Thy will be done. Joseph Clingman Trantham bequeathed large sums of cash and land to his children Elizabeth, Belinda, Minerva, Joshua, James, Thomas, David, Riley and Margaret. Proved in 1850, the will stipulated that the older children were to receive 50 acres of “mountain land” each. Upon their mother’s death, the younger children were to split the land set aside for her. Middle child “Jepthey” didn’t fare so well. To him,… More →
Category: Trantham Kenfolk
Mystery Kenfolk Case #1: The Düwels
Friedrich and Catherine (Springmeyer) Düwel are 3rd great grandparents on my father’s side. They are one of several genealogical “cold cases” I am currently working. Some branches of the family tree are more difficult to research than others. Essentially, I know the middle of their story but not the beginning or ending. I’ve been able to determine from German church records that they married October 4, 1840 in… More →
Cousins marrying cousins
Gedmatch.com is a website where you can upload your raw DNA data from other websites and analyze it in fun and interesting ways. Thanks to Gedmatch.com I know conclusively that my parents are not cousins. However, this might have been a more meaningful conclusion had it not predicted the color of my eyes as puce. They are more of a greenish puce. My mother’s family… More →
Pancake Wisdom
Wishing my dearest Aunt Jodi the happiest of birthdays today! I believe aunts and uncles play important roles in our lives. While our parents focus on the big stuff like knowing the difference between right and wrong, playing nice with others, and “hey, don’t touch that it’s hot”, our aunts and uncles are responsible for imparting little gems of wisdom that might otherwise have been… More →
Peachy Keen Kenfolk
Bill Peach, born William Strickland Peach, is an accomplished author, philosopher, blogger, social activist, entrepreneur and preacher so sayeth the various biographies I found online. All true, I believe. But his day job for many, many years was that of a men’s clothier. He and his wife, Emily, owned the Pigg & Peach men’s clothing store which is located in the Historic Downtown part of Franklin, Tennessee.… More →