Nathan Britt (52 Ancestors)

     I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors Challenge in Ahnentafel order, and week 10 is about one of my paternal great-grandfathers.

     Nathan Britt was born on 9 March 1901 (mine too!) in Emanuel County to William Britt and Amelia Parish.  He was the last child of the couple, who had both been married a few times before.  His father was 76 years old, his mother was 44.  Whoa, huh?  I recently made a DNA match on my Parish line, but I'd love to find one on my Britt line to confirm everything.

Nathan with his granddaughter and son,
on the back of a wagon 

     Nathan's dad died maybe a year after his birth and, based on census information, it seems that he, his mother, and siblings grew up in his oldest full-sister's household.  Based on the 1940 census, Nathan didn't complete a single year of school, which is backed up by the 1920 census' report that he could neither read nor write - though the 1930 census reports a yes.  I imagine that he might have learned at a later age.

     Nathan married Ledora Barfield and their children were Ollie, Sarah, Evoid, and Helen.  Nathan and Ledora separated, with Nathan moving to Elbert County, Georgia.  I don't think they had a legal divorce, but after her death he was married for a short time to a woman named Silvina.  I don't know much about her (is that how her name is spelled?), except that she had two grown sons and she and Nathan didn't stay together long.

     Nathan was a farmer and his grandchildren say that he was extremely fast at picking cotton; faster than anyone else, in fact.  It seems that Nathan struggled some in his later years, but he was beloved by his children until the end.  He is buried in Melwood Cemetery in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and his oldest daughter, Ollie, opted to be buried next to her father to stay near him forever.

Sally Ruth Evans (52 Ancestors)

     I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors Challenge in Ahnentafel order, and week nine is about one of my paternal great-grandmothers.  I know I'm behind but I don't even know how far - one week or two? I went on vacation and I'm all mixed up.

     Sally Ruth Evans was born 17 August 1902 in Hart County, Georgia to John H Evans and Leila F Craft.   She was only eight years old when her father died, and 10 when her mother married James W Brown.  From the 1940 census, it appears that she attended school only through the 7th grade.  When she was 16 she married Bennie E Craft, and at 17 gave birth to her first of nine children.

     My Great-Grandmother is one of those cases where an ancestor's name is constantly in flux.  Sometimes she's recorded as Sallie or Sally, sometimes as Ruth.  As a child and a young wife, the census listed her as Sallie.  It seems like the older she got, the more likely she would be recorded as Ruth.  Later in life she often appeared as Sally Ruth.  When I asked my dad, he said she was Ruth.  I don't know if it's a case of going by her middle name but giving her legal name, or what.  It's just confusing though.

     She was the only great-grandparent still living when I was born and I have a vague recollection of meeting her once at a family reunion.  I don't remember much, just the image of an elderly lady in a wheelchair coming down the isle between picnic tables.

     She died 20 June 1999 in Hart County, Georgia, and was buried with her husband at the Rock Branch Baptist Church in Elbert County, Georgia.

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.

Bennie England Craft (52 Ancestors)

     I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors Challenge in Ahnentafel order, and week eight is about one of my paternal great-grandfathers.

     Bennie "B. E." Craft was born 6 Feb 1896 in Hartwell, Georgia.  He was the son of George Craft and Effie Powell, a farming family.  Given B. E.'s age, I thought that there was a chance that he fought in World War I.  WWI Draft Cards are one of my go-to records for finding information on my ancestors, but I was confused when I couldn't find one for B. E.  I was using the record collection on Ancestry.com, and I don't know how many times I searched or browsed that database.  He was the right age - why was there no draft card?  Could there be a problem with this database?

     After a while, I found out (through a fellow researcher), that one of B. E.'s brothers had fought in WWI - but he didn't have a draft card either.  Of course, he could have signed up before being drafted, but I saw this as an indication that there could be a problem with the database.  I made and broke plans a few times to visit the National Archive's Atlanta branch to view the "original" microfilm.  Before I got around to that, however, FamilySearch, put up the same WWI draft cards.

     Only, they weren't quite the same.  This collection included B. E.'s card!

     So, this experience reminds me of a few things: Don't assume that one version of a record collection (especially a copy-of-a-copy) is 100% correct; follow up with plans to seek alternative access to record collections.

     In the end, B. E.'s draft card doesn't really give me any new information, but it's another piece of the puzzle, another document about my ancestor.  And I want them all.