Tombstone Tuesday - One Thing Leads to Another

In an effort to catch up on some of my goals for the month of September, I once again found myself going back and forth between Ancestry and FindAGrave in hopes of finding  a tombstone of one of my paternal Ancestors or Relatives to post for Tombstone Tuesday. (Yes, I was working toward achieving my blogging goals for the month.)

Instead, what I found was tons better, a Great Grand Uncle's, Frank Everett, death certificate, Great Granddad Peter Everett's brother. While I had clues all around pointing to his existence, I hadn't put it all together before this morning. Of course, as usually is the case, I wasn't even looking for this this AM when I came across it. In fact, I wasn't even searching for Everetts this morning. I was looking for Hargetts, great granddad's mother, hoping that she had lived long enough to have a death certificate to record her death.

I don't know why I never came across my Great Grand Uncle's death certificate before now. I feel like I've searched the Everett surname plenty of times since discovering great great grandma Vica Ann. Either I never made the connection because I was so focused on other information or it simple didn't surface based on the search criteria I was using at the time. But I think the real reason is I came across this today is simply they, the Ancestors, finally figured it was time to reveal this to me. Today, when I did a search for death certificates, Uncle Frank's death certificate was the first to come up and silly me was still thinking why did that come up I was searching for Hargett. Thankfully, I didn't dismiss it.

Below is Great Grand Uncle Frank Everett's death certificate:

• The first thing I noticed is that on Uncle Frank's death certificate, the surname is spelled Everetts and not Everett. I'm not sure which way Uncle Frank spelled it but based on other information I had come across, I believe his line spelled the surname the same as our line, without the "S." Given that there is a town in Martin County, NC by the name of Everetts, it would be easy for the recorder of the information to mistakenly to add a "S."
• Uncle Frank died on 20 Sept. 1938 from lobar pneumonia.
• His occupation was farming.
• Uncle Frank's wife, Christina, was the informant for Uncle Franks death certificate.
• She provided that he was 75 at the time of death, which means he would have bee born about 1863. Most of the data that I've found on my great granddad indicates he was born abt 1863, also. So is Uncle Frank great granddad's older brother? Younger? Twin?
• Uncle Frank is interred in Williamston, NC. As a side note, what's with the bulk of my paternal ancestors' death certificates not listing an actual cemetery for their final resting place.
• But the most important piece of genealogical information provided on Uncle Frank's death certificate is that his wife gave his mother's name as Vicy Ann Hargett. Uncle Frank's wife did not know who his father was. My great grandparent's marriage license provides Great Great Grandmom's name as Vicy Ann Hargett. 

Finding Uncle Frank's death certificate led me to some other interesting finds including possible confirmation of a family from the 1870 census that I wrote down almost 20 years ago as possibly my family.

I hope to write about the rest of this early morning saga in the very near future but need to do a tad more legwork, but as of this moment, let me just say that I have possibly peeled back another layer of my Everett line as a result.

So, thank you Uncle Frank and the rest of my ancesters. I couldn't have done it without you.

Sentimental Sunday - Singing Grace

I could be wrong but the paternal side of my family is the only one that I know of that actually sung grace. And during any family singing, of course the two voices that always could be heard above all others was my dad's and Aunt Martha's.

If you are wondering what we sang, here it is:

God is great and God is good,

And we thank him for our food;

By his hand we must be fed,

Give us Lord, our daily bread

Amen

 

So, how did your family say grace?

Genealogical Goals for the Remainder of September - Paternal Lineage

September Goals

Hopefully, this month or shall I say what's left of the month, I will do a better job on the goals for the paternal side of the family.

Research

The first goal is one I'm bringing forward from last month. Actually it's been on the to do list for several months. Praying that I finally get it accomplished this month.

1. 
   
   One of my geneabuds gave me the name and phone number of one of her husband's friends who happens to be a Ewell. I'm ashamed to admit that I've not called him, yet. So, I plan to call this week. There doesn't appear to be a familial connection but you just never know.
2. 
   
   Write Martin County, NC public library for obituaries for Sandy Ewell and William Ewell (great grand uncles), Pennie Ewell Tyner Eley and Mattie Ewell Gorham (3rd cousins twice removed), and Goldie Everett Johnson Hyman (grand aunt).

Blogging / Writing

1. 
   
   Not including today's goals post, three posts to the blog, one of which has to be a written one.

Miscellaneous

Listed on September 2010 Genealogical Goals - Maternal Lineage at Georgia Black Crackers.

August Goals Revisited

I'm feeling like I didn't get as much accomplished on the research on the paternal side as I had planned for. So, let's see.

Research

1. Request probate records for Jesse M. Ewell, Joshua L. Ewell, and Randol Ewell (Martin County, NC). I believe that one or possibly all 3 of these men (father and 2 sons) might have been my Ewell ancestors slave owner(s). Although two of them died after slavery ended, I'm still hoping that their wills, if available, can provide some clues.
2. One of my geneabuds gave me the name and phone number of one of her husband's friends who happens to be a Ewell. I'm ashamed to admit that I've not called him, yet. So, I plan to call this week. There doesn't appear to be a familial connection but you just never know.

1.
I did send away for probate records for Jesse M. Ewell and Joshua L. Ewell. I decided I would wait to request probate records for Randol Ewell. Surprisingly, there were no probate records for Joshua L. Ewell. I've not heard back on my reqest for records for Jesse M. Ewell.

2.
Unfortunately, I've still not managed to get a call to my geneabuds friend. When, I have time, I seem to never think about calling and when I don't have time, I do.

Blogging / Writing

1. Two posts to the blog, one of which has to be a written one.

I did manage to get this accomplished.

Miscellaneous

1. Declutter Office
2. Clean and Repaint my "new to me" legal-sized file cabinet. (I got this from the Habitat ReStore a couple of weeks ago, and it's sepcifically for my genealogy research).
3. Rearrange Office to accommodate said file cabinet

No, I didn't manage to get any of this items accomplished. Hopefully, I'll get more accomplished this month.

Tombstone Tuesday - Everetts Cemetery

Everetts Cemetery

Everetts North Carolina

In this cemetery, in an unmarked grave, lies my 2nd cousin once removed (my daddy's first cousin), James Henry "Buddy" Johnson, Jr. (1911 - 1971). Cousin Buddy is my Grand Aunt Goldie Everett Johnson Hyman's son. Cousin Buddy never married and was a farmer.

I imagine that I probably met cousin Buddy when he came to my grandmother's funeral but I don't remember anything about him. I was 8 at the time and don't remember a lot about my grandmother's funeral other than it was a whirlwind of events. I remember there being two funerals, one in my hometown where grandmom spent her later years, and one in Winston-Salem, NC, where grandmom resided most of her adult life. I only know Cousin Buddy attended one of the two, maybe both, because my mother, who has a better rememberance of events on daddy's family than daddy does, remembers him being there.

Picture of Everetts Cemetery obtained via FindaGrave.

Autosomal DNA results – Paternal Line

A few months ago, April to be precise, 23andme, ran a one-day sale in honor of DNA Day. It was one of those things that while it wasn’t in the budget or planned for, the sale price was so phenomenal that I couldn’t afford to not subject my parents to one more ancestral DNA test. 23andme’s $499.00 package which includes ancestral and medical testing was offered for, are you ready for this, $99.00. See what I mean about couldn’t afford to pass it up. Who knew when there would be another opportunity like this?


The main reason I was interested in autosomal testing is due to the stories of Native American ancestry on my maternal grandmother’s line. I figured this would be a way to prove once and for all whether there was any truth to the story. I’ll talk about my mother’s results on Georgia Black Crackers.

Unlike the previous DNA testing I had my parent’s do for yDNA and mtDNA testing, the sampling process for 23andme was different in that you spit into a tube instead of swabbing your cheeks. Daddy, of course did some more complaining. “I thought you had already tested my DNA.” “I can’t spit in that little thing.” and the last one was really funny considering he’s always spitting, “I can’t fill it up to that line.” With much cajoling, I finally got him to collect enough spittle, my opinion only as it was not to the mark, so that we could ship it off.

Due to the high volume of people that managed to catch the one-day sale, it took awhile after shipment back to 23andme for them to acknowledge receipt of the kit. Once receipt has been acknowledged, I always feel like a kid on Christmas Eve, constantly checking to see if results are in.

The month of May came and went and no results. In June, I went on vacation and when I returned part of the trove of genealogical surprises was that the autosomal DNA results were in. Even though I don’t have nearly the stories, etc. on my paternal lineage as I do on my maternal lineage, I had / have formed some hypotheses over the years. One is, there was very little miscegenation going on my father’s side of the family. Granted that hypothesis was developed based purely on the old pictures, etc. that I had seem of my ancestors. Well, daddy’s results tend to support that hypothesis. Dad’s results were 85% African, 8% European, and 7% Asian. Wow dad’s even higher than Emmitt Smith’s 81% African, shown on a recent episode of the American version of WDYTYA. When I told dad the results he just chuckled.

23andme also offers Relative Finder, which is another reason I was interested in the autosomal testing, as I keep hoping to come in contact with another descendant on one of my paternal lines who can perhaps help with filling in some of the details behind the dates and places. I’ve still not had any success in that area of my research. Relative Finder did provide me with possible 4th – 5th cousins but of the people that I’ve had contact with, there aren’t any familial matches that I can confirm / trace. Hopefully, in the future, there will actually be a match.

Goals for the Month of August (Paternal Ancestors) - Week 2

Nope, you didn't miss Week 1 because there was no Week 1 post. As I'm already into the last third of the year (Where did those first seven months go?), I've decided to revamp my strategies somewhat for hopefully achieving some of my goals for this year. I've seen some of my fellow geneabloggers state their monthly and / or weekly goals on their blogs. I'm not a crowd follower but when I come across a possible great idea, I do run with it.

Earlier in the year, I had been doing monthly and weekly goals, but did not post them to my blogs. Hopefully by stating them here, I will get most accomplished.

There are three full weeks left in the month so I'm hoping to start small  and have a head a steam build up by the end of the month to get back into the research and blogging, at least until the next busy season, which should occur some time around Thanksgiving.

So, goals for this week for research, etc. on the paternal side of my family are

Research

1. Request probate records for Jesse M. Ewell,  Joshua L. Ewell, and Randol Ewell (Martin County, NC). I believe that one or possibly all 3 of these men (father and 2 sons) might have been my Ewell ancestors slave owner(s). Although two of them died after slavery ended, I'm still hoping that their wills, if available, can provide some clues.
2. One of my geneabuds gave me the name and phone number of one of her husband's friends who happens to be a Ewell. I'm ashamed to admit that I've not called him, yet. So, I plan to call this week. There doesn't appear to be a familial connection but you just never know.

Blogging / Writing

1. Two posts to the blog, one of which has to be a written one.

Miscellaneous

1. Declutter Office
2. Clean and Repaint my "new to me" legal-sized file cabinet. (I got this from the Habitat ReStore a couple of weeks ago, and it's sepcifically for my genealogy research).
3. Rearrange Office to accommodate said file cabinet