image 74, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 March 2018). Lee County, Virginia, “Virginia, Wills and...
When my Great Aunt Beulah first introduced me to genealogy twenty years ago, I was an eager student. While researching our Randolph family, I quickly discovered a tree which took our family back several generations. I excitedly showed her my work…and she explained that was NOT the right way to do genealogy. She taught me I couldn’t just accept unsourced information from other people’s trees. Instead, I needed to rely on actual documents. Lee County, Virginia, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983,” “Will Book, Vol. 3, 1800-1832,” will of Willoughby Randolph, signed 16 February 1822, unpaged, cover; database, image 73, Ancestry.com...
This post is based on Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s theme is: START. Beulah Peters, born in 1923, was the baby of her family. One of her big sisters, Hazel, was my grandmother. For many years, Beulah was the family historian for the Peters side of our family. Not only did she collect many family photos and documents, but she also wrote down thoughts and stories about various family members. In 1998, “Aunt” Beulah graciously introduced me to the amazing world of genealogy. She generously sent me a copy of her tree with all...
As part of Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo has created 31 blogging prompts which you can find on her blog, The Accidental Genealogist. If you’re participating in the Fearless Females blogging challenge this month, let me know & I’ll hop over & read your posts! March 3rd prompt: Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree. My Big Sister & Me Origins...
My great aunt, Beulah (Peters) Brewer, got me interested in genealogy about 18 years ago. One of our ancestral lines are the Randolphs of Virginia. Here’s the story she emailed me of what got her interested in learning more about her family: Myrtle Mae (Coppenbarger) Peters painting (Probably the photo taken for the newspaper) James Madison Randolph is the reason that I started doing genealogy. Mother had a copy of the paper that had his obituary in it, and his part took up about four pages. It was one of the smaller papers. Mother started doing oil paintings when she...
Randy posts a weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge over at Genea-Musings. Tonight’s challenge is about your August genealogical “finds.” Here are the rules… Did you do some genealogy research during August 2014? Did you find a great record or story pertaining to an ancestor or family member? Tell us about the BEST genea-prize (“record”) you found during August 2014. What was it, where did you find it, and how does it help advance your research? Share your genea-prize in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post. NOTE: If you...
As I discussed in Part 1 about Lena, I found that the land being sold and partitioned between 32 members of my family originally belonged to Lena R. Tremlett. But, I’ve never heard of Lena. I decided to search for her on Ancestry and see what I could find. When I searched for Lena R. Tremlett in Missouri, I came up with 4 good hits – 3 death records and an 1880 census. 1880 Census – St Louis – John Tremlett is 3rd person – Lena Randolph Tremlett is 4th people below John & Lena are boarders The 1880 census...
Who did your early ancestors marry? Of course, it was often their neighbors! Last week I learned about HistoryGeo through a Genealogy Guys podcast (#263) and was able to visually see that my Coppenbarger & Randolph ancestors of De Witt County, Illinois were neighbors! HistoryGeo’s First Landowners Project contains nearly 8 million original landowners in a single map. You can search for landowners by surname or by location. My Coppenbarger & Randolph ancestors were early settlers in De Witt County, Illinois (then Macon County) under the Land Act of 1820. Basically, this land act required cash instead of credit for land purchases....
