Feature Friday: “Will Go By the Hemp Route,” 1896

Source: The Gainesville [GA] Eagle, Thursday, January 2, 1896, page 3, column 2.

Amanuensis Monday: Rosetta Darnell et al. to M. B. Darnell, 15 June 1921

This deed ties together at least three generations of Darnells in Rabun County, from Harrison Darnell to his children to many of his grandchildren.

Source: Rabun County, Georgia, Deed Record B-2: 379-80; Clerk of the Superior Court, Clayton.

Please note that I’ve only transcribed the indenture itself. There were other supporting documents recorded after that, many of which gave the physical localities of Harrison’s descendants.

Feature Friday: The Life and Times of C. J. Crunkleton

I keep waiting for someone to ask me why I included all the local and regional news in my book on Rabun County’s earliest newspapers, instead of only the obituaries and death notices as many compilers do.

No one’s asked, but I think it’s an important question, and my answer is this: Newspapers are, in and of themselves, an important resource outside of the fact that they can serve as a substitute for vital and court records. To demonstrate this, let’s look at excerpts from early issues of The Clayton Tribune and The Tallulah Falls Spray pertaining to a gentleman named C. J. Crunkleton.

Tombstone Tuesday: Albert Hemphill, 1871 – 1907, Macon Co., NC

Our Darling
Albert Hemphill
Born Oct. 26, 1871
Died Nov. 5, 1907
Baby

Four Brick Wall Breakers

Oh, the dreaded brick wall ancestor, the bane of every genealogist’s life! We all have them, those ancestors who refuse to cooperate and instead prefer to lurk just out of reach of our inquisitive minds. Luckily for us (not so much for the lurking ancestors), there are plenty of tricks to help researchers break down those brick walls. Here are four useful techniques:

To My Hopper Kin, re: Samuel and Sarah (McKinney) Hopper

I woke up this morning and decided it was time to put the call out for a book I would like to write in the next two to five years about Samuel and Sarah (McKinney) Hopper, their parents, and their children. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and decided now’s the time to start getting my ducks in a row.

What I hope to do is to compile enough information on Samuel and Sarah to definitively connect them with their parents and possibly to their grandparents. John M. Dillard has done some research on the McKinneys in connection with his Dillard research, and has linked Sarah to her father Charles McKinney of Buncombe Co., NC. I would like to do much more than that by tracking Charles from his origin points to his death, including determining the true identity of Sarah’s mother, and identifying all of Sarah’s siblings, if possible.

There are several different versions of Samuel’s parents in print and on the Internet, none with good documentation. I believe Samuel may have been connected to the Charles Hopper family of Burke Co., NC, and later Tennessee and other parts west. Proving or disproving that hypothesis will occupy a good deal of time.

So the first part of this hoped-for volume will deal with Samuel, Sarah, and their immediate ancestors. In the next section, I would like to do small biographical sketches of Samuel and Sarah’s children, including the names of their grandchildren. This is the part where I really, really would like help from the descendents of this couple. I would very much like to include pictures of Samuel and Sarah’s children, where they are available. I know a portrait exists for Thomas, my direct ancestor, who died in the Late Troubles. I do not have pictures for any of the other children. Two of the daughters died before the War and I have little hope of finding pictures for them, but for the remainder of the children, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

Samuel’s cabin is, I believe, still standing as part of the Hambidge Center property. I would like to include a picture of that, as well as maps and a few select other documents, like estate records and so forth. I would also love to include copies of Bible records, letters, and other important family documents, if such exist. Anyone who is willing to contribute will be gratefully acknowledged.

The scope of the potential volume will be very limited. I do not intend to make this an every-descendant kind of book. Instead, I would like to focus on the individuals named: Samuel, Sarah, their parents (and possibly grandparents), their children and, briefly, their grandchildren. I do not know how long it will take, nor what the final form might be. In this day and age, a printed copy for select libraries and digital copies to interested family members might be the way to go. Who knows?

I would very much like to hear from other family members about this project. Please contact me if you have any information or if you would like to help.

Veteran’s Day Salute: Sgt. Thad J. Watson, Sr., 1921 – 1944

Sgt. Thad J. Watson, Sr., served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He was born 15 April 1921 in Hamburg Twp., Jackson Co., NC, to Woodfin and Etha Mae (Roberts) Watson, and died 24 August 1944 during a bombing run in what was then Czechoslovakia. He is buried in a mass grave in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, KY.

He married Stella Viola Martin (1922 – 1992), daughter of O. W. and Pearl (Hopper) Martin, on 6 October 1941 in Clarkesville, Habersham Co., GA. Thad and Stella had two children, Thad J. Watson, Jr., and Varney Watson.

The East Tennessee Historical Society

In August, I will be attending the Federation of Genealogical Societies‘ annual conference, held this year in Knoxville, TN. While I am looking forward to this event in general, I am especially excited about visiting the East Tennessee Historical Society, home to the McClung Historical Collection, a virtual cornucopia of manuscript collections, rare books, city directories, newspapers, and microfilm. The primary focus of the collection is, of course, the eastern Tennessee counties, but other areas of Tennessee and other states are also represented.

I am currently compiling a list of my eastern Tennessee families so that I can plan my on-site research. Included will be:

• Mansfield and Harriet (Black) Anderson, who moved from Blount and Sevier Counties (TN) into Macon Co., NC
• Miranda (Fletcher) Curtis and several of her children, who moved from Macon Co., NC, to Monroe Co., TN
• Samuel Hopper, who possibly lived for a short time in Claiborne and Giles Counties, TN
• Various children of William Morgan, who died in 1809 in Jackson Co., GA

The FGS 2010 Conference theme is “Rediscovering America’s First Frontier.” The conference runs from August 18 to August 21. For more information, see the FGS conference web site.

Wordless Wednesday: The Martin Sisters, 1958

From left to right, starting in the front: Eunice, Daisy, Stella, and Catherine, the daughters of O. W. and Pearl Hopper Martin. Taken in 1958, likely near the family home on Messer Creek in the Betty’s Creek area of Rabun Co., GA. Photo courtesy of Catherine Martin Spencer.

Priority Surnames

I recently bought several back issues of the NGS NewsMagazine from a fellow researcher, and have been diligently combing through them for research and record tips. I’ve run across some really good finds, too, but the topic of today’s post comes from the article “Charting Your Priorities” by Susan Zacharias (January/February/March 2007, pp. 54 – 56). In short, Zacharias offers a method of prioritizing research by listing end-of-lines (that is, the earliest known generation in every direct line) in various fonts according to their place on the pedigree chart. Your largest font size (Zacharias recommends 18 point) would correspond to your most recent (chronologically) dead end, with each step down in fonts corresponding to one generation further back in time.