Occupations in the Census

While doing some genealogy research, I happened upon a census form that contained my Grandfather Garrison. It was one of the years that listed the occupation of the head of household. This particular year, it stated that my grandfather had been a weaver in a silk mill. Really? I never knew that. It got me wondering about the name of the company. The census that year was in High Point Township, Guilford County, North Carolina. So, I decided to do a little digging to see if I could find out the name.

Well, that area of the country had a lot of industry, including cotton, hosiery and silk. The silk mill that is talked about a lot in that area is the Stehli & Co. Silk Mill. According to the High Point Historic Industrial Architecture Survey, "A departure from various types of cotton textiles came with the construction of the Stehli Silk Mill in 1906 on the block bounded by East Green Drive, East Russell Avenue, Cable Street, and Park Street. High Pointers had invited Swiss silk weaver Emil J. Stehli to come to High Point to establish a silk mill there. He had already established a successful silk mill in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1898. Initially the High Point silk mill was a throwing plant that converted raw silk imported from Japan into yarn, which was then sent to the Lancaster plant to be woven. In 1912, the company abandoned another plant in Paterson, New Jersey, and moved all its silk production machinery to High Point. This resulted in the Stehli Silk Mill in High Point becoming one of the largest plants in the world for the exclusive manufacture of broad silk. At that time the company had 600 employees who could produce six million yards of silk in one year. By 1918, the company had built four additions. The Stehli Silk Mill made a strong impression on the city of High Point not only by the silk it produced, but also as a model mill."(1)

I don't know for sure, but I would bet, based on the time, place and type of business that this was where Grandpa Garrison worked. He went on later to be a tobacco farmer in West End, NC. For a previous story on that subject, click here.

Finding this out about Grandpa G. made me curious about what some of my other ancestors did for a living. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my 7th Great Grandfather, George Haworth, worked on a plantation or farm at one time. He talked about what he got paid and the tools you needed to bring if you wanted to do that kind of work. In the next blog, he talked about becoming a weaver. His grandson, Micajah, built a mill on Abbott's Creek, NC and it stayed running for many years. Many of his descendants went on to be farmers in different areas of North Carolina.

My paternal Great Grandfather, Jacob Monroe Hatch and many of his children, worked on the golf links in Moore County, North Carolina, where Pinehurst is located. Unfortunately, I do not know which course they worked on. In 1930, my Grandfather Plinny, Jacob's son, at the age of 18 was a grocery store clerk and went on to manage grocery stores around North Carolina, including A & P.

According to the 1870 Census, my maternal great grandfather, William Franklin Garrison and maternal grandmother, Ida Welch, lived next door to each other. Their fathers were both farmers.

The 1910 Census for my Great-Great Grandpa Garrison showed he was a farmer, most of his life, but it also indicated that he served in the Confederate Army. That is so awesome that you can find out info like that from the census! That vital piece of information helps those looking to join one of the societies, such as United Daughters of the Confederacy.

So as you can see, there is lots of fun information to discover in the different census forms. I am still finding cool stuff, as I dig deeper into my family history. I'll share more as I find it.
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(1) High Point Historic Industrial Architecture Survey, Prepared by Laura A. W. Phillips, Architectural Historian, 59 Park Boulevard ,Winston-Salem, NC 27127 336-727-1968, August 2014, lawp@bellsouth.net

Family History and My DNA

A couple years ago I dove head first into the DNA pool.  I had no idea what I was doing and can honestly still say the whole thing confuses me, but I am slowly learning.  How did I think DNA would help me in my family history search?  I envisioned all these people matching up with my family genes and answering many of my questions.  Well, that has not happened but lots of other fun things have.  I have had two cool connections that recently came from my DNA results.

One was a young lady who was adopted.  She is trying to find out some of her family background.  Our match was one of the first hints about her ancestry.  Now, mind you, it is pretty far back in the line, but it was my MTDNA so we know it came from one of the women on my mother's side of the family.

Another connection was a young man who was looking for information on his mother's side of the family and we had a close match.  I was able to send him some information on my 3rd Great Grandmother. He was so appreciative for the information.  Little pieces of the proverbial jigsaw puzzle I talked about in a previous blog, Jigsaw Puzzles and Genealogy.  A piece here, a piece there and a picture starts to form.  It may not be clear right away, but another piece appears and you get a little closer look as to what it really looks like.

For Father's Day, a couple years ago, my brother's and I gave my dad a DNA test kit.  He has been one of my greatest cheerleaders when it comes to finding out more about our family history, so we thought this might be another way to help move the process along.  After getting his results, I signed him up in the Hatch DNA Project website.  Not much has come from that, in the way of finding a direct line, yet. More and more people are getting tested every day, so that could change.

This week, I stumbled upon a Moore County, North Carolina, family website, which also had a DNA project.  Knowing that some of my dad's family had lived in Moore County, I decided to join that project.  The administrator sent a link to his family history site and I was so surprised.  I had been on that very site, the day before, looking for family members.  As it turns out, we have common ancestors.  My dad's 2nd Great Grandfather, Nathaniel Green Smith Marley, was married to one of his relatives.  I only found this out because of the DNA test.  This website is really well done and you can tell a lot of research has gone into it.  Check it out here.  Catherine Hunsucker is the family name that connects us.  She was married to Nathaniel Marley.

After getting dad to do his test, I sent in mine and talked my brother into doing his too.  We are still looking for our elusive 3rd Great Grandfather on our mother's side.  We have joined the Garrison DNA project, in hopes that as time goes by, we will get some information on who he was.

DNA testing for genealogy is still catching on but as I mentioned earlier, more and more people are getting tested which will increase the odds of finding other family members.  If you are thinking of testing, I would check into Ancestry.com first.  Test with them and then you can transfer your results to other sites, such as Family Tree DNA, which will increase your possible matches.  I did not do that but wish I had.  I did encourage my brother to submit his through Ancestry first, which he did.

Every day I get emails about possible matches.  Most are so far out that they are hard to identify who the connection is, but every once in awhile, one will come in that is super close.  Those are the ones that will get your heart pumping.  If you have had your DNA tested, let me know what results you have found.  Who knows, we might find out we are related somehow!

Want a little better understanding of how DNA works?  Diahan Southard is the DNA Guide for Lisa Louise Cooke's website, Genealogy Gems.  She has many articles on DNA that you can find here.

Working with the Census in Family History

One of my favorite sources, when researching my family history, is the United States Census. Each year, starting in 1790, stats have been compiled every 10 years, for the main purpose of finding out the number of people in each state so they could determine the amount of representation they would have in Congress. Other entities used the info to be able to collect taxes and put together demographics of their area.

There is a lot of information to be found in these documents if you know how and where to look. Many years the census takers acquired different kinds of information. Besides the obvious, name, address, age and whether married or not, other information such as birthplace, employment, whether attended school, could they read, write, etc. Some years asked if the person was a veteran and if so, which war.

In 1930, one of the questions asked was whether or not you had a radio set? What? That seemed strange to me so I looked up why they would put that on the form. I found an explanation on the Census History website taken from a book by Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity. "The 1930 census reflected the emerging values of early twentieth-century America, in particular the growing influence of consumerism and mass culture. The 1930 census included for the first time a question regarding a consumer item. Respondents were asked whether they owned a "Radio set," a luxury that had become increasingly common in the 1920s. As historian Roland Marchand has argued, in the early decades of the twentieth century, American business and political leaders viewed radio as a source of cultural "uplift" for the population as well as a valuable medium for advertisement of mass-produced goods. The inclusion of a question on radio ownership reflected this new interest in the possibilities of consumer items and methods of mass communication."1

Even though the census started in 1790, it was not until 1850 that they listed all members of the family. Up to that point, just the head of the household was listed and then tick marks for the others living there, divided by male, female and age groups. I have found the 1850 to 1940 forms are the most helpful because it does list all the family members.

If you were born after the first half of 1940, you won't see your name listed on a census... yet. The 1940 census came out in April 2012. A census can not be released until 72 years after it was taken We won't see the 1950 until sometime in 2022. I won't be able to see my name on a form until 2032. Because they were only taken every 10 years, if someone was born in 1922 and died in 1926, you will not have a record of them in a census.

When you find a person from your family tree, in a census form, it makes their lives so much more real. You get to know a little bit more about them, what their life was like, where they came from, who their neighbors were, just to name a few. I find that in the older forms, the neighbors are typically other names you will find in your lineage. People tended to marry those that lived close by.

Some census forms can be very entertaining too. The census takers probably grew bored of asking the same things, over and over again. Some of their feelings about that come out in the comments on their listings. For example, on Lisa Louise Cook's website, a listener sent her information on an 1875 Kansas State Census (different than the US) where Frank Wilkeson, the census taker, wrote that one of the people he reported on was a "loafer". Another one was a "blow hard". He didn't think much of them, did he?

Another site, RootsChat, listed the mother as "in childbirth" at the time the census was taken. Yet another one listed the head of the household and then a woman's name with mistress after it, instead of the typical entry of wife. Each of the children were listed as the son or daughter of the mistress. Another listed the lady of the house as a concubine.

These are just a few of the interesting things you will find in the census records. Take some time and look for some of your relatives. You never know what little fun facts you might uncover.
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1Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940 (1985), p. 171

The Things that Make Me "Me"

Today is the first anniversary of this blog. I can't believe that I started it a year ago! And as it turns out, this is also the 50th entry. It has been a fun experience and one that has allowed me to share a lot of my family history with my children and others. I hope to pull it all together in book form one day, to share with generations to come, but I still have tales to tell.  

Clara Jean Garrison Hatch, Feb 10, 1939-Aug 21, 1991

Today would have been my mom's 77th birthday.  I started this blog because she passed away at such a young age and there were so many questions I wish I had asked her about her family and her years growing up.  So I set out to make sure my kids, and theirs, would know about her and all the rest of their family.  The blog has been a great way to share all I have found.  Happy Birthday Mom!

I went to see my son and family this past weekend and when I travel to their home, I listen to a lot of podcasts from some of my favorite genealogy gurus. I was listening to Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems Podcast, and heard about a contest she had (it ended in December) that consisted of writing a poem about "Where I'm From." My mind immediately started racing and I knew I would have to take a few minutes and try this out for myself. 

The idea came from George Ella Lyon, the poet laureate of Kentucky, who was a guest on Lisa's show that day. George Ella wrote a poem on her own family identity, which has inspired people around the world to do the same.  Click here for her website and poem.  I thought it was a really fun idea and that I would take a stab at it. 

Where I’m From

I am from the shadows below Mount Rushmore
the sandhills of North Carolina
the big dunes of Michigan
the northern lights of Alaska
a one square mile base in Pakistan
the Show Me State of Missouri

and the home of the Alamo in Texas.

I am big sister to two brothers,
mom to Steph and Chip,
Mimi to my grandkids,
and wife to my wonderful husband, John.

I am from Grandma’s persimmon pudding and applesauce cake
and mom’s homemade enchiladas and pies.

I am from the Garrison, Hatch, Hayworth, and Marley bunch.
From coffee drank from saucers and applesauce in oatmeal.
From big family reunions and
games like Kick the Can and Capture the Flag.

I am from a family that came to America, from England, in 1699.
Who ran mills and farms and fought in wars.

I am from a family of golf, a grandfather who worked the courses 

and a mom who played them.

I am from snow and homemade igloos,

from Scotch-Guarded jeans and old skis,

bumpy ice rinks and ice hockey with brooms.

Zucchini that was grown during the summer in Alaska.

I am from earthquakes that shake,

volcanoes that blow, 

and veggies and flowers that grow huge,

thanks to the Midnight Sun. 

From campgrounds with tents and later a camper 

and walks through streams with our own pair of waders.

I’m from Jim who served his country around the world
and Jean who took care of us, through it all.

I am an Air Force brat, moving lots,
making new friends, leaving those friends.
Hard at the time, but grateful now.

I love playing in the dirt, watching things grow.
Working on my family tree,
creating things through cross stitch,
and seeing new places in the world.

I am blessed beyond measure and can’t wait to see 

what God has planned for my future.

That was fun!  I challenge each of you to come up with a little poem of "Where You Are From" and share it here in the comments!  It sure brought back a lot of wonderful memories for me.  Hope it does the same for you.  

Until next time...

Goldston, Chatham County, North Carolina

My Grandmother Hatch (Ola Mae Marley Hatch) graduated from Goldston High School in 1925. While on our trip through North Carolina, we decided to try to find where the high school was located. We had no idea where it was, just that it was in Goldston. So when we arrived we decided we should probably ask someone for help directions. Goldston is not very big. Population, according to Wikipedia is only 268. The downtown area is quaint but small. We were limited on where to go to seek someone's help.  


We saw a little local diner and figured there might be people there that could help us. We went in and scoped out someone that looked like they might be a local who would know the area. There was a very nice lady sitting there, who looked like she was quite comfortable in the setting, so we walked up to her and asked if she knew the location of the high school. She was so nice and proceeded to tell us that she could give us directions to where the school used to be! What? It wasn't there anymore? Another one of those disappointing moments along the trek we have embarked upon.  The sad thing was, she seemed very disappointed that the school had been torn down.  She said the community was not happy about the teardown, but it was not in good enough shape to leave standing.  

Some of the old buildings in Goldston, NC.

When we arrived at the location she had given us, there was not a trace of the main building.  We had a picture which kind of gave us an idea of the setting and there was a big smokestack in the background that could serve as a landmark, but that was gone too.  

Goldston High School.
Picture from the 1948 Gold-Stone Yearbook. (1)

We drove around the block a couple times before we found the actual site and the way we found it was the rock retaining wall that ran along the road in front of the building, as seen in the picture to the right. We got out and walked around the property.   All we could find was where the cafeteria had been (next to the current fire station) and a path that led to it.  The skeleton of the awning that ran between the school and the cafeteria was still standing, giving us an idea of how it was laid out.  

Original retaining wall in front of
what was the old Goldson High School.

The sidewalk that led to the front of the building was still visible, which is sort of visible in the middle of this picture, above the road, behind the wall.    

At the time of the picture of the school, there were very few trees in the front but the area had grown up a lot.  The location was just outside the downtown area and sat at the crossroads of several towns.  It is a beautiful area.  There wasn't a lot out there either, which made it a great location for a school  

Before the high school was torn down, they converted it from a high school to an elementary school.  

The High School was changed into an elementary school
before being torn down.  You can see the
smokestack is still in the background.

We left Goldston with a slight sadness that the school was no longer there.  We were finding that many things are not as they were in the time our family lived in these small little towns.  But we weren't going to let that deter us. We headed off to find our next landmark, which was Bear Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery and Harpers Crossroads, home of my Great Grandparents.  What would we find there?

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(1) From the Gold-Stone High School Yearbook of 1948, The Graphic Press, Inc., Raleigh, NC. From the Classmates.com website.

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

Tombstones and Graveyards and Churches, Oh My!

At the Family Reunion with cousins Linda 
Garrison Sessoms (l) and Kolby Garrison (r) and
her precious guide dog Amelia.

I had the opportunity, recently, to attend the Garrison Family Reunion, in Wilmington, NC.  This is my mom's side of the family and as I have mentioned in prior blogs, she was one of 12 children, which produced many grand and great grand children.  Unfortunately, only two of the 12 are still with us but both were at the reunion!  What a blessing that was!  There were probably 35 or so relatives there, which is a smaller number than when we had the reunion years ago, but still a great turnout, considering how busy everyone's lives are.

We had the reunion at my cousin's house which had the perfect backyard for such an event.  It was a gorgeous day and everyone had a great time.  We talked about reunions of the past, and special memories of those we have lost.  It was so nice to see everyone. Thanks to my three cousins, Delores, Debi and Gwen, who put it together.

One of the subjects we discussed was our family history, the genealogy we have worked on, and trying to find out who the father of my Great, Great Grandfather John Wesley Garrison really was. Several of us have looked into it and have found no definitive answer, but more on that in a later blog.

Mittie Hayworth Garrison's family home, before it was 
taken down.   The gentleman who owned it was going 
to renovate but must have thought it was too far gone.  

Our first adventure, after the reunion, was to try to find my grandmother's family home near High Point, NC.  We had an address, put it into the GPS and off we went.  Sadly, when we arrived at the address, we realized that they had recently torn it down.  You can't image the sadness when we made that discovery. Thank goodness, my cousin Anne and my Aunt Gladys had visited there not long ago and taken some pictures, so we do have a visual record.  After leaving the location where Grandma's home had been, we started hitting the cemeteries that were close by, where some of my relatives were buried.  

I had always heard tales of Abbott's Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery and how beautiful the tombstones were.  The way they were intricately carved, showed pride and workmanship by the person who created them.  Unfortunately, many were very old and well covered with moss or lichen, which made them very difficult to read.  Some of the different styles are shown above.  

It was cold and rainy that day and my husband was a real trooper, marching through the graveyards with me, during that week of Halloween. We visited about six cemeteries that day, including two where my Quaker relatives were buried, Deep River Friends Meeting (est. 1754) and Springfield Friends Meeting (est. 1773). The gravesites we visited in these two places went back to the 1700's and 1800's. 

While visiting the Springfield Friends, and looking for Micajah Haworth's gravesite, I met the new Pastor, who had just started weeks before.  He was a very nice man and was very helpful in helping us locate the tombstone. He also gave me the name of someone higher up, should I need further help in the future.  

I couldn't make it to all the cemeteries that day, but I got to a lot of them and enjoyed seeing many of the family plots for myself.  It became obvious, very quickly, that I could spend weeks, trekking around the state, walking through many more burial grounds. But that will have to take place at a different time.  I will share more about this fact finding trip in the next blog.  Needless to say, being this close to where my family members lived, just reignited the fire to find those elusive, long lost relatives!