Hello DAR - I'd like to make your acquaintance

So, about a year ago I faxed off a request for a record copy of my ancestor, Daniel Boatwright, to the DAR. I was using the fax machine at work and it's not the most reliable of machines. I suspect they never received it - because I never received a response. Then I never got around to sending my request again.

Yesterday, I saw on blogs and on twitter that the DAR had made an online search form available. I was able to look up my ancestor and see his information. I also saw that someone else has already submitted an application through the next two generations of Daniel's descendants that follow my line. I think this will make things easier for me (?).

So, I decided once again to send off for the record copy. This time, I mailed it. I tried to specify which of Daniel's descendants I wanted and, specifically, with his second wife.

I'm curious as to what I will receive back. There's a lot of information on the DAR's website, and with the unfamiliar terminology, I'm getting a little confused. According to their site, the "previously verified DAR membership and supplemental applications can be used as genealogical research tools as well as documentation for new applications." But, "record copies only consist of the application, and not copies of the supporting documentation that originally accompanied it." I seems that the supporting documents must be requested separately.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get any information from my request besides statements of descent. Will this be helpful? Should I go ahead and request the supporting documents?

I suppose that what I should really do is contact a local DAR chapter (Philadelphia Winn Chapter of GA who's website was on Geocities and is now gone). I'm sure they'd be able to help me.... but I'm going to shoot myself in the foot and go it alone for now. I'm just not a people person. I'm probably going to put off contacting anyone for a while. I know it'll slow me down, but what can I say...

Anyway, this is the lineage I'm following:

1. Me
2. My Father (m. my mom)
3. Sarah F. Britt (m. Thomas S Craft)
4. S. Ledora Barfield (m. Nathan Britt)
5. S. Frances Boatright (m. William Barfield)
6. Stephen T. Boatright (m. Dora Logue)
7. Reubin Boatright (m. Demaris Rich)
8. Daniel Boatwright (m. Margaret Braswell)

I have death or birth certificates and copies of marriage certificates or licenses for every generation but the last two. I'm wondering: What other documents should I collect? Do I need multiple documents for each generation? Do I need the documents of Daniel's service? Do the documents need to be originals, or will copies do?

Well, I guess I'm off for more research on how this works.

Wordless Wednesday

Surfing Google Wave

So, I received an invite to Google Wave. I'm very curious to see what can be done in Genealogy with Google Wave. Well, I'm still not 100% sure how this might affect Genealogy, but I do know that it's pretty confusing to start with. I've been exploring for a little over an hour.

Although there are a number of "introduction to Google Wave" waves that newbies are automatically added to, I still had a lot of questions. So, I googled Google Wave. Here are a few helpful things I've learned so far:

• To find a wave, type "with:public" and your search term. For example, "with:public Genealogy" will find the genealogy waves.
• When you create a wave, add 'easypublic@appspot.com' to the wave. Google recommends adding 'public@a.gwave.com,' but I couldn't get that to work.
• Waves show up in your "inbox" just like email messages. When there's a new post, a number is added next to the wave's title. You'll have to click on every post (AKA blip) in a wave to get this number to go away, or click "read" at the top of the wave. Easily navigate each blip in a wave by utilizing your up and down arrow keys.
• You can expand a wave to take up the whole screen by hitting the maximize button on the top right of the wave's box.
• Also, you can click the minimize button to send the entire box up to the top of the screen onto a toolbar like area. It'll work like a pull-down menu now.
• You can add maps, photos and gadgets to blips. Start a new blip and then utilize the options on the toolbar that appears.

These are just a few things that I've noticed so far. I'm sure there are a lot of other features that I've yet to discover.

Waters Men in the Navy

With a name like 'Waters,' when it's time to join the military, you'd go with the obvious: the Navy. And that's what my Great-Uncles did. Milton, Lewis (LC), and Jack Waters all enlisted in the Navy and, I believe, served throughout World War II.

I don't have much to go on aside from family stories, photographs, and grave markers. Unlike army records, which seem to abound on sites such as Footnote and Ancestry, Navy records are relatively scarce. Ancestry has been working to expand its collection of Navy Cruise Books, but so far I haven't found my Great-Uncles. Also, information seems a little hard to request without information on the sailor's service details. Because of this, and because these men aren't on my direct line, I haven't been able to find much information on them.

Here's what I do know:

Milton Waters (1916, GA -1966, FL) served in both the Marines and the Navy (this based on photos). I believe that he enlisted before the war. His grave lists his rank as AOM3 in the Navy for WWII (I don't know what that means and I'm having trouble finding information on Navy Ranks and Rates).

Lewis Cranford (LC) Waters (1920 - 1978, GA) served in the Navy. I can't find his tombstone and don't have any information on his rate. I do have photos of him from his ship. It seems that he served on the USS Barney, which at one time was docked in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There, the crew took a bunch of photos. An arm patch in one photo, indicates that he was a Petty Officer 3rd Class.

Jack Franklin Waters (1924 - 1961, GA) also served in the Navy for WWII. According to his gravestone, he was a S2 in the Navy Reserves for South Carolina. Aside from his grave, I only have one photo to give hint to his service.

I'd like to find more information on my Great-Uncles and their, but I don't have information such as service numbers and dates of service, which appear to be required to obtain information from the National Archives. I'm hoping that as online databases expand their records, they will put more emphasis on military branches besides the army.

If anyone has advice on researching Navy veterans, I'd love to hear it.

Wordless Wednesday

Surname Saturday - Barfield

One of my brickwall families is the Barfield family of Glascock County and Emanuel County, Georgia.

The family line can be traced to Sarah, the mother of my Great-Great Grandfather, William L. Barfield. According to her death certificate, Sarah was born 27 Aug 1851 in Glascock County, GA and died on 22 Dec 1936 in Emanuel County, Georgia. On census records, her name is often spelled as Barefield. Through 1900 to 1930, she is found living with her daughter, Susan Emma Barfield Wells. In 1900, she is also living with another daughter, Amanda.

I cannot find reference to Sarah before 1900. I do not know her parents' names and her death certificate lists her parents as "unknown." I do not know her husband's name.

This photo of Sarah was sent to me by a distant cousin, Mitch Keown, who is also a descendent of William L. Barfield.

--------------------------------------------------

In summery:

Sarah Barfield

- Birth: 27 Aug 1851 , Glascock, GA

- Census: 1900 Sheet 24, District 9, Militia District 1168, Glascock, GA

- Census: 1910 Sheet 14 B, District 10, Militia District 1168, Glascock, Georgia

- Census: 1920 Sheet 3 A, District 23, Militia District 1168, Glascock, GA

- Census: 1930 District 8, Militia District 57, Emanuel, GA

- Death: 22 Dec 1936 , Emanuel, GA

- Children: William "Bill" L (1872-1924)

Emma Susen (~1876-)

Amanda C. (~1888-)

More Music in the Family

In a previous post, I wrote about the musical instruments on my ancestors, which are in the possession of my cousins. In the post, I mentioned that the family was related by marriage to two early country music recording artists.

One of those musicians was Christopher Allen Bouchillon. Chris was born in Oconee County, SC on 21 Aug 1893 and is credited with originating the "talking blues" style. He recorded a number of songs with his brothers as "The Bouchillon Trio" and as a solo artist. Chris married my Great-Great Aunt Ethel Waters, sometime after 1920. It was the second marriage for both of them.

I had no idea until I started researching Chris, but it turned out that Ethel's entire family was musical. Her father's and siblings sang and played musical instruments. The cousins who have their instruments say that the family played at barn dances. It's probably how Ethel and Chris met: mingling in local Atlanta musical circles.

In 1928, "Mr. and Mrs. Bouchillon" recorded a series of comedic talking songs.¹ You can hear a 30 second clip here. Ethel was about 25 years old when this album was recorded. It's very strange to hear a recording this old and knowing that you are listening to the voices of your ancestors!

It is interesting to note, however, that music was not Chris' main profession. In the 1930 census he's listed as a sewing machine salesman.

-------------
Sources:

1. Tony Russell and Bob Pinson, Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 (Oxford University Press, 2004), 119-120.

A Belk Goldmine

I've had a lot of luck researching my half-brother's Belk family line today. I'd say it's more than enough to warrant a Happy Dance.

I found the family of John H Gurley & Evie (Williams) Belk in the 1920 census. The family had been miss-indexed as "Reek." I can see why, too. So, that was a good find.

Also, I found some photos of the same family line:

These photos were uploaded to the ancestry.com family tree of 'sharonporter1963'. Yay! I always love to find new photos of the folks in my family tree.

The Census - then and now

I know most genealogists are probably looking forward to the upcoming 2010 Census - I know I am. I've never actively taken part in a census before, but I plan to this year (my dad just filled it out and sent it back without any fan-fair). And, of course, genealogists are interested in past censuses.

As a subscriber to the US National Archive's YouTube account, I saw that they had put up video from the 1940 census. It contains very cool archival footage and has that patriotic feeling from similar government productions of the same time period. Here's one of the videos:

Also on YouTube, the Census Bureau has its own channel. It looks like they want to educate folks about how the census will be taken and what the different steps there are in the process. Check out their latest of their video:

Wordful Wednesday - Halloween edition

Complete with words this Wednesday (for you Phil!)

Halloween was celebrated when I was a kid - we did the usual pumpkin carving, dressing up, trick-or-treating, etc - but it apparently wasn't a reason to pay for film!

There's one photo of my sister and I dressed up for Halloween and one photo of my brother dressed up. That's it - one each. And the reason these photos exist: they were taken by other people and given to us. So, we dressed up every year, but I couldn't prove it through photographs! And I've never seen photos of my parents at Halloween either...