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My great-grandfather John Smith was born in Georgia and migrated to Jacksonville, Florida sometime around 1900. His roots in Georgia continue to be one of my greatest brick walls. (Update, 2018: DNA uncovered his roots!) I had a huge breakthrough on John’s wife’s family yesterday. This is an excellent case study in evaluating evidence. Georgia […]
Inventoried Slaves For those of us descended from enslaved ancestors, we are taught to research probate records early in the process. They can be used to verify slaveownership. If the slaveowner died before 1865, we may find our ancestors named in their will or listed in their inventories. As we advance in our skills, however, […]
This country has a long history of racism, white supremacy, Jim Crow and discrimination. Violence is at the core of those systems. Without violence, they couldn’t exist. Far from being passive or willing subjects, African and Native peoples and their descendants fought back in myriad ways. That’s why slave rebellions were often dealt with by […]
Every family tree has its share of criminals, vagabonds, shysters, thieves, polygamists, deserters, roughnecks, liars and cheats. While lots of things change, human behavior doesn’t. Joseph Harbour One of my shadier ancestors was Joseph Harbour, my 4th great grandfather. He was born in September 1852 in Hardin County, Tennessee. In the early years of my research, […]
This beautiful picture is of my great-grandmother Effie Fendricks. I have posted before about my long odyssey researching her roots. I had a breakthrough in August 2009 when I found a duplicate death certificate. In this research, I encountered the common roadblocks of migration across state lines and name changes. On top of that, their […]
For the first time in my research, I have found two death certificates for the same person. They were filled out by two different people. As if missing and inaccurate records aren’t enough to make me crazy, now this. While perusing the Tennessee Death Database, I found this death certificate for Miss Mary Ella Copeland: […]
It is amazing what can be discovered when you scrutinize your previous research. Sometimes it’s that new records are available that weren’t before. Other times it’s that your skills are better. I am quite happy to be my own biggest guinea pig and continue to prove this mantra be true. The Census In this case, […]
My ggrandmother Georgia Harris’ line has always been a challenge to research. But it reminded me of the fact that when we are searching parents, that parents often move with their children. Awhile ago, I made some headway in tracing her roots. She was not from Jacksonville (Duval County) Florida, as oral history said. She was […]
Have you been sure to check for social security applications for all the women in your family? I’m surprised at the number of women I have been able to find who had SSNs. They sometimes provided wonderful little tidbits of information. Although this blog title is Working Women, I found plenty of applications from women […]
This post is about the grandfather I never got a chance to meet because he died when I was two years old. William (or Bill as he was called) was born on October 6, 1914 in Jacksonville, Florida. He was born into a working class family and lived in a poor neighborhood on the eastside […]
