50 Years of Genealogy

On this Christmas Day, December 25th, 2017, my thoughts are turned to family research for some reason. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because genealogy research has occupied my spare thoughts for almost 50 years.

I’ve actually been interested in my family’s pedigree much longer, ever since my childhood, when my father would show us his family pedigree written on translucent drafting vellum in India Ink. He began documenting his ancestry in his early 20s same as I did.

My dad got his college education taking night classes with benefits from the G.I. Bill. In 1949 he took a class in drafting. The school later became known as the University of Alabama in Birmingham where my son and I also went to school. CLICK HERE to see an image of my father’s 68-year-old pedigree which he created while attending college.

Although my father began researching our family’s pedigree over 70 years ago he wasn’t the first to do so. He copied research from two relatives, the Kelly sisters, cousins of his parents. Marion and Maud McLure Kelly were researching our Vincent, Pace, and other family lines over 100 years ago. Maud was famous for being the first woman to practice law in the state of Alabama but she was equally famous in genealogical circles for writing numerous research papers on some of our ancestral lines.

Marion was first to begin documenting our Vincent family research. Maud did a lot of traveling, researching our Vincent ancestors. She clarified research on our Pace line. Years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock on 1620, our ancestor Richard Pace was living near Jamestown, Virginia. It’s kind of cool being descended from someone who may have known John Smith and Pocahontas.

But what about our other ancestors with other surnames. The number of surnames in everyone’s family doubles with each generation. Your parents were born with two different surnames, your grandparents with 4, your great-grandparents with 8.

You may know your mother’s maiden name but do you know her grandmother’s maiden name? There’s been lots of family research done on my dad’s side but not on my mom’s side of the family. From 1970 to 1990 I spent most of my research time looking into my mother’s ancestry. Now I know the surnames of my 8 great-grandparents. They are:
• Vincent
• Finch
• Seay
• Pace
• Warren
• Farmer
• Blake
• Smith

I’m not so sure about the surnames of their parents. That’s where we start running into what genealogists call a “brick wall.” To sort things out, I’m starting a new project by copying cousin Maud’s idea. 100 years ago Maud Kelly started documenting her family research in a legal journal. It looks like an old abandoned log book her father, also a lawyer, may have used.

I can just see young Maud asking her dad,
“Father, do you have a book I can use to record my genealogy research?”
“Sure, daughter, use this old book. I rarely use it anymore.”

And so it began. Maud’s notes in the margins, headers, coverleaf, etc. show her entries were organized almost from the beginning. She wrote the surname at the top. My own research notes from 1970 to 1988 were rather random. In 1988 I began a new research book which I used until 1995. In it, I began writing the date of each research effort. I tried to enter a one-line description and put the current date at the top of each entry. On the inside front and back covers I recorded an index of the pages. That research log is by far the easiest to thumb through.

Over the years since then, computers, the internet, email, texting, and social media have greatly modernized communications. Writing things down (or printing them) in print form is still critically important for personal archives but these tools are wonderful for quickly documenting ongoing efforts.

How should they be organized? Why by surname, of course! So I’m entering a new era of documenting my research. With any luck I’ll live long enough to see it completed. I’ll be trying to compile my half century of written and electronic correspondence and research discoveries on the internet. For my platform, I’m choosing one of my web domains, MyKinFolks.org, that I’ve had for a few years now.

Creating and maintaining websites is so cool. The HTML code used is pretty simple to create. Uploading is kind of expensive but a good way to archive stuff in addition to printed form. Long after I’m gone, people should still be able to read and view my web pages from any web browser. To preserve the pages, I only need to copy them to a CD. Anyone with a computer can view them. They don’t need the internet.

I began documenting my ancestry online in the late 1980s with FamilySearch.org’s Ancestral File, their online companion to Personal Ancestral File (PAF). 10 years later I was inspired by Sheridan Vincent’s website and I created my first website in 1998. Another 10 years, in 2007, I purchased my first domain, vincentfam.net. A year later, VincentsFamily.org (with an “s”) followed, then VincentFamily.org (no “s”) became available. I purchased it and MyKinFolks.org in 2012.

I’ve learned a lot from other researchers working with VincentFamily.org. I’ll continue to do so. Other family lines have since heated up. A few evenings ago I received a phone call from a distant cousin about my research. I got frustrated talking to her because I couldn’t locate all the papers and books and correspondence needed. I kept having to apologize.

My years of research are in too many formats. The essential parts need a common platform. I’ll share research on other lines by starting my Smith research at MyKinFolks.org. That line has really gotten hot over the past few years. It will be fun sharing what I know online with all the other Smith researchers.

So that’s it in a nutshell. That’s gonna be one of my projects for 2018. Wish me luck and stay tuned.

And The Wall Came Tumblin Down

When I was young my aunt sung me an old spiritual about “the wall came tumblin’ down.” That’s what happened tonight. You see, family research can become an addiction. I’ve been at this for 6 hours straight. But let me explain.

This all began 46 years ago when I was about 23 years old (yes, I’ll be 70 next year). My father’s family had been well researched for decades but no one had ever researched my mother’s family. I wanted to know more about my grandfather’s mother, Fannie Farmer.

Two aunts and an uncle had all known Frances Elizabeth Farmer. Unfortunately, no one had ever written down her parents’ names. Genealogists call that a “Brick Wall.” We love it when walls start tumblin’ down.

In 1972 Aunt Pearl told me some of Fannie’s siblings were John, Walter, and Addie. for over 40 years that’s all I knew. Then one day I discovered a record on Findagrave.com. It mentioned Fannie’s parents names.

You’d think I’d get excited but false “information” comes along all the time. Someone found something somewhere where someone put something on some website. Overnight it’s a “fact.” Try buying property on that basis.

“Where’s the property located?”
“Somewhere.”
“Who is selling it?”
“Someone.”
“Where’s proof they can sell it?”
“Oh, I have proof. I found it on the internet!”

Yeah, right. Good researchers need proof. I searched FamilySearch.org’s death records. Nothing. Tonight, I searched Census records and there it was — like getting hit in the head with a falling brick — from a tumblin’ wall — some place.

The father’s name was butchered. Of the 4 records I found, no 2 spelled his name the same way. His wife’s name was Martha. Thank goodness it’s hard to mess that up.

The 1880 Chilton County Census listed Fannie and the 3 siblings Aunt Pearl mentioned. All 4 names were there. Proof like that is a gold mine. Bricks just started tumblin’ down all over the place.

You would not BELIEVE how messed up the spelling was. Fannie’s dad’s name was spelled “Memery Farmer”, “Meaury Farmer”, and “Maueary For…” Yep that’s the letters “F”, “o”, and “r” followed by 3 dots. Try searching the net for that!

On official records, Fannie’s married name was spelled “Worren” instead of “Warren.” Her mother’s maiden name was “Culoen” instead of “Cullen”, and Fannie was buried at “Cooletan Hill.” Hahaha. That’s a riot.

The place used to be called “Carlton Hill” but the name was been changed to “Cahaba Valley” to avoid confusion with another church named Carlton Hill on Hwy 25 near Brierfield, Alabama.

My cousin Judy and I and our families have visited Cahaba Valley Church Cemetery many times. She and her daughter Rachel took photos of it last time they were there. It’s taken nearly half a century to find out who Fannie’s parents and siblings were. They’re shown this way on the 1880 Census:

Maury (or Memory) Farmer b. 1837
Martha [Cullen?] b. 1840
John Farmer b. 1861
Dora Farmer b. 1863
Walter Farmer b. 1863
Frances Farmer b. 7 Apr 1865 [date from tombstone]
Addie Farmer b. 1867
Ella Farmer b. 1868
William Farmer b. 1868
Julia Farmer b. 1877
Nannie Farmer b. 1890 [from 1920 Census]

Was Martha 50 years old when Nannie (from the 1920 Census) was born? Did she have 2 sets of twins then died in childbirth when Nannie was born?

The 1920 Census also shows Maury (listed as “Memery”) and Ella, both with the correct birth year. Ella’s birth year was misread by the indexer because it’s a “5” that looks a lot like a “2” or a “3”.

Maury (or Memory) Farmer told the 1920 Census taker he was a widower. Did he outlive two wives?

There’s still some unanswered questions but this is a lot more than we knew.

When starting family research, you learn some things right away. One of them is patience. Some puzzles just take you a few years to figure out.

A Tiny Little Book from 1911

In our day we have high school annuals. Had ‘em for decades. They are nice, hard-bound books with pretty pages and lots of glossy photos. But it hasn’t always been so.

I came across a little book about the size of a post card. You’d call it a booklet, paper bound, stapled on the edge like a magazine. It probably belonged to Aunt Lillie Blake Warren, Uncle Sam Warren’s wife. He and my grandfather married sisters.

In the book, Aunt Lillie was in the second grade attending the Morrison Public School with her siblings. I suppose it was a one-room school house where every grade met in one large room all taught by the same teacher. Mine is a photocopy of the book Lillie received that I found amongst my mother’s things.

Aunt Lillie’s must have gone to her son Grady after she died. His signature is on the page where his mom’s name appears. He added these words, “My mother Lillie Blake” along with his and her birth dates.

The cover of the little book appears above. Like all photos and documents linked in this blog, click the link, right-click the photo or document, then select the option to save a copy to your computer if you want to keep one. CLICK HERE for the cover.

A poem from “My Teacher” as well as other poems are on spare pages. Look at THIS ONE on PAGE-1. Turn the page and on PAGE 2 the names begin. There is Aunt Pearl Blake in the 4th Grade (Misspelled “Pearle”) and Uncle Rufus Blake in 3rd Grade. He’s right under George Jones (Naw, not THAT George Jones).

On PAGE-3 I found Cousin Grady Warren’s note that says, “Born 10/23/23” with an arrow pointing to his signature. Below that, he wrote “My mother Lillie Blake Born Aug 17—1902.” Grady died Oct. 2010 at the age of 86. Aunt Lillie died in back in 1987. She was 84. In the little book from 1911, Lillie Blake Warren was in 1st Grade. Uncle Ernest Blake, Lillie’s brother, was in 2nd Grade.

There was another Blake in 1st Grade with Lillie. Her name was Winnie. Never heard of her. Who could she be? I did some investigating. To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, this story began to get “curiouser and curiouser.”

You see, Chester A. Johnson, he’s dead now, was an archaeologist and an excellent family genealogist. I stumbled across his book while doing family research in the late 1980s. Cousin Chester wrote about every member of the Blake Family in Bibb County, Alabama, who was there from 1819 to 1988 – all of them except for some of our family. I filled him in on our branch. Unfortunately, he already had the book published. Chester died before he could add us in a later edition.

But Cousin Winnie was in Chester Johnson’s book, page 64, something like a 2nd cousin to Lillie, Rufus, and the rest of our bunch. After she was grown, Winnie married Fred J. Ballenger. They had no children. In 1947, Fred was out golfing one day and died suddenly. Maybe a heart attack or something. Winnie couldn’t bear the grief of living alone and hung herself.

While searching through Chester Johnson’s book looking for Winnie, I stumbled on yet another cousin. His name was Ross Franklin Gray. You won’t find his name listed in the 1911 book from Morrison Public School but I should mention it anyway. Ross Gray was my mother’s 3rd cousin.

I worked at the phone company with a guy named Gray from Bibb County. The name of “Gray” shows up elsewhere. On the road from Greenpond to Shelby County we used to drive out “Gray Hill Road.” Maybe they’re the same Grays, you say? Yeah, I’d say the same thing.

It doesn’t stop there. Ross Gray is famous. He fought and died at Iwo Jima in WWII. He won our nation’s highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was an amazing hero. There’s an old 1940s black and white, silent film on YouTube that shows everyone gathered on the football field at Bibb County High in Centreville. In it, a U.S. admiral is awarding the Medal of Honor to Ross’s dad while the Governor of Alabama and other dignitaries look on.

I’m looking forward to sharing the rest of Ross’s story on my other website RonVBlog.com at a later date, maybe around Veteran’s Day. I consider it quite an honor to claim this man as my cousin, however distant.

Sometimes family research is boring, sometimes it’s interesting, and sometimes we hit pay dirt! What a story this turned out to be. And it all started with a little paper bound book from 1911. Makes you feel like you were there, doesn’t it?

Hap & Joe

This photo is a great first post for our family’s genealogy photos blog. By the way, in case you don’t know how to migrate here on your own, just go to MyKinFolks.org and click the Link to “Photo BLOG” at the lower-right.

This is one of my favorite photos in the collection. I didn’t know it existed until cousin Judy sent it. She’s Joe’s daughter and my only 1st cousin on mother’s side still living. That’s Joe on the right sitting next to my dad, Wilburn “Hap” Vincent. His grandchildren called him “Giddy.”

These two WWII veterans represent both sides of my family, my father’s side including the surnames of Vincent, Seay, Finch, Pace, etc. and my mother’s side (she and Joe’s wife were sisters) including the surnames of Warren, Blake, Farmer, and Smith among others.

Hap and Joe are sitting in Hap’s living room which us older folks will remember. The photo is not dated. It was in Joe’s wife’s collection. She was called Tincy by the family. I’m guessing that’s because she was small when young and the name stuck. We called her Aunt Tincy but her given name was Mildred.

The photo was in Tincy’s collection when she died. Cousin Judy inherited it and shared it with me so we could all enjoy it. Thanks, cousin Judy! In fact, Judy shared a lot of photos with me which I’ll share on this blog in future posts.

According to Cousin Judy, this photo had to have been taken in ’67 or ’68. My dad was pretty gray headed by the 1980s. Please check the comments to this blog post for the most current information.

The full-sized copy of this photo can be viewed and downloaded 1) by clicking the photo above, 2) by going to MyKinFolks.org then Photos, then Abels, or 3) by clicking the following link:

http://mykinfolks.org/photos/Abels/Abels%20-%20Joe%20%28right%29%20&%20Vincent%20-%20Hap%20%28left%29%20in%20Vincent%20Family%20living%20room.jpg