IT'S ALL IN THE GENES

Did you ever notice your parents and grandparents stop a conversation when you walked into the room?

Now remember, most of them did not have phones or televisions, but they did have history (gossip). Those family stories that morphed into something else. Those stories that talked about that family member that no one knew about, but a small group of people.

Now to every story, there is a small amount of truth. The one that I what to talk about here is surnames. 

Remember when you were in school, and you came across someone with the same last name as yours. Of course, you were excited, because you thought that you had a family member that would have your back. When you got home and told your parents or grandparents, they look at you sadly and said, "No we are not related to that group of Cunningham's." Your bubble was busted, but should it have been?

Where in the world are you going with this, you want me to get to the point right? 

O.K. here it goes. You probably are related. Let's look at my family. The Cunningham's. This is what I know so far. We come from Greenville, South Carolina, but when I was doing my search, I noticed several Cunningham's from North Carolina. So, what does this have to do with a bag of chips. Only this. The person or persons that had us enslaved, had family members that lived in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Tenn. Slaves were given to children as property. When a female married, her slaves went with her, and her husband to another state. 

Our ancestors were separated because of a will, a gift, or a business deal. It would not be uncommon for them to have been taken crossing state lines. So, all of those Cunningham's that are and were in the Old 96, and the states that are surrounding South Carolina are probably my relatives.

THE GREAT MIGRATION

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines movement as: the act or process of moving. ESPECIALLY: change of place or position or posture. 

Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. As the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war.

As we know, the Proclamation declared that all persons that were captive slaves, within the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free.

We know that slavery ended in 1865, and some states did not get the information until later in 1866. The results of this news, started The Great Migration. Massive amounts of freed enslaved people moved north. But what did they use for transportation? I used to think that ex-slaves traveled by horse and carriage. This may have been true for some, but not for others. Some walked to where they had to go, others stayed put for fear of the unknown.

For my family and others, they took the train. 

I have done some detective work and found out the route that my Sanders family took to get to Arkansas. From Greensville, South Carolina the families took the Seaboard Air Line (This was the name of the train line, not an airport.) The Seaboard traveled from Greensville, South Carolina, Atlanta, Ga., Birmingham, Alabama, to Memphis, Tenn. They would have had to change trains. The second part of the journey was on the Frisco Line, which ran from Memphis, Tenn. up through Arkansas by way of Plumberville, Morrilton, Germantown, and Atkins, Arkansas.

Later, The Frisco Line would become what we know as The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe Railway

WHAT'S IN A NAME

 When you are engrossed in finding family members, do you ever run into several family members with the same name?

I was doing research on one of my great, great uncles, when I did a search in Ancestry, I received eleven results of the same name. As I search, I noticed that they were all members of my family, but not the one that I was looking for. So, what do you do? These cues my help.

• Check to see if they are Juniors. Not all parents list sons as Juniors. (To keep you from listing the wrong family members together this is an important step. Even if the parents did not list them as such, you need to.)
• Pay close attention to birthdays. This will be the key to you keeping different section of your family separated.
• Middle names will help you keep the right person with the right family.
• How far back does the name go. Remember if they come from al large family, and that family had for example, twelve children, you might see several sisters and brothers using a sibling name more than one time. I give you an example, I had a family member that was born in 1860's, he had six brothers and six sisters, each of these siblings had kids and out of the eleven siblings, there were eleven children with that name.)
• SO, WHAT'S IN A NAME.......

EVERYTHING!

NEWSPAPERS

Detective work is fascinating. One of the characteristics about this line of work is, that you must be patient. You have to stand back and look at all of the evidence. Once this is done you can pull all of the information together and start putting it in order.

Newspaper articles are a great source for feeling in time slots that you cannot find records for. Most of the information that you will find will have to do with obituaries, but every now and then, you will be surprised by the information that is brought before you. 

SCHOOL YEARBOOKS

For most of us school yearbooks are a source that we would like to forget. Oh! the pictures that we wish would burn into thin air.

O.K., so I regressed for a minute.

Genealogy and yearbooks go hand in hand. This is really a good resource. You learn what your relatives were interested in. This is helpful because you can now build a profile and back history. By doing this it will give other family members fun fact that they did not know. And you might find out why you are doing some of the things that you do. It is in the genes.

TELEPHONE BOOKS

Years ago, the best way to find someone was to look them up in the phone book. To be more accurate, the WHITE PAGES. And depending on where you lived, the book could be very small or very large. 

Now, I know that this is not exciting for some of you, but for us aging dinosaurs, getting the phone book was big news. It only came once a year and would give you updates like new families, change of address and phone number. (Remember, we did not have internet or computers, and not all people had phones or television. I know, blows your mind, right.)

In the early 1930's phone prefixes where used, like DR3-1234 (Drexel), and WA1-2345 (Walnut). So, when you looked for relatives you would see letters listed first then the numbers. Phone books usually gave the males last name, first name and wife would be listed in parentheses, address, and sometime the job they had. For single females the same would apply. The last name is the key, so all person with that surname would be listed, you would just need to know the first name or initial. So, if you were looking for a Smith every Smith in the area would be listed. If you did not want your number to be listed, no number would be next to you name.

Some libraries still have old telephone books that you can access. You need to know the city of the family member you are looking for. 

MILITARY RECORDS

If we stop and think about it, where would we be if we did not have the support of the military. We owe them much thanks and gratitude. These unselfish men and women who answered the call to keep America safe. To go into foreign countries, so that our borders would be protected. So that OUR FAMILIES would be safe.  I have great respect for those serving in the military.

Genealogy is one way that we can honor these brave people.

So, with that being said, what are you going to need?

HISTORY is going to be your best friend here. What do I mean by this? Look at the dates that your family member was born in and see what war was going on. Check out what area they are in and see if there were any military base around the location. Several of these bases have been closed down, but you should be able to get information.

What do these records tell me?

• Name of family member, when born, general description of person
• contact person
• if married and have children
• workplace and address

If your family member was buried in a military cemetery, you can get records that show who filled out the paperwork for their headstones.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Relative are sometimes hard to find. Not everyone can find brothers and sisters of grand or great grand parents. If there was a rift in the family, you might not even know that brothers and sisters existed. Remember, if something happened to cause a rift in the family that information will be taking to the grave. There is an unspoken bond that GROWN UP BUSINESS, IS GROWN UP BUSINESS. Children did not get this information. Aside from having obituaries to find out information, you might have a relative or relatives that will give you this information, but remember this information may not come out until all persons involved are dead.

So, how can you find some answers?

If you are talking about grand and great grand parents, start with the 1870 and 1880 Census. (The 1890 Census were burned in a fire, but there are some where saved, or it may be a state that did census every five years, like Kansas).

When you are looking at the Census look for all persons with the same sir name. Remember families did not live far from each other. There was safety in numbers.

OBITUARIES

Gold mines. So much information on these documents. It really depends on where you are in the birth order. We have already talked about two generations of family members. You could be looking at third or fourth generation information. 

With the obituaries you now have another peace to the puzzle.
You not only get great grandparents, but you also get great, great, grandparents and where they were born. Siblings are listed here. 

This is very important for one reason. The females are listed with their married names. Also, if other children were born and died young, it would be listed on the obituaries.  One more great thing, Obituaries give a short history of family member life. The obituaries also list where the resting place will be.

There are several places to find out where loved ones are buried.

START WITH YOURSELF

Walk your way backwards......

If you are a male, make sure to list you list if you are a Senior,

Junior, III, etc. 

When I started doing research about my family, I ran into that problem. Suffixes are not always list as that, so you need to look closely at the birthday.

For females, we are a little harder to find. For us, we must list all of the last names that we have gone and are going by. For example, there could be a relative that is listed with her maiden name and her four married names. All of these names have information that you will need.

Nickname may have been used on a census. Bill is William, Aggie is Agnus and so on.

This same information applies for your parents. Now you have gone back two generations. Your next step is to add siblings and their spouses, and their children.

My Heritage, and Family Search are free. Ancestry has a free trail membership, and then 3 different membership plans to sign up for. My favorite site is Ancestry. Why you say. BECAUSE of the leaves, start here and see what I mean.

GENEALOGY-AMERICANS OF AFRICAN DESCENT

IT'S THE EXPLORATION INTO ONES FAMILY. FOR EACH OF US THE SEARCH IS DIFFERENT. THIS IS MY SEARCH INTO MY FAMILIES PAST.
I HOPE THAT THIS INFORMATION WILL HELP OTHERS.

I had just lost my great uncle. After the funeral, we went to the cemetery to lay him to rest. There I walked the area with my father and he showed me where my great grandfather was buried. I asked my father who was my great great grandfather, he told me that he did not know. At this point I was stunned, and asked him why not? That one question, is what started me on my search.

One of my great aunts started the search, so for me I had something to go on. For most people that does not happen. I joint the website Ancestry.com, I started with myself and worked my way backwards. It all started with two former slaves, Lucy and Joseph Sanders, they where both born in 1834, South Carolina and Georgia. To there union 12 children where born. The first six were born into slavery and the last six were born free. They had six boys and six girls. So in my family the surname Sanders was not the only name that I researched. The other surnames are Williams, Fletcher, Cunningham, Erby, McDaniel, Teague and Templeton. I tell you these things so you will know that is it important just to start. 

Here are some tips that I hope will help. For some this will be helpful and for others, this is information that you already know.

-start with yourself and work your way backwards

-obituary from family members will be very helpful

-find brothers and sisters

-check military records

-phone books, school yearbooks, newspaper articles

-census are very important. the earlier census only have names, color, and ages on them. the later census give more information, like how long a couple was married, number of living children, and number of total children that where born, how much rent was, value of property, where parents where born, occupation, and if one could read or write.

-keep an open mind, you will find out things about your family that will shock you. remember your ancestors did not always speak about there past. (my grandmother was married, she had three children and none of them new that she was married).

-addition and subtraction will become your friend. it will help you figure out ages of family members, but remember it is always plus or minus five years.

-if your have a lot of females in your family tree, as I do, you will learn that your are related to these family members under different titles.
(I have some members that are my cousins and also aunts, or aunts who where married to one uncle and then married another. Remember they are not related to each other, but I am related to them all).

-all person that took the census where not highly educated, meaning that some only may have had a third grade education. so they spelled name how they sounded. also there handwriting could be really bad and the name may look different.

-sometime the race can be different, but if you have the family members correct and there ages, this could be them.