March 13, 2013
This one is fun on so many levels!
This is my father in what he calls a P. I. hat and shoulder holster with toy gun—probably a Christmas present around 1962. I think it’s the actual outfit that keeps throwing me—in particular the pattern of his sweater? And I’m pretty sure that’s my oldest uncle grinning in the background.
I believe this photo is taken near their home in the Brewster-Douglas Housing Project in Detroit, MI.
Happy hunting,
Jess
March 6, 2013
So, I’m hoping we’ve hit the end of weather like this. Here are my Mom (the tallest) and her siblings outside my Great Grandfather’s house in Rockford, MI sometime in the mid to late 1950s.
Happy hunting,
Jess
February 27, 2013
I am currently experiencing home hardware issues but I still couldn’t miss Wordless Wednesday.
This is my mother’s unintentional version of the Victorian Hidden Mother—which I learned about at the blog The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things.
That’s my brother and I (and Mom behind the tree) on the Michigan State University Campus.
Happy hunting,
Jess
February 20, 2013
Someone’s birthday is this week!
Happy hunting,
Jess
February 14, 2013
So my Gran has managed to cram a whole lot of life events into one week and today’s is the anniversary of her making a slightly more honest man of my Step-Grandfather, Donald Keen. They tied the knot on Valentine’s Day at The Hitching Post, in Las Vegas, NV in 2001 after about 17 years together.
Happy hunting,
Jess
February 13, 2013
This young lady’s celebrating her birthday this week!
Happy Birthday, Grandma!
Happy hunting,
Jess
February 12, 2013
I’m pretty sure this site was brought to my attention in a presentation by Tony Burroughs at FGS2011.
One of the sites I recommended in my WMGS presentation on African American research was the Digital Library on American Slavery, a joint project between the Race and Slavery Petitions Project and the Electronic Resources and Information Technology Department of University Libraries at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is a searchable database of slaves and slave owners mentioned in petitions presented to legislatures across 15 southern states between 1775 and 1867. The material is searchable by Name (first or last), States, and keywords within the petitions.
I’ve searched a both slave names and owners and I have actually hit on the major landowners that I suspect owned members of my family—like John R. Hampton, who is listed as a defendant in an 1853 Bradley County petition. I tried searching for my 2nd Great Grandfather Sandy York in the hopes that “Sandy” was a rare enough name. As it happens it is relatively common but in the three pages of hits there was only one in the database for Arkansas. I really wanted him to be mine. I mean… look at the information that came with this record!
A whole slave household with owner information and a long list of source documents related to the petition!
It could theoretically have been Sandy—who knows what last name a slave might have taken or been given—but when you have a lead (or, in this case, faint hope) make sure you follow that person out to determine their line and if it might actually overlap with yours.
This turned out to be Sandy Hopkins of Sevier County, AR who still lived in that county at the time of the 1870 Census when I know Sandy York was already settled in Bradley County. Don’t make the mistakes I have seen all over “the Internets”… really test out theories. Don’t just add whatever you find to your tree—study the information and try to verify it.
Oh and if you have any Hopkins relatives in Sevier County, AR, check out to this site soon.
Happy hunting,
Jess
