A Little Postal History

     I unexpectedly had the day to spend with my mom today and, after dithering back and forth, we decided to browse some antique stores.  On the way, however, I spotted the sign for the "Yellow River Post Office Park" (3519 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lilburn, Georgia).   We'd noticed this before and knew it was something historic, but had never taken the time to check it out.  On impulse, I pulled into the parking lot.

     The park turned out to be quite small, but full of local history.  Signage throughout the park told the story of the Hudson - Nash families, their plantation and the General Store / Post Office that they ran.  There were four buildings, two from the 1830s and two from the 1930s.  They were locked up, but it was still neat to see what the buildings were like from the outside - especially the General Store / Post Office, which had been built in use for over 150 years ago.  I loved the mail slot with the faded "Yellow River" brand above it.  History!

     My family wasn't in this area at the time, but I can connect through the knowledge that my many-times-great Grandfather, Willis Craft, served as Post Master in Elbert County, Georgia around the same time period.  I wonder if his post office was in a general store too?

They Were Closed, So We Got Donuts

     I went to the library this morning, only to find that the only branch of the Gwinnett County Library system that has microfilm records is closed. They have been closed since the beginning of February. And from information I managed to find on their Facebook page (yes, Facebook - their website doesn't give any dates), they don't plan to be finished until the fall. And it doesn't appear that they moved the microfilm to another branch. Seriously? This kinda sucks.

     I was very disappointed, so I went and got a bunch of donuts.

Why You Read the Back of a Tombstone

     My Great-Great-Grandmother's sister is buried in Duluth City Cemetery (Gwinnett County, GA), just a few miles down the road. Her headstone is shown on FindAGrave.com, but since it was so close, I thought I'd check it out for myself. And when I did, I realized that not all of the information from the tombstone had been put online.

     You can see here, the stone of Mary J Smith Hollis Herrington and her husband, Newton Herrington.

     I snapped photos of other Herrington graves and thought, "let me check the back to make sure there's nothing there." Sure enough, there was something carved into the back of Newton Herrington's side of the stone:

 

   From what I can tell, it says:

S. L. E. No 34

L. O. O. F.

A. L. No. 14

I. O. O. F.

G. T. No. G

I. O. OF R. M.

     I'm not sure, I think they could have been a little more vague.... 

     With the help of 'Tombstone Symbols and Fraternal Abbreviations,' I've figured out that I. O. O. F. is Independent Order of Odd Fellows and I. O. OF R. M. is The Improved Order of Red Men. 

     I can't figure out the rest. I thought that AL might be American Legion, but that was founded after Newton died.  I figure the SLE might be Southern or Sons, but I'm not sure what else. Anyone have any guesses for the rest?

     Since this is a collateral line, I'm only curious. If this were my direct line however, I'd be very interested in researching any organization that this man belonged to. It would tell me a lot about his religious and political beliefs and point me in the direction of further genealogical sources.

     Here are some photos of the cemetery itself:

 

Floor Plans - The Craft House

     My paternal grandparents, Thomas and Sarah Craft (aka Granny and PawPaw), lived in Lilburn, GA. They lived on a curve in the road with a large tree at the end of their driveway. There was an old well in the front yard that had been filled in at some point, though it never occurred to me until later that this meant the house didn't originally have indoor plumbing. As far as I was concerned the house consisted of two rooms: the living room and kitchen.

     The living room was where Granny and PawPaw sat in their recliners and Granny painted our nails. They also had lamps that turned on with a touch and a candy dish full of mints. The kitchen was a long room, but the main features were the fridge full of cokes and the drawer with candy bars. When we would visit we would watch rodeos, cooking shows or the Atlanta Braves on tv, or the two VHS tapes they had: "Mrs Doubtfire" and "Dances with Wolves."

     As I said, in my mind the house consisted of the kitchen and living room. After Granny passed away a few years ago, the family emptied the house and I explored the guest bedrooms and the (huge) basement for the first time. Here's a floor plan of the house, that I completed with the help of my parents:

Tombstone Tuesday - Craft

My Paternal Grandparents, Thomas and Sarah (Britt) Craft, are buried in White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Duluth, Gwinnett, GA.

Visiting Libraries, Pt. 1

I'm making an effort to get out from behind the computer and get out to the physical resources. I'm planning visits to multiple libraries, some that I've visited before and others that I haven't.

Today I visited two local libraries: Lawrenceville Public Library & Five Forks Public Library. Both are part of the Gwinnett County Public Library System. Gwinnett County Libraries, in general, offer HeritageQuest and Ancestry.com Library edition for their members.

The Five Forks branch has a microfilm readers and offers the AJC, Gwinnett Daily Post and NY Times on microfilm. They only have one reader, so I have had to wait to use it on occasion. The reader is brand new and now features a 'save to disk' option. I've yet to remember to bring my flash drive, so I haven't tried that function yet.

The genealogy section at the FF branch is rather small:

It consists mainly of advice books, but does have some Gwinnett County Census Index records. I was unaware that this branch carried Everton's Genealogical Helper, which is chock-full of great information. It doesn't look like it's possible to reserve copies though, so it might be hard to get ahold of the new issues as they are released.

The Lawrenceville branch is the central branch for the county. It's older and doesn't have as much room. However, it does have a larger genealogy section than Five Forks. The selection seems somewhat random - there are a lot of books on Crawford County, which is 120 miles away. Many of the books have stickers or stamps that indicate that they were donated to the now defunct Lanier Library, just a little north of us.

There are a few really nice volumes, such as Georgia Interstate Records, Georgia Bible Records, and (for my research purposes) Hart County Marriage Records. Here's a look at their books:

I hope to visit the Decatur Public Library in neighboring DeKalb County tomorrow. From the look of their website, they have an even larger genealogy collection.