A New Puzzle

This week, my library received the FHL films that I ordered for Kentucky Land Grants.  I had 4 specific grants to look at.  I thought they would be certificates of some kind and I probably wouldn’t get much information from them, but instead, they look like deeds with land descriptions and such.  Neat!  But they leave me with more questions than I had originally, probably because I still don’t completely understand how the land grants work.

Two of the land grants were given jointly to John M. Smith and James Gilbert.  I thought I might be able to find out if these men were related. Brother-in-law maybe.  It gives me no information like that.  But the pages do give me warrant numbers.

Now I need to research what I can do with these numbers. Can I tell if they were military warrants?  I guess I thought that’s what I WAS getting with this microfilm, so I’m confused. There are also many other names in here and after talking with my librarians, we believe it is almost like a provenance of the land warrant because of an abbreviation that looks like assee with the two ee’s like superscripts. 

They believe that means “assignee” so I’m going with that for now.  When I did a quick “google” of land patent assignee, it tells me it’s the same as the buyer.  (Feel free to comment with any corrections or further info!!)

The two grants are on consecutive pages in the book.  The first grant only mentions John M. Smith and James Gilbert.  But the second grant says: “there is granted by the said Commonwealth unto John M. Smith and James Gilbert assignee of said Smith who was assignee of Timothy Burgess assignee of Braxton Carter who was assignee of Elijah Hutchison a certain tract or parcel of land….”

So I interpret that to mean that Elijah Hutchison earned the original warrant. Braxton Carter purchased it and sold it to Timothy Burgess who sold it to John M. Smith who sold part of it to James Gilbert.  Does anyone know if I’m correct in this?

I have 2 warrant numbers within the document and a different warrant number in the margin.  Can I follow the land through these numbers? That’s what I’ll need to figure out next.

Time to learn more about the whole Land Grant system!  I have several different presentations on my computer about the process, and I thought I understood it pretty well, but now that I have actual information to follow up on, I can see that I need to watch those again with these specifics in hand.

Read Full Post »

A Wonderful Find – Now What?

I’m so excited about some discoveries I’ve made doing research with Google since Saturday!

I had read a story that one of my ancestors, along with his brothers, had a trading post in the Danville, Kentucky area around the time of Kentucky statehood and I wanted to try to confirm that.  The last ancestor that I have confirmed information on is John M. Smith from Russell County.  I know that John purchased land in 1827 (Russell County was formed in 1826) and also had two land grants around the same time.  I don’t know if John was in the area before his area became Russell County or where he might have come from before that.  I don’t know his wife’s name or his parents.

I’ve latched onto the Danville area trading post as the clue that’s going to move me back a generation.  But I have not been able to find anything helpful because there are too many Smiths in the county.  While doing a Google search for trading posts, I discovered that I should be Googling the term “Stations” instead of trading posts.  Then I came across a link that listed “Smith’s Station” located on the road from Danville to the mouth of Dick’s River.  Now I had a better idea of which part of Mercer County to be looking for the Smith’s in Mercer County.  Last night, I was THRILLED to find a map showing all of the pre-1800 Stations in Kentucky and there was Smith’s Station!  Another web site told me the 3 people who are attributed with beginning the station. Could these 3 names be John’s father and his brothers?

So I’m excited to get back to the library on Friday to see what I can find in the Mercer County history books and tax lists.  My hope has been to find that some of the people in John’s part of Russell County (witnesses, neighbors, etc) were also in the same area of Mercer County in the early 1800′s to help me confirm which John Smith in Mercer County could be my John Smith.

Read Full Post »

Russell County Deaths – 1828a

After a week of Math Teacher Conference, I’m ready to get back into the genealogy mode.  Of course, every time I say that, something ELSE pops up, but that’s life!

Due to a lack of vital records in the early years of Russell County, I’ve been using Court Orders to help me narrow down the date of death for some of my ancestors. I thought that might be helpful to other Russell County researchers as well. I was only able to make it through the Jan – June Sessions of the 1828 Russell County Court Order this morning.

• January Term – James Wariner administrator for William Stapp estate
• January Term – Mary Smith executrix of William Smith
• April Term – Estate of William Stapp (no other names)
• April Term – James Wariner administrator of William Stapp estate
• April Term – James Woldridge one of the executors for Richard Wooldridge
• April Term – Smith Turner executor of Richard Turner gives bond
• June Term – Last will and testament of Edward Long or Lang proven
• June Term – Last will and testament of Richard Turner proven
• June Term – Nancy Hampton widow of Henry Hampton

I’d love to be your Personal Assistant for these records! If you see a record that you’d like to have, I’d be happy to provide a digital copy of the full page for you for only $2.00 a page.  Email me at theshygenealogist [at] gmail [dot] com to tell me which record you’d like.  I use Paypal for fast, convenient transactions.

Read Full Post »

Russell County Deaths – 1827

In the quest for information on our ancestors, the books and certificates and other records with specific dates of birth, marriage and death quite often don’t cover the dates that apply to our ancestor.  Sometimes, the information we are looking for is found in unexpected locations.  As I’ve been looking through the Russell County Court Orders, I’ve found information that helps give me a pretty good idea of the month and year that my ancestors passed away.  I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to find an exact date because death records were not required at the time, so I was thrilled to come across this information.

Reading through the records, I’ve decided to write periodic posts with information on the death of other Russell County residents that are not in my line.  Hopefully, these will provide information that other researchers are looking for. Some of these records simply mention that someone is deceased while others are naming administrators for the estate.  Guardians might be named for orphaned children, wills might be proven or inventories might be presented. Even though a specific date of death is not being given, it can help you narrow down the possibilities or name individuals that are related.

1827:

• March Term – William Oldakers and John Oldakers infant orphans of Henry Oldakers dec’d.
• March Term – Jane Stapp widow and relict of William Stapp dec’d.
• Sept. Term – Shadrack Phelps, Job Kerns, Elizabeth Kerns administrators for Abraham Kerns dec’d.
• Dec. Term – last will and testament of Emery Cook proven.  Nancy Cook widow.

I’d love to be your Personal Assistant for these records! If you see a record that you’d like to have, I’d be happy to provide a digital copy of the full page for you for only $2.00 a page.  Email me at theshygenealogist [at] gmail [dot] com to tell me which record you’d like.  I use Paypal for fast, convenient transactions.

Read Full Post »