Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Help Through I Ching?

Randy Seaver's SNGF (at Genea-Musings) is really off the wall this week looking for genealogy research help by throwing the I Ching. His directions read:

1)  The writer of the Nuts from the Family Tree blog wrote about her question for the I Ching ( Book of Changes) guru in Cluless No More.  I thoguht that this might be a fun thing to do on Saturday night. 

2)  Go to http://IChingOnline.net and ask a question relating to your genealogy research.  You can "throw the coins virtually" or "throw the coins by hand."  You have to click the "throw" button six times, then click on "Read." 

3)  Report the question you asked and the answer you received, in the form of the Cast Hexagram (which explains the situation you are now in, or what has gone before), to your readers.    

4)  Does the answer make any sense to you?  How do you interpret the answer? 

5)  Write your own blog post about this, or post a comment on Facebook or Google Plus, or write a comment on this blog post.

I followed the directions and it was very interesting, maybe even hopeful.


My Question: Will I unravel the Eckles family in Fayette County, Kentucky? (see post here)

My Cast Hexagram:

The Cast Hexagram reading is for  45 - Gathering.

The first part of it reads:

The Lake rises by welcoming and receiving Earth's waters:
The King approaches his temple.
It is wise to seek audience with him there.

Success follows this course.
Making an offering will seal your good fortune.
A goal will be realized now.

That is followed by this Situational Analysis:

This is an important Convergence, and you must be part of it.
Look for the Center of this convergence.
Like waters running to the sea, like an astronomical convergence of planets revolving around the sun, you should let the gravity of this Center draw you near.
Others are also drawn to this Center, and among them you will find shared bonds and kindred spirits.
This tribal convergence will give you a clarity of purpose.
You will no longer be alone.

This sounds very encouraging to me, especially as I plan to go to Kentucky the end of the month and especially do research in Fayette and Scott counties. I've made contact with and hope to see relatives there I've not seen in about forty years, so the gathering might be very literal.

I tried the Custom Search at the Trigram Symbol tab, but of three "hits" and another using "Eccles" nothing was remotely connected. My question is very meaningful to me, but not an easy Internet search.

Thanks to Randy for a really different adventure on Saturday Night.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Will of Charles Williamson

Deborah (Williamson) Bell was my great-great grandmother. I wrote about difficulties learning the identity of her father. A very strong candidate was a Charles Williamson who died in Wood County, (West) Virginia in 1858. See my earlier post: HERE. He was included in a book by Raymond Martin Bell and Edna Marian Miller with just eight children. They did not include Deborah. I hoped they had missed some esoteric document, but a very basic document reveals the truth.

FamilySearch has browsable images of "West Virginia Will Books, 1756-1971" for all 55 counties of West Virginia. In Wood County's Will Book 5 I found three entries for Charles Williamson in the index: his will on p. 127-8 and two settlements on pp. 180-81 and 266-68. The image below is a little too small to read and not in the best of shape to begin with, but it is a treasure!

The will names eleven children. Based on the census records for Charles Williamson, I believe there were twelve, the additional one a daughter, Judith, who died in 1847 and is buried in Compton Cemetery in Wood County as are Charles, his wife Martha and other of their children. I created a table based on his census returns of who was represented assuming all the children were his children. The will now gives names to "my daughter Deborah Bell" but also daughter Sarah Williamson and son Samuel M. Williamson. The will named executors but Charles added a codicil naming his wife and Joseph Bell as executors. The settlements are done by executor Joseph Bell. He was Deborah's husband.

The Williamson book gives the maiden name of Charles's wife as Martha Martin. Learning her family will be added to my queries now. I will also have to verify the Williamson descent from Moses Sr. and his son John, both having served in the American Revolution, down to Charles.

I just found the will last night and when I saw those magic words "my daughter Deborah Bell" there was cheering in my house!
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• 1820 U.S. census, Tyler County, Virginia, p. 86; NARA M33, roll 140, digital images, Ancestry.com.
• 1830 U.S. Census, Tyler County, Virginia, p. 187; NARA M19, roll 200, Ancestry.com imaged from FHL microfilm 0,029,679.
• 1840 U.S. census, Washington County, Ohio, Marietta Township, p. 299; NARA M704, roll 433, Ancestry.com imaged from FHL microfilm 0,020,179.
• 1850 U.S. census, Wood County, Virginia, District 65, p. 110A; NARA M432, roll 981, digital images, Ancestry.com.

(all Virginia locations now in West Virginia)

SNGF - a little late, but looking at family houses

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) really appealed to me this week, but I was distracted, especially by the late-running (but WINning) Indians game. I'm going to post even though Saturday has ended. The challenge was:

1)  Review Denise Levenick’s (The Family Curator) three blog posts on the Present Photo Challenge. World Photography Day is coming up Aug 19, and this seemed like a fun thing to do something genealogy-wise.

• http://www.thefamilycurator.com/home/2011/7/27/the-past-is-present-genealogy-photo-challenge-for-world-phot.html
• http://www.thefamilycurator.com/home/2011/7/26/dear-photograph-35th-wedding-anniversary-edition-for-tech-tu.html 
• http://www.thefamilycurator.com/home/2011/8/3/5-tips-for-snapping-the-perfect-dear-photograph-picture-a-no.html

 2)  Identify one or more photographs from your own photograph collection that you could use for the Present Photo Challenge.
3)  Show us the photographs that you could use on your blog, a Facebook status or a Google Plus Stream.

I  did something slightly similar to Denise's trip in 2005. My parents lived in a number of homes until they were able to buy a house in December 1939. We lived in that one when I was born. My mother left a box of old photo divided into envelopes with an address on each. From them I could find the places they'd lived and photos of many of the houses. The Cuyahoga County Archives houses a large set of property assessment cards with photos of the buildings attached, probably taken in the 1950s. I got copies of those for my family's addresses and mapped out a route to visit them. Amazingly they all still were standing, the first in which they'd lived now looking quite good. I took photos of them and began a book of the old photos and the new and in between. I redid a page for the house in which they roomed just after marriage in 1930 HERE. I've just spruced up a page I did on the first house my sister remembers. I think she started school there.

So, I don't have photos superimposed of old and new, but these pages are my attempt to capture the times together.

Military Monday: Morgan's Raid, Ohio Claims

The 1863 raid of George Hunt Morgan’s cavalry into Ohio was a frightening episode of the Civil War for rural Ohioans. Some of my ancestors lived in northern Gallia and southern Meigs counties near each of the two routes his troops took between Vinton and Buffington Island. Years ago I saw a copy of a report of claims of losses by residents of the area but none of my relatives were on the list. I believe I saw it at the Meigs County Historical Society in Pomeroy.

Today the question arose on the Meigs County mailing list of where to find the names of those with claims and what they lost. Not remembering the title of what I’d seen off hand, I searched various terms in the catalog of WorldCat (www.worldcat.org). There I found two different digital copies online through Hathi Trust Digital Library. (http://tinyurl.com/3qnfcvb). I looked at the version from the Library of Congress (digitized by Internet Archive) titled: Report of the Commissioners of Morgan Raid claims : to the Governor of the state of Ohio, December 15th, 1864; published in 1865. It contains introductory material, a table by county of losses and itemized lists by county. The names within each county are alphabetically arranged giving location and on the facing page the losses, claimed value, awarded value and the names of all who provided affidavits. Gallia County begins on page 76 and Meigs on 176 through 213.

There were also claims recorded in Indiana but I only looked into the Ohio records. The next step would be to find where (and if) the original documents are now.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - My "American Pie" Chart

Tonight Randy Seaver has posed a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) challenge to post data on our 16 great-great grandparents, their places of birth and death. As an added feature he's giving a link to a website to create a chart of their birthplaces.

Chris Staats accepted the challenge but claimed they were born in a small area of Ohio and Pennsylvania and that he was a "Mutt". He even went to his 32 third great grandparents to get a slightly more diverse chart.

I don't have much more variety. Half of my 16 lived at least part of their lives in Ohio and the other half in Kentucky. The label I claim though is that I am an all around American. Thus my pie chart is my "American Pie." I was raised to be proud of the fact that many of my ancestors were Scots-Irish and many really were. Others came from England, German states and a few other parts of Europe. They apparently arrived in America between 1620 and 1807, so they were at least a bit diverse. Here are the names of my Great-greats:

16. Samuel McClintock was probably born in Virginia, but possibly in Kentucky, about 1794. He died in Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, 14 July 1827. He married Elizabeth Waits 19 August 1825 in Harrison County, Kentucky.

17. Elizabeth Waits was born 16 October 1802 in Harrison County, Kentucky. She died 19 June 1887 in Kentucky, possibly in Woodford County. She married second Edmund Martin 13 December 1833 in Harrison County, Kentucky.

18. Thomas Scott was born 22 December 1810 in Kentucky. He died 19 June 1844 in Harrison County, Kentucky. He married Elizabeth McShane 22 December 1840 in Harrison County.

19. Elizabeth McShane was born in Harrison County, Kentucky, 2 October 1823. She died there 16 October 1907. She married second Caleb Whaley 5 February 1846.

20. Charles Nichols was born 3 April 1817 in New Windsor, Orange County, New York. He died in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, 2 November 1862. He married Nancy Boyd Eckles in Scott County 12 March 1840.

21. Nancy Boyd Eckles was born in Scott or Fayette county, Kentucky, in 1819. She died in Scott County, Kentucky, buried 2 May 1888 in the Georgetown Cemetery.

22. William Loftus Lightburne, Sr. was born 4 June 1820 in Scott County, Kentucky. He died there 5 March 1890. He married first Eliza Jane Tarlton 12 October 1843 in Scott County. He married second Mrs. Mattie (Triplett) Smith in 1866.

23. Eliza Jane Tarlton was born 18 January 1828 in Scott County, Kentucky and died there 20 August 1864.

24. Isaac Lyle was born 10 April 1830 in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He died near Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California 29 September 1911. He married first Elizabeth Jane Reynolds in Gallia County, Ohio, 26 January 1857. He married second Susan Harrod 7 October 1874 in Jennings County, Indiana.

25. Elizabeth Jane Reynolds was born in Cheshire Township, Gallia County, Ohio, 2 August 1835. She died there 19 February 1921.

26. David Coughenour was born 6 August 1820 in Augusta County, Virginia. He died in Cheshire Township, Gallia County, Ohio, 14 April 1900. He married Rachel McCarty in Cheshire Township 20 October 1843.

27. Rachel McCarty was born in Cheshire Township, Gallia County, Ohio, 4 February 1822 and died there 5 August 1896.

28. Joseph Bell was born about 31 December 1808 in Washington County, Ohio. He died in Clay Township, Gallia County, Ohio, 8 February 1886. He married Deborah Williamson in Marietta, Washington County, Ohio, 1 September 1839.

29. Deborah Williamson was born in what is now West Virginia on 15 July 1818. She died in Clay Township, Gallia County, Ohio, 28 April 1865.

30. John T. Irion was born 10 April 1836 in Clay Township, Gallia County, Ohio, and died in Gallipolis 10 March 1896. He married Mariah Louisa Poole 23 November 1857 in Gallia County.

31. Mariah Louisa Poole was born in Delaware County, Ohio, 24 June 1839. She died in Gallipolis, Gallia County, Ohio, 7 August 1924.

 Their birthplaces look like this:

Kentucky                 6

Ohio                        5

Virginia                    2

Pennsylvania            1

New York                1

(West) Virginia         1

Wordless Wednesday: Four Generations of a Lyle Family

I've scrapped photos of maternal 4 generations with my mother, sister and niece as the baby, but don't think I've even done this one of my mother with her father's family. Probably because her face is blurred.

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Designer Credits:
-template: Copycat Challenge by Clara (clarabear) based on "cora: life.unscripted" by Sally (cellomom)
-background, 2 pale papers, circle frame from Oscraps Collab: Life
-dark brown and right 2 papers from Not So Basic Browns by Maya de Groot
-2nd brown paper from Rachel by LydiaK Designs
-overlay from Inscribed by Fei-fei's Stuff
-butterfly from Sketchbook Artistry No. 1 by Sue Cummings
fonts: Cardinal, Corbel, Courier New

Mystery Monday: Still No Mr. Wright

If a Mr. Wright is the father of Mary, wife of Moses Nichols of New Windsor, Orange County, New York, he has yet to step up and be recognized. I wrote about my search for her father recently in Finding Mr. Wright. There I detailed my research to date ending with the possibility that her father could be David Wright of New Windsor listed as a patriot by the DAR. According to the online index to DAR ancestors, David Wright died in New Windsor in 1833. He was one of four David Wrights heading households in Orange County, New York, in the 1830 U.S. census, but no probate records have been located for him in that county. The deed indexes for the county yielded nothing overly promising, but there were a few possibilities.

Two deeds from the 1830s were different. One listed David Wright as a grantor with no wife named (51: 566.) It was the David Wright of Newburgh, a different person. John Wright as executor was grantor of another deed, but he was executor for James McLaughlin late of Wallkill (52: 182.)

The four sons of Moses and Mary Nichols were minors when their parents died. After they reached twenty-one there were at least two deeds each as a grantor. The two deeds for third son, Charles, were both for land previously owned by Moses Nichols (64: 329; 66: 219.) The hope they would be selling land inherited from their maternal grandfather was not fulfilled. Charles Nichols is of New Windsor in his deeds, apparently predating his move with brother Robert J. Nichols to Georgetown, Kentucky.

The transcription of the cemetery where Moses Nichols and his first wife Jane were buried does not include his second wife or David Wright. (Inscriptions on Gravestones in New Windsor Cemetery) New Windsor Town records, transcribed online, include a reference to the demise of Moses Nichols, but have no such information on David Wright. I do not know of a marriage record for Moses and Mary Nichols. While he served in the American Revolution, there is apparently no pension record.

I see no obvious resource at present for information on David Wright. Could he have moved between the 1830 census and his death? Did he not own property? His son Benjamin predeceased him according to the DAR index, but what about his son John? Were there other children? Newspapers and court records could be the next best places to look.