Mam-ma's Southern Family

This week, now that I have more time to spend on my own family research, I decided to work on some back-logged records I had collected from microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City back in 2015. I had nearly 200 deed images from Rockwall County, Texas, which used to be part of Kaufman County. Actually it was more like 75 deed records, as most had two or three images per deed record. I didn’t fully transcribe each record, but created abstracts of the important information, especially the description of the land being sold, but also kept track of the buyer and seller’s residence, how much they paid for the land, and whether they paid cash or on credit. I entered each deed into the RootsMagic database on my computer, and tagged anyone who was also in the database. Sometimes family sells land to other family members. Now that I’m writing this, I wished I had kept a log of all of the deeds I collected. The images have been renamed and moved to the appropriate fol

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by  Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either  Mam-ma’s Southern Family  or at  My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. This week’s challenge is to write about something that was second to last. I thought I’d pick someone from a large family that I haven’t written about before. Reginold F. “Reggie” Lancaster was the next to the last child of George Wilson Lancaster and Martha Jane Polly. He was born 21 Jul 1887 in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona Territory. [1]  He had one younger brother, Jesse, and four older siblings, William Carl, Lonnie O, Margaret Rose, and George Eldon. [2] When he was five years old, his parents divorced. [3]  His father had been gone a year, having moved back to Texas. A year later, his mother married Noah F. Parks, who had been working on the ranch. [4]  Later, two half-sisters, Daisy and Rosy, joi

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. I am very thankful for digital records I can use for genealogical sources. Being able to view images of the records I need from the comfort of my home has been a god-send. This speeds up the research process. In the past, I either had to save a list of films I wanted to view and either order the films from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, or wait until I made a trip to SLC to personally view the films at the library. Though, I do enjoy a trip to the mecca of family history, the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. Currently, I’m working on land records in Copiah County, Mississippi, which are digitized at FamilySearch , through the catalog. Many of the deeds are also digitized online at the Copiah

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Our theme this week is "conflict" and I have had a hard time thinking up a story about conflict. It's hard to know if the move they made to another state was due to conflict with those left behind or just a chance to find a better life somewhere else.  I do have a little snippet of a story told to me by my grandmother, Pansy Louise (Lancaster) Johnston. When my mother, Lela Nell, was about two years old, my grandparents, Pansy Louise and Tom Johnston, separated for a short time. Pansy went to live with her aunt, Maggie Self. Maggie was her father, George Warren Lancaster’s sister, Margaret, who married Herbert Acklin Self around 1919. They lived in Fort Worth and never had children. The story

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. My unusual source this week is my grandfather, Tom J Johnston’s wallet. My grandmother kept it just the way it was left when he died in 1973. I think she probably looked through it for any important papers and removed what money was there, but otherwise it was left the same. What an interesting look at what he was doing in 1972-73. I scanned all of the cards and returned the items to the wallet. What I didn’t do was take a photo of the wallet before storing it away, so I don’t have one to show. His wallet was stuffed with cards and photos. You would expect to see his driver’s license. His 1944 Navy Discharge card was pretty worn. It must have either been removed often or has been in every wallet he ha

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. I’ve written about Nathan H.O. Polly, my four times great-grandfather, who was a circuit riding minister in Texas here and here . He also owned land and farmed. He was enumerated in two agricultural censuses: 1870 in Kaufman County [1] and 1880 in Rockwall County. [2] Now Rockwall County was formed from Kaufman County, so he probably did not move, just the county name changed. I need to verify that! 1870 Agricultural Schedule 1870 Ag Sched - Kaufman Co, Texas for NHO Polly (see line 11) I will discuss each of the columns here. I used a blank census sheet for the headings [3] : He had 25 improved acres and an additional 260 that were not. The cash value of land was $1300. The cash value of the far

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. When I first started researching my family I was told about all kinds of possible relatives We’re related to Will Rogers. We’re related to the Coors family We have Native American roots, possibly Cherokee It’s funny, that all of these “legends” are on my maternal grandmother’s family. As I worked through the research, one generation at a time, I have disproved these legends. Rogers Angle. We do have Rodger/Roger ancestors. Eliza A. Rodgers married Ebenezer Loveless on 19 March 1871 in Chattooga County, Georgia. They later moved to Faulkner County, Arkansas. Eliza’s parents might be David Rodgers and Rebecca Waddell. They might have had nine children, all born in South Carolina. I suppose it is still poss