Follow Friday -- Adding four to follow

This past week I added four blogs to my follow list. They weren't all new blogs...just new to me.

Byerly Family Connections via GeneaBloggers
There are no Byerlys in our family tree. While some of my husband's family originated in South Carolina, none came from Newberry County. No one in our family migrated to Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee nor Texas. Germany served only as a stop-over point in my maternal grandfather's family....So why am I following this blog? It was Teresa Barley's writing style that drew me in and made me want to read more.

Clue Wagon: via the Armchair Genealogist
While this blog was promoted for its About Me page, it was the clean and colorful design that drew me in initially. But what really did it for me was Lynn Palermo's link to Kerry Scott's post: What to do with a 547 - page Probate File. I had just received a 157 page Civil War Pension File and began a serialized Amanuensis Monday post to transcribe the file and work on analysis and collateral information. Kerry, however, just blew me out of the water with her enthusiasm and straight-forward approach.

NC Buffalo Soldiers: in a search for info on the 14th Regiment Heavy Artillery USCT
The other day I was head-long into a search for collateral information on The Winter of 1864 and the 14th Heavy Artillery USCT. I had received a phone call from the Buncombe County Public Libraries (BCPL) Inter-Library Loan Department...the microfilmed newspapers I was searching for could not be located on WorldCat.org as described in the Guide to Newspapers on Microfilm in the North Carolina State Archives (NCSA). One line of search after another led to my finding this interesting post [link provided above] regarding a white soldier who served as a member of the 2nd NC Infantry. I was surprised to find that these Infantrymen were called Buffalo Soldiers. So I Googled "Buffalo Soldiers" and came across the article: Eastern North Carolinians in the Union Army: The First and Second North Carolina Union Volunteer Regiments, by Dr. Donald E. Collins. This article has opened up a whole new line of inquiry, as I had always been told that the Buffalo Soldiers were African-American Calverymen who were involved in the Indian Wars in the Western Territory. However, Paul Branch, the Fort Macon historian, had also published an article entitled, Fort Macon as a Shelter for Buffaloes. But that will be the subject of another investigation at a later time. What kept me interested in this blog was the clear grave site photos combined with documentation, commentary and genealogy...

Provenance: from the Armchair Genealogist via GeneaBloggers
Finally, this blog touched upon a completely different sphere of interest for me...while the author's family had been victims of The Shoah (or, Holocaust), my family had fled the Russian Empire (now the areas of Vilnius & Kaunas, Lithuania) during the Pogroms of Czar Nicholas II. Judy Wilkenfeld's family history, as she presented it, brought tears to my eyes and tenderness to my heart. I left a comment on her post, and she promptly emailed me that her family had also originated in Kaunas. She recently made a genealogical trip to their homeland and gathered 65 documents. I am hoping that this new connection will help me to find that which first started me on my genealogical journey....

Honoring our Ancestors: Free Black Patriots of the Revolutionary War

When I was first contacted last October to assist in some research for a member of the DAR who was looking for the burial ground of her ancestor, Isaac Carter, I had no idea it would lead to such a wonderful tribute--with full honors--to our free black ancestors of Craven County, North Carolina. Nor would I have guessed that I would be meeting together with Ms. Maria William Cole, National Vice Chairman Insignia, of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and a host of other dignitaries, from the highest officials of the SAR to state and local political and community service leaders, to pay tribute to these patriots. The turnout exceeded my expectation when this event proceeded on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon, with close to a hundred and fifty people or more, seated on folding chairs under three canopy tents. The microphone cable lay along the wet grass and soon died out, and we, the speakers, were asked to use our "mother's voices" to make o...

How Family History Writing Forces Us to Dig DEEPER

February is Family History Writing Month During the month of February, I went on hiatus from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Carter in order to participate in the Family History Writing Challenge. My goal was quite ambitious, but I did succeed in setting up the framework of the family history memoir, and wrote a rough draft of the opening scenes. The memoir focuses on a promise I had made to our Cousin Hattie Carter Becton in an interview, following the the 2009 George Family Reunion in North Harlowe, North Carolina. In case you missed the Challenge, you can find the posts here . The site was developed especially for writing challenges, beginning with this year's; so, you may want to go back to the first posts in the archive. March was memoir reading, research & development month Last month I continued working on the writing, but also began focusing on webinars and YouTube videos related to writing memoir. Two really great sites are National Association of Memoir Writ...

Those Places Thursday -- Robert Livingston House, Little River, SC

In July of 2008 we attended the Prince Livingston Family Reunion in Wampee, Horry County, South Carolina (my husband's maternal family). During our down time we decided to take a drive through Little River where the plantation owner, Robert Livingston, had once lived. We inquired at the Visitor Center, and learned that the Robert Livingston House had been preserved as an historical landmark. The brochure we received listed several different sites that interested us, but the Livingston House was our first destination. We drove along Highway 17S and drove past the turn off for Lakeside Drive. At the next light we turned around and headed back down the highway until we came to the street. About two-thirds of the way down the road we saw a sign along the roadside: 19th Century Victorian Home for Sale. Was that the house? The number on the mail box was 4441. That's it! We got out of the car and looked around only to find that the owner was at home, and he was in the process...

In Black and White: Cross-Cultural Genealogy

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