Apr 02 2009
Genealogy and family History
This is my first blog. I love to read and I will post some reviews of the books I’ve read. My family will tell you that anything that comes into the house, I will probably read it. I like mysteries, some fantasy, Louis L’Amour, and history. I’ve a collection of books on the Civil War and just purchased Bruce Catton’s “The Army of the Potomac: A Stillness at Appomattox,” to go along with “Shiloh” by Larry J. Daniel and others..
I had relatives on both sides at the battle of Shiloh and how would I know that? Because my other passion, is researching my family’s history for more years than I want to remember, as my mother took me to the Family History Library in Salt Lake for a week back in the days before Xerox machines were invented or computers.
My grandfather owned a bible that had on the front fly leaf these words, “I, John Tingle was born August 6, 1792 in Maryland the son of Littleton Tingle.” I wanted to know who Littleton Tingle was. It was such a funny name. Littleton is a very unusual name, not one that you would hear every day, like John or Elizabeth. I found out that it is actually a surname and that at one time the rage was to give children surnames as a given name in the 1700’s. Littleton Tingle is my 5th great grandfather
One would think with the name Price Barber that it would be a male. Price was actually the daughter of Edward Barber and she was born in 1744, and she is my 2nd cousin 8 times removed. She is named in Edward’s will as his daughter.
So when I hear of a little girl being names “Taylor” or “McKenzie,” because the parents want an unusual name—I think it is history repeating itself.
Over the years, I’ve collected all types of records which relate to my family and their neighbors. Some of these records are unpublished and came from wandering in cemeteries carrying a large stick, beating the grass so that a snake or something wouldn’t bite me, wiping dust off old record books in court houses, reading old newspapers, getting “sick” trying to read microfilm and talking to people. If you have ever been car sick or sea sick, you can get the same experience when you first try to read lots of microfilm.
So my son thought, I should start a blog and post some of my finds on it. I’ve transcribed several census records for Carroll and Henry Counties in Kentucky as well as abstracts of other census for counties in Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and any place that one of my relatives may have lived.
Then there are the pension files of my direct ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War—five of them, Alexander Buchanan from New Jersey, the Adams from Pennsylvania, Charles Cayce (Casey) from Virginia on my mother’s side and Michael Vogt (Fought, etc. of Pennsylvania on my father’s side. Then when I add in the cousins and Uncles on both sides it is a lot. Then I had relatives on both sides during the Civil War. Brother against brother and cousin against cousin and neighbor against neighor..
When I traveled, I would have a map and would mark all the cemeteries along the way and take little side trips to see if I could find a grave. The side trips were always thrilling for me as I’d always find something interesting. The little cemetery in Kline, Colorado was interesting as there was a tall marble marker with my great uncles civil war unit engraved on it. The cemeteries in Tennessee were over grown with weeds and tall grass, so we carried sticks to beat the ground to scare away the snakes – insects and spiders don’t scare..
So I began collecting Tingles trying to find more about Littleton Tingle and other family members. I now have 3 files cabinets, a couple of bookcases all with information on relatives in Kentucky, Virginia, New York, Wisconsin, Germany, England, Scotland and a few other places.
