Mam-ma's Southern Family

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 grandparents, Tom J. Johnston and Pansy Louise (Lancaster) Johnston, purchased a house in Pleasant Hill, California, in a housing tract called “Gregory Gardens.” I am not sure, but this may have been their first property purchased in California. 307 Nancy Lane, my grandfather & his jeep A copy of the deed and title insurance papers were stuffed in a 1950’s County Recorder envelope with a 3 cent stamp. The deed was from the Contra Costa County Title Company with filing stamps and original signatures on it. They purchased the house from the Hergan, Inc. as joint tenants and the property was described as: Lot 22, as designated on the map entitled, “Gregory Gardens, Unit No. 1, Contra Costa...

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. Land Grants I found that Daniel Coor of Sampson County, North Carolina, obtained a land grant on 10 July 1788. [1] He had entered on the 10 May 1787 and it was surveyed on 20 May 1787. This piece of land was located on the east side of Little Cohara. The land description of the fifty-seven acres is as follows: “Beginning at his own corner, a Maple and runs along his line S75E 124 poles to his other corner, a pine, thence his other line S15W 127 poles to his corner a white oak, thence S75E 26 poles to a white oake, thence N15E 167 poles to a pine, thence N 75 W 153 poles to a pine, thence to the beginning.” To learn more about the land grant process, see “North Carolina land grant procedure 1777...

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’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...

In the January Term 1843 of Shelby County Court, the land of the Robert Lancaster estate was divided among the heirs of Robert Lancaster. [1] Robert’s estate was entered into probate on 12 October 1840 with Josiah Lancaster, John Lancaster, Creath Neel, Robert Myers, Wm Lancaster, and Wm Price as bondsmen. Josiah Lancaster was appointed administrator. [2] I haven’t discovered yet why they waited over two years to divide the land between the heirs. The division begins, “On motion of John S. Lancaster, Ellis W. Lancaster, Josiah R. Lancaster and Wm T. Lancaster who filed their notice herein to Creath Neill and Lewis Mary Ann his wife, Robert N Myers and Elizabeth his wife and Creth Neill as Guardian to Eliza Jane Lancaster, heirs of Robert Lancaster dec d which notice was proven in open court to have been executed on the parties. It is ordered that Wm A. Hamblin, Arthur Chambers, James Maguire & John Crawford or any three of them being first sworn do appraise the lands of ...