First FHC Microfilm

     I received a voicemail yesterday, informing me that I had microfilm available. This would be the first microfilm I received through the local Family History Center (I initially ordered three reels four weeks ago).  The process to retrieve my film was simple: the new films are in one drawer and films ready to be sent back are in another. They also had numerous other drawers filled with "indefinite" microfilm reels with names of patrons on them.

     The film I received was Minutes and Membership Lists, 1842-1859 for Hawhammock Missionary Baptist Church in Swainsboro, Emanuel, Georgia. I know that multiple generations of my paternal grandmother's family attended this church. I was hoping to find mention of deaths, baptisms and perhaps births and weddings in this film.

     I didn't end up finding everything I was looking for, in part because the title of the film is misleading. It should be "partial" or "fragmented" Minutes and Membership Lists - because that's exactly what they are. At times 10 to 20 years were missing from the minutes. This was unfortunate, because the minutes did in fact include obituaries and baptisms, as well as other religious events. Of course, most of the years I needed were the ones that were missing.

     I did find a few things of interest however, including a membership list from 1938 which listed my Great-Grandmother (click the image on the right to see a bigger image). Her name, Ledora Britt, is crossed out and marked "dead," though no date is given.

     And you'll notice that the image has been stitched together from multiple images. I don't know if it was the older machines (hand crank) or the film, but I couldn't zoom out far enough to see the entire width of the image. I ended up taking multiple pictures of the screen and stitching them together.

     And while I was waiting on this film to arrive, I discovered that the Georgia Archive has a copy (c'mon GA-A, index your film on something more hi-tech than a physical card catalogue!). I'll be back there again on Thursday, so I'll take a look at this film on a newer machine and see if I can get a better view. Also, I'll be able to save to flash drive there.

     I have two more films coming in soon, so I'll see how that experience goes before deciding to order any more film.

The History of Hawhammock

In 1958, the Hawhammock Baptist Church turned 116 years old! I recently re-subscribed to GenealogyBank, and found multiple interesting articles about the church and it's members. These articles confirm some information that I've seen floating around on the internet, including the fact that some of the founders of the church were my ancestor, Reuben Boatright and his first wife, Lacy Bishop.

The articles contain a lot of information, including names of current members, descendants of the original founders, the age of the building, photos of the building, and information about documents that the church held.

Specifically, I found it interesting that My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Reuben Barfield, was said to have been living in Indiana. This could be an error, or it could be an opening into new avenues of research.

Because GenealogyBank.com uses OCR technology, I tried to keep my searches varied - and it paid off. For example, I searched for "Hawhammock" and "Haw hammock" and "Hawham ock." Because this church's name is so unique, I was able to simply search for one word. I broke this word up as it would have been broken up if the word reached the end of a line of type. This elicited quite a few new articles every time it tried something new.

Searching this way also turned up a number of obituaries of folks who were buried in the church's cemetery.

After finding these articles, I transcribed them and uploaded them to the GA USGenWeb Archives Project to share these articles with other researchers.

Tombstone Tuesday - Barfield

William Leander Barfield was my Great-Great Grandfather. He's one of my brick-wall ancestors. He was born in 1872, supposedly in Glascock County, Georgia. I married Frances Boatright in Emanuel County, Georgia in 1902.

William died in 1924 - a time at which death certificates were mandatory. I cannot find a death certificate for him in Georgia, though I have tried multiple indexes. He was a farmer with a large family, working on his "own account" on rented land in 1920. I find it hard to believe that he left the state - but who knows? I just know I'd really like to get a copy of his death certificate!

He's buried at Hawhammock Missionary Baptists Church near Swainsboro, Emanuel, Georgia.

Writing to Hawhammock

In an effort to expand my genealogy research strategies, I'm challenging myself to try a new, non-internet, avenue of research each month. This month, I'm going to contact the church of my Boatright ancestors. Hawhammock Missionary Baptist Church is located in Swainsboro, Emanuel, Georgia.

I started my inquiry by trying to research the best ways to contact churches. I didn't find much. From Family Tree Magazine, I found a list of Church Record Resources, including the American Baptist Historical Society (though FTM has the wrong link, I was able to find their site via google). From their website, I found that they, "have found that Baptist church records are generally not helpful for genealogical research." This is mainly due to adult baptism that is not recorded, the fact that marriage is not regarded as a sacrament and records are not often kept, and because there is no regulated administrative policy. They do, however, keep records of those who served the church as pastors or missionaries.

Well, regardless of this, I'm still going to attempt to contact the church to see if they have information. I read in someone else's research that my ancestor, Reubin Boatright, was a deacon of the church. Also, many of his family members are buried there, so the church might have some burial or death information.

Here's the letter I'm sending via the contact form on their website:

"Hello,

I'm contacting you to inquire about your church's history. I'm an avid genealogist and my ancestors were members of your church, many of whom are buried there.

I was wondering if your church kept records of your members? My ancestors include Reubin Boatright (1794-1878) and his wife, Demaris Boatright (1829-1900) and their son, Stephen Boatright (1863-1950) and his wife Dora Logue (1863-1935).

I apologize for making this such a broad request, but I'm not sure what information you might have, if any. I would be grateful for information that your records may contain and would be more than willing to compensate your for your time.

Thank you for any assistance."

I'm not sure how good this letter is, but I guess I'll find out when (if?) I receive a response.

Tombstone Tuesday - Britt

My Great-Great Grandmother, Ledora Barfield Britt is buried in Hawhammock Baptist Church Cemetery near Swainsboro, Emanuel, Georgia. She was the daughter of William and S. Frances (Boatright) Barfield. She married Nathan Britt and their children were Ollie, Sarah, Helen and Evoid.