My Joshua Tree, Part V

Where I Hit the Wall 

 

At long last I’ve reached my great-great-great grandfather Joshua Perry (1805-1866) & his wife Louvicia Anne Wade Perry (1806-1884), my brick wall.  60 years before my grandfather was born, on the 1850 US census, I found his grandfather William Preston Perry (1805-1863) living with his father and mother Joshua and Lavisa A. Perry in Early County, Georgia.  Now the wall looms near.

Since I know where Joshua and Louvicia were living, I turn to my trusty FindAGrave.com website and look for their tombstones.  Right away I was able to locate them.  Louvicia’s is unremarkable, providing her name as “Mrs. L. A. Perry” and her birth and death dates.  Joshua’s though gives us additional information and a clue as to where to go next.  “Joshua Perry, Born in Warren Co. Ga. Dec. 6th 1805, Died in Calhoun Co. Ga. March 29th, 1863, Aged 57 Years, 3 months, 23 days”.  Warren County is 200 miles to the northeast of Calhoun County, on the other side of the state.  Time to expand the search.

There are many indexes, databases and resources on Ancestry.com other than just census records.  One of these is a group of marriage indexes, several of which are for Georgia.  I’ve mentioned these before, and they come in useful again here.  Remember these aren’t proof of a marriage, but are valuable pointers to marriage books and other records, and can be useful in locating spouses and the date and location of a marriage.  In this case Joshua and Louvicia are easily found.  This is a screenshot of the results from the Georgia Marriages to 1850 database.  Joshua Perry married Louvicia Ann Wade on 2 October 1832 in Screven County, Georgia.  Screven County is on the Savannah River, across from South Carolina, and about 80 miles southeast of Warren County.

This information prompted another search of the digitized microfilm images of the Georgia county marriage books available at the Georgia’s Virtual Vault web site from the Georgia Archives and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.  Unfortunately, the earliest marriage records available online for Screven County date from 1837.  But there is another source to check.  The LDS helped to microfilm the records of thousands of courthouses across the US last century.  And they have copies of all those microfilms available through your local Family History Center (or Family Search Center as they are soon to be called).  You can search for films online at the Family Search site.  Just click on the Library Catalog link, make sure Place-names is selected in the Search box, then type in the state and county in the For box, separated by a comma (for example, Georgia, Screven) and click on the Search button.  Ordinarily you will find marriage books under the Vital Records link, but in some cases early records may also be found under the Probate link.  This is because the Courts of Ordinary (or the Inferior Courts in some cases) handled the issuance of marriage licenses in addition to handling wills and probate as well as deeds and many other civil matters.

In this case, I find that there is a film containing “Vol. A Returns 1821-1832 Marriages 1817-1832 Vol. D Returns 1833-1851 Marriages 1832-1837.”  When you look through your results make sure you are looking for the actual court records and not the books of extracts or indexes.  These can be very useful in searching for documents about which you have little or no detailed information as to their location or even existence.  But the goal is always to obtain a copy of the original document whenever possible.  So I ordered the film for a nominal fee ($5.75) and waited a couple of weeks.  Be patient, it can sometimes take longer if someone else has the only loan copy of a rarely-requested microfilm, or if you are ordering a popular volume that many people want.  Another film I ordered at the same time took over four weeks to arrive.

Reading microfilms of these old records can be challenging.  The online services such as Ancestry.com and Footnote.com really do add value by cleaning up the microfilmed images when they digitize them.  In this case I had to use a lot of tricks to clean up the image myself, and it’s still not great.  Of course, that was after several hours of scanning the pages of the microfilm and trying to find the marriage record.  I missed it the first time through.  Finally, there is was on page 261, I think.  The page numbers aren’t legible in this book, the top corners being almost black.  And there is no index of marriage licenses here.  There is however an index of estates and some of the administrators.  So I looked at several records of estates on either side of the marriage record, located those in the index (some of those index pages are illegible, too, so I couldn’t find all of them), and then counted up and down to figure out the probably page number.  Maybe someday I’ll be able to look at the book itself at the courthouse in Sylvania and confirm that.

And here the trail ends for Joshua Perry.  I know I’ve probably made this sound easier that it was.  And I didn’t just go straight back; I jumped around in my research.  It’s not the recommended procedure, but it was my first line of research and I was trying to document a family tree I received from family, not pursuing an unknown.  But with Joshua I can’t get any farther back.  So far I have no wills or deeds which mention Joshua earlier than 1832 or which refer to his parents.  There isn’t a Joshua Perry listed on the 1830 census in Georgia who could have been the right age to be my Joshua Perry.  The 1820 and 1810 censuses don’t exist for Georgia.  There are bits and scraps of other information from a few newspaper clippings, but I have confirmed only a small part of it.  Louvicia was the niece of a famous Baptist preacher, the Rev. Dr. Henry Holcombe of Savannah and Philadelphia, and Joshua may have been for a short time clerk of the Inferior Court and postmaster.  There is family tradition and a majority of the family trees on Ancestry.com, Rootsweb and elsewhere that says that Joshua’s father was Willis Perry, who was one of the so-call Seven Perry Brothers of North Carolina.  There is some circumstantial evidence for the idea, but so far I haven’t seen one scrap of documentary evidence leading conclusively to that conclusion.   

So here I sit at the foot of my Joshua Tree, knowing there is much to be discovered if I can ever break through this wall, but also knowing that I’ll not give up.  I have a few avenues of research I’m still pursuing on this, but next time I’ll move on to another topic in this blog.  I’m sure most of you have heard all you ever wanted to hear about Joshua!  I'll keep you informed if there's a breakthrough.

Here’s your summary:

• FindAGrave.com is an excellent resource online, not only for locating the place of burial, but particularly for obtaining pictures of your dearly departed.  It's all done by volunteers, so  if you make extensive use of the pictures, please consider volunteering in your own area to take cemetery pictures for others.  And always give credit for any pictures you use in your research.
• Ancestry.com has more than just census records.  They also have valuable indexes of birth, marriage and death records. 
• The Family History Center, the Family History Library and Family Search, a closely related set of resources from LDS, are invaluable.  You should find your local Center, and get to know both the individual search and the library search.  The volunteers at your local Center will be glad to help you.
• Don’t forget to Google your ancestors’ names.  Yes, you’ll get a lot of chaff, but if you learn to use Advanced Search, and add keywords and place restrictions, you’ll be surprised at what you can find.  Remember, even if you can’t use an index as a primary source it’s still a valuable pointer to the sources themselves.  That’s how I found the information about the Seven Perry Brothers of North Carolina on Granny Peach’s Perry Page.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

My Joshua Tree, Part IV

So I’m tracing my Perry ancestors back from my grandfather Frank Maxwell Perry (1910-1970) to my great-great-great grandfather Joshua Perry (1805-1866) & his wife Louvicia Anne Wade Perry (1806-1884), my brick wall.  Last post I reached my great-great grandfather William Preston Perry (1839-1908) and his two wives, the sisters Georgia F. Cutts (1849-1869) and Elizabeth Margrette Cutts (1854-1923).

 

Making use of the kind contributors to FindAGrave.com I found pictures of the tombstones of William P. Perry Georgia, his first wife Georgia F., in the Salem Cemetery in Edison, Calhoun County, Georgia.  Elizabeth’s tombstone wasn’t there, though, so I looked back at the census records again.  From his tombstone we know that W. P. Perry died in 1908.  So I found him and his family on the 1900 census living in Edison, in Calhoun County, Georgia, right where you’d expect him to be.  For the 1910 census I searched instead for Elizabeth Perry.  I found one Elizabeth Perry, of the right age, widowed, but living down in Mitchell County.  Not surprising since my grandfather grew up in Mitchell County and my great-grandmother died there.  So I broadened my FindAGrave.com search and located a listing for Elizabeth Cutts Perry in the Sale City Cemetery, Sale City, Mitchell County.  

Now that I know Elizabeth Perry died in 1923, I made another search of the Georgia Death Certificates at the Georgia’s Virtual Vault from the Georgia Archives and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.  Remember there is a limited window where the death certificates have been digitized and posted to the Virtual Archive.  In this case a quick search was successful and I have Elizabeth Perry’s death certificate.  There isn’t much immediately useful here, but I made note that the informant was H.H. Perry (she had a son, Henry Holcombe Perry), that her middle name was probably Margrette (Martha is scratched out) and in place of the scratched out “don’t know” her mother’s maiden name is written as “Miss Scarbrough.”  It also provides additional corroboration of date of birth, and the date of death confirms the tombstone.

Now, look back up at W.P.’s tombstone.  It not only give his birth and death dates, but adds “Son of Joshua and Anne Perry.”  I’d like to use the census to confirm William’s relationship to his father and mother in the same way that I traced John I. Perry back to William and Elizabeth.  I know that in 1870 

William was living with Louvisa A, Francis M & William T Perry (see Jan 12^th post).  So I look for Joshua Perry in the 1860 census and find him as his family living in Calhoun County.  The family consists of Joshua, Lonvicia A, Francis M & William P Perry and a child Sarah A E Collier (who is a granddaughter, but that’s another story).  On the 1850 census I find Joshua living in Early County.  A quick Google check shows multiple sources noting that Calhoun County was formed in part from Early County in 1854, so that works.  The family consists of Joshua, Lavisa A, Julia, John J, William P, Thadeous J & Francis M Perry.  The names and ages are consistent, though it’s important to point out the spelling variations that occur with Louvicia/Lavisa …  This also ties back into the 1870 census where Louvisa A Perry was living with William P Perry; even though the 1870 census did not show the relationship of household members to the head of household, it’s now apparent that she could easily be his mother, and the 1850 and 1860 censuses, in conjunction with W.P.’s tombstone, increase the likelihood to a near-certainty.

I added the 1840 census to this list to demonstrate an important point.  The 1850 census was the first census to list members of a household.  In 1840 and earlier only the name of the head of household is listed, and then the ages (by age group) and genders of free and slave members.  I’ve built a mostly-solid foundation of evidence getting from my grandfather, Frank M. Perry, to my 3g-grandfather (that’s shorthand for great-great-great grandfather), Joshua Perry.  Prior to about 1918 it’s impossible to obtain birth and death certificates, and many marriage licenses are missing, but census records along with other references fill in nicely.  They aren’t conclusive by themselves, but they add to the “preponderance of evidence” in helping to reach or prove a conclusion.  Unfortunately it appears my progenitors were not fond of creating wills, but I’m still hopeful that when I locate property records (deeds, mortgages, etc.) I’ll have more clues, and I’ll revisit them at that time.  I’ll be relying on the Family History Center and Family Search for those records.

I didn’t show you how I made the jump from Early County in southwestern Georgia to Screven County the other side of the state, but that’s a tale for the next post as we finally hit the wall!

Here’s your summary:

• You should learn about the limitations of the census records, and the various additional questions asked each decade.  A good introduction can be found on the Ancestry.com Learning Center article on census records.
• The Family History Center, the Family History Library and Family Search, a closely related set of resources from LDS, are invaluable.  You should find your local Center, and get to know both the individual search and the library search.  The volunteers at your local Center will be glad to help you.
• Don’t forget to Google your ancestors’ names.  Yes, you’ll get a lot of chaff, but if you learn to use Advanced Search, and add keywords and place restrictions, you’ll be surprised at what you can find.  Remember, even if you can’t use an index as a primary source it’s still a valuable pointer to the sources themselves.
• FindAGrave.com is an excellent resource online, not only for locating the place of burial, but particularly for obtaining pictures of your dearly departed.  It's all done by volunteers, so  if you make extensive use of the pictures, please consider volunteering in your own area to take cemetery pictures for others.  And always give credit for any pictures you use in your research.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

My Joshua Tree, Part III

So far, working backwards from my grandfather Frank Maxwell Perry (1910-1970) to my great-great-great grandfather Joshua Perry (1805-1866) & his wife Louvicia Anne Wade Perry (1806-1884), I’ve used a combination of census records and death certificates to document the relationship of Frank to his father John I Perry (1878-1956) and his first wife Lyda E [Maxwell] Perry (1890-1922).  Only two generations to go until I hit my brick wall.

 I have family members’ notes, but I also have John I. Perry’s death certificate, which indicates that his parents were William Preston Perry and Elizabeth Margaret Cutts, and that he was born in Edison, [Calhoun County], Georgia, on 10 October 1878.  A quick search of census records in Ancestry.com gives me the census records I need, covering 1900, 1880, 1870.  I’m continuing to work backwards from what I know, as is recommended by all the experts.  I work on multiple lines simultaneously, which isn’t recommended, though.  Remember the 1890 census records were destroyed by fire in 1921.

Looking at the 1900 census, the household includes the following: William P Perry, age 60, born May 1840, wife Elizabeth M, 46, b Jun 1854, son John J [sic], 21, b Oct 1878, daughter Roser L, 19, b Oct 1880, son Jessee [sic] G, 17, b Jun 1883, daughter Annie B, 14, b Dec 1885, daughter Kittie C, 13, b Jun 1887, daughter Betha M, 11, b Feb 1889, and daughter Ella B, 2, b Oct 1897.  Additionally, William P and Elizabeth M had been married for 29 years, and Elizabeth had 12 children, 9 of whom were still living.

On the 1880 census the family consisted of W.P. Perry, age 40, wife Elizabeth, 26, son Willie, 11, son Frank A, 7, son Henry, 5, son Charlie, 4, son John, 2, and mother Lovisa, age 74.  And on the 1870 census it was William P Perry, 30, Louvisa A, 64, Francis M, 23, and William T, 1.

This could be confusing, but I’m cheating here.  I’m trying to verify a family history that says Frank Maxwell’s father was John Isaiah and John Isaiah’s father was William Preston and William Preston’s father was Joshua.  Additionally, I know who they married. William Preston is said to have married two sisters, Georgia F. Cutts, who died young, and then her sister Elizabeth Margrette Cutts.  But as we discovered last week, there are no death certificates in Calhoun County, Georgia, prior to 1918, and no birth certificates either.  I went looking for marriage certificates and ran into a familiar problem: Calhoun County was created from Early County in 1854, and the Calhoun County Courthouse burned down twice, in 1888 and again in 1920.  While this usually does not result in a total loss of records, it appears that marriage records were particularly affected in one of these fires, because the first ones I can find for Calhoun County date from 1878.

One source of documentation we haven’t yet looked at is wills.  Many types of courthouse records exist beyond the marriage licenses I’ve already become familiar with.  Most of those are not yet available on-line, though.  So I went to my local Family History Center and ordered a microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  This is a wonderful resource, and the volunteers are very helpful.  I’m not talking here about the standard Family Search, that lets you search for records on an individual, but about the library of county records.  Here’s a link to the county records for Calhoun County, Georgia.  From here I found the film containing the documents I wanted to review or covering the years I wanted to search, and ordered them through my local Family History Center (soon to be renamed Family Search Centers; you’ll also be able to order and pay for microfilms directly through the Family Search website later this year, and have them shipped to your local Center).

In this case, I had found out about a will for Isabella Cutts that mentioned my great-great grandmother Elizabeth by Googling her name.  This led me to a posting on GenForum from Genealogy.com at http://genforum.genealogy.com/ga/calhoun/messages/39.html that consists of will abstracts of Calhoun County wills.  One thing to remember about will books is that they are transcriptions by a clerk of the court of the original document, and thus should be treated with caution.  However, they are much more reliable generally than an abstraction or a further transcription into print.  In this case, the document, as hard as it is to read, says in part “One share to Mary J. Joiner wife of W. B. Joiner to be hers absolutely and one to Elizabeth W. [sic] Perry wife of W. P. Perry to be hers absolutely” and a little further down it’s made clear that Elizabeth is her daughter, “…... one share shall be given as herein before mentioned to my said daughters each to wit One to Amanda One to Mary J and One to Elizabeth.”

One last point in this rather long post.  I used the wonderful resources at FindAGrave.com to search for William P. Perry and both of his wives.  I found William and Georgia, the first wife, right away, in the Salem Cemetery in Edison, Calhoun County, Georgia.  And there were pictures of their tombstones.  On Georgia’s tombstone it says, “In Memory of Georgia F. Wife of W. P. Perry, Born Nov,. 10, 1849, Died Oct. 21, 1869”.  Secondary and circumstantial evidence, to be sure, but it adds to the weight of the body of evidence.  Elizabeth’s tombstone is actually in Sale City, in Mitchell County.  I’ll have to follow that thread, and deal with Joshua’s tombstone, in the next installment.

Here’s your summary:

• The Family History Center, the Family History Library and Family Search, a closely related set of resources from LDS, are invaluable.  You should find your local Center, and get to know both the individual search and the library search.  The volunteers at your local Center will be glad to help you.
• There is a compiled list of Georgia courthouse disasters available from a USGenNet page, among other places, Destruction of Georgia Courthouses at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/region/southeast/gajackson/destchse.html.  This list is based on information available from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
• Accurate official vital records are pretty much a 20^th century invention in Georgia, and enforcement of the requirements was lax until the late 1920’s.  Nevertheless, with perseverance many documents that qualify as primary sources can be found.
• Don’t forget to Google your ancestors’ names.  Yes, you’ll get a lot of chaff, but if you learn to use Advanced Search, and add keywords and place restrictions, you’ll be surprised at what you can find.  Remember, even if you can’t use an index as a primary source it’s still a valuable pointer to the sources themselves.
• FindAGrave.com is an excellent resource online, not only for locating the place of burial, but particularly for obtaining pictures of your dearly departed.  It's all done by volunteers, so  if you make extensive use of the pictures, please consider volunteering in your own area to take cemetery pictures for others.  And always give credit for any pictures you use in your research.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

My Joshua Tree, Part II

We’re exploring the children and grandchildren of my great-great-great grandfather Joshua Perry (1805-1866) & his wife Louvicia Anne Wade Perry (1806-1884).  Joshua is currently one of my “brick walls” in my family history, showing how I trace my family roots back to him and why I can’t get any farther back.

So far, using the 1920 and 1930 census records, we’ve seen that my grandfather, Frank Maxwell Perry (1910-1970) was living with his father John I Perry, Sr. (1878-1956) and siblings John I Perry, Jr, Ruth Perry and William P Perry.  The 1920 census shows that my great-grandmother Lyda E [Maxwell] Perry (1890-1922) was living with her family, but that by the 1930 census John Sr was married to Lulamae [Mullis] Perry (1902-1963).

Death certificates are a key type of primary source record.  They establish name and place and date of death.  They are valuable secondary sources for birth and marriage and sometimes a pointer to parentage.  The name, birth date and place, and the names (and possibly birth places) of the parents are supplied by an “informant”, usually a person close to the deceased, ideally a close relative, but the information cannot be regarded as infallible..  At best, use this information as a pointer to finding additional sources, or as additional confirmation of facts that can be sourced elsewhere.

State law did not required death certificates in Georgia until 1914, and it was 1919 before most counties were complying with the law.  But not until 1928 did compliance become universal.  The counties maintain death records; copies began to be filed with the state in 1928.  So you can write the county vital records office directly if you are positive in which county your ancestor died, or you can write the Georgia Division of Public Health.  Their web address is http://health.state.ga.us/programs/vitalrecords/death.asp.  The fee is currently $25 for a certified copy of a death certificate, and there is no option to order a non-certified (genealogical) copy as in some states. 

For relatives who died between 1914 and 1927, a possible alternative source is the website Georgia’s Virtual Vault from the Georgia Archives and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.  As with marriage records, the exact dates covered vary by county, and the quality of the digitized images varies as well.  There are two links on the left side of the screen for death certificates: Georgia Death Certificates and Georgia Non-Indexed Death Certificates, 1928-1930 .  There are the usual pages with sources details and a search section at the bottom.  Of the two, the Georgia Death Certificates (covering 1914-1927) is easier to search as there are a number of search options.  Searcing the 1928-1930 images is basically like a digital microfilm search; there is minimal indexing in the images themselves and you almost have to view each image to find the one you are looking for.  The advantage is that you can do this at home in your PJs.  Read the source details pages carefully.  Neither of these image databases is a complete record of extant death certificates.  They are merely copies of the records on file with the state for the covered years.

I used the Georgia’s Virtual Vault web site to find my great-grandmother Lyda Perry’s death certificate (above). It gives her name, age and death, confirming “common family knowledge” that she died in 1922.  She was the wife of John I. Perry, who provided the information on the certificate.  He knew here maiden name (father’s last name) was Maxwell, again a confirmation of what I already knew through family lore, since that is also my grandfather’s middle name (as well as the middle name of one of my brothers).  Unfortunately, for mother’s maiden name they “doo not no” [sic].  She died of “apoplexy” in Sale City, Mitchell County, Georgia on 8 Jan 1922, and was buried in Sale City the next day.  The doctor and undertaker signed the certificate as well.  So there’s a great deal of information here, but also much that is missing.  As you can see by the spaces provided there is much more they could have filled in.  Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t.

I was luckier with my great-grandfather’s death certificate (right).  My mother’s cousin Barbara already had a certified copy obtained from Fulton County and was kind enough to share it with me.  As you can see, the form has changed, but the basic fields are still there, and compliance with the filling out of the form is much improved.  His son William P. Perry (my great uncle Bill) was the informant, and he knew John’s date of birth and his parents names.  John was living in the Atlanta area, died of multiple causes (basically heart attack and pneumonia) at the Army hospital at Ft. McPherson on 7 March 1956.  

As further corroborating evidence, to consider when evaluating the death certificates, you can search out your ancestors' tombstones or grave markers.  I was lucky enough to find the tombstones for both John & Lyda Perry.  Most of the dates on the tombstones agree with the information on the death certificates.  The exception is Lyda’s birthday.  The death certificate gives her age as 31, but the gravestone says she was born in October 1886, which would have made her 35 years old in January 1922.  These two sources aren’t enough to resolve that question, so we’ll have to look for the answer elsewhere.  Both of these gravestone images are from FindAGrave.com, a wonderful resource for locating burial sites around the world, many with pictures of the tombs and gravestones.  There is also the ability to request pictures of volunteers, who graciously help you fill in the blanks in your family records when it’s difficult for you to obtain the pictures yourself.  These pictures of my great-grandparents graves were taken by  Sue Edwards and can be found on the FindAGrave.com website in the Sale City Cemetery, Sale City, Mitchell, Georgia, USA.

So death certificates are available in Georgia for most of the 20^th century.  Just don’t get your hopes up if you’ve done research in other states.  It’s still possible to find them, and there are even a few available for free.  And it doesn't hurt to add burial information from the graves of your relatives.  As we go back prior to the start of the last century, though, documentation gets scarcer, and a great deal of detective work is required.  I’ll continue with my Joshua tree in the next installment.

Here’s your summary:

• Georgia’s Virtual Vault is a digital document resource from the Georgia Archives and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.  In it you can find a number of documents that qualify as primary sources of information.
• There is a compiled list of Georgia courthouse disasters available from a USGenNet page, among other places, Destruction of Georgia Courthouses at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/region/southeast/gajackson/destchse.html.  This list is based on information available from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
• Accurate official vital records are pretty much a 20^th century invention in Georgia, and enforcement of the requirements was lax until the late 1920’s.  Nevertheless, with perseverance many documents that qualify as primary sources can be found.
• FindAGrave.com is an excellent resource online, not only for locating the place of burial, but particularly for obtaining pictures of your dearly departed.  It's all done by volunteers, so  if you make extensive use of the pictures, please consider volunteering in your own area to take cemetery pictures for others.  And always give credit for any pictures you use in your research.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

My Joshua Tree, Part I

Last week I mentioned my great-great-great grandfather Joshua Perry (1805-1866) & his wife Louvicia Anne Wade Perry (1806-1884).  Joshua is currently one of my “brick walls” in my family history.  I’ll come back to him again and again, so I’ll start with what I’ve found out that leads me back to him and why I can’t get any farther back.

My grandfather was Frank Maxwell Perry (1910-1970).  Though I haven’t yet gotten copies of my parents birth certificates from them (they are still living), I have little doubt of this.  So though I haven’t yet documented this link, it’s a given.  And starting with my grandfather we immediately come up against a problem in researching family history in Georgia.  The state of Georgia did not require birth and death certificates until 1919, and compliance was spotty until at least 1928, and not universal until the 1930’s (Red book: American state, county & town sources by Alice Eichholz;1992, Ancestry Publishing, p 147; link is to Google Books).  There were a few larger cities who required birth and/or death certificates as early as 1880’s, but my Perry clan lived in rural southwest Georgia.  Another great source would be family Bibles with contemporaneously recorded births and deaths, but so far I’ve had no luck locating such volumes.

This leaves me with secondary sources.  My initial guide for the ancestors of my grandfather were family memories of my mother and her cousin, and some family trees put together early in the 20^th century by some of their aunts and great-aunts.  Since I can’t document these relationships with primary sources I am forced to rely on secondary sources, census records, marriage records, tombstones and newspaper accounts.  In the case of my Perry family the census records have proved invaluable.  The census is of course not 100% reliable, but when you add the weight of multiple census years to your other sources you can come to some pretty reliable conclusions about lines of descent. 

I can find my grandfather on both the 1930 and 1920 censuses; he was born after the 1910 census was taken.  From these two I can get his siblings’ names (John I Jr, Ruth and William P; Uncle Bill was listed as William T in the 1920 census, but that’s a perfect example of how you must treat information on the census forms as valuable, but in need of verification).  From these two forms I also get confirmation of the fact that my great-grandmother (Lyda) was living in 1920, but that my grandfather had remarried by 1930 (to Lula M).  If I go back one more decade I can find my great-grandparents living together on the 1910 census.  I happen to know that great-grandmother Lyda had in fact died and that my great-grandfather John Isaiah Perry married Lula Mae Mullis.  Proving it becomes interesting.

(Remember, you can click on these images to see a larger one.)

I’ve mentioned before the website Georgia’s Virtual Vault from the Georgia Archives and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.  In addition to the Confederate Pension records we looked at last week they have digitized copies of most of the surviving marriage books from the State of Georgia through the early 1900’s.  The exact dates covered vary by county, and the quality of the digitized images varies as well.  But it does save a lot of driving (or writing) to obtain copies of the marriage records registered with the county offices.  

 Just click on the Marriage Records from Microfilm link on the left side of the screen.  This brings up the page with an explanation of the sources of the microfilmed books and a search section at the bottom.  These books are not digitally indexed, so the Advanced Search isn’t useful here.  I generally select the county I want to look in and click Search, which brings me to a page listing all the marriage books available for the selected county.  Drawing on family history again, I know that my Lyda Ellen Maxwell (my great-grandmother) was from Decatur County, so that is where I believe she was married.  The problem is that the Decatur County marriage books on the Virtual Vault website end with 1905.  Checking into Mitchell County, I can see marriage books for 1867 through 1928 for White residents (1909-1924 for African American licenses), but though I’ve searched I can’t find a license issued to John I Perry for either marriage in Mitchell County.  So I’ll have to order these licenses or wait until I can go search for them myself.

There are a couple of things to notice here.  First, white and African American (or “colored”) marriage licenses were recorded in separate books in most counties well into the 20^th century.  This is another legacy of the Civil War, and evidence of the legal segregation practiced throughout much of society after the War ended.  Second, the microfilms of the marriage books in Mitchell County don’t start until 1867.  One reason could be that the books just weren’t microfilmed when the others were.  Often you can find indexes to these books, and in some cases you can find the microfilms on the Family History Library website and order them through your local Family History Center.  But sometimes the records simply no longer exist.  Every state has counties that have suffered the loss of records because of fire or flood at the county courthouse.  In the South, however, particularly in Georgia, fire is a particularly pervasive cause of the loss of county records.  In a few instances it was the actions of Union troops, but there have been reports and suppositions that some residents of some counties burned the records themselves, figuring that the Yankees couldn’t tax what they didn’t know about!

In Part II of My Joshua Tree, I’ll look at Death Certificates.

Here’s your summary:

• Georgia’s Virtual Vault is a digital document resource from the Georgia Archives and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.  In it you can find a number of documents that qualify as primary sources of information.
• Google Books can be a great resource.  They have digitized many genealogy books, and even if only part of the book is searchable it can save you a trip to a library or a purchase/search if you can check whether the book contains information pertinent to your search.  The also sell digital copies of many books, provide links to purchasing sources, and link to WorldCat to make a library search quick and convenient.
• There is a compiled list of Georgia courthouse disasters available from a USGenNet page, among other places, Destruction of Georgia Courthouses at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/region/southeast/gajackson/destchse.html.  This list is based on information available from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
• I'm not doing a "Genealogy 101" because many other do the introductory teaching so much better.  There are many books, but I've also been enjoying the pod casts from Lisa Louise Cooke, Family History: Genealogy Made Easy.  They are very informative, even if you've been involved in family history for a while.  For internet research tips, I've been reading Genealogy Online, Eighth Edition, by Elizabeth Powell Crowe (2008, McGraw Hill) and can highly recommend it.  I got my copy from the local Barnes & Nobel, but Amazon.com also has it.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

 

There Was Nothing Civil About It

Getting back to my Perry ancestors and the Civil War, which is where I was headed last week….

My great-great-great grandfather Joshua Perry & his wife Louvicia Anne Wade Perry had four sons living in 1860:  John I Perry (1837-1864), William Preston Perry (1839-1908), Benjamin Wade Perry (1843-1843), Theodore (or Thadeous) Joshua Perry (1845-1902), and Francis (Frank) Marion Perry (1847-1905).  Frank, so far as I’ve been able to discover, stayed home, but the other three Perry boys, John, WP or Press and Theodore J, enlisted as privates in Company D, 12th Infantry Regiment Georgia ("Calhoun Rifles") on 10 Jun 1861.  I found this information early on in my searches in the Ancestry.com indexes American Civil War Regiments, American Civil War Soldiers, U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles and U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 (paid subscription required).

But those are just indexes.  We want documentation.

As bad as much of Georgia is about making records of interest to genealogists available on-line, there is a wonderful resource available for free.  Georgia’s Virtual Vault (http://cdm.sos.state.ga.us/index.php) “Digital Treasures from the Georgia Archives”, is produced by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, who is responsible for the Georgia Archives in general.  Slowly but surely they are making accessible many of the resources that could be viewed only in person not too long ago.  This digitization of records is something we should be encouraging all our governments and libraries to actively participate in.  While preservation is the ultimate goal, digitization offers a valuable waypoint, preserving the content of historical documents in a way that transcription never could, so that disaster or age will not forever render them useless. 

Plus, there are so many commercial partners out there who can take on much of the expense of the digitization and indexing of these records.  Such is the case with the Georgia Indigent Soldiers’ Pension Applications and the Widows’ Pension Applications (also known as the Confederate Soldiers’ & Widows’ Pensions).  These documents can provide valuable evidence, corroborating or otherwise, of military service, marriage, death, age and health, and other interesting and important information.  In this case, the Georgia Archives partnered with Ancestry.com to produce the images.  At the Georgia’s Virtual Vault site, the access is free.  Ancestry.com makes them available as part of their US subscription.  I must admit that the indexing and image interface at Ancestry.com is superior to the Vault’s site, but it’s nice that the scans of these important documents remain free for the viewing by anyone with an internet connection.

Another valuable set of Civil War documents is on Footnote.com (another fee/subscription site).  Footnote.com also has the Confederate Soldiers’ and Widows’ Pension Applications, but as I mentioned last week they have the Confederate Civil War Service Records, too.  These include the so-called Bounty Pay and Receipt Rolls, Unit Rolls, and other documents that provide proof of military service and, when used in conjunction with other sources, can help you to flesh out your ancestors’ lives.  For example, early in my family history research I was told by my mom and her cousin that they heard stories when they were growing up about a Perry who walked home from Virginia at the end of the War and arrived months later barefoot and starving.  While I can’t corroborate the whole story, I did find in the service records that my great-great grandfather, William P. Perry, was captured at Petersburg, VA, on 2 Apr 1865 and “released on oath at Point Lookout, Md., June 16, 1865.”  It’s not hard to imagine him having to make the long walk home from there, through Virginia, North & South Carolina, and across the breadth of Georgia to make it home.  His older brother 2^nd Lt. John I. Perry had died the year before during the Wilderness campaign, and he arrived home to find that his father and sister had also died.  A bitter homecoming indeed.

By the way, the title of this post comes from an old Southern expression (say it in your worst, stereotypical Southern drawl), “It was the War Between the States; there weren’t nothin’ civil about it!”  My mother had a history teacher in high school in the 1950's in Savannah who used that expression to correct her students.  I’ve also known people who adamantly call it the “War of Northern Aggression”.  And so it goes.

Here’s your summary:

• Ancestry.com is a wonderful website, but you still need to double-check their data.
• Footnote.com is another great source of digitized documentation.  Footnote was bought by Ancestry’s parent company last year.
• If you don’t already have one, get a library card at your local library.  In addition to HeritageQuestOnline, there are other resources you’ll be able to use in your genealogical research.
• There are a whole lot of Civil War resources coming out now that the sesquicentennial of the war is upon us.  I haven’t personally seen a lot of them yet, but there are already dozens of reviews out there on the blogs and podcasts.  One that looks like a good introductory one is Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors, by David A. Norris, published by the folks at  Family Chronicle Magazine.  I’ll drop more titles on you as I hear about them.
• I found out that if you click on any of the images in these blog posts you get to see a larger image in another window.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

Pick a Peck of Perry’s

I was putting together this column and got a little sidetracked.  Footnote.com has released the Confederate Civil War Service Records on line.  So now all those Bounty Pay and Receipt Rolls documents that had to be ordered by mail are available at the click of a mouse.  Of course, Footnote.com is a fee site, but so far I’ve found the fee worth it.

My grandfather was Frank Maxwell Perry (1910-1970).  His father was John Isaiah Perry, Sr (1878-1956).  I still need to fully document my connection to them with birth and death certificates, but as many of you have probably discovered, convincing your relatives, even your parents, that you need copies of their birth records and their parents death certificates is a delicate task that can’t be rushed.  I could of course order death certificates myself, but I chose the less expensive route.  I do have personal memory of my grandfather, and I can document his relationship to his father through two census records (1920 and 1930).  Yes I know these are secondary sources, but they suffice for now.

Where it gets interesting is when I get to my great-great-grandfather, William Preston Perry (1839-1908) and his brothers.  Their parents were Joshua Perry (1805-1866) and Louvicia (or Louvisa) Anne Wade (1806-1884).  Joshua & Louvicia had at least five children: daughter Julia M. A. Perry (1833-1863) who was the first wife of  Joseph Green Collier (1830-1905), and sons John I Perry (1837-1864), William Preston Perry (1839-1908), Benjamin Wade Perry (1843-1843), Theodore (or Thadeous) Joshua Perry (1845-1902), and Francis (Frank) Marion Perry (1847-1905).  Though I’m not going into detail on standard research techniques such as finding someone on a census form, here’s a section of the 1850 Census showing the family as it existed then (Year: 1850; Census Place:  Division 25,  Early,  Georgia; Roll:  M432_68; Page:  337B; Image:  226.).  First is the image from Ancestry.com as of 9 Jan 2010, then the much better image that I got from HeritageQuestOnline, which is a PERSI site that you can only get through your public or university library.  Fortunately, these days many libraries allow you to access these databases through their websites from your own home.  All you need is a library card. 

Ancestry.com image:

HeritageQuestOnline image:

In 1850, the area the Perry family lived in was in Early County, Georgia.  In 1854 the Georgia legislature created Calhoun County, so in the 1860 census they’ll be found there.  Knowing where your relatives lived and when is only half the battle.  This is particularly true in Georgia.  Georgia currently has 156 counties.  Not only were new counties created out of wilderness and from older counties, but the boundaries frequently shifted as late as 1954.   

There are a lot of historic maps available online, but there is a really neat, fully interactive website that lets you see historical counties and boundaries at any point in time, and it’s not just for Georgia.  Plus you can overlay current county and county seat names, too.  It’s the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Project from the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL.  The url of the website is http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/statepages/Georgia.html.  Use the Quick Links Interactive Maps dropdown list on the right side of the screen to select the state (Georgia, in my case), then set the date, click the Refresh Map button, and you’ll see what the counties were at that time.  You can zoom in or out and apply various other custom features, and you can print the maps if you want to.  This website will keep you entertained for at least one or two afternoons!  So don’t start if you have anything pressing to do.

I’ll get back to the Civil War records search next time, I promise, but that’s it for now.  Here’s your summary:

• Ancestry.com is a wonderful website, but you still need to double-check their data.
• There are good alternatives for US Census images that are free.  HeritageQuestOnline (available through your local library) and, though I didn’t mention it above, FamilySearch from the LDS, has many of the census images available, too.
• If you don’t already have one, get a library card at your local library.  In addition to HeritageQuestOnline, there are other resources you’ll be able to use in your genealogical research.
• Researching your family history implicitly includes researching history, and maps help you understand the changes made to your city, county and state, as well as the country as a whole.  There are many resources for historical maps, but a good interactive website is the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Project from the Newberry Library.  Just don’t say I didn’t warn you that it’s addictive!

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

 

Knowing Me, Knowing You

Or, what you think you know versus what you really know.

My daddy was born in rural Effingham County, Georgia, in an old house my grandparents lived in for years and years and years.  The house was so old that about 25 years ago it finally just collapsed in on itself.  Now there’s not even a pile of rubble left.  I’ve known this all my life.  That my grandparents were from Effingham County.  That my daddy was born there and grew up there.  I knew Daddy had two older brothers, and since he was born in 1934, one was two years older than him and one about four years older, so I guessed that Granddaddy and Grandma were married about 1925-1930.  So I went to Graddaddy’s Overview page in Ancestry and clicked on the “Search Historical Records” link. Over 1.8 million results and nothing relevant on the first page.  So I clicked on the “Birth, Marriage & Death” link under “Narrow By Category.”  That dropped it to half a million, still too many and still nothing on the first page of results.

I clicked on the button “Edit Search” and entered the year 1928 and +/- 2 years for the date range, and added the location “Effingham County, Georgia, USA” to the search panel.  209 results, but nothing on the first page for Effingham County or where the names matched my grandparents.  So I went back into “Edit Search” and clicked on the “Exact” check box for the marriage location and clicked “Search”.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. No results to display.

What??  Now I started digging.  If you go back up to the “Search” button at the top of any page and hover over it you can click on “Birth, Marriage & Death”.  In the right column under “Narrow by Category” click on “Marriage & Divorce”.  Under “Browse Catalog” click on USA.  Now under “Filter by Location” in the left column scroll down and click on the state, Georgia.  Ancestry has three primary databases for marriage records in Georgia: Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944 (216,770 records), Georgia Marriages to 1850 (167,492 records) and Georgia Marriages, 1851-1900 (83,321 records).  There is some overlap, but in some of my early research I had had great luck finding marriages using these three indexes.  But guess what?  They aren’t complete indexes.  Not by a long shot.

Click on the first one, Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944.  This takes you to a page that allows you to search just that database.  But if you scroll down you’ll also see details about the database.  There’s “Source Information” and “About Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944”.  Take a look at that.  Notice anything funny?  Effingham County is only covered for 1815-1850.  Drat!  So I started looking again at some of the people I hadn’t been able to find marriage citations for in the indexes.  In every case, where I thought I knew the probable date range for a marriage and a probably county, the county in question wasn’t covered by the indexes for those years, or only covered for part of the date span.

It gets worse.

So I was talking to my dad one day, and guess what.  Daddy was born in Brier Patch, in Bulloch County, not Effingham County.  I got a wedding date for his parents, 6 Oct 1928, but he thinks they might have been married in Evans County near where my grandma was growing up, not in Bulloch County.  But if you see the list of counties for the marriage index of Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944, Evans isn’t even there!  I also finally found Grandma on the 1910 and 1920 censuses.  She was born in 1907.  In 1910 she lived in Tattnall County.  In 1920 she was living in Evans County.  I’m not sure if they moved.  Evans County was created out of Tattnall and Bulloch Counties in 1914.  Granddaddy was apparently born and raised in Bulloch, and Granddaddy and Grandma were living there in 1930 with his father and brothers and sisters.

So, just because you can’t find your relatives in an index search, don’t give up hope.  Check the details of the index.  It may not cover as much as you think it does.  Every index and database in Ancestry.com has such a page which explains what is covered by the index or database and where the data came from and usually who created it.  

And ask your relatives questions about themselves and other relatives.  You may not “know” as much about them as you think you know.  But remember, the same thing applies to what they tell you.  Great Aunt Tilly may not know as much as she thinks she does, either!  To change up the old Russian phrase, “Don’t trust; verify!”

That’s it for now.  Here’s your summary:

• Get started.  Don’t wait another day!  I waited until after both sets of grandparents were deceased, and not a day goes by but that I wish I could ask just one question!
• Ancestry.com is a wonderful website, but you still need to double-check their data.
• Absence of proof is not proof of absence.  Just because you can’t find a record in a particular index or database doesn’t mean the document doesn’t exist.  Check the details of the database and make sure the location and time span are covered.  Even then don’t give up hope.  After all, people create these indexes and people make mistakes.  You can add it to you list of items in need of an original records search.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

(The two images in today's posted are screenshots of the Ancestry.com website and used for illustrative purposes only.)

How Did I Get Here and Where Am I Going?

I got this genealogy bug late in life, past 50, and most of the people I would love to talk to are dead now.  My parents and most of their siblings are still living, but if you are just considering researching your family history DON’T WAIT. In fact, you should have started yesterday!  For me, there’s been a life-long interest in history, but a couple of things conspired in the spring of 2010 to kick that into a high-octane pursuit of my ancestors.  One was the American version of the television show “Who Do You Think You Are?”  I only saw one episode, the one about Sarah Jessica Parker.  Then I went to my friend’s grandfather’s 90^th birthday party.  They had the photo boards and all the stories going around, and some cousin of the family had put together a family history booklet with pictures and stories and maps, as well as the usual trees and lines of descent.  Three months later I couldn’t stop if I had wanted to!

I started, as many do, with a free account at Ancestry.com.  That lasted about a week.  I signed up for the US Deluxe account.  Sooner or later I’ll have to go for the full-boat World account, but I’m not there yet.  I found out that one of my mother’s cousins has been the keeper of the flame for her family, and one of my cousins on my dad’s side has been doing the same.  After getting in touch with them I relit the burners for them as well.  I can’t seem to stop.  I’ve met several other distant cousins who have also been researching their family stories for years. I stay up way to late.  I read some of the articles in the Ancestry.com learning center.  I discovered genealogy podcasts and now I listen to podcasts instead of radio in the car and at work. I got through 200 hours of the Genealogy Guys podcast (http://www.genealogyguys.com) in about six weeks. Now that I’ve caught up with the guys I’ve started on the Genealogy Gems podcast (http://www.genealogygems.tv).  I highly recommend both!  I also started researching free desktop genealogy software, then settled on buying RootsMagic 4.  So far I’m very pleased.

So, yes, I think genealogy is an obsession, a wonderful obsession, but you have to be prepared for strange looks and your family may suddenly find many very important things to do when you want to call or come over, but it’s also very rewarding for those of us who pursue it. I guess some people can’t get excited over finding the wedding date of your great-great-great grandparents, but it requires no explanation for those who do!

In just a few months I’ve discovered a few things.  Going back to the early 19th century, my ancestors were mostly already in Georgia, Bulloch, Warren, Screven, Effingham & Chatham Counties in SE Georgia, Early, Calhoun Decatur, Mitchell, Crisp and related counties is SW Georgia, and a few in the late 19th-early 20th centuries who lived up around Columbus (Muscogee County) or Rome (Floyd County).  There were a few stragglers coming in from North Carolina or South Carolina until almost 1900, though!  I'm trying to document sources wherever possible, and not just accept family tradition or other peoples' lists or family trees.  I'm still new enough at this to be optimistic that something is out there somewhere even though I've met distant relatives who have been at this for 20 years who haven't been able to confirm some things with written records!

I knew it would be difficult conducting long-distance genealogical research, but it’s been surprising.  Some things are easier to find than I thought, and others are harder than they have to be.  I’ll try to walk you through some of both.  The South in general, and Georgia in particular, have particular problems when researching genealogy.  I’ll share my thoughts on these, and on the whole genealogical research process.  Along the way I’ll look a bit at software and websites and books and other resources I find helpful.  I hope you’ll find something useful here and please let me know if I can answer any particular questions.  I can’t do professional research projects for you, but maybe we can help each other out on some issues that come up.

So that’s it for my first post.  Here’s your summary:

• Get started.  Don’t wait another day!
• Ancestry.com has a free account that lets you enter basic family info and helps you get started.
• Read some how-tos.  Ancestry.com is a good place to start.
• If you want to keep you new addiction secret for while longer and you aren’t ready to meet real people, listening to others talk about their obsession is the next best thing, so listen to some podcasts.  Go to www.genealogyguys.com or www.genealogygems.tv, or just Google “genealogy podcasts” and find some of the others.  There are dozens of active podcasts at any given point in time.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim