Tombstones and Graveyards and Churches, Oh My! Pt. 2

If you have not been to North Carolina, or if you have, but not to the High Point, Lexington area, treat yourself and go! All of North Carolina is beautiful and I have been fortunate enough to see a lot of it but had never been to this region. It is beautiful! And we were there when it was raining! I can't imagine what it would have been like on a bright, sunny day!

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.

Abbott's Creek, Davidson County, NC

As I mentioned earlier, while at the Archives, I did some newspaper research too.  I had family members that lived in a little town called Orinoco, North Carolina.  I had never heard of it before finding a small blurb on Ancestry about one of my relatives and it listed Orinoco in the article.  So I did a little more research and found that my Great, Great Grandfather on my mother's side lived there. Daniel Martine Hayworth and his wife Dora (Vandora Jane Green Hayworth), along with Dora's parents, Robert and Margaret Green, all lived there.  
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

Keeping Family History Alive

Many people will never know about the family members that came before them.  I didn't want to be one of those people so I started doing research, and before long, became an addict.  Yes, a genealogy addict!  I want to find all my relatives and pass on those names to my children, so they can in turn pass them on to their children.  Research is not always an easy task but it is getting easier and easier, thanks to all the websites that are devoted to genealogy and family history. I heard yesterday that genealogy has surpassed gardening as a favorite hobby.  More and more people are going to become addicts, just like me!

My mom passed away at the young age of 52.  Oh how I wish I had sat down with her and asked her lots of questions about her life growing up, about her family members, about her earliest memories, about lots of things.  But I didn't.  Don't wait to ask those questions of the ones you love.  I have started quizzing my dad and I have found out some of the most amazing things.  You will too!

Me as a baby, with my mom and dad.

While doing my research, I seem to run into brick walls more than not, but every once in awhile, I come across something that blows one of those walls wide open.  I recently went on a search of a great, great grandmother and knew lots about her from the time she married on until she died.  However, I couldn't find anything about her before that.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, I went onto the Facebook page for the North Carolina Genealogy group and posted a query seeking information on Margaret E. Gordy Green.  In no time, someone came back with several pieces of information that were very helpful and I was able to break down that wall.

It is so important to make sure any information you find is well sourced and that you constantly back up what you have found.  Sourcing is important so you know where to go back, to find that information, if you need it again.  And you would certainly hate to lose all the info you have found because you didn't have it backed up.  I use Backblaze as my cloud backup but I also have a zip drive with the same information on it.  I try to backup my info a couple times a week but at least once, for sure.

I have been scanning pictures and saving them in several places too.  All those pictures that were taken back in the early 60's are becoming more and more faded.  I don't want to lose those precious memories.  Some of them I have been able to enhance in my photo program, that came with the computer.  But they will never be as good as they were back then.  Below is an example of what I am talking about -

This is the photo that has been
enhanced.  The original is below.

I have lots of scanning and enhancing to do but it will be worth it to be able to preserve them for later.  

Do you have a bunch of old family VHS tapes laying around?  There are lots of companies now that will take them and put them on a DVD.  I have one from the 60's of my family that really brings back precious memories.  I want to get it on a zip drive or saved in another format so I don't lose it.  There are some programs out there that will do that too.  I am still trying to decide which one is better but I will do it, so it will be preserved for the future.  

    

See how faded this on
not be able to see it.  

I have made a book, through Shutterfly, about my mom's life, which I gave to my family for Christmas one year. They loved having that book of pictures and stories.  And Shutterfly made it so easy to do and was very reasonable.  

All these things will help you preserve your family history and although they might not appreciate it now, I have no doubt, that in the future, your children, and theirs, will love that you took the extra time to keep their memories alive.  

Today's Terri's Tidbit:  If you have old family VHS tapes, audio tapes, etc and you would like them put onto a DVD or other medium, contact TMC Place.com. They have been preserving people's memories for over 30 years.