#156--Next-to-Last--A Project

This week’s theme is next to last.  I was pretty clueless about what to do with that.  I did not want to blog about someone who was the next-to-last child in a family, or about a next to last job.  But I had another idea.  I would blog about my next-to-last project. 

I have become interested in the movement of members of my family, both closely and not-so-closely related.  So to do that you have to know where they lived.  Family Tree Maker has a mapping program, which I decided to learn to use.  It lists all the people in your tree and any places that are associated with them.  The nice part is that you can see where each person moved and plot it on the map.  For example, I can see that my great grandfather moved from Edgar County, Illinois, to a variety of different places during the Civil War, to Butler, Missouri, to Sterling, Kentucky, where he died.  It will also list everyone who lived in a particularly place.  I was interested in learning exactly who moved from Brown County, Ohio to Edgar County, Illinois.

The problem was that I had not consistently used the same place name for Brown County. Sometimes, it was just Brown County, other times it was Brown County, Ohio, and other times it Brown County, Ohio, USA.  According to the tutorial I watched the last designation is the correct one.  The place name should go from the smallest place to the largest.  So Brown County, Ohio, USA is the correct designation.

What I had to do is go to the list of place names and find those that had Brown County in them and convert each one to Brown County, Ohio, USA.  Unfortunately, I could not figure out if it was possible to convert them all at once, I had to do it one by one.  That took a long time.  However, by the time I finished 70 people were associated with Brown County, Ohio.  If I look at the dates the people lived there it was from the early 1800’s to the mid 1900’s.

Now the current project is to do the same thing with Edgar County, Illinois, which is where my great great-grandfather moved.  Once I know who lived there, I can compare the two lists.  That gives me what I think of as a tribe or a group of people that move together.  Once that is done, I can look at the relationships among them, e.g. who sold or bought land from whom, who married whom, etc.  Stay tune and I will let you know what I find.

I would like to know how they traveled from Brown County to Edgar County.  Did they go over land?  Did they go down the Ohio River and then up the Wabash River?  Or did go partly down the Ohio and then overland to Edgar County? Did they go all at one time?  If not, who was first and who was last?

#155 Thankful for Thankful

The theme for this week is Thankful.  I thought about blogging about what I was thankful for in terms of genealogy, but decided to take a different route.  I remembered that in the 1700’s women often had names that were virtues—Patience, Temperance, Modesty, etc.  So decided to look and see if I had any female with that kind of first name.  It did not take long for me to find Thankful Stratton. I am the 4th great grandniece of her husband, Ebenezer Richards.

Like most women of that era, there is not much information available of about her, but here is what I could find.  Thankful Stratton was born on December 17, 1721, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Lydia Fuller and Ebenezer Stratton.  Thankful Stratton married Ebenezer Richards in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 24, 1741.  They had ten children in 20 years. 

She died on June 1, 1796, in Dedham, Massachusetts, at the age of 74.  She is buried in the Old Village Cemetery  in Dedham, Massachusetts.  Their tombstone reads:

“In memory of  Dean. EBENEZER  RICHARDS who  departed this  life Feb. 27th 1796  Æt. 80 years.    Right panel:  In memory of  Mrs. THANKFULL  RICHARDS, consort of Dea. EBENEZER RICHARDS  who departed   this life 1 June 1796  Æt. 76 years.    Bottom panel:  He performed the office of Deacon  in the first church of Dedham for 27  years.  Blessed are the dead that died in the Lord”

#154--John W. Hannah--What Happened?

The theme for this week is a random fact.  I tried to think of a fact that really did not fit with what I knew about a person.  My great grandfather, John Wesley Hannah, fought in the Civil War.  He enlisted in the Illinois 62 as a private, and by the end of the war was the Captain of his company.  I ordered his war records from the National Archives.  Everything looked find and rather routine in the records, he was where he should have been in terms of muster, carried out orders, and was selected to be the provost marshal at one point.  So you can imagine my surprise, when I found the following:

Head Quarters of South Kansas
Fort Gibson, Sept. 8, 1865

Special Order
No 147
Capt. John W. Hannah
County 62 Ill. Vet Infantry is hereby placed under arrest for disobedience of order and will confine himself to his quarters. 
By order of Liet. Colonel James True   
Commander of the District

Head Quarters of South Kansas
Fort Gibson  Sept. 10, 1865
Special Order 148

The Board of Survey convened for Special Order 47 is hereby dissolved. 
Captain John W. Hannah is hereby released from arrest.
By order of Liet Colonel  James True

There is no indication in the file exactly what happened to place him under arrest.  So if I would talk to John Wesley Hannah, I certainly would ask him. 

#153--Abiathar Richards--That is a Great Beard

Beards are back in vogue and they are this week’s theme.  When I saw that theme, I immediately knew who I was going to blog about—my great grandfather, Abiathar Richards.  I have a wonderful picture of him which is the centerpiece of my gallery wall.

About thirty years ago, when my great aunt, Henrietta Richards, died, her family called my father and asked if he would like the picture of Abiathar Richards that they had.  My father said yes, thinking that it would be a rather small picture.  Imagine his surprise, when they dropped off a portrait that is about 3 feet tall, and 2 and a half feet wide.

To me he looks like a typical gentleman of the late 1800’s—dress coat, high collar, and tie.  However, his most distinguishing feature is his elegant mustache and beard.

I  knew that I had blogged about Abiathar Richards before, and was interested to see that he was the subject of my first genealogy blog, so if you would like more information about him, click here:  Abiathar Richards.