Tag: genealogy
I started a new blog…
Family Stories will be a blog about the lives of my shirt-tail ancestors – aunts, uncles, cousins – and I’ve got some good tales to tell. For the Introductory post, I introduced myself and said a few words about my other ancestry blog. Looking for a photo of some sort, I came across a prose poem that hit me in my heart.
It appears that Della Joann McGinnis Johnson probably wrote the original version of this, but others may have edited/contributed. Whoever it was, I thank them. I’m happy to report that I’m not the only crazy person who feels the presence of their ancestors – even consulting with them – and who views graveyards as living things. This explains it…
THE STORY TELLERS
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors – to put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one.
We have been called by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: tell our story. So we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family you would be proud of us? How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me?
I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can’t let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are them and they are us.
So, as a scribe is called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.
Because I love writing this Report, because the format of “that was the week that was” is easy, because my loyal readers enjoy even the boring parts, I keep on truckin’. But, honestly, I want more people to read my stuff. I’ve got some stories to tell and they’re good ones. Hang with me while I get them written and published over at Family Stories. Until I get going, there’s a lot of good reads at All My Ancestors.
We’re off to the Races today with the Jrs (minus Nova, who has to work)! It’s perfect weather, and I’m feelin’ lucky…
Hope you’re feeling lucky, too!
Peace
Introducing a New/Old Series
We weathered the windy weather well, but it was as scary as any I’ve witnessed. Now we’re on Day 4 of thunderstorms and interminable rain. I am not Inspired…
In order to spare you a report of the monotony of my life, I’m starting up a new/old series! If you’re a long-time reader, you may have read my stories of the families who lived here on Sonnystone Acres. It’s a 12-part collection, spanning 179 years, and includes biographies of several local founders. I hope you will enjoy reading it…
The Sonnystone Saga: Introduction
In 2003 we bought a falling-down old house on 4 acres of property. We were new empty-nesters and had been looking for a fixer-upper with some land for a while. This one fit the bill and was less than a mile from the neighborhood where we’d lived and raised our children for 18 years.
We bought the house from a couple of 80-somethings who had lived here for 30 years. The lady was ill and he was old and it fell into disrepair. They had no children and when the gentleman died a nephew moved her to St. Louis. About a year after we moved in, we received a package from the nephew that contained the property’s original paper abstract, a collection of legal documents that chronicles transactions associated with the land, including references to deeds, mortgages, wills, probate records, etc.
The abstract is only about the property, and though its owners are named, it gives me no clue as to what was built here, e.g. homes, barns, businesses. It’s full of measurements using chains and rods and stones that interest my husband, but I was more intrigued by the presence of a Last Will and Testament and a couple of court records, and recognized the surnames of some of the former owners who have streets around here named after them.
I had already been curious about the “S” on the chimney outside…what did it originally stand for? (Smith) There is a name carved in a stone step (with a boot-scraper embedded) that sits at our front door. Who was that? (John E. Reed) The answers in the Abstract only led to more questions, and nearly 20 years ago I collected some info at our Historical Society. The venture was sidelined for years until I subscribed to ancestrydotcom, where I started a Sonnystone Acres Family Tree and uncovered all new info about the first three families, stretching from 1846 to 1957.
We’ll start, though, with the original land patent. On March 26, 1821, the northwest quarter of Section 5. Town 7 south, Range 10 west, containing 169.2 acres according to Government survey was entered at the U.S. Land Office at Vincennes, Indiana, by William Hampton.
This land is located in Vanderburgh County, Center Township, specifically in an area once known as Mechanicsville.
From “A History of Vanderburgh County, from the Earliest Times to the Present”, published in 1889:
{referencing Center Township}: The principal village in the township is Mechanicsville, commonly called Stringtown, because its houses are strung along the road. At a very early date, the point where the Petersburgh road left the State road was selected as a good place for a smithy and wagon shop. It was a busy place in early times…
Mr. Ira Fairchild, who came with his family from New York to Indiana in 1818, thus pictures the early days of this village : “In 1829 my father removed’to Mechanicsville and opened a blacksmith’s shop … which was a famous institution in its day. This house was built of heavy hewed logs, 30×40 feet square, had five forges and worked a force of seven or eight hands. All the livery horses of Evansville were brought there to be shod, and all sorts of iron work was done. At this time Mechanicsville seemed in a fair way to outstrip Evansville in the race for position. Thomas Smith had built a saw-mill on Pigeon creek, and on the hill where he afterward kept tavern he carried on a cabinet shop, … and supplied the demand for furniture for miles around. The village also boasted of a well-kept hotel, a’ wagon shop, and country store, and was withal a place of very considerable local importance.”
In 1839, William Hampton and wife conveyed to John H. Craig 89.2 acres. The next year, 1840, John H. Craig sold 20 of those acres to Jacob Miller and another 20 acres to Jacob Winkleman. Mr. Winkleman sold his 20 acres to John Hardy in 1845. In 1847, Hardy and his wife sold those acres to Jacob Miller. Miller now owned about 40 acres of the original William Hampton land patent.
Jacob Miller and his wife Maria (Mary) were Sonnystone’s first residents.
Stay Tuned…
Peace
genealogy, a cemetery, and a roadtrip…
I enjoyed the Genealogy Quest at Willard Library this week. The librarians always do such a great job of making us comfortable, and the speakers are inspiring. Thanks to a day of learning about FamilySearch, I’m going to start all over again with my Mom’s family using their website. FamilySearch is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and is closely linked to the church’s Family History Department. Many of their members work at the FamilySearch library and Family History Centers as missionaries when they’re young, or just volunteers later. They have been doing this- and doing it well – for decades, so the whole website is exponentially better than the last time I took a look and I’m excited to re-boot my genealogy experience.
I won’t be starting that this week, although I’m sticking with the Ancestors theme: we are leaving tomorrow to finish up the cemetery at Emery Chapel. My 4x greats and more are buried there and the church had let the gravesites get covered over with brush and dirt. Here’s what we’ve done so far…
We camped at a nearby State Park, and the morning we left we cruised by for one last look and some pictures. Casey nearly stumbled on a protruding rock and when he looked closer, he was able to pull out a piece of a stone with a clear A… Eureka! We marked the spot best we could, and now we’ll take a probe and our tools and pull his marker up! This is so exciting for me! I know, crazy, huh?
The picture on the left is my 3x great-grandmother’s grave before. As we dug, we also found the marker of the babies she lost before her death, just one marker, with three precious names on three sides.. On the right you can see after we set them up on level ground and reunited their stones…
Honestly, I feel their spirits when I remember them, and the veil thins when I touch their gravestones…
My 4x great-grandfather, Adam Mayne, founded the church and cemetery where he is buried. He settled in the area in 1820 and established a stagecoach stop, and owned many acres to farm. From the minute I arrived in the area, I felt like I had come home. That’s why I’ve taken it kind of hard this week to see the town of Springfield, Ohio, so maligned. This town of 60,000 is not dangerous (though it does harbor a lot of trumpers) and was peaceful enough until all these terrible lies were spread. These Haitian people are here LEGALLY, just like my Vietnamese nail girls, and my Ukrainian banker, and my my son-in-law’s Filipino parents. They were invited and welcomed by local churches and social organizations. They weren’t tricked into coming there, and they work for a living. And now they’re being threatened with deportation? Remember “Bring me your tired, your poor?” It’s an American Thing to help people who are “yearning to breathe free”, or it used to be. And if you really want to do something about the Southern Borders, pass that bill that’s sitting on the Speaker’s desk, or vote for someone who will…
Goldie is ready for a road trip and so am I. It’s about 4.5 hours, so our plan is to first shop at Heart of Antiques in Springfield, then head down Xenia Road to John Bryan State Park. The campground there is adjacent to Yellow Springs, a village we adore, and about 5 miles from the cemetery.
Hope you’ll be enjoying this last week of summer in your neck of the woods…
Peace
The News from Sonnystone Acres 