Surname Saturday - Boatright

My Boatright / Boatwright ancestors lived mostly in Emanuel County, Georgia. This is the family line that I'd like to use to apply to the Daughter of the American Revolution.

The furthest back I have in my tree is Daniel Boatright. He was born in 1762 in SC and died in 1818 Emanuel Co, GA, according to a memorial marker at Hawhammock Cemetery near Swainsboro, GA. He also spent time in Burke County, GA.

This is a bounty plat of his land in Burke County in 1792. (courtesy of Georgia Archive [http://content.sos.state.ga.us/u?/looseplats,4882]).

His wife was Margaret Braswell and their children included Betsy, Mary, Permelia, Charles, Nancy and, my ancestor, Reubin.

Following my ancestral line, from Reubin to his son, Stephen, and to his daughter, Frances, my Boatright ancestors stayed in Emanuel County. A great many of them are buried at the Hawhammock Church Cemetery. According to information at the websites, Boat(w)right Family History in America, Reubin Boatright was a founder of that church.

I'd like to find more information on Daniel and, hopefully, his ancestors. I plan to request information on his service during the American Revolution.

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.