Microfilm Strategy

I’ve been researching the Smith family in the Harrodsburg, Kentucky area.  Fort Harrod was the first permanent settlement in Kentucky and several Smith men were there from the beginning (based on land documents).  My theory is that my “brick wall” – John M. Smith, from Russell County, Kentucky – was a descendant of one of these men.

So I’m turning to land deeds to see if I can make a connection. I ordered 5 microfilms of land deeds from the FHL and received them this week, but one of those is on backorder.  I still may not have all of the information I need for what I want to do.  Fort Harrod was settled around 1776 and land grants started being given around 1780, but the films that I ordered begin with deeds in 1787 because that’s when Mercer County was formed. So I may need to order at least 1 more film from Mercer’s parent count, Lincoln County, but the FHL site is giving me an error whenever I click on the film link so that will have to wait.

I’m attacking these deeds from both ends.  Beginning in 1787, I’m scanning every deed with a land transfer involving a Smith. I can only spend a couple of hours at the library at a time and each scan takes quite a bit of time, so I feel like it’s going to take me a year to get through these. Yesterday, over a 2 hour visit, I scanned 11 deeds (about 30 pages). As I scan, I take a break every 10 scans or so and print out what I have.  As I continue to scan, I write the film info on the back of each page and do a quick read through to see if anything jumps out at me. So far, I have wives names for 4 Smith men. The wives names are widely available on other genealogy sites, but I like having a source from an actual document as opposed to “so and so said so”. Some Smith names in the deeds, I don’t recognize – perhaps because they weren’t in the Harrodsburg area of Mercer Co, but I need to analyze the area more. Lots of analysis ahead!

From the other end of the time spectrum, I found a deed for a John Smith selling land in 1826, just before MY John Smith appears in Russell County.  I plan to follow this piece of land backward to see if I can find any Smith relationships mentioned that might help me make a connection.

The timing for this is pretty good for me.  This is exam week at school, which means no lessons to prepare in the evenings.  Most of my Christmas preparations are complete, so I can spend an hour or so at the library each evening.  I can read the deeds while students take the exams and I can write all kinds of notes and questions to follow up on.  It isn’t often that you’re forced to sit in a silent room for 2 hours at a time!

This isn’t the first time I’ve attempted to gather information on every person with a certain surname and the challenge always becomes, How do I organize this? A file folder for every family? A binder with all of the deeds and some type of table of contents? What about the digital images? I have to rename each file, but again, how to organize? Family folders? Chronologically? Perhaps I’ll have time to ponder that during exams!

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Music to My Ears!

Yesterday, my daughter (a high school junior) told me that her history teacher is giving extra credit to whoever brings in the “biggest, gnarliest family tree” (you have to know the guy) – which they have to make themselves.  For years, I’ve been teased by my daughter about my genealogy research, but suddenly, she’s asking for information and as she began to make her chart, she told me that if she gets the extra credit, she’ll never make fun of my genealogy again.

Using the information I have, she’s attempting to create a NINE-gen chart on a 6 foot scroll of paper.  So far, she’s spent an hour and half just drawing the lines.  It should be a bit more interesting for her when she starts adding the names and dates.  And who knows, maybe she’ll catch a bit of the bug?  Probably just the opposite, but stranger things have been known to happen!

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Naming Patterns – Thinking Out Loud

I’m still obsessed with John M. Smith (1760-ish – 1835) and trying to make a connection between him and a Smith family from the first permanent settlement in Kentucky – Fort Harrod.  John has been a brick wall for a long time, and some of the information I’ve discovered in the last year has given more clues – and more questions.

For years, I thought John had 4 children based on deeds when the siblings sold their portion of John’s land to each other, but researching the Russell County Court Records revealed 2 children that I didn’t know John had. Solomon and Benjamin Smith both passed away in 1840 and their older brothers, George and Elias, were the administrators of their estates.  I have the Court record, administrator and executor’s bonds, but nothing further.  One year later, a brother-in-law, Henry Payne, grants power of attorney to one of his relatives to make sure that his children get their rightful share of each estate.  Only one of these sons – Benjamin – ever showed up in a tax list. He was listed directly after his older brother, owned no property or horse, so to me, it appears that he is a young man living with his brother after the death of his father.  I estimated Solomon and Benjamin’s dates of birth guessing that they were about 20-21 years old at the time of death.  If they had been older, they should have shown up in the lists earlier. So now my group sheet shows 6 children.

Another unknown person showed up in the Court Records in 1833.  John M. Smith was the administrator for the estate of John B. Smith.  John B. never appears in a tax list or deed, and I can find no administrator or executor’s bond for this estate.  I had been hoping that I might find a John B. Smith in Mercer County and that probate records there might make the connection to John M, but I have not been able to find any records at all for a John B. Smith. Today, I was looking at John M’s group sheet and I noticed a 5 year gap between the 2nd and 3rd child and another gap between the 4th and 5th child. Could it be that John B. was also a child who wasn’t quite old enough to be listed on the assessment list?  If I insert a hypothetical John B. into the 2nd gap, I have the following children:

1) Sarah Smith – b. @1804 m. Henry Payne in 1828 d. bef. 1847
2) George A. Smith – b. 1805 m. Talitha Ellis @1834 d. 1890
3) Elias Smith – b. 1810 m. Elizabeth Meadows in 1834 d. 1853
4) Jane Smith – b. @1812 m. Thomas Simpson in 1838 d. 1880
5) John B. Smith – b. @1813?       d. 1833
6) Benjamin Smith – b. @1819?   d. 1840
7) Solomon Smith –  b. @1820?  d. 1840

I find an interesting (and highly speculative!) naming pattern.

Based on information from Genealogy.com, one common naming pattern was:

• The first son was named after the father’s father
• The second son was named after the mother’s father
• The third son was named after the father
• The fourth son was named after the father’s eldest brother

Based on this theory – George Smith (who received a land warrant on Harrod’s Run adjacent to James Harrod’s land in 1780) could be John M. father.  At this time, I only have 1 person in George Smith’s group sheet – a daughter who was married in 1787 – so this is certainly possible.

I don’t have the name of John M’s wife, but in theory, her father’s name would have been Elias. (Both of John M’s oldest sons also had sons named Elias AND George, so I think these are important names in the family.)

The 3rd son, the hypothetical John B, would be named after his father, John M.

Without knowing more on George Smith of Harrodsburg’s children, I cannot confirm that Benjamin or Solomon could be named after brothers.  However, Adam Smith, who died in the Mercer County in 1793, had 2 sons named Benjamin and Solomon.

So my new focus will be on finding all I can on George Smith.  At northamericanforts.com, the listing for Smith’s Station in Mercer County says it was built in 1784 by “George, Adam or Zachariah Smith”.  Does this imply they were related?  They don’t list a source, so I don’t know, but it would make sense. George got his land warrant in 1780 and Adam and Zachariah got theirs in 1781.  Of course, I can find all kinds of information on Adam and Zachariah, but next to nothing on George.  Based on various message boards, Adam and Zachariah’s father was John Michael Smith.  Could my John M. be named after John Michael?The search continues!

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Seeing Double?

I’ve been researching Andrew Jackson Stephens for years.  It’s long been a irritation of mine that I cannot find him in the 1870 census.  The other day, I decided to take a look at his neighbors in the 1860 census to see if I could find any names that I recognize and by golly, I did! I found ANDREW listed a 2nd time only 5 sheets away from the listing I already had!  While there are some minor differences, I am confident that it is the same family.

In the census record I had already found, Andrew, his wife Lucy and daughter Nancy E, age 1, are living with Andrew’s father’s family.  Andrew is listed as age 22, Lucy age 18. This census was taken on July 4.

In the newly discovered census – taken on July 3, “AJ” is listed as 24 years old, Lucy is 16 and “Elizabeth” is 1 and they are listed in their own household.  Normally, I’d be tempted to think this was a coincidence because of all the Stephens families living in the area at the time.  However, next door to AJ is Polly Stephens, who happens to be living with Andrew in the 1880 census in Russell County, Kentucky.  Polly, age 55, is listed with Elizabeth, age 30 and Andy, age 16.  In 1880, Polly is 70 years old and her relationship to Andrew is listed as an aunt.

Before, when I only had the 1880 census, I often wondered who’s aunt Polly was – Andrew’s or Lucy’s? Lucy’s maiden name was Stephens as well and I would assume (which is dangerous, I know) that Stephens was not Polly’s maiden name.  Lucy and AJ were married in Missouri and I’ve always thought that Lucy’s family must have been from there, so now, I think that Polly was probably Andrew’s aunt because of her proximity to Andrew’s family.  Andrew’s father DID have a sister named Polly born around 1810, but would she still be a Stephens in 1860?  Is Elizabeth her daughter and Andy her grandson? Or perhaps Polly never got married and she’s taking care of other family members…

So maybe I need to concentrate on finding Polly in 1870 to see if Andrew is nearby. Maybe there will be other clues to help me figure out at least ONE of the puzzles I have for that Andrew.

Off to search…

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Decisions, decisions

Ahhhh….an unexpected day for genealogy research.  I’m at home sick today so I thought I’d catch up on some genealogy emails. In a Genealogy Newsline email, I clicked on a link for newly posted Illinois Probate Scans on Family Search.  I decided to look for some information on family lines I haven’t researched in about 3 years on my husband’s line and found some great stuff!

As I went to update my group sheets and notes, I realized that my group sheets for this line were not converted to the Word template that I created in order to easily add my citations.  In other words, nothing in these groups sheets have citations. My typed notes have general citations in parentheses after each fact, but they are not in footnote form.

So my decision delimma.  I so seldom get to do research, do I spend my time today on the web site collecting new information or do I work on updating my group sheets to include citations?  The organizer in my desperately wants to update my notes and group sheets to include citations, but that’s not a quick fix and each file will lead to another file and so on.  I’m not happy with the way these files are organized on my computer, so I could update things today and then decide to reorganize files later, which would mean my links in the citations would be broken.

So I suppose that because of the very limited amount of time I have to work today (not to mention the pounding headache I have) I’ll probably collect more files to add to the “to be organized later” pile.  Maybe a nice compromise will be to convert the group sheets to my Word template and add a citation for the stuff I collect today so at least I’ll have THAT much done.

All in all, I’m just happy to be researching!

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Dipping my toe…

(Huge sigh!)  Well!  My job at school is changing and I’m excited!  My school is making the move to a 1-to-1 laptop program for our students and since October, I’ve been campaigning (begging?) to be the technology coordinator for this and I got my wish!  So the first part of my job has been to teach the teachers how to use a Macbook Pro – which means I learn stuff myself about a week before I teach it!  I’ve been teaching classes 2 days a week and along with that, I started a daily tip blog for them and I spend my days creating “how to” instructions for the next week’s class.

Bottom line….the summer that I THOUGHT would be 100% genealogy research has turned into ZERO percent research!  Earlier this week, I realized that while I love what I’m doing and while I’m really excited about this fall, I think I’m going to regret being totally immersed in school work all summer.  I can see burnout in my future if I keep up this pace.

This week’s Mac class was the most difficult and time consuming one that I’ll teach all summer, so looking ahead to these last few weeks before school kicks in again shows me that I have opportunities to research if I force myself to take the time.  It sounds ridiculous to me that I’m saying that I have to FORCE myself to do research, but it’s true.  Because of my new responsibilities at school, the administration has reduced the number of math classes that I’ll be teaching – but one of them is a new class for me.  So whenever I sit down with time to work, I’ve been preparing for that.

Today, I will pull out my John Smith notes and head to the library.  I usually find that whenever I get back into research after a break, I see everything with new eyes and I find quite a bit of new information, so I’m excited!  And it will be a good opportunity to see how my current system of writing notes is working.  I SHOULD be able to pick up my information at any time and dive right in – but will I be able to?

Time to find out!

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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.

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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.

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Smith Feast or Smith Famine!

I’m continuing on my search for information on John M. Smith (17?? – 1835). Here’s what I know:

• Russell County Kentucky was formed in Dec/Jan of 1825/26.
• John Smith “of Russell County” bought 100 acres in April 1827 and appears in the Russell County tax list for the first time.
• On Dec 31, 1827, John received a land grant along with James Gilbert for a total of 200 acres.  (If anyone knows why “joint” grants were given, I’d love to know! I’ve ordered the land grant films, but I’m impatient!)
• I have the tax listings for John every year through 1835 when he died.
• John’s land was partially in Russell County and partially in Wayne County.
• Two of John’s sons, George and Elias, also appear in the tax lists, giving me approximate dates of birth based on when they appear for the first time.
• In 1847, the “heirs of John M. Smith” sell all of their shares of land to their brother, Elias.  This deed mentions that the deceased Solomon Smith’s land was one-sixth of the estate. Based on this deed, I know the names of 5 children – George, Elias, Mary Jane, Elizabeth and Solomon.  Was the last sixth for their mother?

I’ve been trying to find where John M. Smith was before Russell County.  Was he in the same area, which was Wayne County before Russell County was formed?  Or did he immigrate from somewhere else?  I have one tiny clue in a great-grandson’s biography, but so far, I have not been able to confirm it. My “Smith Feast” is the fact that there are many John Smith’s in every county that I look at.  Obviously, because this is early 1800′s, I have no census records to see which John Smith might be my John Smith.  My “Smith Famine” is the fact that Solomon Smith does not appear in any tax lists or deeds other than the deed mentioned above.

I decided to look for clues in land and court records.  I currently have films of the first 3 court order books.  I began by using the index to look for records.  As I was scrolling through the film, I happened to stop on a page and John’s name popped out to me.  This was an “Ah-Ha” moment for me – the index didn’t include every mention of a name, only the names of those who initiated something in the court.  Back to the beginning of the film!  I began to read (ok, I skimmed) every page and found many things.

• John was a Justice of the Peace from 1830 till his death.
• John was quite often asked to survey the best location for new roads in his part of the county.
• John was the administrator of the estate of John B. Smith (another “famine” as I cannot find this name anywhere else!)
• John took in a “poor boy of the county”, John Asberry, who became his son’s apprentice after John died.

I had been focusing on locating anything with John’s name so I was concentrating on files before 1836, but yesterday, I began to skim Book 3 and found two “pleasant” surprises:

• Sept 1840 – George A. Smith (son of John) became the administrator for the estate of Solomon Smith.  Ah-ha!  A more specific date of death. Because Solomon never appears in the tax records, I am guessing that Solomon was not yet 21 at his death.
• Oct 1840 – Elias Smith (son of John) became the administrator for the estate of Benjamin Smith. There is more than one Benjamin Smith in Russell County, but I have never researched them because their ages and locations did not match my family.  I went back for a closer look and discovered that this Benjamin does appear in the tax lists, but only once.  In 1840, his is listed between Elias and George.  He owns no land, but does have a horse.  From this record, I am guessing that he had turned 21, and was therefore born around 1819. I believe this is the name for the final sixth of John’s estate!

I’m happy to have found these names and dates, but as usual, I have many more questions.  For my “feast” name – which John Smith is my John Smith? For my “famine” names – who was John’s wife?  I have yet to see her name anywhere, even in deeds.  Who was John B. Smith?  Was he related?  If so, how? Was he from Russell County?  If not, will this be the connection I need to show where John M. came from?  Where can I find more information on the “estates” of John M. Smith, John B. Smith, Solomon and Benjamin Smith?

Today, I will continue reading through Book 3 to see if there is more to glean. I’ve ordered and am greatly anticipating the films for the Kentucky Land Grants and Russell County deeds.  I’ve looked at the deed film before, but now I know that I can’t rely on the index.  And I found an online index that shows that there is an indenture that involves 3 of the siblings – including Benjamin – so I’m anxious to see what I’ll find next! Sadly, Spring Break begins just when I expect these films to arrive. So these mysteries will be swirling in my mind as I lay on the beach. How strange is it that I’m kinda wishing I didn’t have to go???

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The Microfilm Log

As promised yesterday, I’m posting the log sheet that I created to keep track of what I’ve researched on specific microfilm reels.  I’m using Excel for this file with margins set at .25 for top and bottom and .45 for left and right.  It’s created to be sheets for 2 different microfilm – 1/2 sheet each. I cut them apart and hole punched them to put in my Research Planner which is a Franklin Covey Compact Planner.

Click Blank Microfilm Logs to download the form.

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