Sarah Townsend Patterson Tombstone

All I can read of Sarah Townsend Pattersons tombstone is "S.P. Wife." It is possible the top of the tombstone may have broken off but it doesn't appear there is information missing. Sarah was born between 1817 and 1823 and died on 2 September 1896 in Talking Rock, GA. She was hit by a train. Her tombstone is next to her husband's (Hix Patterson) in Philadelphia Baptist Church Cemetery in Jasper, GA.

FxGS Conference

I've spent the last two days at the Fairfax Genealogical Society Conference (www.fxgs.org). I talked to a lot of people and attended some great lectures. I learned some new skills I'm looking forward to trying out, as well.
My husband and I were both volunteering so it's been several early mornings so we're pretty tired and ready for a break. It's been interesting because we've almost exclusively been in the hotel since Friday afternoon (only going out to dinner after dark on Friday). Our room was on the indoor courtyard side so we didn't even have a window outside. While driving home it seems spring has sprung just since we left on Friday! Hopefully some much desired spring weather will finally inspire me to start, finish, and continue various genealogy projects. I'm hoping to feature some of these on this blog and inspire others to get going on their genealogy projects.

Hix Patterson Tombstone

Hix (or Hicks) Patterson was born in Dec 1816 and died in the winter of 1904-5. You can see from the photos that his tombstone is very primitive. It appears to have been hand carved and is quite small. I have not had a chance to visit this cemetery with a full photo kit (grass clippers, mirror, tripod, etc.) so I haven't been able to get a very good picture.

The cemetery is Philadelphia Baptist Cemetery in Jasper, GA. If you are headed north out of Atlanta on I-575 (it becomes Zell Miller Mtn. Pkwy.) you keep going until you come to Jasper (the intersection with Hwy 53). You turn left on Hwy 53 (turning right takes you into downtown Jasper). You drive a short distance and turn right either onto Darnell/Log Cabin Rd. or a little further on onto Philadelphia Rd. (the two roads merge just before the church). Continue driving and you will see the church on your left and the cemetery on your right. Most of my families tombstones (at least those that are marked) are near the front of the cemetery. These are almost directly across from the church when you cross Philadelphia Rd.

Mid-week Mayhem

I've decided to make up my own theme for Wednesdays. I have a lot of criminals and victims of crimes in my family so Wednesday is now "Mid-week Mayhem."

This week I'll just tell you a little about why you want murders, horse thieves, moonshiners, and other miscreants in your family.

For years I just went along doing genealogy like many people do, collecting dates and places. But I was always wondering "why" and "what." Why did my Pattersons (from GA) serve in the Union army? What were my ancestors really like (this usually followed a why I couldn't understand)? As all good genealogists should, I began researching these questions.

Eventually I had to step my genealogy research up a level and break into less used sources. That's when I started to find the "good stuff." Mostly crimes my relatives committed but occasionally crimes committed against them. I got started in genealogy because no one could give me good answers about my family. Not surprisingly, that meant we didn't have many stories. Since I wasn't starting with family stories that means I started with documented information (albeit not always the best documentation). For crimes this usually means there's more documentation out there because they obviously got caught since I knew about it. I soon learned to check very dry court records for my family (in one case this connected three siblings I could not document elsewhere). Online newspaper records are fantastic for locating relatives in trouble with the law as well. When I'm trying to locate my family farther back in a new location, I can usually check court records to see if they appear. Tax records or census records often aren't available when I need them but court records often are.

All those relatives involved in 'mayhem' have provided a great stories but also a great research methodology. Along with using genealogy sources I also try and research the history that goes along with all these stories. From that I've learned that my family isn't that different from their neighbors. If I can't locate a relative it's much more likely they are living in the least developed part of the state (assuming the land's cheap), not in a city. When I'm reading those dry court records it's pretty likely my relatives are involved with other residents whose names keep coming up over and over again for moonshining or hog stealing. Yet more places to look for new information!

I've never been under the delusion that I would find rich and powerful men in my family so finding criminals wasn't a shock. If you are always on the look-out for relatives that rose to the top of society, maybe you should consider looking for common criminals instead. They can leave great records and the stories aren't too bad, either.

Henry Ledford's Tombstone

Henry Ledford is the brother of my 3rd great-grandfather. He was murdered in 1866 (allegedly over his Union sympathies, haven't found documentation for the murder motive but his Union regiment is found right on his tombstone). Henry was the 4th son of John and Sarah Patterson Ledford and served in both the Confederate and Union services with three of his brothers, including my 3rd great-grandfather (their oldest brother may have also served however he had married by the Civil War and did not share the almost exact same service as these four brothers did).

Henry is buried in Jasper City Cemetery in Jasper, GA.

FxGS TechSIG

Tonight we're at the FxGS TechSIG learning about Blogs. This is a sample for the class.

John Ledford-Union Man

I am becoming very attached to my Ledford line. I am related to the same Ledford line twice (or is it the same Patterson line twice?), although it took me years to discover this. My great-great grandparents were Thomas Hill and Alma (Ledford) Patterson. Alma's grandparents were John and Sarah (Patterson) Ledford. Sarah's brother was Thomas Hill Patterson's grandfather. In otherwords, T.H. and Alma had one set of shared great-grandparents.
This double relationship only slightly has to do with why I'm becoming so attached to my Ledford line. Encountering them twice in the main line I research puts them high on my list of top researched families. In the last few years I have begun coming across sources that really flesh out the Ledfords. Originally I had such bare bones on them that they were just names, that's part of the reason it was so long before I discovered there were two Ledford-Patterson marriages in my direct line.
One of my favorite pieces of random Ledford history is courtesy of Alma's father's Civil War Pension application. William Nelson Ledford and his brother James Washington Ledford both applied for Union pensions and received them. Somewhere along the way it appears a law was changed and they lost their Union pensions. This was one of those situations a genealogist loves. Not surprisingly, neither man was too happy to suddenly stop receiving money. They fought the rejection with affidavit after affidavit (*note: both men's service was essentially identical and they claimed the same circumstances affected both of them so only one set of documents were sent for both men, these are filed in W.N.'s file). These were two of the most engrossing Union pensions I have ever read (although not as amusing or long as one of their possible cousins, that's another post).
From all the affidavits I am only sure of one thing. Their father, John Ledford, was a Union man. Most of the affidavits supported the borthers' claim that they were forced into Confederate service against their will or choice (this support isn't surprising, why would you find witnesses that disagree with you? The exact reason they joined the Confederate forces differs, though). Even those affidavits which state the Ledford boys willingly joined the Confederate army agree that their father was a Union man. This is the one point in the pension files that is consistent.
Sadly there is no indication why John Ledford was a Union man. Some affidavit's state he was pro-Union as early as the 1850s. I have been completely unable to determine who John Ledford's parents or family were or even where in NC he came from. In my research, he springs full grown into Northeast GA as the husband of Sarah Patterson (no marriage record has been found so even the exact location in NE GA is tentative, probably Habersham, the Pattersons were in Rabun). Without knowing about his roots, John Ledford's extremely strong (and well known) Union sympathies are unexplained.
I'm not so intrigued by John's pro-Union sentiments so much as how well known they seemed to be. The way this fact was threaded through the pension files made it stand out for me in a certain way. Pro-Union sympathies weren't uncommon in that part of GA and they aren't uncommon in my family. I have read a number of other Union pension files for relatives of this Ledford line (all from the same county) and none of them had any element of strong pro-Unionism. Perhaps it's just a fluke because W.N. and J.W. Ledford lost their pensions. Whatever the reason,...
John Ledford was a Union man.

Sheltons

I've been gone from my blog for awhile with several trips, a nasty cold, and all the catching up that has to be done when recovering from trips and a cold. I now find myself in the busiest part of my professional year -- lecture proposal time. This year it is coupled with NGS Conference time since it is just four short hours to drive to the 2009 Conference in the States in Raleigh.

I am not so fortunate as to be speaking at the Conference however it has several other "advantages" that are causing me to prepare. My husband and I lived in Raleigh prior to moving to Metro DC so we are looking forward to going back and seeing friends (which means seeing who's in town) and eating at some favorite restaurants (which involves checking if they are still open and determing when we can tear ourselves from the Conference long enough). Also, just after leaving Raleigh I really discovered my husbands NC roots (isn't that typical). I am hoping to squeeze in some research while there and that's what this post is about.

Sheltons
That sums up all of my husband's (currently) known NC ancestry. It's not one line, it's his maternal grandmother's entire maternal side. Every Shelton married a Shelton. I have never been cursed with such 'onenameness' in my research before. I know such things happen but why did they have to happen in a line I'm researching!
Since I did not discover the full extent of my husband's Shelton connection until I left NC, I have not had a chance to properly research this line. I've used what books I've had available to me and hunted up information on the Internet but even when I was in SLC I was stumped at where I would go next in my Shelton research. I ended up not attempting any Shelton hunting while there. I have to be honest and say I think I was scared. It feels like a wall of Sheltons that I have to break through and I haven't brought the proper tools.
I know what the solution to this feeling is, a research plan. I'm hoping to get one good day of research done while in Raleigh and that's certainly not enough time to overcome a wall of Sheltons. I just have to bite the bullet and sit down with what I have, what I can find online, and what I want to find and organize both my thoughts and as many Sheltons as I can. I dream of beautifully prepared research plans, and I even enjoy planning, but I still find it difficult to make myself sit down and get started.
Other commitments (mainly professional and volunteer at the moment), sunny days, and impending cherry blossoms only serve to distract me from good intentions. I have been trying very hard to work on my book more often (every day with exceptions for trips to NARA and piled up housework). Much of the writing I've done lately has been related to creating a research plan so I've been looking for examples to inspire me. So far I've only found one weak example. I decided I should create my own examples yet I still haven't sat down and done it. I'm hoping pouring out my soul on my blog might just force me to finally create that research plan. I certainly wouldn't want to be asked "how's that research plan on the Sheltons coming?" and have to admit I still hadn't started it!