It’s been a rough few days here in Maryland. Well, it’s been a rough few days for me in Maryland would be the more accurate statement. Sunday wasn’t good for me at all. It probably had something to do with the time change. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. To start off my no good day, I broke my Kindle. Insert gasps here. I love my Kindle. It’s what I use at night to fall asleep. I’m able to turn the computers and TV off and just kind of get my mind to slow down. My mind is never idle, but the Kindle helps me to slow it down enough to sleep. Well, the problem is it was under my covers somewhere when I woke up Sunday morning and I heard a definitive crack. On the outside it looks fine, well if this is what you call fine.
March 6 — Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc.)
I took a few days off, and since I don’t have a recipe to share for March 7th, I decided to use the March 6th prompt. The heirloom that comes to my mind is one I’ve talked about before.
I realized again today, that I’ve been horrible about giving equal blog time to both sides of my family tree. It seems I am writing more about my father’s New Jersey roots and am completely ignoring my Mom’s side! I’m rectifying that right now though!
Today I posted some old pictures of my Mom’s family on my Facebook. That side of my family is just getting into the computer world, so that was the easiest way to share the photos. It was fun to discuss with my Mom and Aunt who the babies in the photos were. In fact, they’re all still posting about the pictures and their memories of them. It’s definitely a great way to share between family members that you usually don’t get to see.
While I was going through the original Taylor-Webb tree, I got a little nostalgic about my Grandma. I started to go through the book of photographs she put together and the tree, matching photos with names in the book. She actually went through and labeled people with their number from the tree, so it was as simple as having the tree and the photos side by side.
Front page from Taylor-Webb Family Tree
When I was closing the tree, I took another look at the front page of the tree. I remember when my grandma was telling me about the tree. She showed me where she was, she explained to me the whole thing and then she told me about how the Taylors came from England in 1680. Just like the page says. Of course, I was only in the eighth grade at the time, and to me, this tree was all the proof I needed! Now I know different, but it still gives me warm, fuzzy feelings of Grandma to look at this tree.
For the first time though, I noticed something. In my young mind, I always assumed this tree was the complete work of my grandmother. Of course, a longer look and it was obvious that someone else made the tree because their name was all over it. Still, I don’t know who I thought might have done the pedigree you see above. I guess I always assumed it was the same person who did the rest of the tree.
Today a light bulb went off. I noticed that right next to Ol’ Kirby Taylor is ‘Me’. I never noticed that ‘Me’ before! Then I quickly scanned through the book to remember who came after Kirby. I thought at first it was Irene Taylor, because I thought that was her generation. Then I noticed Irene on the generation below. Unfortunately the Taylor-Webb tree only starts the Taylor line with George Thomas Taylor and Mollie Jane Webb’s children. So I didn’t have an instant answer. I had to wait until I could get to my computer.
Turns out ‘Me’ is Maude Taylor-Mefford. I’m unsure of when Maude died, so I don’t know if she wrote this out for someone, whether it be my Grandma or the person who did the tree originally. I do know her husband died in 1948 and Maude was still living when he died[1. Kentucky Death Record, Bracken County KY, Certificate: 9206]. When I get to Maude in my family tree rehab, I’ll pay extra attention to her now, knowing that she might have been the knowledgeable one in the family on this stuff.
I’ll probably never know the sequence of events that led to the family tree that I was given. It’s kind of cool to think of Maude sitting down and sketching out that tree for her family though! I’ve personally found records to at least Bartholomew. He’s the Revolutionary War veteran. Kentucky records are very difficult to find for that far back. Whether it be courthouse disasters or just plain rural conditions that didn’t promote official records. There are parish records in Somerset County, Maryland though, I’ve seen them! I just have to go back and record the source information and get a second go through. I’m pretty positive there is more there than I first thought.
So you see, it’s always a great idea to constantly revisit your sources! Just a second look could bring new information!
Randy Seaver puts up a fun genealogy mission every Saturday night at his blog, Genea-Musings. Here is this week’s challenge!
1) Pick one of your ancestral lines – any one – patrilineal, matrilineal, zigzag, from a famous ancestor, etc. Pick a long one if you can.
2) Tell us which position in the birth order that your ancestor was in each generation. For example “third child, first son.” Also list how many children were born to these parents.
3) Share your Birth Order work with us on your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, etc.
I chose my Taylor line because it’s the one that goes back the farthest. These are coming straight from the tree my Grandma gave me in eighth grade so I haven’t gotten solid proof on the farther back generations yet.
1. Kathleen Moore (1983- ) third child, second daughter of William and Georgia (Mays) Moore (1 son, 2 daughters) 2. Georgia Mays (1959- ) sixth child, fourth daughter of Stanley and Emogene (Taylor) Mays (5 daughters, 2 sons) 3. Emogene Taylor (1929-2005) sixth child, second daughter of Marshall and Lula (Applegate) Taylor (5 sons, 3 daughters) 4. Marshall Taylor (1892-1958) second child, first son of George and Mollie (Webb) Taylor (4 daughters, 7 sons) 5. George Taylor (1862-1913) fourth child, second son of Marshall and Cecilia (Heaverin) Taylor (6 sons, 5 daughters) 6. Marshall Taylor (1823-1899) first child, first son of William and Nancy (Matthews) Taylor (3 sons, 2 daughters) 7. William Taylor (1797-1849) fourth child, fourth son of Bartholomew and Leah (Staton) Taylor (5 sons) 8. Bartholomew Taylor (1756-1847) first child, first son of Abraham and Mary (Walker) Taylor (4 sons, 5 daughters) 9. Abraham Taylor (1726-1792) second child, second son of William and Sarah (Cooper) Taylor (3 sons, 3 daughters) 10. William Taylor (?-1773?) (4 sons, 2 daughters) 11. John Taylor (?-1748?)
Bartholomew is really the farthest I’ve researched back. He’s the Revolutionary War veteran. What I’ve been trying to do is get the birth, marriage, and death records for these main ancestors before I move on. That hasn’t exactly happened the way I wanted. I had the best of intentions, really I did! William and John, numbers 10 and 11 respectively, didn’t get birth order numbers so I guess they don’t count. I found their siblings names in wills of the parents so I don’t have birthdates for the siblings, therefore I can’t determine where everyone is in the birth order yet.
Thanks Randy for yet another fun little challenge!
The last week, I’ve been slowly entering my mother’s side of the family into my new family file. It’s a little slower going because there are more of them than Dad’s side. I also had a master list of birthdays I made at the family reunion last year for Dad’s side. So I was able to put them in quickly and use the source I titled, “2009 Family Reunion Master List”. I’m new to citing Personal Family sources, so I was a bit baffled at first on how to really cite it. Then I realized I was once again over-analyzing something. So I gave the title as stated above, I’m listed as the other, and in the description I wrote that I compiled the list by going around to everyone at the family reunion and getting their birth dates and marriage dates where needed. It turned out to be a big project for me that year!
On my Mom’s side I now have the original copy of the Family Tree. This is the one my Grandma brought when I was in the eighth grade. I ended up photocopying it at my Mom’s work, and I later reproduced it in Excel and re-printed it. In that time though, I think I might have tried to “fix” it. I think things got a little turned around. I’ve decided to no longer use my photocopy version. I am lucky that my Aunt sent Grandma’s copy to Maryland for me.
Taylor-Webb Family Tree. This has been missing the letters for as long as I can remember!
I am halfway through a 7 day free trial with Footnote.com. I’m trying to make the most of the collections that aren’t free since I can’t afford right now to have a second subscription website. These are the things I’ve learned so far:
City Directories aka The reason I get up early every morning this week.
William Wallace Love was not still living in Newark at the time of his wife’s death in 1890. They had to have moved to Roseland at the time.
I have listings for William W Love, grocer, for 1875 through 1884.
Some years there is a listing for Love Bros grocery. There was never an ad, but that would have been interesting!
William H Moore was not listed in Brooklyn in 1865. His daughter is born in New York in 1865, so they must have lived in another borough before their move to Chicago.
William H Moore has always been very consistent with the use of his middle initial. This is made funnier because I know how insistent my Dad is on using his. They wouldn’t have to do that if they’d stop naming their boys William! 🙂
William H Moore lived at 56 Foster for the majority of his time in Chicago, which was from 1866 to 1870.
I couldn’t find a listing for him in 1871 Chicago. This could be why Cook County couldn’t find a birth record for Robert James Moore in 1871. Maybe they moved out of the city? I’m going to try lining up his location with the Chicago fire and see if he would have been effected, though now I see he might have already left Chicago.
Since I spent so much time transcribing and adding Bartholomew Taylor things into my family file, I’ve decided to go ahead and research him for fun. One of the things I do randomly when I research is I plug the ancestors name into Google and see what comes up. It’s pretty interesting to see what comes up.
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.
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.
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.
