Neighbors on the Census and New River Notes

So I was filling out my family group sheets, minding my own business, when I opened up a census record from 1850 I had categorized for Richard Wright, father of Sarah Ann Wright. That was when I noticed another set of names that I didn't expect to see.

1850 Census for Grayson County, VA--Note families of Richard Wright and James Williams

Richard Wright's next-door neighbors are James Williams, his wife Priscilla and their children. His daughter Margaret Williams was the one who married James P.W. McKenzie. I haven't had any sort of documentation for Margaret Williams' family at all--and suddenly I find her family next door to some ancestors I already had?

So I started working it out on paper, and after several minutes finally figured out what didn't seem right... 

That's right. Stephen Bartlett and Emma McKenzie were already related when they got married. His grandmother and her grandfather were siblings.

When I was putting the information for these individuals in my Ancestry.com family tree, I discovered that I already had some information for Mary Polly Williams. I had copied the maiden name "Webb" from some tree on Ancestry.com back when I thought that was a good idea, so I set out to see what I could document.

A crucial source in helping me to do this was New River Notes, a fantastic resource which documents the history of several southwestern counties in Virginia and northwestern North Carolina. The fabulous historians behind that site have done an excellent job of sharing their wealth of records, knowledge, and expertise. I run into their digitization everywhere in my research, and their site provides access to records that either no longer exist, or would be inaccessible in any other way.

The 1850 census was the one that roused my suspicion that there might be some inbreeding going on, so I decided to fill in more of the blanks using Heritage Quest. While that resource is free through most public libraries, and I find their search feature superior despite its simplicity, their image quality certainly leaves a lot to be desired. I usually check FamilySearch for more pristine copies once I know exactly what I'm looking for.

James Williams and family on the 1860 Grayson County, VA Census

Richard Wright and family on the 1860 Grayson County, VA Census

Families of Richard Wright and James Williams appear on the same page for the 1870 Census of Grayson County, VA

Richard Wright and family on the 1880 Census for Grayson County, VA

James Williams on the 1880 Census for Grayson County. Note that his wife Priscilla has died, and he lives with his son Greenberry

The next stop for me was to start looking for burial information. Here's where New River Notes enters.

They have digitized copies of the Wright and Williams cemeteries which fill in crucial details on parents and relationships. This website possess more information at this time than FindAGrave.com does. I filled in some of the blanks for my ancestors, and put in some photo requests. I'll be happy if I see results from those. But they provided the parental information I need to begin documenting the relationship between James Williams and Mary Polly Williams.

Their parents are Henry Williams and Sarah Kinworthy. I'm looking forward to exploring more to see what I can find on them. Their line is coming to the point where they either have to jump the pond soon, or I'm simply going to run out of records. I'm always excited to see which one it turns out to be.

So, moral of the story: Pay attention to neighbors on the census records you collect. You may be related to them. And if you pay even closer attention, you may discover that you're related to them twice.

The Dead End List

Today I did something a little different. I made a Dead End List, in which I wrote down all of my ancestors that have been dead ended for far too long. Then underneath each name, I wrote the greatest road block and the next step for each person. I was totally honest with myself and came up with a list of seven people, all women.

• Mary McDaniel
• Lillian Belle Bennett
• Annie G. Rorer
• Catherine Fenity
• Sarah Ann Bartlett
• Birdie M. Doyle
• Lavina F. Loveless

The consensus for most of them was that I needed to start searching for marriage records, or do more research on children or siblings to find any missing information. So I went to Familysearch.org to search among the freebie records to see what I could find.

I discovered a marriage record for Mary's daughter Vestena, which brings me one step closer to finding her. Searches for her other children yielded no results for now.

Sarah Ann wasn't hard to find. Her marriage record to Thomas Gardner Bartlett appeared almost immediately, revealing that her maiden name is Wright. Included on the record were her parents Richard and Mary Wright, and her line continues to move.

But the victory of the day BY FAR was Birdie M. Doyle.

Doyle is her married name, and she has been stuck like that for YEARS! And when I say years, I'm talking since 2008. I started to lose hope that I would ever get enough information to find her parents.

So I went after records for a her oldest son, James H Doyle. And lo and behold, this was the answer I was searching for.

James Howard Doyle appeared immediately in a set of birth records from West Virginia. 

Upon further inspection of the image, I saw first that his father's full name was included. And my heart skipped a beat. Could it be that--

YES! Birdie's full name was there too! 

Birdie May Price

Price. PRICE! Talk about a pearl of great price, you fink of a last name you!

So I set off straightaway to see if I could FINALLY get a marriage record to appear, and--

DOUBLE WHAMMY! She appears!

And wouldn't you know it, that explains a lot!

I was never going to find this marriage record without Birdie's maiden name. I never would have thought to substitute Dale or Dayl for Doyle. And fortune among fortunes, Birdie's parents are included in this record too!

So, after a LONG wait and a lot of patient perseverance, George and Mary Price have finally joined my family tree.

This kind of breakthrough requires celebration. Allow me to play you the song of my people...

Success

I realized recently that my father's family has not been receiving equal time on this blog. I admit, this has largely been because I haven't had the same kinds of information to share. I don't have the same relationship with them as I do with my mother's family, so there aren't as many stories or pictures to share.

However, this has changed over the past few months, and I know I need to do a better job of sharing those finds.

Previously I've blogged about Pearl May Bartlett, and her family still produces the most amazing finds. I love researching them because it's through them that I feel like I continue to learn them most about myself.

As I have been using my new map tool more effectively, I have been focusing on finding cemeteries and headstones. While searching on FindaGrave.com, I made some great discoveries.

I already knew her father's name is Stephen Friel Bartlett. He's very well documented in my research through census records...

1910 Census

1920 Census, page 1

1920 Census, page 2

1930 Census

And when I searched FindAGrave for Stephen, it was enough good fortune that I found the cemetery photo...

Not to mention a photo of the headstone for him and his wife Emma Blair McKenzie...

But I managed to score something even more priceless that night when I stumbled upon that FindAGrave page result.

Stephen Friel Bartlett

A photo image of the man himself. Which, in turn led to...

Thomas Gardner Bartlett

A picture of his father, Thomas Gardner Bartlett...

With headstone photo. Which led to a picture of his wife...

Sarah Ann Wright Bartlett...

With her headstone photo as well.

I am still downloading and organizing much of the information provided by digital cemetery. But to me, the greatest finds in a discovery like this are always the photos of the person himself. To have a face to associate with the information I spent so much time gathering makes it all so much more tangible. I can imagine seeing this person, this face again in some distant future. I will know him when I see him, and I can greet him by name. In looking into the face of a photograph, I stop dealing with facts and I finally begin dealing with a person.

After a find like this, I couldn't have been more excited. But that was only the beginning.

To be continued...