Back to Blogging

I've been away from blogging for the past few months, but next week I plan to resume posting here.  Although I haven't written posts for some time, I have not stopped researching. So watch for information about results of some recent Porter DNA testing and all about contacts from new cousins. 

Surname Saturday - Are We Related?

Surnames I am researching, along with known migration paths, are listed below.  If you are researching the same names, I would love hearing from you. Who knows, we may be cousins!

Atwood - SC>GA>AL>Carroll CO MS

Baldridge - PA>NC>TN>Carroll CO MS

Baskin - NC>TN>Carroll CO MS

Branch - VA>NC>TN>Attala CO MS

Coggins - NC>SC>GA>AL>Holmes CO MS

Fenner - RI>NC>SC>GA>AL>Wilkinson CO MS

Gibson - VA>NC>SC>TN>Monroe CO MS>Calhoun CO MS

Garrard - VA>NC>SC>GA>AL>Holmes CO MS

Marble - NC>SC>GA>AL>Adams Co MS

Merriwether - VA>NC>SC>AL>Tallahatchie CO MS>Carroll CO MS

Middleton - VA>NC>SC>AL>Adams CO MS>Franklin CO MS

Motte - Ireland>Antigua B.W.I.>SC (with some descendants in Franklin Co MS)

Netherland - VA>NC>SC>GA>AL>Wilkinson CO MS

Pettus - VA>NC>SC>GA>AL>Holmes CO MS

Porter - PA>VA>NC>SC>AL>Franklin CO MS>Attala CO MS

Ragland - VA>NC>SC>AL>Wilkinson CO MS>Hinds CO MS>Attala CO MS

Stampley - VA>SC>AL>Adams CO MS

Trigleth - VA>NC>SC>AL>Holmes CO MS

Williams (AL>TN>Monroe CO MS)

Wordless Wednesday - Old Branch House, Newport, Mississippi

Photo From Private Collection

Old Branch House
Newport, Mississippi

"The Diary of a Southern Lady," by Katharine M. Jones

Recently, I agreed to publish a copy of a press release for one of my readers, Katharine M. Jones, announcing the publication of her new book, "The Diary of a Southern Lady." In her book, Ms. Jones, the great, great granddaughter of Georgina Barrett Devlin,  reveals the contents of a previously unpublished diary of a young immigrant mother who lived in the towns of Winona and Yazoo City, Mississippi. Interestingly, the diary covers a sixty-year period of time that includes the Civil War and documents the many changes in transportation during the mid-1800s and the early 1900s.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Previously Unpublished 1852-1912 Diary Now Available

Yazoo City, MS, November 4, 2011 -- In 1852, Georgina Barrett Devlin was a young immigrant from London with small children, living in Yazoo City, Mississippi. She began keeping a journal, at first sporadically but then consistently, almost every day for the rest of her longlife. Now this diary, titled The Diary of a Southern Lady, set in Yazoo City and Winona  and transcribed and edited by her great, great granddaughter, Katharine Jones, has been published by Create Space and is available on Amazon. Early in this period of sixty years she recounts her experiences during the Civil War, when Yankee forces came to her house and she took the children to hide in the woods. After her husband's Yazoo City store burned, the family moved to Winona, Mississippi, where they lived for several years, and then moved back to Yazoo City. In the course of her life story, the reader will read of traveling by stage, then by railroad, by trolley, and by 

automobile. The education of her children and grandchildren is a constant theme. They were at first taught at home or in small neighborhood schools, but were later sent away to boarding schools and colleges as far afield as Tennessee, Virginia, and even Canada. She was interested in the religious and social movements of the day, including Christian Science and Swendenborgian philosophy. And in her later years, her aches and pains and the treatments of the day became more and more important to her. Well footnoted, this diary will be of interest to historians and students of Southern history, theC ivil War and the development of rural and small town life, as well as to the general public.

The Diary of a Southern Lady is available at Createspace.com/3546438, on ww.Amazon.com, or by contacting the author at wjones146@comcast.net.

###

Contact Information for the author is:
Katharine M. Jones
Telephone: 540-686-7285
Email: wjones146@comcast.net
Mailing address: 146 Stuart Drive
Winchester, VA 22602

Mississippi Index of Wills 1800 - 1900

Yesterday, I received my newest Mississippi genealogy reference book.  Entitled "Mississippi Index of Wills 1800 - 1900," and compiled by Betty Couch Wiltshire, the book was published in 1989 by Heritage Books, Inc. of Bowie, Maryland. Wiltshire's compilation, an invaluable reference for family history researchers everywhere, contains a master index listing testators to over 10,000 wills filed in Mississippi during a 100-year period.  The alphabetical index also includes the date each will was filed for probate, the county in which it was filed, and the reference number for the documents filed. Often, the examination of an ancestor's will can provide a family researcher with names of other family members previously unknown to the researcher, and may clarify questions about relationships within a family. Wiltshire's other genealogical reference works include "Carroll County, Mississippi Abstracts of Wills, 1834-1875, and Divorces 1857-1875," "Marriages and Deaths from Mississippi Newspapers, Volume I: 1837-1837," "Marriages and Deaths from Mississippi Newspapers Volume 2: 1801-1850," and Marriages and Deaths from Mississippi Newspapers Volume 3: 1813-1850."

The Elusive Gibsons - The Search Continues

Early this week, I opened my email to find a note from another Gibson family researcher wanting to share information.  It certainly didn't take me very long to answer with a definite "yes."  Now, after several days of  passing information back and forth, each of us is convinced there must be more than one line of Gibson families that lived in South Carolina before migrating elsewhere. Some individuals who are on our genea-radar screens are the descendants of Jacob Gibson and his wife Judith Napier who lived near Fairfield, South Carolina, including their son, Joseph L. Gibson.  Joseph married Lydia Rutland before leaving South Carolina for Tennessee, and finally moved his family to Monroe County, Mississippi, where each later died.  Interestingly, this Joseph L. Gibson, or possibly his son by the same name, posted a marriage bond amounting to $500 when John P. Gibson (my brick wall) married Margaret J. Williams on January 3, 1843.  John and Margaret Gibson were my third-great-grandparents who later moved to the Cherry Hill Community of Calhoun County, Mississippi and likely died in Carroll County. 

Wordless Wednesday - St. Mary Catholic Church, Yazoo City, Mississippi

Photo by Father Lincoln Dall, Parish Priest
St. Mary Catholic Church
Yazoo City, Mississippi

Photo by Father Lincoln
St. Mary Catholic Church
Yazoo City, Mississippi