My 2024 Research Year In Review

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January
I'd found a cancelled land transaction for land in Lawrence Co Arkansas of a Wm C Cook in December. My order from the document retrieval service arrived. I transcribed the Homestead Application and started my timeline research on the Wm. C Cook family 1858-1888. I also found that Elisha Luna's widow had filed for his bounty land on his War of 1812 service. This was great because it helped to add to the evidence of proof of her maiden name. I subbed to Ancestry's ProTools and reviewed them.

February
This month's focus was on Jefferson Gideon Cook. I identified his wives and which one was the mother of each of his children. Obtained a copy of the deed for the house which George Solifelt left Tennie Hill. Found that Tennie's husband, Henry F Hill had been previously married and identified his wife. Still looking for that divorce. Worked on my daughter's paternal lines--her recent English immigrant(1880s) and her Germans who settled in Franklin County Indiana. Had hoped AncestryDNA would show them in communities since many have tested but that hasn't happened. RootsTech 2024 started.

March
Reviewed RootsTech 2024 Highlights. The research focus of this month was deeds. Found a lot about the area where Wm C Cook would have been at the time of the Williams vs Putman state supreme court case. (TN) This included mentioning William Harrison and Elizabeth Cook and identifying neighbors to add to the FAN. Found a Pope Family Probate file which identified by name and age those enslaved by the Pope family of Bedford & Williamson Co TN and Granville NC.

April
Another month of Deed research. I found so much more information about Wm C Cook and his children by reading those deeds. FamilySearch's Full Text Search is such a great help. Narrowed down the possible time frame of Anna Putman's death and also found Adkin Upshaw's Estate return in the Elbert Co GA records. Celebrated 20 years of blogging about my genealogy research this month.

May

This month was filled with Tax List research. I discovered that a page had been missed during the microfilming of the Bedford Co TN tax lists and was able to get a copy of the missing page from the clerk's office. Found that there was an outbreak of Cholera in Shelbyville in the year 1833. Posted a Quicklinks of the Bedford Co TN Newspapers available to view on FamilySearch.

June

Published the Wm Clifford Cook Family Timeline 1858-1888. Corrected an error I found in an obituary where the paper had confused the father and the son of a Cannon family. Located documents from Wm G Hight's estate in Franklin Co Arkansas.

July

Ordered a Kindle and published an article on how I use it to help with my genealogy research. Blogged about a DNA Cluster which links to a Jones & Williams family. Found Wm C Cook and son J.P Cook as witnesses on a Pope deed.

August

More William Harrison deeds. Bounty land records of Nancy Harrison Hight Culverhouse. Found the Cook brothers listed among those who owed money to J P Taylor. Really enjoyed reading through the listing of items that my great-uncle Will B Jakes put as security for a loan.

September

More on the Hight, Putman, and Harrison Deeds. Sorted through the records of my maternal great-aunt, Ovena Acuff

October

This month's focus was finding more records using the FamilySearch Full Text Search. They had started adding a lot more and I was finding items in the Court Minutes--Road Work Orders, Poll Tax Exemptions, and Jury Duty. Also wrote about our Cook(e) Y DNA project.

November

Found a Brandon & Williams Deed in Bedford Co TN records involving the Kings. Blogged about another error that was made during the microfilming which could cause confusion about the content of this particular film.

December

I wrote about another of my Granny's Charlotte Street neighbors and found a court minute entry registering the stock mark of the Ogilvies. Found several more Bedford Co TN deeds of the Cook family.  

While I still have many research questions, I've answered some and made progress toward answering others. I look forward to making many more discoveries in 2025.  I can't end this year in review without acknowledging The Best of Elizabeth Shown Mills series hosted by Legacy Family Tree Webinars.  The webinars are a members-only exclusive and so worth it.  I review them often.  They are very helpful when I am stuck in a rut and need motivation or a change of perspective on how to approach my research opportunity.  I am forever grateful to Elizabeth and Legacy Family Tree Webinars for making this educational opportunity available.

My 2023 Research Year In Review

January
The Best of ESM series at LegacyFamilyTree Webinars began.  It was offered as a members-only series and it is worth every bit of the price of membership and more.  I have learned so much from this series.
Breakthru in my Cook research
Continued with to grow my collection of books for my personal library focusing on the sicknesses my ancestors faced--Tuberculosis, Influenza etc.

February
Did a LOT of cluster research:  Harrisons, Lightfoot/Deberry, Hights
Discovered more documents about George Solifelt's time in the State Penitentiaries of PA

Wm & Elvira Cooper Harrison's Rev War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant File
https://mariegen.blogspot.com/2023/02/elvira-harrisons-bounty-land-warrant.html

March
RootsTech 2023
Did a lot of reading thru records at FamilySearch.org with great success.
Was able to find my maternal Great Aunt's divorce records.
Studied my Grandparent's neighbors from their Charlotte Street years.

April
Celebrated 19 years of writing this blog!
Found another mention of George Solifelt in a newspaper.


May
Worked in Fold3 records a good bit and was busy with life outside of genealogy much of May.

About two times a month for the past several years, one of my fellow researchers has been hosting a Zoom Genealogy Chat. I try to attend as many as possible.

June
I transcribed the affidavit of Wm Harrison which detailed his Revolutionary War service.  I really need to work on an outline of his Pension file.

Purchased more genealogy books and worked on organizing and cataloging my library at LibraryThing
Ordered and Received the Court Martial File of George Solifelt from Gopher Records

July
Apparently the theme for July was LAND as I worked on land records for each of the Adcock, Frizzell, Harrison, and Putman families.
Found a pre-nuptial for the widow of a Great Grand Uncle.
Transcribed George Solifelt's Court Martial File

August
More Land records research. This time the focus was on the Jakes Coffee Co TN land.
Tinkered with MyHeritage's PhotoDater tool using a few photos from my collection.
Found a Wm P Cook listed as a witness in 1817 Rutherford Co TN.
Found Wm C Cook in District 10 of Bedford Co TN 1846

August was a tough month health-wise as I had multiple scans which determined that my breast cancer had metastasized.

September
I focused mainly on research in the newspapers in September.
It was the month I was receiving radiation treatments so that played a big part in my productivity.

October
Revolutionary War Records was the theme for this month's research. I finally made the time to go thru Nathan Frizzell's file and found a few other pension files which helped with collateral research.

Looked at a Mystery DNA Group of matches using DNAPainter

November
Had some really great research time in the Franklin Co NC Probate & Deed records at FamilySearch.org which was cut short when a "system change at FamilySearch restricted access to images in several United States historical collections." They hope to have that issue resolved soon.

I tested out ChatGPT 3.5

Ordered and Received a copy of my 2nd Great Grandfather's Federal Court Records
from NARA-ATL

December
Found a cancelled Land Transaction that could potentially be that of my 2nd Gr Grandfather. I ordered it from Gopher Records and had a great turn around on the order. Still working with analysis of the documents to try and determine if it is my Wm C Cook and if not, the identity . I see a blog post on this coming in the new year.  

Reviewed George Solifelt and all the records I have on him.
https://mariegen.blogspot.com/2023/12/george-and-his-amazing-paper-trail.html

Test Driving Ancestry's Pro Tools to see if they add enough value to my research to justify the the extra $120 a year.  So far I've tested:  Tree Checker,  Charts & Reports and Map View.


Even with the health challenges I have had a pretty good research year.  I look forward to 2024 and hope that it will bring many more research discoveries for us all.

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My 2022 Research Year in Review

• January: Blogged about 5 of my ancestors:  John King(1770-1814) James Jakes(1857-1941) Telitha Ann Frizzell Jakes(1858-1920)  David Pittman(1838-1922)  James Polk Acuff(1872-1939)
• February: Looked for my 3rd Gr Grandmother in the 1840 Census & found my 2nd Great Grandfather in the 1840(I'd given up hope of ever locating him)
• March: Researched Wm C Cook's Dyer Co TN neighbors. Started mapping out my Tennie Ferguson Hill research
• April: Found the majority of my folks in the 1950 census within the first week of its release.  Finished up my Jakes/Frizzell Article
• May: Studied the disease outbreaks and mill workers/factory towns and the social aspect of it all in preparation for writing my Cook(e)/King article.
• June: Started writing the Cook(e)/King article.
• July: Finished up my Williamson Co TN--Dist 25 Blog series.  Made a discovery about Gr Uncle John L Cook's wife's ancestry.
• August: Wrote a blog article comparing my siblings, myself and my paternal aunt to a set of 4 siblings(I love making charts)
• September:  Wrote a blog article about DNA comparing myself and my siblings to Descendants of Jabel Putman(Did I mention I love making charts?)  Ordered a copy of the Henry F Hill investigation file from NARA.  Ordered some Union Civil War Pension Files.
• October:  Studied the Hamer sisters and their ancestry--they married Cook brothers(my gr grandfather's brothers)  Worked on pulling information on Tennie, Henry F Hill and George Solifelt into a research notebook 
• November:  Received the copy of the Henry Hill investigation file I ordered from NARA.  
• December:  Finished the outline of the Henry F Hill File.  The George Solifelt Union Civil War Pension File arrived along with his service records and those of Henry F. Hill.  My Jakes/Frizzell Article was published in the TN Genealogical Society's Ansearchin' News Vol. 69 No. 4 Winter 2022.  Was finally able to get the documentation for Mary Ann "Polly", wife of Elisha Luna's surname which for years has been thought to be Lennox because of and index and poor penmanship.  It is Enoch, specifically the Caswell Co NC Enochs who were from Delaware prior to coming to NC.

Overall I feel like 2022 has been one of my better research years.  I look forward to 2023 and hope that it will bring many more research discoveries for us all.