Drury Holland, my 5th great grandfather, fought in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington. This is an undisputed fact thanks to military records and letters written in the late 1830s on behalf of his widow, Sarah (Turner) Holland, who successfully claimed his military pension of $80 per year. (Drury paid her father 50 pounds to marry her so I think she did okay.)… More →
Author: K Trantham
Cousins in High Places
It’s comforting to know I have cousins in positions of power in case I should ever need them. Gary Dusenberg, my 2nd cousin, 1x removed, was recently appointed by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to the (Missouri) Board of Parole and Probation. Although his appointment is subject to Senate approval, I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t pass with flying colors. Twenty-six years as… More →
Veazey Street Signs
There are four historic roadside markers in Cecil County, Maryland associated with members of the Veazey family. The first of these I discussed in a earlier post – that of the original homestead. The other three I present here for the first time. Since you’re reading this post, I assume you can read the signs, too. I’ll let them speak… More →
Trentham, Trantham, Trainum
“Trainum” is the latest potential variation of the Trentham surname I’ve stumbled upon. (I am only going to use quotation marks once so bear with me.) A Jeremiah Trantham, who was living in Williamson County, Tennessee in the early 1800s and about the same time as my ancestor, Martin Trantham, shows up in some documents as Jeremiah Trainum (and Tranthum and Tranum). I… More →
Winterized
Christian Winter has been on my radar screen for quite a while. I suspected we were related for the longest time but couldn’t quite connect the dots. Although he lived in Iowa, he frequently visited his cousins who lived in Warren County, Missouri. The people he visited, as reported in the Warrenton Banner, were cousins to my ancestors so there had to be… More →
Grave Mistakes
One of the first things you learn when you begin to study genealogy is this: just because it is carved in stone doesn’t mean it is correct. This cautionary tip, which was meant to encourage researchers to check multiple sources, forewarns of the dangers of simply accepting birth and death dates as they appear on grave markers. After all, as many writers have pointed out, the best person for the job of… More →
Betsy’s Other Children
Betsy (Martinleer) Trantham, my 6th great grandmother, had but one child and reportedly lived to be 154 years old. Tales of her mythic longevity (because that’s what it is) continued to be retold in newspapers across the country long after her death in 1834. But in 1884, her great great grandson, Lewis Peach, finally decided to set the record straight. In his… More →
Texas is Dreyer Country
When my paternal grandfather’s father moved his family from Tennessee to Texas in the early 1900s, my paternal grandmother’s German cousins were there to greet them. Anton Heinrich Dreyer, my 1st cousin, 5x removed, immigrated to America with his wife and children in 1842. Arriving in Galveston aboard the sea-faring vessel Francisco, Anton and his pioneering family made their way first to Columbus, Texas before… More →
Cousins marrying cousins: For Crying Utlaut
The ninth instance of one of my mother’s relatives marrying one of my father’s relatives has been found! Rudolph Utlaut, my 2nd great grandfather and my mother’s ancestor, came to America with his parents and five siblings. His sister, Sophia, married Wilhelm Beckmann. Their son, Frederick Wilhelm, chose a Biesemeyer maiden – and a distant relative of my father’s –… More →
Taps
Andrew Ward, the author of River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre In The American Civil War, devoted a paragraph of his book to Milas M. Deason, my 3rd great grand uncle. The son of John R. and Lydia Ann Deason, Milas (or Miles) was a Union soldier in the Tennessee Calvary and a bugler. Western Tennessee, where Milas was born, had aligned itself with the Unionists of the North.… More →