Introduction In genealogy, legal battles can provide fascinating insights into the lives and relationships of our ancestors. One such case, titled “Jackson v. Grissom,” unfolded in the late 19th century and revolved around the estate of John H. Horner, who died in Stoddard County, Missouri, on 2 January 1877. This blog post will explore the intricacies of this case, which I discovered after watching Judy Russell’s NGS Conference presentation, “In that Case: Using the Caselaw Access Project.” Discovering the Case Judy taught us how to use CourtListener and case.law. Starting with CourtListener, I searched for cases involving the Whitwell surname...
Earlier this year, I wrote about my grandmother’s grandfather, Reuben H. Ward. According to my grandmother’s story, he was a Methodist circuit rider who had been murdered while going down the river. His body was then thrown overboard. I uncovered more details of the story through newspaper articles. Index from Ancestry’s Insolvent Estates, Perry County, Tennessee Ward, R. H., page 62; Notice there is one more Ward and 2 more Whitwells who are also likely my relatives. I haven’t looked at these yet. This week, while looking at Ancestry’s new “probate and wills” databases, I discovered more information about Reuben...
Over the past couple of days, I’ve spent some time looking for ancestors and other relatives on Ancestry’s new “Wills and Probate Records” series. I was having trouble finding any of my numerous Perry County, Tennessee relatives, so I decided to skip the index and look at the actual records. Here are the steps I used to get started: Went to Ancestry.com Clicked on “Search” then “Card Catalog” For Title, typed in “Probate” and the state’s name (in my case, “Tennessee”) Clicked on “Tennessee, Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008” On the right hand side, chose the county (in my case,...
(Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow at “No Story Too Small” for creating “52 Ancestors” where we can share our ancestors stories, one week at a time.) Thomas B Whitwell, my 5th great grandfather, wasn’t even a year old when he was legally declared an orphan. I say “legally” because we are uncertain as to whether his mother was still living or not. But, the law stated that he was an orphan if his father died. So, Thomas and his older brother, Robert, were orphans. What happened to orphans in the 1770’s in Virginia? They’d be legally “bound out” to a...
