Repost from August 29, 2011

   Have you ever noticed in certain family lines, it's like they've been cloned.  At certain ages, it's hard to tell who is who.  See what I mean in the following pictures:

William P. (Arville's father) & Martha Harper (Arville's mom)

Arminda (Arville's step-mom) and William P. Harper (Arville's dad)

Arville & Manila Harper

Clifford, Arville, Bernum & Erchel Harper 

Clifford and Erschel Harper

My nephews (my brother's boys)

My other nephews

My Dad

My brother 

My grandson

Me 3 months

My daughter, JB, 3 months

Granddaughter 3-6 months

Me

daughter

granddaughter

My Mom

Me

My grandmother Manila Harper

My great niece 

My Dad's Sister

My sister

Does make you wonder doesn't it?  I bet my g-g-grandfather looked just like my Dad, Granddad Arville and G-Granddad William. I know my Mom's sister and Mother could have been twins. What about your family, anyone look like an ancestor?

GENEALOGY: What About DNA Testing?

Harper-DNA testing results HERE

Turner-DNA testing results HERE

     If you're serious about your genealogy research, DNA testing is a must! When I first started in 2002, I was hunting all over the place, not sure of my ancestors past my grandfather. Then I lucked up on the Turner DNA project. HERE . My cousin, who had been doing research for some time, donated a DNA sample.  The test needs to be done by a male of the line, you can do a female, but that test only tells you that you're related. Go HERE for a better explanation, Family Trees does it so much better. 

     There are over one-hundred and forty Turner's on the DNA chart, but only three of us are related. I have a cousin, when she started out, was matching us with many more Turner's because her Dad or Aunt Jessie said they thought they remember their mother had mentioned that name. So instead of looking through all one-hundred and forty Turner's, I could look for a paper trail between our three. This is why it's so important to have people do DNA testing for 37 and up. This DNA won't be given to the government and put in the system, this only has to do with the past. Through Family Tree there are many name projects. If you go HERE and look at the right side of the page where it reads PROJECT SEARCH, and type in your name, it will point you to the your name project. This simple test has enabled me to focus on my relatives, without researching and then find out I was on the wrong track. My brother sent in a sample for the Harper's. 

     By doing the test, on the Turner's side, I've gone back to 1814, but on the Harper side, I've gone back to 1740; now it's just a matter of tying us together with a paper trail. Another perk from the test is that it puts us together with our matches so we can communicate and share information, such as documents (death certificates), pictures and letters. Which means you don't have to pay $38.00 for a death certificate to find out the names of the parents. 

     DNA is well worth the cost in time and trimming the cost of documents. I hope this will encourage you to go for a DNA test on your name. 

Growing Up In Rural Alabama and Georgia

My Grandmother Manila and cousin, 1914-1916

Hilley's and Harper's 1917

Turner Family 1913

One son of Riley Tatum, 1900

     From the above pictures it was really hard living in the rural areas of Georgia and Alabama. The top two are located in Alabama while the bottom two are in Georgia. Living without indoor water, bathroom and a washing machine. I think it interesting that most of the clothes are black and white, talk about showing dust and dirt.

     In the picture of the Hilley's and Harper's, my great grandpa William Ershel Hilley had a disabled left leg. In all of his pictures, he either was sitting, standing leaning against something or as in this picture he has his leg draped over a log and supported by his crutch. 

     In the Tatum, this was my ggUncle Van Buren Tatum, he lost his right arm "above the elbow" during the Civil War. If you look close, you can tell. He and his wife Peggy, applied for war injury help in 1879, he received $60.00.

     During this time it wasn't unusual to have many children. In farming, there was always a need for more hands, plus long cold winters and no birth control products.

     It was up at 4:00 am to milk the cows and feed the livestock; eat breakfast and head out to the fields. Or maybe cooking and sewing. No electricity, it was all done by daylight, candles or kerosene lamps.

Kerosene lamps borrowed from Google free pictures

Notice the silver plate used to reflect more light-

borrowed from Google free pictures

Memoirs: Recreating Memories

Me , 1 year 8 months

     Rather than sharing my memoirs, I'm going to share what step or how I'm coming up with what to write. I just can't imagine anyone but me and my family being interested in my memoirs.

     What I'm doing is writing down what I remember at each age of my life, plus going through pictures and recording what I know about the picture, such as who the people were, what we were doing and when this happened.This week I'm continuing with how my parents met, where we lived and the occupation of my parents. I knew that my Dad had just returned from World War II, he was an MP stationed in the Philippines, but it surprised me that when he returned home, he drilled wells, water wells. It seems that in the middle 1940's, people were expanding their farming acreage, adding running water, which increased water demand. You would think in Alabama and Georgia it would be easy to dig wells; not so, there actually were shell rock and red soil that caused problems. He and the men he worked with, traveled across Alabama and Georgia digging wells.

     I have a question, are memoirs recreating my memories or is it okay to bring in what I learned in my research, such as where we lived and my Dad's occupation, memories that I don't have but that affected and shaped my life? I'm going to go with I'm recreating and they make what I'm writing interesting.

Col Mustard 2009

     

Genealogy: Family Reunions

Harper clan 1965

Esley Turner 1952-1954

     I use to love family reunions! Good food, laughing, catching up on family. Since I've been doing the genealogy of my families, I looked forward to learning our history. 

     Now on my Dad's side, I had Aunts and cousins who wanted our history recorded as far back as we could go.  They gave me pictures, let me scan pictures, gave me names of other family members who could help me do more research from a different connection. I have a scanned picture of my gggrandpa taken before he joined the Civil War to fight .He was killed, on his way home, at Fredericksburg, VA, 1862.

Benjamin Josiah Harris 1859-60

Given to me by my cousin

     On my mother's side, it's a different story. I only had an Aunt, a cousin and his siblings and nieces. Getting information, even with a DNA test it has been like pulling teeth; nor are they interested in other family lines, except for my Aunt; my mother especially. Her interest is only in the people she knows; now this statement is only in regard to my older Aunts and Uncles. 

     I haven't gone to other family members reunions, so that is my next project. Getting in touch and sharing pictures and notes. What about your families, how do they feel about your research?

     Quick note, I discovered that people were more likely to share their pictures if I brought a scanner to their homes and scanned there. They were less likely to loan them to me. A decent scanner can be purchased for around $50.00. Some researchers even buy one of the scanners that you drag across the page or smaller and quicker ones.

Memoirs-Are They Real or Fiction

Me-5 months and 10 days

     Celebrities, famous people such as presidents do autobiographies to record their accomplishments. But what about the average person who wants to just write their memoirs, about intimate personal experience. Sometimes I wonder what I've done over the last sixty years and think I should do my memoirs, just to outline my life in my mind. Usually, a memoir needs to be written as a novel, interesting. It's more than recording the past, it's recreating. So is my life interesting enough to recreate. Some people live their lives through their children, but I've always thought I had a more interesting life, or maybe I lived a little. So Thursdays will be memoir day.

Vernell-my Mom, age 16 wedding day

     My Mom was fifteen when she met my Dad. He had just been discharged from the Army right after World War II. After school she would walk up the road, about five miles, to the corner general store. One day my Dad was driving that stretch of road and saw her; every day after that he drove by, waving, until he got up the nerve to stop and ask her for a date. This happened in 1946; they were married 7 November 1947 and I was born in October, almost a year later.

Clifford-my Dad, 1941

Genealogy And Family Search For History

                           

Jasper Dykes Harper an uncle to Clifford William Harper

     When I first started working in genealogy, 2002, for my family history the best was Ancestry.com and the worst was Family Search. Family Search was just a list of names and whatever facts that were there, no matter the spelling, the real facts, just what was attached to the name. The last year I'm finding that more people are becoming involved. My cousin and I are addressing each person in our trees; this includes verifying, adding and merging the information there; that's what each of us should do to bring the history up to date. 

Ancestry.Com and Linking Ancestors?

     I have this question that I can't come up with an answer, "Do I link ancestors on my Family Tree while I determine if they're really related"?

     I have a second cousin that began researching our family last year. She invited me to look at her tree, so I did. I immediately found that she was adding people that I knew weren't from our DNA testing and belonged to another group, no way related to us. When I pointed this out her reply was that they have members named the same as some of ours. Which was true, so I pointed her to our DNA member page so that she was able to see all 144 names from testing that our administrators have divided into groups. Each group is related. William is a popular name in my family, yet if you look in the other groups, you'll see it was a popular name all the way back to the 1500's. 

     This brings me to my original question, do you use your Ancestry.com tree to work from, knowing others link to that tree? I bought the 2012 Family Tree Maker, but it's not as easy to use as the online tree linking. Bottom line is to ask for backup  from those you're linking with and to come back and verify the information you copied hasn't changed. Paper trails are very important. 

     I'm very excited at the moment, as I've been trying to track how some of our closest relatives moved from England/Ireland to South Carolina to Mississippi. It was in trying to prove this link that I hit on an answer. Edmund Harper came from England/Ireland to South Carolina, where he had sons/grandsons Edward Sr who for some reason moved to Mississippi, while others moved to Georgia. The chase is on!

Larry, Susan and Judy 1954

"I'm proud of that missing tooth!"

FIND A GRAVE, contd

     

     You can click on this link to find a cemetery, you will need to know the name or part of a name, state and if possible, county.

Find A Cemetery

     The information about Find A Grave states that "currently contains information for over 400,000 cemeteries in over 200 different countries. Find A Grave has at least a partial listing of graves for over 250,000 of these cemeteries". Use their search form to locate a specific cemetery. If you don't know the name of the cemetery, you can also browse by US state and county, even browse non-US countries.

     Now if you become a creator of a memorial or someone transfers the maintenance to you and you're able to add information to the bio, here's how you add links that aren't father, mother or spouse:
     You will need the memorial number of the grave you're linking. Click on Edit Bio then type in (I've added a space between the < a at the beginning and end otherwise the code won't show but rather the link):
< a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=XXXXXXX">NAME< /a>

     The XXXXXXX is where you list the memorial number and the name is where you list the memorial name.

In the name part you type in the name and you can also type-brother or grandparent or ggrandparent. Be sure to remove the space after < before and at the end <.

   Click on the link below to see how it appears on Find A Grave memorial.

Clifford William Harper

     As far as getting the family links, once you type in the parents name on a child or have someone add the parents name, the child's link will automatically show up on the parents memorial.
     Remember to limit the information you add in the Bio section of living people. It's okay to list the names of the parents, but I don't think I'd add much more on those still alive.

What is "Find A Grave"?

     I have just discovered a fantastic website, "Find A Grave".

FIND A GRAVE

     If you look on my blog page, you will see I have created a widget for you to use to try out to see if someone has placed a memorial for one of your family members or someone you know. Below is my Dad's memorial.

Clifford William Harper 

     The memorial is the result of someone going out and taking pictures or listing names of the people who are buried there, then creating this information on "Find A Grave". When you visit, be sure to thank the person who created the memorial. Because to go out to a cemetery, walk around and list names and/or take pictures is very time consuming, then to come back and create a memorial is someone who cares.

     Should you want to become a member, you can. The first thing you should do though is read the help on Find A Grave to learn the rules on asking to transfer maintenance to you, which you can. A lot of people are happy to do this, especially if it's a close relative. Only the person who maintains or created the memorial can delete, change or add links and bio information. Anyone may add pictures or leave a note and flower for the person.

     The best way to communicate is to click on the edit tab, then click on the link "Suggest a correction or additional information" then go to the message part and write a correction or ask if they're related to this person, if not would they be interested in transferring to you the maintenance for the memorial. BE Sure to click  "Send me a copy of this email"; then at the bottom, click send email. 

     The reason you need to click "send me a copy" is to keep up with your requests so you don't keep sending requests repeatedly. When I first started, I didn't keep up with three of the ones I sent and found out that some people wait till the weekend to make changes and don't appreciate receiving multiple emails to inform them of the correction or request. It comes across pushy and they will, as they should, let you know they can't drop everything at the moment to make the correction or transfer, so wait. 

     You will note that there are additional information in the Bio section. There aren't links for this, but there is a program line you can insert to list as many grave links you want, within reason. Now I see this as an additional research tool for genealogy. So I created a lot of information. It is so helpful to finally find where family members are buried.

     Tomorrow, I'll go over how to find cemeteries and how add links in the Bio section.

Macedonia Cemetery

Haigwood Cemetery

Genealogy-Have You Ever Smoked Rabbit Tobacco?

Rabbit Tobacco Plant

Rabbit Tobacco Plant- I borrowed this picture

from The Southern Herbalist

     I think we get so caught up finding stories and history of our Great-Great Grandpa or Grandma that we forget about our stories and history.  To our kids and grandkids, this is more relevant than way back when! Have you ever sat down and thought about when you were growing up? The funny situations you sometimes found yourself or what about your siblings?

     Have y'all ever heard of Rabbit Tobacco? I know there's a technical name, but it wasn't one we used. I also know that it has medicinal purposes, but that wasn't what we used it for.  I also know that it isn't marijuana. Above are pictures of the plant, with the bottom picture being what I want to talk about.

     I guess I was between twelve and thirteen, and my brother Larry eleven and twelve. My sisters were a lot younger, Susan probably was seven and Pam was four. We were living at the Big Woods on the mountain above Trenton, Georgia.  It's fall when the plants are drying up and the leaves are turning and preparing to fall off. We were wearing sweaters, so it must have been cool. If I was twelve or thirteen, that made it 1960 or 1961.  We were crossing a field, swinging sticks, talking when we spotted the Rabbit Tobacco. I'm not sure who suggested going into the house for a large brown grocery bag.  The kind they bagged your purchases in at A & P. They weren't thrown away, but placed under the sink for your garbage. So there we were with a pair of scissors and the grocery bag and matches.  Larry and I cut us a section of paper, pulled the dry leaves from the plant.  We rolled the  leaves back and forth between our hands until it was about the size of a cigar.  We then placed the tobacco at one end of the paper and rolled, like we'd seen our Dad, uncles and aunts do, into a huge cigarette! I think rolling it was half the fun. I don't remember Susan doing one, Pam for sure didn't. Larry and I each took a match and lit one end, then took a puff off of it. Now think about that dry paper bag and those dry leaves! Talk about a coughing spell! I'm surprised we didn't suck fire into our lungs! I can't say the taste was very good either.  I don't remember if we did smaller puffs and smoked the whole things, or just held it with the tips of our fingers trying not to breathe in any more smoke. I can say, it wasn't something I ever did again.

       This post has been linked to the Grand Social Linky.

Genealogy-Are All Members Of A Tree Actually From That Line?

Julia May Turner

    If you are a member of Ancestry.Com, once you create your tree, you have green leaves to pop up and give you hints, such as information others who are researching the same person, have keyed onto their tree.  This is a great help, but you have to be careful. For example, the picture above has almost the same name as my Grandpa Turner's mother.  I was tempted to attach this photo to "Julia Ann Corbin Turner".  Then I realized a couple of things, one, the name is different, plus, birth and death dates were wrong for Julia Ann Corbin Turner.

     The Turner side, my Mom's side, is giving me so many brick walls, even with DNA contribution.  The Turner DNA has more surname West matches than Turner, even with an upgrade to the 37 match test.  I know that William Hunt Turner is a complete match, since he was born 1818 in South Carolina, he is probably Esley Turner's brother.  I know that Hellum Marion Turner is a 37 out of 37 match. Now here is where you have to be careful, on several of the censuses, Margaret is listed as mother, but she was only 12 or thirteen when he was born. I'm in communication with the person who is researching Hellum, but she only knew as far back as his two sons, her uncles. She knew nothing about Hellum or Esley. So was Hellum a son, brother or cousin?

     Now on my Dad's side, the Harpers, I've got the reverse problem, too much information.  The oldest ancestor match is 1796.  So I've created him in my tree.  All kinds of green leaves popped up.  I thought I had hit the mother lode! Then I realized there were names listed as parents who had birthdays after the people listed as children. Then there are same names, but different dates or maybe listed on a tree that isn't a match, so whose tree should John Harper be on? 

     What I have done is show the matches from my DNA as a decedent, then follow down to the next one with just a surname to mark the spot. When information comes along, try to get in touch with the tree owner and ask for a paper trail.

     On Friday nights, Ancestry.com has a show "Who Do You Think You Are?", spotlighting celebrities.  They make use of researchers and old records.  It would be nice to afford to be able to do that!

     Currently, a Liberian from the Pickens County, Georgia library is helping me.  Of course, it has to be in her extra time.  There are some who will research for you, but again, be careful.  I see people copying or borrowing stuff from my trees all the time.  Which is okay, that's the whole point of having public trees, to help each other, but I see 2000 names on their trees.  It makes me wonder if they're creating trees for someone who has hired them.  Then I wonder if they have a paper trail for all those names.

     Genealogy is fun and addictive! Once you begin your journey back in time, it is so interesting.  You keep thinking, I'll sign off once I solve this or a nugget of information pops up and it's hard to sign off that computer.

Jessie Ree Turner, age 6, Vernell Palestine Turner, my mother, age 2

Taken in 1934.

Genealogy-"Have You Ever Dipped Snuff?"

Grandma Verdi   about 1970

     Verdi Coleman Harper, was my Grandpa Harper's second wife.  His first wife was Manila Hilley Harper. When they were young women, Manila and Verdi were good friends and both had a crush on Grandpa.  But Grandpa asked Manila to be his wife and they were married and had eight children with one dying, Bertha the youngest. It was sixteen years after Grandma Manila died that he decided to marry again, and this time he chose Verdi Coleman who had never married nor had any children. I've often wondered if she felt Grandpa was her soul mate and since she couldn't marry him she decided never to marry.

     I'm not sure when I found out that Grandma Verdi was a second wife. Not that it mattered. She was the only grandmother I ever knew on my Dad's side. Usually you called your grandparents grandma and grandpa, but for some reason, Grandma Verdi was always known as Grandma Verdi, maybe that's what she told us to call her, I really don't know.

     One thing about Grandma Verdi was that she loved to dip snuff. She had it down as an art, cutting herself sassafras brushes, then cutting them to the correct length, about five inches the length of an eye shadow brush.  Then she'd take one and chew on the end for a while, then take it out of her mouth and twirl it in her hand until the end was the perfect brush. When it reached this stage, she'd put it in her mouth while she opened her small tin can of American snuff or maybe it was W. E. Garrett & Sons. Then she'd take her brush and twirl it in the can. Building up the snuff ball on the end, once she had it at the perfect size, she'd pop it into her mouth. Let me tell you, when she needed to spit, she'd place her index and middle finger in a "v" over her mouth and spit. She'd aim and it would go four yards or more!

     In the summers, my brother and I would leave the big city of Rossville, Georgia to stay with Grandpa and Grandma Verdi and get to reacquaint ourselves with our cousins on Sand Mountain. I have such fond memories of those times, except for this one hot summer.  I guess I was between ten and twelve.  It was mid afternoon. Grandma Verdi was sitting on the porch dipping her snuff and several of us kids were watching.  Over the years we'd asked to dip some of her snuff and she'd tell us no, but I guess she got tired of us pestering her. 

     We had to go find our own brushes and go through her ritual of preparing them.  Being novices, getting the brush ready almost made us regret asking.  The green cover breaking off in our mouths, the texture of the twig.  Finally, they were ready.  She held her can out for each of us, telling us to really load that brush up, then stick it in our mouths.  Now, remember, it's a July day in the South, Alabama to be exact. Our hair was wet from sweating, the sun was glaring down, no breeze, just us, the snuff and our stomachs. After a few minutes, the expression, "You look kinda green", fit all of us. Another few minutes and we were sick to our stomachs.  Needless to say, none of us ever pestered her again to dip her snuff. As a matter of fact, it was a while before I could watch her go through her dipping routine.

********************************

  In Genealogy, I think it's so important to write down as much family history as possible.  This includes your childhood memories, especially these memories.  Have you started your own family storybook? When you get together with your cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, do you listen to their stories? For your information, write them down. You will treasure them!

Grandpa Harper and Grandma Verdi 1960's

Grandpa, Grandma Verdi, my Aunt Mavis Harper and my 

second cousin Ann Hilley. A picture of when they were younger, 1950's.