Thankful Thursday: Giving Thanks For ... Cousins

from The Columbia Evening Missourian 1922
by johnny, openclipart.com

Gathered around my virtual Thanksgiving table this year are several new cousins.  They are family I now know after hearing from them through comments each made to one of my blog posts.  And I am thankful for knowing more about them and more about our family connections.

A comment connected to posts I had written concerning The Camp Family Letters has lead me to a second cousin who just happened to be the one who donated the Camp papers to Emory University in the first place.  Since her comment we've exchanged family photos and learned we both share a fascination with the enigmatic Charlotte Vaughan.  We're even facebook friends now.

Following my Veterans Day post, I heard from a descendant of William S Vaughan, my second great uncle.  This cousin provided me with information concerning William's service in the Confederate Army.  The information was clear, detailed, and contained citations.  I appreciated being able to learn more about a brother of my great grandfather, Albert Vaughan, a relative who is now more than just a name.

Another comment came just the other day from a great grandson of Samuel Clayton Dean.  This third cousin sent me a fact filled e-mail about Samuel.  It included, at long last, information about Samuel's death.  The ggrandson also filled me in on some of the other members of Samuel's family, information I might not have discovered through my personal research.

Thanks to these new-to-me cousins for taking the time to comment on a blog post.  Thanks for sharing your information.  And thanks for giving me a present day connection with your family.

Thankful Thursday: Naming a New Baby

By Photographer "Roberts of Llandrindod Wells" [Public domain]
via Wikimedia Commons

Last Sunday was Grandparents Day.  What a perfect day for the christening of our youngest grandchild.  Along with all the holy and joyful moments shared with family members, I later pondered on two thoughts related to celebrating our family stories.

This newest grandchild carries the names of his father, a maternal Grandfather, and a paternal Great Grandfather.  He will grow up knowing his father and Grandfather, having his own stories to share of special times.  It will be through pictures and family stories that he will come to know his paternal GreatGrandfather.  If the rest of us do our part, this little one will come to know a skilled craftsman, sharer of family stories, and teller of country yarns, his GGrandfather Nelson.  He will get to know GGrandfather Nelson as a person, not just as the middle name on his birth certificate or another name on a family tree.

A few days prior to the family christening, I had been at the local university doing more rainy day research.  After looking for the books on my To Do List, I started browsing the shelves.  There in the stacks I saw a copy of The Registers of North Farnham Parish.(1)  The book contained transcriptions from the early 1700s of church records for births, marriages, and deaths in North Farnham Parish, Richmond County, Virginia, home to many members of the Tarpley family.   

The Registers book provided me with additional documentation about a number of the Tarpley children.   There on one page were the names and birth dates of six of the eight children of my 6GreatGrandparents James Tarpley and Mary Camp Tarpley;  their other two children were listed on the following page.  For a number of these Tarpley children, this meant that I finally had day/month/year birth dates.

Children of James and Mary Tarpley, highlighted in red

Granted, these transcriptions of church registers are derivative documents, secondary sources, but they do provide a lot of family information.  I’m thankful that these old registers exist.  I'm thankful that someone took the time to transcribe them and publish them.  It ended up being yet another rainy day surprise for me.

(1)  Standford, George Harrison.  The Registers of North Farnham Parish 1663-1814 and Lunenburg Parish 1783-1800 Richmond County Virginia,  Fredricksburg, VA: George Harrison Sanford King, 1966.

Thankful Thursday - Connections, Resources, and a Book

source: Museum Store Association website

When I started writing my blog it was just a way to share my research with family and others.  As I continue to write, I am thankful for the new connections this blog has enabled me to make.

I am thankful for the unexpected contacts I have made with other family members.  Some contacts have been with distant cousins living miles away, those with whom I have been able to swap family stories, photographs, family trees, and other information.  Sometimes the initial contact comes months after I write a post mentioning a family member.  This just shows the far reaching effects of posting on the internet.  Some of these contacts are just a few exchanges of e-mails, others continue, but each has provided new information about my family or my husband's.

All genealogy information isn't on the internet, and I'm thankful for that.  This year I've visited several smaller research centers where I've been amazing at the quantity and the quality of the information each contains.  The Bell Research Center in Cumming, GA and the T. Elmer Cox Library in Greeneville, TN were real gems.  Besides the information I found in books there, each visit introduced me to an individual working there who was a fount of local history information.  The internet can't quickly tell you the connection between your ancestor's property and present day roads or the backstory for a name witnessing a relative's document.  There is still no substitute for sometimes interacting with a real person in your research (and that's not just because I'm a former school library media specialist).

Earlier this year I became a member of The Organized Genealogist group on Facebook.  I have picked up a number of organization tips from the postings by group members.  It has been interesting and helpful to see have different people have such creative ways to address a common issue or to see different ways I can tweak things to work in my situation or work space.  Thanks to Susan Petersen for starting this group and for helping us as we try to maintain order in the midst of chaos.

Finally, I am so thankful that I purchased a download copy of Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills.  Previously, my source citations were minimal so I made the purchase to help me in this area.  But her book isn't merely a book about how to correctly cite a fact.  It really gets into the evaluation of sources so that I have a better grasp of the reliability or accuracy of the information I come across.  Sure, my citations are more complete and better written, but her book has really opened my eyes to  consider the source as I am researching more stories to celebrate.