Mam-ma's Southern Family

The National Genealogical Society’s Family History Conference was held this year in Louisville, Kentucky, and this allowed me to conduct on-site research for my family and my husband’s family. Before going, I studied websites and finding aids, and created my own research goals. My husband’s family was straightforward. I acquired documents from the Indiana State Archives, and we visited two cemeteries in Jeffersonville and Louisville. However, two of my family lines are more complicated. I have the Lancaster and Neal families in Shelby County, Kentucky, and the Polly family in Lewis County. This post will report on my findings in Shelby County. Shelby County I started in Shelby County. The county seat is Shelbyville, and we visited the county museum first. The director informed us that their historic records are in the Kentucky Room at the public library. There was a gold mine there. So often, family files contain no records about my family, but there was a thick folder on the Lanca...

I’ve been in Salt Lake City this week conducting some research at the Family History Library where I have been viewing microfilmed images of deed records for Shelby County, Kentucky, where my five times great-grandfather, Robert Lancaster died. I had previously concentrated on the estate records for Robert and wondered why there weren’t any records mentioning his wife, Mary. I have no vital information about this wife at all, so had no idea if she was still alive. However, I found in the deed records a deed recorded on 26 October 1840 between  “Mary Lancaster widow of R. Lancaster of Shelby County Kentucky of the one part and Ellis Lancaster, John Lancaster, Creath Neill & Lenis Ann his wife, Robert N Myers & Mary E his wife, William Lancaster, Josiah Lancaster & Eliza Jane Lancaster of the other part.” [1] The people listed as the “second part” were Robert’s children: Ellis, John, Lenis Ann, Mary E, William, Josiah, and Eliza Jane. It went on to stat...

I have been working on probated estates of farmers who died in mid-century 1800. One of the items that was in the estate inventories was a “wheat fan.” [1] In Robert Lancaster’s estate in 1840, there was a wheat fan that was valued at $5.00 and sold for $6.87 in the estate sale. I imagined a wheat fan as something made from wheat stalks shaped in a fan to be used when the weather was a bit warm to help cool you down. A search for a definition of a wheat fan brought up photos of winnowing baskets. These large baskets were used to separate the wheat grain from its chaff by tossing the wheat into the air and allowing the chaff to blow away in the wind.  Later, winnowing machines were invented and were in use by the time of Robert’s death. It is quite possible that he owned a machine that had either been purchased or hand-made. He must have grown some wheat as he had 40 bushels worth $20 at the time of his death. Although we cannot know for sure how Robert raised an...

I have been discussing in the last four blogs about the estate inventory of my 5 times Great-grandfather, Robert Lancaster, who died in 1840 in Shelby County, Kentucky. When I discovered that he had two copper stills and seventy-two barrels of whiskey, I became very curious about whiskey-making. I began my research on the making of whiskey in the 19th century via the Internet. I learned some basics from the “Bourbon Whiskey” article on Wikipedia . But I wanted to learn more. Two books that I received through inter-library loan were very helpful: The Social History of Bourbon,   by Gerald Carson and published by The University Press of Kentucky in 1963, and Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey, an American Heritage by Michael R. Veach, and also published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2013. Because these two books were published by an academic press, they were well documented. I was never a drinker of hard spirits, so I didn’t know much about whiskey. Since read...

Robert Lancaster of Shelby County, Kentucky, died in 1840, and his estate was probated by his youngest son, Josiah Lancaster, as administrator. [1] His estate was ordered to be inventoried and this is the fourth post about that inventory. This being Kentucky, I should not be surprised to find whiskey making items in the inventory. 66 mash tubs, 2 copper stills &                 still house apparatus            80   00 45 acres of corn                                  300  00 40 bushels of wheat                             20   00 2 Bee s...

I am continuing the discussion about my 5th Great-grandfather, Robert Lancaster, of Shelby County, Kentucky and his estate. Previously I have discussed the bond and naming of Josiah Lancaster as administrator, about the farm animals and equipment, and about the household goods. Now my attention is on the twelve slaves that were listed. In the inventory conducted for the estate of Robert Lancaster, these slaves were listed with their values: The slaves listed in the Robert Lancaster estate inventory 1 negro man naimed Henry                          800      00 1 negro man naimed Edmund                    800     00 I negro man naimed Charles             ...

Recap: Robert Lancaster was my fifth great-grandfather and he died shortly before 12 October 1840, when his youngest son, Josiah Lancaster, began the probate process in Shelby County, Kentucky. In the previous two posts, I wrote about the very large bond and the farming equipment in the inventory. In the continuation on the inventory, there were a lot of household items, ranging from bedding to kitchen items. [1] Below is a listing of these items in the order listed. Notice the creative spelling on several of the items: Some of the inventory of household goods 1 set of dining tables                             20 00 1 Beauro & dining table                        13 00 1 clock & case                                       ...

This is a series of blog posts about my fifth great-grandfather, Robert Lancaster. In this previous post , I wrote about the bond of $20,000. His youngest son, Josiah Lancaster was appointed administrator and ordered to conduct an inventory of the goods, chattels, and debts of Robert Lancaster. From the Shelby County (Kentucky) Superior Court, October 1840 Term, James Neal, William A. Hamblin, and Arthur Chambers were ordered to  appraise the slaves if any and personal estate of Robert Lancaster, deceased, and then return an appraisement to the court. [1] They appeared in court and returned a “true and just inventory and appraisement of all the personal estate of Robert Lancaster” which was “produced to us by Josiah Lancaster his administrator.” The appraisement went on for four pages and totaled $10,638.53 ¾. Some items were difficult to determine because of the “creative” spelling.  There were farming equipment, household items, furniture, food and drink stuff...