Though I was raised in the Southern part of the USA, my roots travel much farther.
Take Backward Glance into Our Tangled Branches.
DNA says that I am 98% European…and that other 2%…well that is Native American!
My ancestors came from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and other European countries.
Most of them came to America through Virginia and migrated North and South, and later many went West!
Growing up, if I asked questions, I was always told: German, Scotch, and Irish. Never once did anyone tell me I had any Native American blood!
But I had the dark hair, high cheek bones and the darker, olive complextion. So I was always picked on about being an “injun child”.
Another trait that they say came from my Irish bloodline was my temper. It always had a tendency to get me into trouble because I was never one to take crap from anybody! I don’t care who you think you are!
Now, I’m only trying to explain things we inherit from our ancestors. As for that temper, it probably came from the Native American side as well as the Irish.
The purpose of this online genealogy is to share my interest in my roots with future generations who hopefully have the same interests…at least a little anyway.
Through the years I have always had an interest in genealogy and who my ancestors were. I think I got that gene from my paternal grandfather. He had a habit of saving newspaper clippings and such.
Some were tucked away in an old agriculture book, some in his personal Bible, and others in the Family Bible. They included births, deaths, weddings and sometimes, just a point of interest.
He also made notations of Family names and held on to treasured family photos.
But that wasn’t the only thing that drew me to the interest. There was a cemetery close by that had a plot with a big monument in the middle of it. I was fasinated with it, but my mother did her best to discourage me.
She would tell me that they were not my relatives! But that didn’t stop me. I kept right on visiting those graves. Later on, after visiting the achives and scrolling through the census records on microfilm, I found the names of the people in those graves.
Then I did a little more research and found out who they were. Major John Richardson and most of his children!
John was one of the first settlers to come to this area of Georgia. I’ll cover that in his profile. But I had a gap to fill. His son, Asa… who wasn’t buried there. His name was mentioned in the history books and Census records but what happened to him?
That just made me want to know more! I was hooked! That was my first “Brick Wall”.
But time has a way of changing things for all of us. I soon realized that I couldn’t live in the archives and that I had a “live” family to take care of. So, the research stopped for a while, except for the ocassional letter or visit from someone else who wanted to know more, just as I had.
So I would share what I had and sometimes they would return the favor and I would add it in my notes.
I have learned a lot since those early days. One was about organization. You really need a filing system!
A pile of papers in a pile (or in a box), is just that… a pile of papers.
Then along came the internet and once again, I was hooked. No more microfilm or trips to the big city libraries.
But along with the internet came a lot of errors too! Why do people just automatically think…if it’s on the internet it true? Because it’s not!
Census takers didn’t know how to spell names and they recorded them the way they thought or how they sounded. My middle name for instance, Frances. Spelled with an “E”, implicating it was a female. “I”, Francis, is for a male. Now there are still some who say they use whatever is online. Sorry, not me! I use what I know is correct!
Think of it this way… if you don’t have a picture or some other way to distinguish male or female, how else do you know. If you know which it is, then spell it right! Not how someone who took the census or the one who transcribed it. Believe me, the most errors are in the transcriptions! It’s hard reading microfilm.
Surnames can be spelled so many different ways on these documents. Harvey was Harve, Harvie, Harry, Harney, etc. I even found one case where a death certificate had the wrong middle name. I was thankful for my grandfather’s notes for my own use because others use the wrong name in their records. (Just because you see it online, doesn’t make it right!)
Remember, these Census takers were not always “educated” people. They were just humans who needed a job and the job was given to them. Plain and simple! And humans make errors.
Now, the other error… the person who transcribed the records. Again, trying to read the microfilm is not easy, so again they might read “u” as an “a”. Hence, Lunsford might be Lansford. Lumpkin might be Lampkin. You get the idea. So your research can take you down a rabbit hole if you’re not careful. It may or may not give you another lead.
I hope you enjoy what I’ve put together and you share and treasure the information as I have.
Starting with myself and my life and going back as far as I can with the information I have obtained through the years.
Most of my personal info is set to Private online. I’m sure you can understand why.
*NOTE: this section of the website is for the purpose of sharing information that I found.
It is NOT to be used as a TRUE RESOURCE due to some descrepancies that I found.
As with Family History Books…You should verify the info before taking it as fact.