Desperate times, desperate measures. If you’re following this blog, you may remember my post entitled “Lydia’s Plight”. In it, I told of Lydia (Turbeville) Deason‘s failed attempt to secure her “fallen” son’s Civil War pension. Lydia is my 4th great grandmother. Her son, Milas Deason, was the Army bugler who went missing after the Confederate attack and massacre at Fort Pillow in 1864.… More →
Author: K Trantham
P.S.
Discovering one of my ancestors was characterized as a “lunatic” in court records was a bit unsettling. I am not sure why. I was okay with the idea that Rebecca Trantham had died tragically during childbirth (which didn’t happen) but not that she had been committed to an asylum for lunatics (which did happen). Weird. Not one to let sleeping dogs sleep, my… More →
Rebecca
While browsing historic court documents from Weakley County, Tennessee this weekend, I stumbled across answers to questions I did not know I had. In the end, a heartbreaking story of a family that struggled with mental illness emerged. Rebecca (Deason) Trantham is my 3rd great grandmother. She married my 3rd great grandfather, Robert Floyd Trantham, on May 10, 1855 in Weakley County, Tennessee.… More →
Mister Sister Wives
Hiram Holladay, my 2nd cousin, 4x removed, loved three Haynie sisters. He married two of them and he might have married a third had her husband not shot and killed him. The fact that Hiram was infatuated with three woman from the same family came as no surprise to me. He probably inherited that trait from his Holladay and Trantham ancestors. Let’s review.… More →
Half of the Battle is Half of the Tree
The other half of the battle is the other half of tree. How profound. I’ve completed the second half of my ancestral scorecard representing my mother’s side of the family. For some reason I thought it might have been more complete than my father’s side. Au contraire, ma mere. Thirty years likely won’t be enough time to figure out all of… More →
Tree Housekeeping Score
Earlier this week I set out to better understand why the common ancestors of so many of my DNA matches on Ancestry.com are still complete mysteries to me. So I created a scorecard so I could keep track of the ancestral “holes” in my family tree. I’ve now completed my father’s side (scorecard below) which obviously represents 50% of the overall task. I suspect my… More →
The Big Brain Theory
Disputing my theory that Werner Heisenberg, my 4th cousin, 3x removed, had anything but a big brain would be futile. In 1932, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the creation of quantum mechanics”. He was 31 years old. When I was 31 years old, I won $3 because I correctly matched the Powerball. In 1928, Werner and two of his colleagues were nominated… More →
Of Kings and Things
This last weekend I had very sobering genealogical experience followed by an uplifting genealogical experience. The reality check came when I started looking more closely at my father’s DNA matches and realized about halfway down the 2nd page of results (out of 129 pages) that I had no clue how the DNA match and my father were related. Keep in mind… More →
Da’ Peach Mood
Many years ago I came to the realization that I have (self-diagnosed) ADHD-like tendencies. I am easily distracted and often start things that I never finish. The fact that I’ve managed to keep this blog up for ten months is not like me at all. Thusly, I realized recently that while I had introduced John Harding Peach a long time ago in another… More →
Mein Cousin
As far as finding distant and not-so-distant cousins is concerned, it’s been an eventful week. Two new DNA matches popped up on Ancestry.com – both from the Boren branch of my family tree and both 3rd cousins. “Darlene” is the great granddaughter of Christine Boren, one of my great grandmother Lula Betty Boren’s sisters. “Christine” is a name I have… More →