Wondering why I’ve not been posting much lately? It’s because I’ve been busy scanning microfilmed court records from 1741 to 1794 at the Library of Virginia every Saturday morning. (Well, almost every Saturday morning. Last Saturday, i was in Columbia, South Carolina for the South Carolina Genealogical Society’s Summer Workshop. That was a nice break but I felt very behind… More →
Author: K Trantham
Martha Sharp Crawford
Discovering distant cousins who’ve achieved various levels of notoriety is part of what makes genealogy fun (for me). I openly admit that I enjoy the surprise of coming across a name that I recognize. That didn’t happen initially when I added Martha Sharp Crawford, my 5th cousin, 2x removed, to my family tree. After all, it’s a rather unassuming name. Martha… More →
Migration Headache
I’ve been absent but busy designing my SECOND book cover the for the North Carolina Genealogical Society. Migrations Based on Powers of Attorneys has gone to press and will be available in July. This cover was a bit trickier to pull of than the last one. The newspaper articles came from three different newspapers. I specifically wanted the newspaper articles… More →
No Objections
State and county boundaries were fluid up until the late 19th century. Most had settled down by 1900. Finding your ancestors in historical records requires an understanding of this genealogical principle to be successful. Sometimes you have to check multiple counties to find the records you need although your ancestor never moved. Dumb luck also helps. Yesterday, I visited the… More →
Covering Genealogy
January 1, 2018 was my official first day as a Director and Publicity Chair of the North Carolina Genealogical Society and boy have I been BUSY. My primary responsibility is maintaining the NCGS Facebook page. Who knew that this would become such a creative outlet for me? I didn’t. When they asked me if I’d be interested in serving as… More →
Jemima Jackpot
Just last week I likened my microfilm reader to a slot machine minus the quarters. You turn the wheel and hope the next image is a winner. Most of the time you come up empty-handed. But I hit the jackpot big time yesterday. And I mean BIG TIME. Genealogical gold. It happened like this: I decided to take a break… More →
Neoma
Another day, another brick wall. Neoma, the wife of Spencer Pearce, was my 4th great grandmother. She’s the latest edition to my family tree. I’ve known the name “Neoma” for some time. The inventory of her estate appears in a book of probate records from Lawrence County, Tennessee. It’s been collecting dust on my bookshelf. No other information about Neoma… More →
Spencer for Sire
Another brick wall came tumbling down yesterday and I am ELATED. Buried in the deeds of Lawrence County, Tennessee from 1831 was a transaction between the “Heirs of Spencer Pearce” and Barnabas Gabel. Listed among the heirs was Harriet Pearce, my 3rd great grandmother. Ironically, I had been toying with the idea that Spencer might have been the father of… More →
Directions
In less than two weeks, it will be five years since my mother passed away. She is the reason I became interested in learning more about my ancestors. Just recently I came into possession of several voluminous notebooks of her genealogical research. They serve as a hefty reminder of just how much she and my father accomplished in researching our… More →
Crime and Punishment
Daniel Pearce, my 4th great grandfather, is a “new” old ancestor. He is the recently-discovered father of the illusive Matilda Jane Goodger who stymied me for two years. Daniel shows up frequently in county court records in Maury and Lawrence in Tennessee and Itawamba and Prentiss in Mississippi. But I wasn’t expecting to find him in records in Williamson County,… More →