research in the southern states

Research in the Southern States

Nicole Dyer

RESEARCH IN

THE SOUTHERN

STATESNicole [email protected]

FamilyLocket.com

https://familylocket.com/

Southern States• Southern Colonies

• Virginia 1607• North Carolina 1663• South Carolina 1663• Georgia 1732

• Southern States• Virginia 1788• South Carolina 1788• Georgia 1788• North Carolina 1789• Kentucky 1792• Tennessee 1796• Louisiana 1812• Mississippi 1817• Alabama 1819• Missouri 1821• Arkansas 1836• Florida 1845• Texas 1845• West Virginia 1863• Oklahoma 1907

Wikimedia Commons contributors, "File:Lloyds new military map of the border & southern states (5961393892),“

Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lloyds_

new_military_map_of_the_border_%26_southern_states_(5961393892).jpg&oldid=467754458 (accessed

December 19, 2020).

Copyright Nicole Dyer 2020

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lloyds_new_military_map_of_the_border_%26_southern_states_(5961393892).jpg&oldid=467754458

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lloyds_new_military_map_of_the_border_%26_southern_states_(5961393892).jpg&oldid=467754458

Common Record Types for Southern States Research

• Land – deeds, land grants, mortgage records, etc.

• Tax – personal property tax lists, poll tax lists, etc.

• Probate – wills, estates, probate packets, guardianship, etc.

• Court – civil court minutes, chancery court, jury lists, etc.

Find these in the FamilySearch catalog – digitized microfilms.


Challenges

• Burned counties

• Missing census records

• Lack of vital records before 1900s

• Pedigree collapse

• Lack of records for enslaved people

Peter E. Gibbs, Mary Brice or Bryce of Point of Honor, Lynchburg, Virginia, half-length portrait, seated, of middle-aged African American enslaved woman., ca. 1853; image online, Library of Congress, (https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649200/ : accessed 19 Dec 2020).


https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649200/

Create a Locality Guide for your County & State

• Links to relevant record collections

• Known record loss

• Substitute records

• Published records

• Relevant genealogical and historical journals


Strategies for Burned Counties Record Loss and What to do About It

See What Remains

• Don’t give up

• Some records may not have been affected

• FamilySearch Catalog –listings for the county


Hawkins County Courthouse Fire in 1863


Contact the Courthouse

• Call or email

• Google Search

• Contact info on website

• Details of some holdings described

https://www.co.liberty.tx.us/page/liberty.County.Clerk


https://www.co.liberty.tx.us/page/liberty.County.Clerk

Substitute Records -Government• State and Federal level government records

• Municipal records – towns and cities

• Tax lists

• Military records

• Legislative petitions

• Land records

• District and Supreme Courts

• Naturalization papers

• Divorce petitions

Georgia Superior Court 1816

Tennessee Tax list 1837

TN Confederate Pension App 1893


Tennessee Confederate Pension Records

Pension application dated 1893Tennessee State Library and Archives


Georgia Superior Court Divorce Petition


Georgia Legislative Documents at the Georgia Archives

http://neptune3.galib.uga.edu/ssp/cgi-bin/legis-idx.pl?sessionid=7f000001&type=law&byte=3743027

Georgia, Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, Passed in November and December, 1816, Vol. 1, p. 127, Act 088, "To divorce certain persons therein named" Polly Royston and John Royston her husband; Georgia Archives (https://www.georgiaarchives.org/research: accessed 12 Oct 2018).


http://neptune3.galib.uga.edu/ssp/cgi-bin/legis-idx.pl?sessionid=7f000001&type=law&byte=3743027

https://www.georgiaarchives.org/research

Southern Claims Commission

“Alabama, Southern Claims Commission Approved Claims,” no.

19483, claim of Spencer Harris, Limestone County, 4 December

1876; digital image 231, FamilySearch

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9NV-D9DK

: accessed 16 October 2020); film 100370340, citing NARA M2062. Copyright Nicole Dyer 2020

Freedmen’s Bureau

"South Carolina, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9ZG-CLZ1 : 21 May 2014), McClellanville > Roll 91, Register of sick and wounded, Jan-Nov 1868 > image 4 of 63; citing NARA microfilm publication M1910 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).


Substitute Records -Publications• Newspapers

• County Histories

• Biographies

Daily Picayune, LA 1868

Texas Biographies 1930

County History 1999 Copyright Nicole Dyer 2020

Newspapers

Authored Family History submitted to the Atlanta Constitution in 1902

“GRESHAM - Something about The Greshams,

Grishims, and Halberts, by Mrs. E.L. Connelly,”

(Atlanta, Georgia) The Constitution, 15 June

1902, p. 22, col. 3 image, Newspapers.com

(https://www.newspapers.com/image/34113952 : accessed 13 May 2018).


Death Notice


County Histories and Biographies

• Authored Sources

• Who was the informant?

• Recent family information can be primary

• Older info is probably secondary

Walker County Heritage Book Committee, The Heritage of Walker County, Alabama (Clanton, Alabama: Heritage Publishing, 1999).


Clarence Ray Wharton, "William Martin Isenhower,” Texas

Under Many Flags: Texas biography, Vol. 3 (Chicago:

American Historical Society, 1930) 167-168; image copy,

FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 24 March

2018), digital image 660 of 1350; citing FHL microfilm

1000594.


Substitute Records -Private• Church records

• Cemetery records

• Merchant account books

• Business directories

• Professional directories

• Civil organizations

• Family Bibles

• Private Family papers

• Photos and Letters

Glenn Dyer Letter 1928

Mahone family bible, 1800s

Rogersville, TN account book 1801


Rogersville Store Account Book 1801

Rogersville General Store, accounts, Ignatius Dyer, 16 September 1801 p. 126; PDF image, “General Account books, 1801-1904,” Tennessee State Library and Archives.


Bible Records

• Cynthia Dillard and George W. Dillard hypothesis

• Family Bible record

• Share research online

• Collaborate - find descendants

Zenora (Dillard) Mahone Family Bible, Mariah L. Dillard, born 21 May 1815; digital images, privately held by Rita Schimpff, Texas, received from a cousin.


Archive Gridhttps://researchworks.ocl

c.org/archivegrid/


https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/

Search for Hawkins, Tennessee


Missing Census Records and Substitutes

Early U.S. Census Records in Selected Southern States

1790 1800 1810 1820 1830

Alabama N/A N/A Lost except territorial Washington Co.

Lost, some state censuses exist

X

Arkansas N/A N/A Lost Lost, except Miller X

Georgia Lost Lost X X X

Kentucky Lost Lost X X X

Mississippi N/A Lost Lost except territorial for some counties

X X – Pike lost

North Carolina X –Caswell, Granville, Orange lost

X X – Craven, Greene, New Hanover, Wake lost

X – Currituck, Franklin, Martin, Montgomery, Randolph, Wake lost

X

South Carolina X X – Richland lost X X – Clarendon lost X – Clarendon lost

Tennessee Lost Lost Rutherford & part of Grainger only.

22 counties of East TN missing

X

Virginia LostAccomack and Louisa only.

17 counties lost X X

Source: Various articles at the FamilySearch Wiki titled “[state name] Censuses Existing and Lost,” https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/ : accessed 18 Dec 2020).


https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/

Census Substitutes

• Tax records

• City directories

• Maps

• Voter lists

• Collections at Ancestry

• Tennessee, U.S., Early Tax List Records, 1783-1895

• U.S., Census Reconstructed Records, 1660-1820

Fauquier, VA tax list 1800

Leon, FL voter list 1867

Columbia, SC city directory 1859


https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2883/


Fauquier County, Virginia Tax List 1800

Fauquier County, Virginia, personal property tax lists, 1800, Charles Pickett District, p. 64, line 6, Lewis Tharp in household of Jessee Tharp; images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQ2-W1CY : accessed 24 Aug 2020); citing FHL microfilm 2024531.


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The Reconstructed 1790 Census of Georgia

• Searchable database and image copy on Ancestry.com

• Reconstructed using wills, deeds, tax digests, court, voters’ lists, newspapers

Marie De Lamar and Elisabeth Rothstein, The Reconstructed 1790 Census of Georgia (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1989); image copy, Ancestry(https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/48008/).



Ancestry.com

Lack of Vital Records before 1900sEstimating Birth Years

Lack of Vital Records before the 1900s

• Birth year?

• Identity issues

• An estimate is better than nothing

• You can often do this with:

• Indirect evidence or negative evidence

• Legal context


Lewis Tharp’s Birth Year

Fauquier County, Virginia, personal property tax lists, 1800, Charles Pickett District, p. 64, line 6, Lewis Tharp in household of Jessee Tharp; images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQ2-W1CY : accessed 24 Aug 2020); citing FHL microfilm 2024531.

Lewis first appeared on personal property tax lists in Fauquier in 1800, listed as a free white tithe over 16 years with inferred father, Jesse Tharp. In Virginia, male persons 16 and over were considered tithable and chargeable for levies. If Lewis was 16 years old for the first time in 1800, he was born about 1784.

Source: Shepherd, Samuel, The Statutes at Large of Virginia, From October Session 1792, to December Session 1806, Inclusive, In Three Volumes, (New Series,) Being a Continuation of Hening, Vol. 1(Richmond: Samuel Shepherd, 1835) 184; image online, Hathitrust(https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112104867306&view=1up&seq=190&q1=sixteen : accessed 25 Sep 2020).


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Estimating a mother’s birth year

Robert and Barsheba’s first son, Augustus, was born 13 December 1830 or 1831. There was no minimum age for marriage in Tennessee. Childbearing age for women is usually no earlier than 11-12 years old. Barsheba was probably born before 1819.


Pre-1850 Census

Correlation

1790-1840 census records give an age range and gender for each household member which you can compare from year to year and narrow down a range, i.e. 1765-1772.


Comparison of Household data prior to 1850

Joseph Armstrong Household 1800-1830

Name 1800 1810 1820 1830Joseph Armstrong

b. 1771-1774

Male 26 thru 44

1756-1774

Male 26 thru 44

1766-1784

Male 45+

?? - 1775

Male 50-59

1771-1780

Wife

b. 1771-1774

Female 26 thru 44 Female 26 thru 44 Female 45+ Female 50-59

Elizabeth Female Under 10 Female 16-25

Male b. 1795-1800 Male Under 10 Male 10-15

Female Female Under 10 Female 10-15 Female 16-25

Amos b. 1798 Male Under 10 Male 10-15 Male 16-25

Female Female Under 10 Female 16-25 Female 20-29

Daniel b. 1806 Male Under 10 Male 10-15 (in Oswego)

Charles b. 1807 Male Under 10 Male 10-15

Clarissa b. 1808 Female Under 10 Female 10-15 (w/ Nehemiah)

Male Male Under 10 Died?

Male Male Under 10 Male age 10-14

Female Female under 5

Female Female 5-9Copyright Nicole Dyer 2020

Kentucky Marriage Licenses

A woman in Kentucky who was under 21 needed her father’s permission to marry. Using this law and details from the license, you can estimate when a woman was born. i.e. before 1784.

Source: William Littell, The statute law of Kentucky; with notes, prælections, and observations on the public acts. Comprehending also, the laws of Virginia and acts of Parliament in force in this commonwealth; the charter of Virginia, the federal and state constitutions, and so much of the King of England's proclamation in 1763, as relates to the titles to land in Kentucky (Frankfort, KY: William Hunter, 1810) 67; image copy, Google Books, (https://books.google.com : accessed 22 Apr 2020).


Betsy Daughety and Philip Romans

Robert Daughety sent a note to the Clerk of the County court to request a license be granted for his daughter Betsy to marry Phillip Romans.

The Marriage license acknowledged that Betsey’s father gave consent and that Phillip was over age 21.

Betsy was under age 21 in 1808 because her father gave his consent. Betsy was born after 1787. She probably was over age 12, so her birth year range is 1787-1796.

Warren County, Kentucky, loose papers and miscellaneous records,

marriage bond, Phillip Romans and Betsy Dougherty, 14 Sept 1808;

"Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954," database with images,

FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 16 Apr 2020) DGS 7724941, image 130 of 653; citing FHL microfilm 164,030.


State Laws for Minimum Age

Virginia had laws about when an individual was old enough to be a witness, an executor, and a voter. If you find a record where they do this, calculate the year they were born before.

Nicki Peak Birch, “Skillbuilding, NGS 2017: Dunn’s “Estimating Ancestral Birth Dates,” blog post, 20 June 2017, Board for Certification of Genealogists(https://bcgcertification.org/skillbuilding-ngs-2017-dunns-estimating-ancestral-birth-dates/ : accessed 18 Dec 2020).

Men and women selling land in North Carolina were age 21 and older, witnesses to deeds were 14 and older, and those who proved the deed at court were usually 21 and over.

Helen F.M. Leary, ed., North Carolina Research: Genealogy and Local History,2nd ed., (Raleigh: North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996) 61.

Virginia North Carolina


https://bcgcertification.org/skillbuilding-ngs-2017-dunns-estimating-ancestral-birth-dates/

Friends, Family, Associates,and Neighbors

Researching the FAN Club


Researching the FAN Club

• When records are sparse, examine more people’s records

• Witnesses of deeds and wills

• People who purchased from estate sale

• Close neighbors in tax and census records

• Enslaved people research


Tracking the FAN Club

Use a research log like Airtable.com

1

Keep track of names you see on records

2

Note when names appear multiple times

3

Research these FANs first

4


Finding Females

• Focus on the male FANs of the woman• Husband

• Father

• Brothers

• Grandfathers

• Sons

• Uncles

Nancy Briscoe with grandchildren, files of Diana Elder.


DNA Evidence

Pedigree Collapse and Double Cousins


DNA Challenges for Southern Ancestry

Overlap between groups of matches

Intermarriage among a few

families within rural communities


Pedigree Collapse

• Somewhere in your family tree, close cousins married each other so their grandparents show up twice in your family tree; the pedigree “collapses.”

• First and second cousins

• John Robert Dyer’s ancestors – large cluster of matches who all match each other

• Share higher amount of DNA with many cousins

ConnectedDNA.com Copyright Nicole Dyer 2020

Double Cousins

When brothers from one family married sisters from another family, this causes more than one common ancestor between their descendants who are DNA matches and makes matches appear closer than they are.

Diana’s matches from 15-1000 cM, Network Graph created with Gephi


DNA Testing Plan

• Create a testing plan that includes many descendants through different children

• Find test takers who are generationally closer to the ancestor

• If double cousins – find a descendant to test who wasn’t part of the intermarrying siblings

• Ask those who have previously tested to share results with you


Research Like a Pro

• Objective

• Analyze Starting Point

• Locality Research

• Research Planning

• Research Logs

• Write Reports


Report Writing


FamilyLocket.com/RootsTech

• Research Like a Pro Podcast

• Our products

• Free Cheat Sheets

• U.S. Census Records

• Probate Records

• U.S. Federal Census Tables Template

• Sample DNA Citations

• RootsTech Class List & Materials

• Research Like a Pro eCourse and Study Group

• Research Like a Pro with DNA eCourse and Study Group


DNA Process Trees

Felt Family Tree Kits

Professional Research Services

Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide

Research Like a Pro Podcast, eCourse, Study Group

Research Like a Pro with DNA book, eCourse, Study Group
