Where better to spend a rainy day than the State Archives. This building is full of treasures for anyone wanting to do their family history. There are several floors, full of books, microfiche, and computers with access to all the major genealogy sites. I could have spent days perusing the Newspapers.com site. I found so many fun articles on several members of my family and know there was much more there to be discovered. I think the Newspapers.com website might be a very worthwhile investment for my research.
The family history book collection, books that were written or contributed by families, containing information on their lineage, had some verbiage on my surnames. Unfortunately, some of it was not what I was hoping to find.
One of my fact finding missions was to find my Great, Great Grandfather's father. Everywhere I have searched, I have come up empty. I found a publication in the Archives that, although fun to find, didn't give me the results I was hoping for. As I mentioned in my previous blog, there is speculation that a Jesse Garrison is the father of my Great Great Grandfather John W. Garrison. However, that has not been proven. One of the books I found, "The Family of Isaac Garrison, 1732-1836, Frontiersman and Soldier of the American Revolution"(1), states that a James Garrison had brothers by the name of Jesse (who was married to Mary Bodenhamer) and possibly an Edmund Garrison. Unfortunately, there is no record of their parentage and it does not indicate the families of either brother. Drats!!!
I was also looking for a paternal Great, Great, Great Grandfather's parentage and came up disappointed there too. In a book by James M. Coffee, Jr., "Marley Families of North Carolina", I was looking for the parents of Nathaniel Green Smith Marley. Mr. Coffee states that "N.G.S. Marley was born about 1818 and his parent have not been identified."(2) Double Drats!!!
But also in that same book, it speculates that a Joab or James Marley could be the possible parents, so at least those are a couple clues to look into. So, all is not lost. We'll see what we found down that rabbit hole. More to come on that at a later time.
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| Abbott's Creek, Davidson County, NC |
So where is Orinoco? Good question! Well, it is thought to have been in Davidson County, NC, and possibly in Abbott's Creek Township but I can't find it on any maps. The articles I found were from 1904, so it was alive and well then. It was fun to read some of these articles because they listed everything about everyone. One stated that my Great, Great, Great Grandmother Margaret was sick with typhoid fever and that my Great, Great Grandfather DM Hayworth went to Lexington with a friend. His wife, Dora, had been sick for two weeks and they wished her a speedy recovery. The next week it said she was recovering. I love newspaper articles like these. There were many others like them too. They give you a true picture as to what life was really like back in the early 1900's. Fun stuff!
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(1) "The Family of Isaac Garrison, 1732-1836, Frontiersman and Soldier of the American Revolution", Issac Garrison Family Association, Schoonmakers Publishers, 1980.
(2) "Marley Families of North Carolina", James M. Coffee, Jr., Genealogy Publishing Service, 2001
4 comments:
Good work! I looked up Orionco and Abbott's Creek in William Powell's "The North Carolina Gazetteer" and it said Abbott's Creek (the creek) appeared on Collett map of 1770. It also said that the community was where Nathaniel Greene camped in Feb. 1781, before the battle of Guilford Courthouse. Maybe that's why the name came into the family.
Thank you Cuz! That sounded like such an interesting book, I ordered it today.
Orinoco, NC was more of a community than a town as most of the rural Davidson County towns were back at the end of the 19th century but it did have a post office. The postmaster was J L Hayworth, no doubt, one of your cousins based on your blog. Orinoco, NC can be found on several maps in the NC map collection at the UNC online library an amazing resource. Maps provide such great information about our past that may not be found any other way. Willow Creek Golf Course and Country Club is there now and truly a beautiful area. A mill was also there on that location. The coordinates for the town of Orinoco are 35°58'25.8"N 80°05'38.5"W, which is on Abbots Creek Church road based on the comparison of a current Google map and the 1890 Davidson County map located at this link,
http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ncmaps/id/371/rec/8
This map also shows the actual location of where General Green camped. It was close to Spurgeon's Creek in the Abbotts Creek Township which always leads to confusion. Check the maps and compare, roads change but creeks seldom do, draw your own conclusion and enjoy the adventure. Bruce Guy Thomasville, Davidson County, NC
Bruce, thank you so much for this very helpful information. I had a 5 Great Grandfather who had a mill on Abbott's Creek! This is very exciting. Thank you again!
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