Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Use FamilySearch Full-Text Search

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

It's Saturday Night Again - 

Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!!






Our assignment from Randy of Genea-Musings tonight is to:  

1)  Use the FREE FamilySearch Full-Text Search (https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text) to find a record for one of your ancestors that is new to you.

2)  Share your results on your own blog or in a Facebook post.  Please share a link in Comments on this post if you write your own post.

Here's mine:
This tool was announced during RootsTech this winter and I have used it often. Most of the hits I have received have been in deeds. If at home, only hits will return in records that are freely open at home. If the film is restricted to a FamilySearch Center or an affiliate library, then you will not receive a hit. However, you will get a hit at the FSC or library.

For today’s exercise, I decided to search in Texas for N.H.O. Polly, a circuit minister who lived in several northern Texas counties. He is one of the people I was researching during my recent Texas research trip.

One of the interesting documents that I found for him in FS Labs full-text search was an 1857 marriage record in Cooke County, Texas, where he was the officiant.[1]


Now, in his timeline, I believe NHO Polly was living in either Dallas County where he had appeared on the 1857 tax list,[2] or already in Montague County where he asked for relief in 1893 from Indian raids that occurred in 1858-1860.[3]

So, was Cooke County closer to Dallas County or Montague County? Or did Polly live in Cooke County between the two dates? Gainesville is the county seat of Cooke County and is about seventy miles north of Dallas. Gainesville is thirty-six miles east of Montague, the county seat of Montague County.


Either he was working as a traveling minister or he had moved to the area around Cooke County. This record means I need to do more research. I hope I can locate more records of him officiating other marriages to add to his timeline.

[1] Cooke Co, Texas, marriage, v. 1, p. 53, David Davidson to Gertrude Abigale Everett, 16 Oct 1857, imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9P38-9QZV), IGN 004820377, image 56 of 80.

[2] "Texas County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910," FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org), 1856, Dallas County, np, NHO Polly, citing Texas tax rolls, Dallas County reel 1, 1846-1877 (A-M) FHL Film 2282008.

[3] Journals of the Senate of the State of Texas (Austin: Texas State Gazette Office), 1893, p. 207-08, 20 Feb 1893, Senator Goss & p. 212-13, 21 Feb 1893, Committee of State Affairs.


Copyright © 2024 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Janice M. SellersMay 19, 2024 at 12:35 AM

    I thought a circuit preacher was a traveling minister? But I'm glad you are having more success with the full-text search than I did. Very nice that Polly's name showed up as the officiant. That should help you find him more times, I hope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellMay 19, 2024 at 7:42 AM

      Yes, that's true. Sometimes, though he was part of a church. It's been hard pinning him down. I found another deed in another county I didn't have him in before. Timelines are sure helpful!

      Delete
  2. Linda StufflebeanMay 19, 2024 at 8:49 AM

    Circuit preachers were constantly on the move. Full text search will be invaluable for those who have ancestors who kept on the go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellMay 19, 2024 at 8:58 AM

      I think that this is another great reason the tool will be helpful.

      Delete

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