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Black and Gold and Purple

Note: This is more of a football post than a genealogy post but it is a family story! Originally written six years ago, I tried to get it published but couldn’t get the attention of either a Pittsburgh or a Baltimore publisher. But now that I have…

Note:  This is more of a football post than a genealogy post but it is a family story!  Originally written six years ago, I tried to get it published but couldn’t get the attention of either a Pittsburgh or a Baltimore publisher.  But now that I have a blog, who needs ’em?  It’s perfect for the run-up to a critical AFC North re-match this weekend. Continue reading “Black and Gold and Purple”

Before El Paso, there was Fabens

In genealogy, you start with what you know, working backwards in time from your most recent ancestors. That’s what I’m doing with the migrating Williams Family. We know Mom and Dad met and married in El Paso, but before that, the family headed by …

In genealogy, you start with what you know, working backwards in time from your most recent ancestors.  That’s what I’m doing with the migrating Williams Family.  We know Mom and Dad met and married in El Paso, but before that, the family headed by Jess C. Williams aka Popsy resided in Fabens, Texas.  Elizabeth [Mom] was ten, Louise was eight, and Jerry was only two when Popsy purchased the Fabens Waterworks in 1931. (1)  They lived there until 1939, the year Mom graduated from high school, a period roughly commensurate with the Depression. 

Fabens lies between El Paso and Sierra Blanca, so Uncle Jerry and I stopped there on our way to see cousin Tom D.  Continue reading “Before El Paso, there was Fabens”

El Paso Places

Just after I landed in El Paso last month (but after lunch, of course), my aunt and uncle took me on sightseeing tour — sort of Homes-of-the-Stars, the Williams Family version.Our first stop was Awbrey Road in the Lower Valley. This house, 147 Aw…

Just after I landed in El Paso last month (but after lunch, of course), my aunt and uncle took me on sightseeing tour — sort of Homes-of-the-Stars, the Williams Family version.

Our first stop was Awbrey Road in the Lower Valley.  This house, 147 Awbrey, was where our grandparents, Jess and Amy Williams (better known to us as Mopsy and Popsy), lived when Mom and Dad met and married in 1944 and where oldest sister spent her first few months. (1) Continue reading “El Paso Places”

Our Grandfather’s Grandfather – Confederate Casualty

[Notes: This is an adapted version of my October ProGen (online study group) homework – a formal research report for a client. In this case, I’m my own client, writing a report to the Williams file. I omitted the middle chunk of the assignment, th…

[Notes:  This is an adapted version of my October ProGen (online study group) homework – a formal research report for a client.  In this case, I’m my own client, writing a report to the Williams file.  I omitted the middle chunk of the assignment, the detailed findings – the lists of sources searched, but I left in the footnotes. In fact, I may change this blog’s tagline to “It’s about the footnotes.”  One more caveat:  this research, analysis, and report took way more than ten hours!]

Williams Report #1

31 October 2010

For:  Research File

Subject: Participation of ancestor Jesse G. Williams in the Civil War Continue reading “Our Grandfather’s Grandfather – Confederate Casualty”

We Owe Her So Much

That’s what Tom D Ellison said to me as he swept his arm towards the boxes holding the files of his sister, Julia Mae. And, indeed, my recent trip to Texas was motivated by the knowledge that Tom is now the caretaker of Julia Mae’s work. They were…

That’s what Tom D Ellison said to me as he swept his arm towards the boxes holding the files of his sister, Julia Mae.  And, indeed, my recent trip to Texas  was motivated by the knowledge that Tom is now the caretaker of Julia Mae’s work.  They were Mom’s first cousins and we were fully aware that Julia Mae was the Williams family historian and that she worked tirelessly to create the Hudspeth County Museum.  I don’t remember meeting her as a child, and, unfortunately, this trip was too late by seven years.  

But I was ever so grateful for her collection of Williams family documents, pictures, and obituaries (it would have taken years to gather those alone!)  My new portable scanner was abuzz with activity.  I don’t know enough yet about Julia Mae from those with whom she worked on history projects, but I do have a few pictures to share – one is among my favorite trip finds.  Continue reading “We Owe Her So Much”

Evidence Analysis or “What did I know and when did I know it?”

Before documenting my Texan discoveries, I’m backing up to set the stage. Below is a list of sources in hand before I departed; they are in the format I used for my September ProGen (online study group) evidence analysis homework. (1) Bear with me…

Before documenting my Texan discoveries,  I’m backing up to set the stage.  Below is a list of sources in hand before I departed; they are in the format I used for my September ProGen (online study group) evidence analysis homework.  (1)  

Bear with me for the brief genealogical introduction.  You might even enjoy it!

Continue reading “Evidence Analysis or “What did I know and when did I know it?””

Speechless

I’m rendered speechless at the moment. And that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing except that I’m trying to maintain a story-telling blog. I threw myself into genealogical education in the last ten months – completing the trifecta of SLIG, Samfo…

I’m rendered speechless at the moment.  And that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing except that I’m trying to maintain a story-telling blog.

I threw myself into genealogical education in the last ten months – completing the trifecta of SLIG, Samford, and NIGR in one year.  And in the last two weeks, did the same with on-site research – spending part of one week in western Pennsylvania researching Dad’s line and then spending most of last week in the El Paso, Texas, area researching Mom’s family.  To put it mildly, the combined trips were a study in contrasts. Continue reading “Speechless”

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom’s birthday celebrations didn’t typically reach epic proportions like Dad’s. For one thing, her October 4th birthday didn’t lend itself to leisurely summer reunions. And Dad didn’t organize us in quite the same way that Mom quarterbacked his bi…

Mom’s birthday celebrations didn’t typically reach epic proportions like Dad’s.  For one thing, her October 4th birthday didn’t lend itself to leisurely summer reunions.  And Dad didn’t organize us in quite the same way that Mom quarterbacked his birthday every July.  But that seemed to be OK with her. Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Mom!”

“Yes! I was a soldier in the civil war between the States….”

Thus begins a “simple statement of my ‘War Record'” penned by George Washington Walling, Sr. a few years before his death in 1916, at the request of his son Thomas Burrowes Walling. (1) This document is one piece of the Walling Papers, the discove…

Thus begins a “simple statement of my ‘War Record'” penned by George Washington Walling, Sr. a few years before his death in 1916, at the request of his son Thomas Burrowes Walling. (1)

This document is one piece of the Walling Papers, the discovery that I wrote about here. Below is the entire transcription, but I’ve also included a digital image of one line with an illegible word (at least to me!) If anyone has any idea of what that last word is, please comment with your thoughts.  It feels like a critical word in an important sentence.

This is the first ancestral civil war narrative I’ve read that was not part of pension application file.  In other words, its purpose was not to highlight physical infirmities suffered on account of service.  (From that standpoint, it’s refreshing.)  Nor does it glorify participation.  It’s just a matter of  fact.

Continue reading ““Yes! I was a soldier in the civil war between the States….””

The Tip of the Iceberg

During NIGR week in July in Washington, DC, we went on an evening field trip to the DAR Library. For no good reason (other than there are too many places to go), I had only been there once before. It is beautiful! I looked forward to returning to …

During NIGR week in July in Washington, DC, we went on an evening field trip to the DAR Library.  For no good reason (other than there are too many places to go),  I had only been there once before.  It is beautiful!  I looked forward to returning to its open stacks, particularly the rich geographical resources organized by state, and within that, by county.  As on my previous visit last December, I made a beeline to resources on distant states of interest – like New Hampshire, Texas, Arkansas, and Alabama.

In the Travis County, Texas, section, I ran across the Austin Genealogical Society Quarterly, shelved with periodic index volumes.  I stood in the aisle and pulled the index volumes out one by one looking for the name Walling, our grandmother’s maiden name.   One index had a Walling entry pointing to an issue dated 1974, Vol. XV, No. 3, pp. 93-94.

Bingo!  as I say to myself very quietly in such moments….after all, I’m in the stacks.

Continue reading “The Tip of the Iceberg”