Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - 100 Word Genealogy Challenge - An Ancestor I'd Like to Meet

Hey genea-folks, 

it's Saturday Night again, 

time for more Genealogy Fun!


Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:

1)  This SNGF is based on the 100 Word Challenge (https://100wc.net/) that school children are participating in around the world.  They are given a word or phrase to write a story about in one hundred words.

2)  Write a short 100 word story using the phrase ",,,an ancestor I would like to meet..." in 100 words. Why would you like to meet him/her? [Hint:  If you write it in a word processor, you can use Tools > Word Count (or similar) to count words]

Here's mine:

An ancestor I would like to meet is George W. Lancaster (1839-1919), my 3x-great-grandfather. Born in Missouri, he lived mostly in Texas, except for a stint in Maricopa County, Arizona, where he purchased federal land and then abandoned his wife, Martha Jane (Polly) and family. He and the oldest son, William Carleton, returned to Texas.

I want to know why he left his family. The divorce gives only Martha’s side of the story, that George left them. After getting the divorce, she married Noah Flood Parks, a farmhand on their property. Was that the reason? Were they having an affair?


Copyright © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Linda StufflebeanMarch 12, 2023 at 7:57 AM

    George sounds like an interesting ancestor to meet. Aside from his divorce, I wonder why he decided to buy land in AZ. Maybe he discovered it was too hot to grow much besides cactus. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellMarch 12, 2023 at 8:48 AM

      Martha and Noah left to live near Las Vegas, then after Noah's death, she lived in Tulare Co, California with her children.

      Delete
  2. Marian B. WoodMarch 13, 2023 at 6:41 AM

    Good question. Martha may have needed Noah's help with the farm and the best way was to marry him?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to other-than-just family members particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Blogiversary & Happy 100th Blog Post!

Image
Today is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post I have written and the 6th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. I began the blog on January 15, 2011, through a blog writing class I took at California Genealogical Society, taught by Craig Siulinski. It was something I wanted to do but wasn’t really sure what I would focus on. I finally settled on writing about my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster’s family and this was my first post . In the beginning it was hard to get started. I learned from the Geneabloggers website, that there were blogging memes I could use and I have done that off and on, especially at the beginning. But I finally learned that what worked best was to write about my discoveries as I researched my grandmother’s family. So what have I written in six years? I discovered I have only written four posts specifically about my grandmother: “Mam-ma was a Tomboy” “Fearless Females – Day 12” “Mam-ma 1913-2013” “My Grandpar
Read more

John Coor of Copiah County Made an Agreement with Joel Hoggatt

Image
This week at RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a new feature that an every-word search was available for U.S. deeds and probates. It is still in the trial mode and can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ . This is the search screen. It clearly states it is for US land and probate records and Mexico notary records. You can do a keyword search or if you click on the “more options” you can add a name. My Find I immediately gave it a try and searched first for records of the COOR family using the keyword search. Up first came deeds from Wayne County, North Carolina.  At the top, you can filter using record year, record type, record place, and collection. For the past few days, I have mainly filtered by record place. I filtered down to Mississippi. You can even filter to the county. The first entry was a document I had not seen before. It was an 1826 agreement between John Coor and Joel Hoggatt to build a set of grist and sawmills. John Coor is my 4x-great-grandfath
Read more

Using the Attendees at Lela Ann (Loveless) Lancaster’s Funeral to Discover Residences

Image
Lela Ann Lancaster, my maternal great-grandmother, died on 17 May 1951. [1] She had died in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the state hospital. The doctor’s handwriting is nearly illegible so the cause of death is difficult to determine. She was conflicted with Parkinson’s Disease which probably contributed to her death. Her funeral was three days later. [2] Lela Ann (left) with Warren, daughter Pansy, granddaughter Lela Nell, and son Wayne, c. 1935 Obituary Tells Story of Life Two obituaries were published on the same day in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune on two different pages. One gave information about her life and the funeral, and the other was about who attended her funeral. The transcription of the first is here: "Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster"    Funeral services for Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster, 55, who died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday at a Wichita Falls Hospital, were at 3 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church with the Rev. Felix Gresham and the Rev. Ernest Rippetoe officiating
Read more