Porch Swings, Fireflies, and Jelly Jars: Hello, 2022!

Saturday, January 1, 2022

Hello, 2022!

It's that time. Time to say goodbye to 2021 and hello to 2022. I hope it's a better year for all of us.

It's also time to stop and take stock of the past year.

2021 ended with 136,689 page views, which was 23,766 views for the year. There were a total of 48 posts, which surprises me. I thought there were fewer.

The most popular post was Richard King's 1853 Obituary - Richard King died in Taliferro County, Georgia, leaving behind a large family of mostly unnamed children. Gradually, they have revealed themselves through their relationship to each other rather than through Richard King's records. Although I still heavily suspect that my ancestor Martha (King) Thompson was one of his daughters, I cannot prove it. Yet.

The second most popular post was Francis Marion Tison, Killed 1866 - in my mission to leave no stone unturned in my quest for ancestor Joseph Barber's parentage, I researched Francis Marion Tison, who was the first husband of Edward Barber's second wife. Edward Barber turned out to be Joseph Barber's brother. Researching Francis Marion Tison was officially a rabbit hole, but such an interesting one. He was killed over a box of sardines. That's the short version.

The third most popular post was John D. Lewis, Not the Son of Col. Charles Lewis and Mary Isham Randolph - math and logic indicate that my ancestor John Lewis cannot possibly be the son of Col. Charles Lewis of Buck Island, which is an ongoing disappointment to many of his descendants. Too make matters even worse, he is not the son of a lot of the landed Virginia gentry to which his descendants would like to connect him.

As always, my favorite posts were connected to major breakthroughs. Brick walls tumbling down and all of that.

The first one was At Long Last: Joseph Barber, son of Thomas Barber - after an intense examination of records surrounding Thomas Barber, I was able to connect my Joseph Barber as his son. This came after many, many years of suspecting that there was a connection between the two. My ancestor, Joseph Barber who married Arsenia (Moore?) lived a large portion of his life in Barbour County, Alabama. Before that, he and his family had lived in Russell County, Alabama and Sumter County, Georgia. He turned out to be the son of Thomas and Sarah (Mashburn) Barber who had lived in Onslow Co., North Carolina. Joseph and his brothers Edward and Jackson were named in the will of their grandfather Thomas Mashburn.

The second post was Archibald Owings' Wife Revealed! - after several decades of searching for her. My Archibald Owings, son of Richard Owings (III) and Anna Stonestreet, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Daniel McLean. Even though Daniel McLean left few records, I was able to track him to his little village in Northern Ireland, which he and his family left in 1767.

In the New Year, I need to return to working on the Dabb/Harding Collection. I'd like to make progress on my Cawthon line, which has been stalled for decades.

I hope the New Year brings you progress in your research, too.

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About Me:

My favorite memories from childhood include visits to my grandparents in East Texas. At dusk we'd run around my grandparent's yard, catching fireflies and putting them in jelly jars. When darkness descended, we'd return to the porch. It was a special treat to sit in the porch swing. Inevitably, the adults would launch into family stories of Pink Kelley's brush with Sherman's troops, of Great Uncle Hood Brown's tragic death, and of the Kelley family's wagon trip to Texas, among many others. The stars on those nights were magical.

I began my genealogy research in the summer of 1975, less than a month after my high school graduation. When I married in 1983, I started researching my husband's family as well. I was fortunate to start this hobby as a youngster because it gave me an opportunity to correspond with researchers who are long gone; to ask questions of family members -although not enough, never enough; and travel a bit. The result is a lot of information. I've come to the realization that I will probably never be able to afford to publish, so this is my publication.

This blog contains a mixture of information on my husband's family and mine. I've expanded into a second blog called Flimsies and Frippery with the intention of focusing on quilts and dolls, but I have several historical research entries there with more planned, which is why I don't get more quilting done.

Ultimately, genealogy is my passion. This is where I plan to record family stories, research adventures and misadventures, and those serendipitous moments that happen out of the blue. You should be warned that I have a bad habit of going back and adding information and links to individual entries, so it is beneficial to check back often if there is a family of particular interest to you. If you wander in and discover that you are a cousin, please contact me.

Since many younger family members who are new to genealogy are starting to contact me about their ancestors, I've started adding family trees to help them see how everyone is connected. The trees are divided between my family and my husband's. You will find them below under the label's Family Trees - My Husband's Side and Family Trees - My Family's Side.

For better or worse, this blog reflects the research, thinking, and writing of a human.