Mom's Membership, Complete

     Mom's application for DAR membership was received in DC on April 5th.  Today, May 22nd, her application was verified - much to everyone's relief.  As opposed to my application, which went through my dad's line, hers was pretty difficult.  All of her family lines are complicated, many of them being "red-lined" in the DAR database (meaning there's a problem with the prior applications).  I thought that the line we chose, which traced back to Samuel Armstrong of South Carolina, and before that, Ireland, would be the simplest one.... Yeah, not so much.  And it the trouble wasn't even about the Revolutionary War Patriot!

     First of all, with the DAR, you really have to prove every fact that you put on your pedigree chart. If you "know" that someone's name was John James Doe, you need to prove it.  If you records only ever give the middle initial of 'J,' well, that's what you'll have to put on the form.  So the fact that mom's grandmother, Auline, was called Arlene by her 2nd husband, complete with a Death Certificate and Headstone that read Arlene, created issues.  In order to have her name properly recorded on Mom's application and in the DAR database, I transcribed an interview I'd previously recorded with my great-aunt where she discussed her mom's name.  We then had my mom, who conducted the interview, get the the transcription notarized.

     Moving back through her tree, we had a few places where the documents that I had needed to be reviewed and evaluated to see if they were good enough.  I discovered a few places where I didn't have the documents that I thought I had, though I had others that served as proof.  For example, I don't have the death certificate of my Great-Great Grandmother, Nina Sprouse Albea.  I do have her obit and social security application, but was surprised to not have her DC.

     Possibly the most uncertain aspect of Mom's application was the son of the Patriot.  Previously, all DAR applicants had gone through Samuel's son, William, who also served and had a pension.  We were going through Samuel's son, John.  John is listed in Samuel's will as John Armstrong. However, in all other documents he is listed as John H Armstrong.  Since there was a name variation, our registrar felt that we would need to show that John and John H were the same person.  She wrote an analysis, evaluating all John Armstrongs in the area and detailed a theory on the addition of the middle initial after our John became guardian to a younger John Armstrong.

     In another couple weeks, Mom will have her membership number and her lineage will be added to the database.  She's very happy to be a full member and to take part in this fantastic service organization.

A Visit to the South Carolina Archive

     A few days ago, I traveled to Columbia, SC, on a two day genealogy trip with my mom as my research assistant.  My first stop was the South Carolina Archive.  I'd been there before, a few years prior, and gotten what limited vital records documents that I could find.  And that's the problem with South Carolina: there are limited records.  For example, civil marriage records don't start until 1911.

     I had a few goals for this visit:

• Locate estate records for David and Peter Quattlebaum that FamilySearch had indexes for, but not the actual records.
• Search for Civil War pension records for Nathan Hyler.  I had a newspaper article saying he's applied - but did he actually get the pension?
• Find evidence of Samuel Armstrong's service in the Revolutionary War.
• Find evidence of Franklin E Leapart's father, said to be George Leaphart.

    I succeeded on the first two, half succeeded on the third and came up empty on the fourth.  

   On the third goal, I was able to look up the source cited by the DAR for Samuel Armstrong's revolutionary service, which was an article in the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine.  But the problem is that I still need to make sure that this is my Samuel Armstrong and not another man by the same name.  

     As for finding evidence of Franklin Leaphart's father, thanks to Sherman destroying the entire town of Lexington in 1865, there are no pre-civil war records.  Thanks a lot Sherman!

     I was underprepared for my visit, based on assumptions I made based on my last visit.  When I had visited about two years ago, microfilm images could only be printed via a microfilm reader with a quarter receiver, much like a bubble gum machine.  Now, there are fancy microfilm readers attached to computers.  And me without my thumb drive!

     I'd say the visit was moderately successful.  I found a few things I wanted, but not everything.  We left around 3pm and decided to head over to the Lexington County Library and check out their South Carolina Research Room.

Tombstone Tuesday - Sprouse

I found these photos on a tree at ancestry.com, thanks to their new member connect feature.

William W. and Nancy (Armstrong) Sprouse are my Great-Great-Great Grandparents. They were born in South Carolina and raised their children Abbeville County. Late in life the crossed the nearby border into Georgia, and were buried in Goshen Baptist Church Cemetery in Lincolnton, GA.