Hijinks Indeed

This is the 1880 census image I’ve been working on for quite a bit. Not that I don’t know who everyone is or where they go. I do indeed know all of them. It’s just that because I am re-verifying information, I sometimes come back to this page.

As many times as I’ve looked at this image, and seen all the Mays families next to each other, there is something I’ve always missed. Family number 115 there. Morgan Carter. He’s right there smack dab in the middle of a Mays family sandwich. That sandwich includes the Gillam family at the top by the way. It just so happens that family contains Random Relative #1189, Dorothy/Dorthula? Gillium. So that’s why I’m once again back to this image. However, now I’m distracted by Mr. Carter there.

What are the odds that he’s just a random neighbor sandwiched between all those Mays folks. Sure since Anna is the patriarch of the family and the others are offshoots of her family, it’s possible that when they moved off Anna’s farm, they bought land nearby or from her even. (Kentucky, I need a genealogy trip to you like a need an Eggo Blueberry Waffle).  I checked the 1870 and 1860 censuses. He’s not next door to Anna in 1870 but he is in 1860. Weird that it would work out that way but I guess it just depends on which direction the enumerator was going.

I watched a free webinar on Ancestry that I’ll talk about in an upcoming entry. It was talking about cluster genealogy. It wasn’t until I watched that video that I realized I practice it all the time. I didn’t put it into practice because of a brick wall or unending mystery. I put it into practice because of families like this. In my Kentucky and Ohio families, it’s more often then not that I find whole pages of ancestors in the census instead of just one family in a town. It’s such a contrast to my Dad’s family where I look for one family in Brooklyn and I’m lucky if I find them.

So I imagine I’ll end up back here at Morgan Carter eventually. Carter is a surname in my tree in relation to this area. I just haven’t traced it this far back yet, or in some cases this far forward. It’s a surprise to me that I ever get anywhere in my research with how often I change directions!

I’m headed to Ohio for the weekend, a wedding, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update Monday. I have tons to update though. Once I get on a roll I can’t seem to stop. ^.^

 

Bartholomew Taylor: Record Transcription

State of Kentucky Bracken County St?

On the 19th day of May in the year 1834 personally appeared in open court before the Justices of the County Court in and for the County of Bracken in the State of Kentucky.

Bartholomew Taylor resident of the county and the state aforesaid aged seventy nine years on the 17th day of February last past who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7th 1832.

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Bartholomew Taylor: The Big One

One week ago, I teased about what I found on Bartholomew Taylor when I was using Heritage Quest. I didn’t forget about it!

To tell you the significance of this find, I have to tell you a little bit about my history with Bartholomew. The picture above is of the Taylor side of the family tree I was given. The pretty excel version was for the Webb family. The Taylor family was just a big descendant report. It was actually two reports. One for John Taylor the first Taylor we know of (though not documented yet), and then branching off on Bartholomew’s line, which is where I’m descended from.

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Free Resources pay off!

I’ll be the first person in line to admit I don’t ever want to give up my Ancestry.com membership. It’s so convenient for searching. I know the downfalls and dangers but I just don’t care. It’s like my fluffy pajamas, they’re my security blankets.

I think sometimes it’s easy to forget all those other great resources out there in the shadow of Ancestry though. Just waiting to be found and utilized sometimes. I’m definitely making a trip to the National Archives this summer, I’m pretty sure the local historical and genealogy societies do day trip shuttles. Why shouldn’t I take advantage! I’m also thinking about volunteering at the local historical society. I used to know some people there and I think I could be some help. Especially if there are forms to fill out, I love forms.

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Well I had plans

I started to get a tech geek itch. It was bad, it’s always pretty bad, but it was really bad today. It’s been awhile since I had something new to play with. So I barely restrained myself from installing a Wiki onto the site and playing around with the code. Just barely did I escape the future headache that would have become.

I escaped it by telling myself I’d break out the handy dandy library card and do some searching online at newspaperarchive.com. I got pretty excited too. There’s this entry I want to write, but I want to find the newspaper article first to back me up. It’s one of those things I haven’t been able to find in all these years. I really need a Jersey genealogy trip.

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That makes sense!

Yesterday I shared with you my forays into researching Hulda Adkins, #0034 from my Random Relative Project ™ (Category coming soon, I’m addicted to categories). Late last night, I was just kind of playing around on my laptop before bed. I had already turned off my desktop and wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing. For the purposes of recreation though, I’m taking a more direct route to my discovery.

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Random People: Hulda Adkins #0034

I had an idea! Why not share my progress on my “random people” with you! First up is Hulda Adkins. In my Original file I don’t have much on her yet. I have her 1870 listing, which was when she was just 9 years old.

Hulda Adkins
born: about 1861, Kentucky
Parents: Harrison Adkins, Rebecca Click

Hulda’s family in 1870 (Blue Lick Springs, Nicholas Co, KY)

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Why must you do that?

I know it’s an old complaint. Everyone has it. I just don’t know why people can’t just get last names right! I’m not even just talking about record keepers. I’m talking about people too. I don’t have the problem on my Dad’s family, or on the Taylors. I have the misspelling problem with the Mays family. That I can deal with.

The Moyer family has been a whole new frustration though. For some reason the family goes by both Moyer and Myers/Meyers/Moyer. I thought at first it was a miscommunication with the census. However, when I looked again at the Moyer tree that was sent to me a few years ago, some of the Moyer children chose to go by Myers/Meyers eventually.

Oy, this just makes things difficult. :\

Holy Cow, Jackpot!

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, it’s because FamilySearch just added a ton of new records to their website. I can’t wait to dig in and start looking. I have 227 matches for Taylor in Somerset County, Maryland alone! Not to mention the Kentucky Death and Marriage Records they added. I was so excited I had to post a second entry today!