Mam-ma's Southern Family

After locating the usual records for an ancestor at Ancestry and FamilySearch , I look for newspaper articles to fill in details about their lives between the tax, deed, vital, and census records found for them. Case in point. Many of my mother’s ancestors lived in Texas and I searched recently to see if there were newer articles in the newspapers in Erath County. I look for these at the wonderful website, The Portal to Texas History , which has many digitized records. One of the largest collections is the Texas Digital Newspaper Program. As of July 7, 2023, they have ten million pages. [1] This website is hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries. I learned something new about my 3x-great-grandfather, James M. Coor, by searching in the newspapers of Erath County. There were two articles in the same newspaper about his hunting abilities. On the front page, we learned that he shot a buck that weighed 160 pounds and that he saw three more bucks. [2] On page 4, he was referr...

This week, I’m attended a virtual course with the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy called “Advanced Practices in Social History” coordinated by Gena Philibert-Ortega, MA, MAR. So far, it has been a wonderful experience learning about all of the sources one should consider when adding social context to our family history stories. Social history can be a broad topic. It involves economics, sociology, women’s history, microhistory, and material culture. We want to go beyond the vital record dates. We want to fill in the details the lives of our ancestors and understand their lives within their community. They did not live in a vacuum. They interacted with family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, business people, teachers, law enforcement, court system, and others. Besides working, they played, went to church, shop for food, clothing, and other necessities, and socialized with friends and family. There is so much we can learn about our families by studying the community they were a part of...

This is my third year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. My daughters are still here visiting, so I have found a previously written blog post that fits this theme about maps and my ancestor’s communities. https://mam-massouthernfamily.blogspot.com/2016/12/where-did-my-ancestors-live-communities.html Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

On this day, February 29, I found four leap year births in my family tree. Family Events 1828 - Birth: Ann Jemima Coor-877, Copiah Co, Mississippi, USA 1868 - Birth: Eunice Belle Sabin-3861, Cedar Falls, Black Hawk Co, Iowa, USA 1868 - Birth: Linnie Sarah Gorrell-205, Cooper Co, Missouri, USA 1884 - Birth: Frank W. Hork-342, Muskegon, Muskegon Co, Michigan, USA First One Has Conflicts The first one listed above was on my mother’s side, a third great-aunt, Ann Jemima Coor . According to my genealogy database, she was born 29 February 1828 in Copiah County, Mississippi to John Coor and Ann Kethley as the fifth known child and the sister of my third great-grandfather, James Madison Coor. James and Ann married brothers and sisters Dempsey P. and Melissa Ann Welch. I wrote about Ann and Dempsey’s marriage here . The problem with the above date, the source is a cemetery index book that only lists the birth and death years for both Dempsey P and Ann J Welch. [1] Wh...

This is my second year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. My first trip to a county courthouse was in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas. It was at the beginning of my genealogy research experience and I was not very careful about where I obtained information or what was the best method to use. I had made the trip to Stephenville with my grandmother, Pansy Louise (Lancaster) Johnston, whom I called Mam-ma, in order to visit the places in town where my mother, who had passed away three years before, grew up. We stayed with her brother, R.D. and sister-in-law, Barbara Lancaster, who lived outside of town. R.D. drove Mam-ma and me all around Stephenville, with me sitting in the back seat. It was not the best place to see where you were going. Looking out the...

One hundred and twenty-three years ago, my maternal great-grandfather, George Warren Lancaster was born, 19 January 1893. [1] His parents were William Carlton Lancaster and Martha Jane Coor. George was the eldest of six children. His delayed birth certificate, dated  6 July 1942 and signed by his father, William C Lancaster, stated he was born in Victor, Erath County, Texas. According to The Handbook of Texas , Victor was settled shortly after the Civil War and was located in western Erath County on Farm Road 2156 a mile south of Desdemona. During the 1890s there were general stores and a post office that was later discontinued in 1907. [2] Here is a satellite map of the area today. All that is left is the Victor Cemetery which is located at the corner of roads 2156 and 357. As you can see, it is clearly farming country and George’s father, William was a farmer. Victor was in the area of Roads 2156 & 357. According to his World War I Draft card, he stated...

I love newspapers, especially small town newspapers with lots of tidbits about local people and their doings. Recently I found The Dublin Progress a newspaper published in Dublin, Erath County. The count seat was Stephenville and there were newspapers published there, too. Dublin is a bit west of Stephenville and this newspaper covered all of the small farming communities around it, such as Hickey, Harbin, Howell Springs, and Purves. This newspaper can be found in digital form on The Portal to Texas History website where they have many newspapers available in the Texas digital Newspaper Program Collection. I can search the papers by name and I have found many hits on the names Lancaster, Coor, Loveless, and Welch. These are some of the family names who lived in Erath County, Texas in the early part of the 1900s. Here is an example of a hit I received. This clipping is from the community of Hickey in the 13 November 1914 newspaper. [1] There are four different references to ...

Here's another story from a news item from The Dublin Progress. An ad was found in 1905, where G.W. Lancaster was offering land for sale, described as an 174 acre farm on Alarm Creek, six miles southwest of Stephenville. [1] 21 Jul 1905 The Dublin Progress This G.W. Lancaster could be George Wilson Lancaster, my third-great-grandfather, who married Martha Jane Polly. Their oldest son was William Carl Lancaster, whom I’ve written about earlier. The ad gave some detail but not the land description. It had ninety acres in cultivation and the balance was in timber and grass. He had peaches, blackberries, grapes, and some young apples. The house on the property had four rooms. There were also outhouses, two good wells, and a windmill. It also said it was a bargain. Did that mean he was selling it for less than it's value? Or were other properties without such anemities?  Earlier in the 1880's, G.W. and his wife were living in Maricopa County, Arizon...

In The Dublin Progress , which I have been reading for mention of my Texas family names, I found an article in the October 27, 1897 issue about Dempsey Perry Coor, son of my g-g-great-grandfather, James Madison Coor. His farm was located outside of Dublin and he had brought in a very large sweet potato, of the Southern Queen variety, that weighed over twelve pounds. [1] I love sweet potatoes, so I wondered what the Southern Queen variety is. According to Mother Earth News article, the Southern Queen matures in about 105 days. It produces “long, narrow tubers with white skin and white flesh. The original strain was introduced from South America in 1870.” [2]   Some people refer to these white sweet potatoes as yams (my father did) but they are not related to true yams at all. It seems that sweet potatoes grow well in the south because they thrive in “warm, sunny climate and prefers loose, well-drained soil” [3] and have a long growing season. I also learned ...

It appears that my great-great-grandfather, William Carleton Lancaster, was a singer. In the newspaper, The Dublin Progress , there were many articles about singing at W.C. Lancaster’s home. [1] Singing at WC Lancaster Saturday night was enjoyed by all present. [2] It seemed there were singing events at least once a month. At least, that was how often they were reported or maybe the singing was at the Lancaster house only once a month. What kind of singing was it? Church singing? Singing where someone played the guitar, banjo, violin, or harmonica? It was not clearly stated in the newspaper. Singing at W.C. Lancaster’s Sunday was well attended and enjoyed by all. The singing class has bought new books, and we now have one of the best singing classes in the county. We sing every first and third Sunday evenings. Everybody invited to come and sing with us . [3] So this article said the singing was twice a month but did not state where, though it could have been at W.C. Lanc...

I have been searching in old newspapers pages of The Dublin Progress , a newspaper published in Erath County, Texas, where many of my mother’s ancestors and cousins lived. I am fortunate that many issues of this paper is digitized on The Portal to Texas History website. I searched on the surnames and many hits came up. One of the interesting things I learned were the names of the many small communities these families lived in, such as Harbin, Hickey, Alexander, Bunyan, Live Oak, Greens Creek, Lone Oak, and Howell Springs. I had heard of Dublin and Greens Creek before but not any of these other towns. These families were mostly farmers, so this part of Erath county must have been very rural with perhaps a small area where a few buildings such as a store, gas station, church, or school might be located. Now I wanted to learn a bit more about these communities. Here is a map of the county showing some of these communities: 1907 Map of Erath Co Post Offices You can see ...