Treasure Chest Thursday : That Old Red Notebook

Never judge a book by its cover, even if it is just an old Blue Horse Class Notebook with a 25 cent price printed on it. Recently, I was loaned the notebook pictured above. It was a remnant of the contents from the home of a deceased relative. Somehow it was one of those things left behind, something no one seemed to want, and I had the chance to browse through it.

The first few pages of the notebook were blank, but then it was like opening a treasure box. That red spiral notebook turned out to be a handwritten book of basic Whittemore family information. Ancestors. Children's names. Marriages. Birth and death dates. All stuff worth noting and checking to see that it was recorded in my copy of Family Tree Maker. I even looked through Evidence Explained as I tried to construct a source citation for the notebook.

The real surprise was seeing that parts of the notebook were written in first person, "my Grandmother Parthenia", "my Mother and Father". My favorite note was the statement that "if they [relatives living elsewhere] are still there, I am going to get in touch with them". Several times the writer seemed to add information at a later date, evidenced by a change in ink color, arrows, or relationship notes. And like any notebook, there were things written on the back of a page or on a scrap of paper placed between pages.

The notebook also mentioned a long-standing brick wall concerning a Whittemore brother who apparently left home in the mid-1800s, and the family "never heard of him any more after he left". All of this has given me a real connection with the writer, my husband's Great Aunt, about whom I had previously only heard of her sweet, gentle nature. Now I feel she was a kindred genealogy spirit.

The information in the notebook appears to have been the foundation for a family tree drawn years ago by two of the writer's sons. My photocopy of the notebook will now share the folder with my copy of that family tree. Because of the notebook, we now have an idea as to how the information in the family tree may have been gathered. I'm just glad that old red notebook wasn't tossed into a trash can, and that it can continue to share family information.

Now We Have A Plan

"Exploration"  by gnokii;  openclipart.org

Recently several of our family spent some time visiting an elderly cousin.  He brightened up seeing all of us, plus it was nice to spend time with him.

During our visit his caregiver showed us some family things she had recently found while cleaning out a cabinet.  One item was a family chart, created in 1980, that listed the ancestors and descendants of Francis Smith Whittemore. She asked us to keep it so that it would not be accidentally thrown away or misplaced.

My sister-in-law and I looked over it and saw that the thirteen pages contained a lot of names and dates.  This chart came forward through generations from the mid 1850s into the late 1970s, full of names and dates of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, many of the names I had not seem before.

 In a short time, we had a plan.  I would take the family chart home, scan the pages, and then mail the original chart to the family member who is involved with our cousin’s care.  I would also add all the names and dates listed into Family Tree Maker so that it can be more easily shared with others through a GEDCOM export.

It just goes to show that family information can come from the most unexpected sources, at a time or place you did not anticipate.  The experience was a reminder that it is important to have some idea as to what to do with these new finds.    Admittedly, it also makes me wonder what I may have stuck into a drawer for someone else to find in the future!  The caretaker also said she would put aside any other family papers she might later come across.  We are all on the same page with the plan.

One thing that definitely is staying with our cousin is an old, crumbling newspaper article about the 50^th wedding anniversary of his parents.  Nothing could match his smile as he looked with love at those familiar faces.  

Mappy Monday - Around Oakman, Georgia

After attending the church Homecoming and writing about it in a  previous post,  I wanted to make a map pinpointing some of the places that were associated with my husband's family.  I used Google Map Engine Lite and was able to create this map in just a few minutes.  Map Engine Lite is a free download from Google, and Google provides an easy to follow tutorial on using this map program here.

Below is a little about the places indicated on the map above.

A - Dan Whittemore used to have a country store located at this area.  Family stories say that the town's Post Office was, for a time, located in his store.

Old Oakman School

B - Today the old school is closed, but part of the building is now used as a community center.  The community center was donated to the community in memory of Kip Whittemore.  Through the years, several family members taught at this school.

C - Dan and Bessie Whittemore lived in this house for many years.  Today the house seems to be in good condition with a new family living there.

D - The Oakman-Ranger United Methodist Church was founded in 1870.  The original wooden church was located between the site of the present church and the church cemetery.

Oakman Methodist Cemetery

E - The Oakman Methodist Cemetery is next to the site of the original church building.  There are a number of Padgett and Whittemore relatives buried in the family plots of this small cemetery.

F - Today the house where Uncle Will and Aunt Willie Whittemore used to live is vacant.  The old barn on the farm still stands just south of the house.

One thing I liked about using Map Engine Lite was the ability to add points of interest to a map along with labels and descriptions.  Currently there is not the ability to also add photos to a map, but perhaps that will be available before too long.  I can also choose to make my map private or to share with specific individuals or even with the world.  I chose to make this map private, but when I share it with family members, they can read an extended description, additional information, stories, GPS locations if they click on any labeled point.  Pretty neat way to share family history!

Those Places Thursday - Homecoming 2013

Oakman-Ranger United Methodist Church
Oakman, Georgia

It's summer, time to attend Homecoming celebrations at small country churches across the south.  Time to return to the old family church, time to reminisce with cousins, time to pause by graves in the church cemetery, and time to share lots of wonderful food.

Recently my husband and I attended the annual Homecoming Day at a church where a number of his relatives have been active members through the years.  It had been about 30 years since we last attended this special service at the old church.  When I first started going with him to the Oakman Homecoming over 40 years ago, it was primarily about visiting with the cousins our age and sampling all of that unbelievable country cooking.  This time it was a little different.

We arrived at Oakman almost an hour before church started so we drove around the area with my husband pointing out lots of places important to his family.  Close by was the location of the old Post Office where a cousin had been the Post Mistress.  He showed me where an uncle's country store had been located.  We stopped at the old school, now a community center, where several relatives once taught.  Next we drove by the two homes where relatives had lived, one with a fresh coat of paint and a shiny metal roof, the other sitting empty amid tall weeds.  The houses, less than a quarter mile apart, had been the homes of two sisters and their families and were located close to the church.

Cemetery, Oakman-Ranger United Methodist Church

Back at the church, we walked around the cemetery where I took pictures of the grave markers of the Padgett / Whittemore relatives buried there.  Outside the church, I heard stories about children sitting under trees in warm weather for Sunday School, then moving to sit inside a car for Sunday School once colder weather came.  Inside the church, my husband pointed out the photograph of the old church built in the1870s and reminisced with his brothers about attending church there, a place hot as blazes in the summer and chilly even with a pot-bellied stove in winter.  Today we were thankful for the new church with central heat and air.

During the church service, I opened my hymnal and saw that it had been placed there in memory of one of my husband's aunts, a lady who was always smiling and often played the piano at church.  My brother-in-law was the guest minister, and he shared some humorous family stories as illustrations for his sermon's chosen scripture.  We also enjoyed some beautiful and heart-felt music from members of the congregation.  It was a good service.

The church dinner was as delicious as any I could remember.  You could tell that folks had picked vegetables and berries the night before, just to share at our communal spread.  Unbelievably good!

I left Homecoming with an ever stronger sense of the importance of place in our family stories, especially a spot where home, church, business, employment, and school were all within walking distance.    Some of the memories, information, and photos from Homecoming have now been recorded in my genealogy software.  I'm also plotting sites on Google Maps to share in a future post.  And yes, we had somebody take another cousins' picture of all of us.  For a while that Sunday, we were home.