Saturday, May 29, 2010

-------------Introducing cousin-----------------------------Martha Jane Good Caswell--------------

My great grandmother Celia Melinda Carter Hayley penciled handwriting throughout her hand held Bible. From these handwriting notes I have been able to piece together some validation and verification to other vital statistcal information to collarborate the death certificate, and other documents are indeed the correct person to the correct name, place and time. Not long ago I started adding this verified handwritten data to the internet.
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A small sample of Great Grandma Celia Carter Hayley's handwritten notes found in her Bible.

SNFG Using a relationship calculator decide how two people are related in your family tree.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver - your Relationship Calculator
Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (come on, don't be a party pooper...) is: (NOTE FROM RUTH Randy is not shy to call us names if we do not join in this work, oops I meant to say fun......

1) Open up the genealogy software program of your choice.

2) Think about two special people in your family tree (your parents? your spouse? a famous person? a distant cousin? yourself?).

3) Use the Relationship Calculator in the software to determine the relationship between the two special people. If you don't know where to find the Relationship Calculator, go to the Help button and find out. Follow the directions!

** ANOTHER NOTE FROM RUTH (Typical ultra engineer instructions from Engineer Randy "go to the Help button and find out" LOL )

4) Tell us about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a comment to this post on my blog, or in a Note or comment on Facebook.

I have a new friend/cousin/facebook friend whom is an absolute genealogical gem.


Martha Jane Good Caswell

Third cousins twice removed with common ancestors John L White and Elizabeth Roberts and Fifth Cousins once removed with Leslie Wesley Needham and Amy Roselle as our most common ancestors.

We are double cousins. Because Amey Needham is John White's mother, and John White's daughter, Elizabeth Jane White is my father's father's mother's mother. Amey's sister Martha Needham married Wyatt Mooring who's daughter, Eliza Jane Mooring is John Christopher Hayley's mother.

So when I compared Amey and Martha --- the relationship calculator said sisters. But when I extended our trees to include Martha Jane Good Caswell and myself --- we are third and fifth cousins.

Finding Martha Jane Good Caswell has been a big plus for my research. My Elizabeth Jane White was the last of several children born to John L White and Elizabeth Roberts. Elizabeth Roberts dies shortly after giving birth to Elizabeth Jane. All the children were separated shortly after.

Just one day after having this information for at least 40 years I put Elizabeth Jane White's data on the Internet. I started receiving a rapid fire of emails from Martha Jane Good Caswell. She explained to me how for over 20 years the family had searched for this lost baby that was removed from her siblings as an infant and was never heard from again.

These are the success stories we cherish. These are the endings that allow us to smile as we think of Elizabeth's siblings smiling down at Martha for finding their "lost baby sister".

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Be careful of misleading documents....



orginal document on file in the Texas Land Office
Transcription of text in document
Georgia. By His Excellency Jared Irwin Governor, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of this State, and of the Militia thereof: To all whom these Presents shall came, or whom the same may concern--greeting: Know Ye, That the bearer hereof, GEORGE P. DYKES, having been recommended to me by respectable inhabitants of Baldwin County, I have given him and his family my permission to travel through the Cherokee Nation, they taking special care to conduct themselves peaceably towards the Indians, and agreeably to the laws of the United States. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused to be affixed the Executive Seal of this State. Done at the State House in Millengeville, the 21st day of March in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and eight and of the American Independence the thirty second. James Bozeman, Georgia state comptroller general, 1808-24

This document presents many interesting information suggestions, plus a bit of history. Based on this document I will want to explore Baldwin(?) County, Georgia(??) for Dikes/Dykes. Well, this could have been misleading because I then downloaded the entire 4 page document from https://scandocs.glo.state.tx.us/webfiles/landgrants/pdfs/1/0/3/1/1031828.pdf

and found the citizens that vouched for George and his family were from Tuscumbia, Franklin County, Alabama


The following citizens of Tuscumbia, Franklin County, Alabama vouched for George Parker Dykes and his four sons:

(Levi B Dikes - Lovick Pinkham Dikes - Miles Granfield Dikes - Mark Washington Dikes)

Davis S Morton

Richard Ellis

John Haynie

James W faris

Leonard Jones

M W Payne

A Barton

Lewis Dickson

T R Cockrill

T H Doney

Leonard R Cary

John Wilington

M Tarver

John Sutherland Jr

B Merrill

Geo D Fant

Wm Cooper

James Davis

Berry Greens