Hi everyone! We are finally switching gears to a different line in the family today. I debated whether or not to just keep tracing the Cheathams backwards, or to finish up the same generation first by taking a look at the wives of W. C. and their families. I finally decided to do the latter.
Today we are going to start looking at Amelia Virginia Blackshear and her forebears. I am a bit worried that this line is going to be much more of a headache and much less satisfying than the research I did on W. C. Cheatham, for a few reasons:
Amelia Virginia died relatively young, while her children were all under the age of ten, so we pretty much have no stories passed down.
Amelia Virginia was a woman, which means there won't be too much about her in the public record.
Her father (and his father etc.) lived in an earlier time, so there are most likely fewer surviving primary source documents.Although there has been extensive time spent by researchers gathering oral histories and genealogical information about Blackshears in general, there really doesn't seem to be too many people out there with a wealth of information about our specific line.
I have a feeling that we will be left with a whole lot of question marks dangling over our heads when this is all done. But, hey, we'll see. My research into W. C. started with an entire string of dead ends before I started finally getting somewhere.
I would also like to mention that this will probably be much less cut and dry than the research into W. C.'s life. We started out with a pretty good framework for him, and then just had to fill in the blanks and answer specific questions. All of which we were able to do without too much entanglement with other family members. I can already tell that this is not going to be the case with the Blackshears, which has me stumped as far as how to organize things. Based on my preliminary research, I think I am going to have to do Amelia Virginia together with her parents and siblings, and then go backwards from there. Hopefully it won't be too confusing!
Okay. I think we'll start with the easy stuff. For the sake of consistency, let's begin by looking at what our family history has to say about the Blackshear line:
Well, not so much, then. We now know that some of the details found in this story about Amelia Virginia are incorrect (they lived in Lampasas in 1877, not Buffalo Gap, and she died in 1886, not 1885.) We know that she and W. C. were married in Robertson County, and that they lived there for about five years before they moved to Lampasas, where they lived for only three to four years before moving to Taylor County. We also found out that one and maybe two of her brothers were living near them in Taylor County for several years before she died. Finally, we know that she died "very suddenly" on the morning of January 8, 1886, when she was only about 35 years old.
But other than the comments about Amelia Virginia, the family history just says that the Blackshear name is probably Scotch and then tells us through which states our Blackshear ancestors migrated - nothing else about Amelia Virginia's family.
We do have a family data sheet in the back of the history that tells us this information, though:
Husband: Silas M. BLACKSHEAR
father: Jacob BLACKSHEAR mother: Judith MOORE
Wife: Sophena
Children:
Samantha
Melvina
Louisa
Seaborn Quincy
James M.
Amelia Virginia
Simeon Marshall
Harrison
If this is correct, in tells us that Amelia Virginia's father was named Silas M. Blackshear, and that her mother was named Sophena (maiden name unknown). It also tells us that she was the sixth of eight children.
I would like to remind you all that the research for the family history was done back in the 1980's, which was before the advent of the internet. Which means that people had to go to the county where an ancestor had lived and look through whatever volumes of old records were still surviving. Much of the information we have probably came from Perry Lynnfield Blackshear's 1954 book, Blacksheariana. From what I've seen, this book is somewhat like the Bible of Blackshear history. Meaning that it has been the definitive source for Blackshear genealogical research, which also means that everyone seems to take it as the gospel truth (even though it has numerous errors). During the 1990's, two brothers, Bob and Leon Blackshear, began an undertaking to make the out-of-print Blacksheariana available to researchers, as well as to collect information from Blackshears far and wide to add to the original work. I believe their compilation is currently called the "Blackshear Family History." I haven't been able to locate a copy of the new compilation (if anyone has it or knows where I can get it, please send me a message at the email address at the bottom of this page!), but the original work is available online to read or download. (You can find it here.) This is what it has to say about Amelia Virginia's family:
Excerpt from the Blacksheariana by Perry Lynnfield Blackshear
So, the sources for this information are listed at the end, and it looks like he used census records, a deed book, a grandaughter, a great nephew, and some attorney. There is a lot of information here, most of which seems to have come from the census records, but for now, lets just look at the names. They are all the same as what is on the family data sheet we have. I guess our information either came from the census records as well, or from the Blacksheariana.
Do you remember how, in one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that I have a big black binder of family research that was put together by someone in Elmer Cheatham's line? Well, it has some extra stuff in it: another child, some grandparents, and some middle names. Also, it gives death dates and has some variations on the birth dates. Here is a nifty chart that shows all of the information from the three (secondary) sources:
Husband:
|
Silas M. BLACKSHEAR
|
|
born
married
died
|
1811
or 1814 in Houston County, Georgia (1814)
|
|
c.
1836 (c. 1835, probably in Houston Co., Georgia) (1835 in GA)
|
||
c.
1860 ( in Anderson Co., TX) (Aft. 1860 in Anderson Co., TX)
|
||
Father: Jacob BLACKSHEAR
|
Mother: Judith MOORE
|
|
Wife:
|
Sophena (Sophenia GARRETT)
|
|
born
died
|
c.
1817 (in GA) (1816 in
GA)
|
|
1856
(Bef. 1858 in Anderson Co.,
TX)
|
||
Father: James GARRETT
|
Mother: Tabitha TARVER
|
|
Children:
|
||
(Frances Angeline)
|
(b. Feb. 1835 in Georgia, d. 1859 in Hood Co., TX)
|
|
Samantha
|
b.
1837 in GA (1836, d.1865 in TX)
|
|
Melvina (Tabitha Melvina)
|
b.
1839 in GA (11 May 1839, d.12 Nov 1909
in TX)
|
|
Louisa
|
b.
1840 in GA (1841)
|
|
(Coburn)
|
(b. 1842 in GA)
|
|
Seaborn
Quincy
|
b.
1842 in GA (20 Mar 1843, d.27 Sep 1927
in Hill Co., TX)
|
|
James
M.
|
b.
1845 in GA (d. Bet. 1851-1856 in TX)
|
|
Amelia
Virginia
|
b.
1849 in AR (1851, d. 8 Jan 1886 in
Buffalo Gap, TX)
|
|
Simeon
Marshall
|
b.
23 Jan 1853, d.12 Jun 1939 in TX (d. in Bailey
Co., TX)
|
|
Harrison (Harrison Malone)
|
b.
1856 in TX (d. 1898 in Coleman Co.,
TX)
|
|
(If you want to see this in a bigger font size, click here.)
The black is what we had in the family history, the green is additional information from the Blacksheariana (everything else is the same), and the red is from the black binder. The black binder had so much more (and different) information, which left me wondering, what documents did its researcher have that my grandmother did not? How was she able to pin down which of the two dates was correct for Silas Blackshear's birth date? (I'm guessing for the children, she might have used death certificates, but that wouldn't have been available for the father.)
You'll also notice that for Amelia Virginia's mother, she has changed the spelling on the first name and added a surname. All of these additions make it seem like maybe the black binder information is more reliable, doesn't it?
Well. It did have some significant errors for W. C. Cheatham and his children, and I can already see one glaring error for this family (I will point it out later), so I'm not so sure.
Another resource that we haven't look at yet are the family trees of other people. So let's see what the people on Ancestry are putting on their trees.
Let's start with Amelia Virginia's father. All eighteen public trees show him as Silas Malone Blackshear, born in 1811 in Houston County, Georgia. Hmmm. We now have a middle name, but a different choice of birth year. All show him getting married in 1835 (even though they all show his first child born in either 1835 or even 1834! - and nobody has used a "circa.") As for his death, they all say either 1860, or 21 Aug 1860, which is pretty specific, huh? As for the children, they are pretty consistent on dates, but some show an additional one or two children. Oh, and they all show the same parents for Silas if they show any at all.
Funny thing is, though, they all have exactly the same documents/source citations - 1850 and 1860 census, 1850 census agricultural schedule, 1860 census slave schedule, a Georgia property tax page, a death certificate from (what looks like) a grandson of Silas, and . . . . Ancestry member trees! (Two of the trees had all of these, and then each successive tree had less and less, with ten of them getting their information solely from other people's trees.) But that's not the really funny thing. The really funny thing is that none of the documents attached to any of these trees would tell exact birth dates, death dates, mother's maiden name, parents names, or the names of children who were both born and died between census years! So where did this information actually come from? And how do we know somebody didn't just come up with some erroneous facts and everybody else just copied them?
Now do you see why I hate to just copy other people's trees? How do we know which version is correct, or if any of them are at all?
Instead of just blindly trusting the "facts" that are floating around out there, let's start looking at those primary source documents and see what they tell us. In my first version of this post, I was doing a bunch of that dreaded census math, which I have decided to save until the end when we have to fill out our new and improved family data sheet. For now, let's just look at the basics, starting with the 1850 Census first, since that's the earliest one everyone is citing.
And here is a detail in case you don't want to enlarge the first image and have to look back and forth!
1850 U. S. Federal Census
Franklin, Union County, Arkansas
Silas M. Blackshear Family
Okay. I made a chart so we can compare what we already had with what the Census said:Silas M. Blackshear Family
Family History
|
Born:
|
1850 Census
|
Born:
|
Silas
M. Blackshear
|
GA
|
S. M.
Blackshear
|
GA
|
Sophena
|
GA
|
Sophena
|
GA
|
(Frances Angeline)
|
GA
|
*Frances
|
GA
|
Samantha
|
GA
|
Samantha
|
GA
|
(Tabitha) Melvina
|
GA
|
Malvina
|
GA
|
Louisa
|
GA
|
Louisa
|
GA
|
(Coburn)
|
GA
|
GA
|
|
Seaborn
Quincy
|
GA
|
Seaborn
Q.
|
GA
|
James
|
GA
|
James
M.
|
GA
|
Amelia
Virginia
|
AR
|
Amelia
V.
|
AR
|
Simeon
Marshall
|
TX
|
||
Harrison
(Malone)
|
TX
|
The names and birth places match our family history. As for the names in red, it gives no evidence for a Coburn or that Melvina's first name was actually Tabitha. As for the mysterious Frances Angeline, of whom the Blacksheariana wasn't even aware . . . if you look at the close-up of the census, the household right below this one has a young, childless married couple, and the wife's name is Frances. Her age fits with her being the oldest of the children, and so does her birth location, so it is a plausible scenario. Let me go see if I can find a marriage record for her, and maybe it will give us a clue that will help confirm the relationship. . . . Found it! Here is a detail from the record book - the bottom was cut off in the microfilm:
So, this marriage was between Silas Scarborough and Francis Angelino Blackshear. It took place on the 9th "Inst" (meaning of the same month - August) 1850, in Union County, Arkansas, which is where the census showed them living. That fits perfectly with the fact that she didn't have any children yet, since she had barely married the year the census was taken. This says that Frances was 15 years old (and that her parents gave permission for her to marry). The census shows her as being 16 years old. (Silas has the same one year discrepancy.) Now, her name was recorded on the census in November, so that would make perfect sense if she had her birthday in the interim, but the census was actually supposed to be reporting how old she was on June 1st of that year, in which case it doesn't work out right. However, I think it is perfectly reasonable to assume that some census takers were not very specific in their instructions, or that people just didn't listen very carefully, so I'm pretty sure this is the same person.
And now would be a good time to give a mini-lesson on the pitfalls of using census records for genealogical research. It just so happens that this Silas Scarborough, who was married to Frances and living next door to our Blackshear family, also appears on the 1850 census for Jackson Township in Union, Arkansas living with his parents. How could the same person be reported twice in different households? Well, if he didn't get married until August, he was probably still living with his parents in June. So when the census taker visited his parents' house and said, "Name everyone who was living here on June 1st," they named him as a member of their household. The problem is, the census taker was supposed to record every single household when he went around town. And in November, when he visited Franklin, Arkansas, Silas and Frances Angelina were their own household. So why was Frances not recorded twice? Who knows. Maybe her family was more aware that she would be recorded separately since they were living next door. Or maybe they just weren't paying attention to the instructions! (I wonder how many people in any given state were actually double recorded?)
Oh! And I just remembered that I had downloaded this page from Ancestry months ago:
This came from one of Silas Scarborough's grandsons. It shows Silas marrying one "F. A. Blackshire" who was born in Georgia on August 8, 1834. It then shows "1850," which the person who posted this is interpreting as the marriage date. Those dates match what was on the marriage record (The birth date given here for Silas puts him at the right age as well.), but is this proof that Frances Angelina belongs to our family? Especially because it shows a different spelling for her last name? Well, read what the Blacksheariana has to say about that:
In the American Colonies and later in the United States, the spelling of the name varied as numerously as in Britain, for example, the following have been documented, most of them blood kin: Blackshaw, — sha, — shar, — share, — shair, — sher, — shere, — shear, — sheare, — shir, — shire, — shier, — shiar, — shor, — shur, etc, etc.
In this collection, (negroes excepted), most of the American people named Blackshear or any variant, have descended from Robert Blackshaw, first documented as son of Thomas and Ellenor of Piscataway, N. J., 1677. The spelling of his name in land grants, deeds and other records dated during his life time varied between Blackshaw, 'shar, 'share, etc. No doubt the notaries, scribes, clerks and other officials spelled the name the way they heard it, leaving space for "His (R) Mark". The names of his sons, Randall, Thomas, and Alexander varied likewise and perhaps for the same reason. These variants continued until their descendants learned to write their own signatures and also to make their own choices, the most frequent choice being Blackshear.
The British pronunciation all but ignores the last syllable, making the name sound like Blackshr. Many American families are inclined to place small emphasis on the first syllable making the name sound like Blckshear, Blckshare or Blckshire, etc.
No great effort has been made in this compilation to reproduce the spelling used by any particular family, therefore some may find their names ending in some variant other than the one they use. The spelling does not in any way affect their connection with the other families who may use other variants.
My guess is that, even in the middle of the 1800's our family was still pronouncing it as Black'shr instead of Black-shear, since we will be seeing it spelled any number of ways on the primary source documents.
Now let's look at the 1860 Census and see if tells us anything different:
And, again, just the portion with our family:
1860 U. S. Federal Census
Beat 5, Anderson County, Texas
Silas M. Blackshear Family
Silas M. Blackshear Family
We can see that, ten years later, Amelia Virginia's mother, two older sisters, and a brother were missing, but that two brothers had been added to the family. The information for Simeon and Harrison match what was recorded in the family history. And our Amelia Virginia is just being called Virginia (we'll see this again later).
Now, did you notice the third child listed? This census is why the black binder researcher thought there was a child named "Coburn" - because the census taker spelled "Seaborn" as "C burn" with a long tail on the "b." (That first part is just silly. As for the born vs. burn, I think we sometimes forget that they would have had some kind of accent, being from Georgia and Arkansas and then Texas, so maybe that's just how they pronounced it. While we're on the topic, I've noticed that a lot of family trees - even the one from someone whom I'm suspecting is descended directly from him - spell his name as "Seaburn." We will see later on that there is a surviving document with his own signature on it, so we'll get that straightened out in (maybe) my next post!) Anyway, "Coburn" can now be stricken from our chart.
As for the missing family members, I would suspect that the mother had died, the sisters had married, and the brother had also died, since he would have been a bit young to have been out on his own. I see that the black binder gave a death year between 1851 and 1856 for James, so we'll have to see if we find some kind of document that would give us that date range.
Oh! Guess what I just noticed? I found a marriage index on Ancestry that said that Samantha Blackshear married one John Rogers in 1857 in Anderson County, Texas. Well, look back up at the census record (the full page, because I didn't notice this before I snipped the detail). Right below the family is a John Rogers married to an "S" who was born in the right place and whose age is more or less accurate. So I'm pretty sure that's what happened to Samantha.
And here is a detail of her marriage record in case anyone is interested (it took a lot of work finding this!)
Two things I'd like to point out: First, if you notice, Frances Angelina's father-in-law was the one who performed the marriage rites. And second, at least one of the Texas Marriage Index collections on Ancestry (there are several with the same records in them) have this marriage listed as taking place on the 4th of July, when in fact it took place on the 5th of July. This is why finding the original documents is so important!
A lot of the Ancestry family trees have two more census records attached - the 1850 Census Non-Population Schedule (Agriculture) and the 1860 Census Slave Schedule. Neither one of those are going to tell us anything at all about the children, so I am going to save them for later.
If you recall, the Blacksheariana said that it used the 1830, 1840, and 1870 censuses as sources. (Interestingly enough, not one tree on Ancestry has any of those attached.) So I am going to look for those right now, starting with the 1870 census, since the earlier ones only list the name of the head of household. Be back in a bit!
Okay, so I looked through all 134 pages (over 1500 families!) for Anderson County, Texas, which is what Perry Blackshear cited as his source, and I didn't find Silas or any of his children. I don't know what exactly he thought this told him (maybe this was his proof of death?), since all it tells me is that the family probably no longer lived in Anderson County. (I say probably because, although there were no missing pages, that doesn't mean particular families were not overlooked, especially since I did a surname search for all of Texas for 1870 and didn't come across even one of the children, so either the search tool is completely worthless, or none of them were recorded, which means the lack of Silas is not really proof that he had already died.)
So now, let's look at the 1840 census. It won't tell us names or ages of specific individuals - just how many females in a certain age category, etc., but we can still look to see if he had two, three, or four little girls, which should indicate whether we have the right family, and if so, if Frances Angeline is really a missing child.
I actually found this using the search tool on Ancestry (which is really weird, because the website never gave me a hint saying this document is out there). The search tool only came up with twelve Blackshears total for Georgia that year, only one of whom was named Silas, so this is probably our guy. (I know, I know, I just said two paragraphs ago that the search tool was probably worthless, so while proofreading this post I actually went back and read through all of the pages for Stewart County and Twiggs County - which is where he was probably born - and only found four other Blackshears total, some of whom were probably Silas' siblings.)
Let's check and see if the numbers make sense for the family. This is what it shows:
MALES
|
FEMALES
| |||
Number
|
Age
|
Number
|
Age
| |
1
|
Under 5
|
3
|
Under 5
| |
1
|
30 to 39
|
1
|
5 to 9
| |
1
|
70 to 79
|
1
|
20 to 29
| |
1
|
70 to 79
| |||
The instructions for the census state that they were only supposed to list persons who were a part of the household as of June 1st of that year. That means that any child born after June 1st would not be included, even though the data for this county was recorded in October. (Later censuses were very specific as to how age was supposed to be reported, but from what I can tell, this one was not, so there may be some slight inconsistencies.)
Let's check the parents first. According to the ages on the later censuses, Silas would have been about 26 or 27 in 1840, and Sophena would have been about 23. So her age fits, but his does not. This might still be our guy, though - maybe he was a bit like W. C. Cheatham and couldn't seem to remember exactly how old he was from one day to the next (actually, I think I'm getting to that point)! Let's see if the other family members fit.
The Blacksheariana states that Silas had both of his parents living with him in 1840, and this record does show both a male and female in their 70's, so I'm pretty sure that he was accepting this to be our Silas' family.
Let's check the parents first. According to the ages on the later censuses, Silas would have been about 26 or 27 in 1840, and Sophena would have been about 23. So her age fits, but his does not. This might still be our guy, though - maybe he was a bit like W. C. Cheatham and couldn't seem to remember exactly how old he was from one day to the next (actually, I think I'm getting to that point)! Let's see if the other family members fit.
The Blacksheariana states that Silas had both of his parents living with him in 1840, and this record does show both a male and female in their 70's, so I'm pretty sure that he was accepting this to be our Silas' family.
Now for the kids. There was a son born between 1835 and 1840 who is not on the 1850 census, which would mean that he had died by then. (Nobody has a missing boy on their tree as one of the first four children, so does that mean that nobody is accepting this as the right family? Now I feel like I need to go back and look through all of the records page by page and see if there is another Silas Blackshear who has been overlooked. Okay, forget that. I just looked up Georgia on the FamilySearch website and there were like 100 counties I would have to look through! Buuuuut, the Blacksheariana was accepting this as the right family and it doesn't even mention the boy, so maybe people just aren't paying enough attention to what they are doing. Or am I the one making a mistake? Somebody tell me if this is the case!!)
This record also shows four daughters in 1840 - three under the age of 5, and one between 5 and 9. This fits exactly with the ages on both the 1850 and 1860 census records, and lets us place Frances Angeline as one of their children.
Just to double-check, I did a census and census substitute search for 1840 and 1850 looking for an S. Blackshear who was born in Georgia, and the two records we have looked at here are the only ones that came up (the search even returns results for alternate spellings, so . . . ), and even though we've seen that that the search tool often misses things, it didn't find anyone else with a first name starting with "S" until 1880. I'm pretty confident, then, that this is our guy.
Okay. So now, let's take a look at the 1830 census. It is very unlikely that Silas would have been the head of his own household in that year, and good ol' Perry Blackshear said he was living with his parents, so I am going to look up Jacob Blackshear and see if the search tool finds him. Yep. And once again, there were only twelve Blackshears in the whole of Georgia recorded that year, so if the dates work, this should be the right family.
Jacob Blackshear is shown eight lines down. There were only three members of the household - one male and one female both between the age of 60 and 69, which matches what we found on the 1840 census. Then, there was one son, between the age of 15 and 19, which almost matches what the 1840 census reported for Silas' age, and matches what both the 1850 and 1860 census records report for his age. So I think it is pretty obvious that the 1830 and 1840 records are for the same family, and I think it is more than likely that it is also the same family as in the 1850 and 1860 records that we know for sure are the right ones.
Well, looking through the census records always sounds like such a good place to start, and I guess it is if you are starting completely from scratch, but I'm coming to realize that using them for research is actually far from easy!
In review, this is the picture we can draw of Amelia Virginia's family so far:
Amelia Virginia was the eighth of (probably) ten children. She had four sisters and five brothers, but did not grow up with three of those siblings. Her mother died sometime before Amelia Virginia turned nine, and her father dropped off the radar sometime before 1870. As of now, we don't know what became of the children when (if?) their father died, and we don't know where any of them were living in 1870. The family started out in Georgia, moved to Arkansas, and then ended up in Texas.
Next time, we'll talk more about the family's migration, and take a closer look at the census records to see what they can tell us about what life might have been like for the family while Amelia Virginia was growing up.
Oh, and I'm going to try writing shorter posts from now on so that I can finish them up and get them out to you sooner. (My plan isn't working out so well so far - when I had this post nearly finished I decided I wanted to take things in a different direction, so I did a bunch of cutting and rewriting, only to decide that it was better to leave it kind of the way I had it before, so I did more cutting and rewriting, only to discover that the supposed easy stuff - the census records - were posing so many problems that things were becoming far from easy, so I decided to take things in a different direction again and break the post into two entirely different ones!) Hopefully, you shouldn't have to wait more than two weeks at a time to get something new from now on.
- Therese
By the way, it has come to my attention that some of you who used the "subscribe by email" button at the top of the blog are no longer getting the posts emailed to you. I am going to try sending out notification invitations, so we'll see if that works any better! If not, and you would like me to just send you an email update myself each time I publish a post, you can let me know by sending me an email at the address shown on the bottom left of this blog!
This record also shows four daughters in 1840 - three under the age of 5, and one between 5 and 9. This fits exactly with the ages on both the 1850 and 1860 census records, and lets us place Frances Angeline as one of their children.
Just to double-check, I did a census and census substitute search for 1840 and 1850 looking for an S. Blackshear who was born in Georgia, and the two records we have looked at here are the only ones that came up (the search even returns results for alternate spellings, so . . . ), and even though we've seen that that the search tool often misses things, it didn't find anyone else with a first name starting with "S" until 1880. I'm pretty confident, then, that this is our guy.
Okay. So now, let's take a look at the 1830 census. It is very unlikely that Silas would have been the head of his own household in that year, and good ol' Perry Blackshear said he was living with his parents, so I am going to look up Jacob Blackshear and see if the search tool finds him. Yep. And once again, there were only twelve Blackshears in the whole of Georgia recorded that year, so if the dates work, this should be the right family.
Jacob Blackshear is shown eight lines down. There were only three members of the household - one male and one female both between the age of 60 and 69, which matches what we found on the 1840 census. Then, there was one son, between the age of 15 and 19, which almost matches what the 1840 census reported for Silas' age, and matches what both the 1850 and 1860 census records report for his age. So I think it is pretty obvious that the 1830 and 1840 records are for the same family, and I think it is more than likely that it is also the same family as in the 1850 and 1860 records that we know for sure are the right ones.
Well, looking through the census records always sounds like such a good place to start, and I guess it is if you are starting completely from scratch, but I'm coming to realize that using them for research is actually far from easy!
In review, this is the picture we can draw of Amelia Virginia's family so far:
Amelia Virginia was the eighth of (probably) ten children. She had four sisters and five brothers, but did not grow up with three of those siblings. Her mother died sometime before Amelia Virginia turned nine, and her father dropped off the radar sometime before 1870. As of now, we don't know what became of the children when (if?) their father died, and we don't know where any of them were living in 1870. The family started out in Georgia, moved to Arkansas, and then ended up in Texas.
Next time, we'll talk more about the family's migration, and take a closer look at the census records to see what they can tell us about what life might have been like for the family while Amelia Virginia was growing up.
Oh, and I'm going to try writing shorter posts from now on so that I can finish them up and get them out to you sooner. (My plan isn't working out so well so far - when I had this post nearly finished I decided I wanted to take things in a different direction, so I did a bunch of cutting and rewriting, only to decide that it was better to leave it kind of the way I had it before, so I did more cutting and rewriting, only to discover that the supposed easy stuff - the census records - were posing so many problems that things were becoming far from easy, so I decided to take things in a different direction again and break the post into two entirely different ones!) Hopefully, you shouldn't have to wait more than two weeks at a time to get something new from now on.
- Therese
By the way, it has come to my attention that some of you who used the "subscribe by email" button at the top of the blog are no longer getting the posts emailed to you. I am going to try sending out notification invitations, so we'll see if that works any better! If not, and you would like me to just send you an email update myself each time I publish a post, you can let me know by sending me an email at the address shown on the bottom left of this blog!
No comments:
Post a Comment