Revisiting the New River Notes website

I remember looking over the New River Notes website in the late 90s when Jeff Weaver created it. It was great then but it is even better now.  I have 17 more years experience researching and a better idea of where my ancestors lived.   There has also been a great deal added to the website over those years.  I need to take a day and read through it.  If you have ancestors in the counties it covers or in the surrounding counties it really is worth your time to check it out.

Upper New River Valley covers the following counties

• North Carolina   
• Alleghany
• Ashe
• Surry
• Watauga 
• Wilkes 
• Yadkin
• Virginia:  
• Bland
• Carroll
• Floyd
• Giles 
• Grayson
• Montgomery
• Patrick
• Pulaski 
• Smyth
• Tazewell
• Washington
• Wythe

AncestryDNA finally has a tab that lets you see In Common With for your matches

So excited to see this tool!!  Now you don't have to convince people to send a share DNA link.  They have also added filters for parents if you have had either of your parents tested you can filter by matches in common with either of them.

PLEASE pay attention when saving files to your Ancestry Tree

This post was written to make people aware of the issues within this database and its description ---NOT to discourage people from using all the resources possible to find information on their ancestors.

Tennessee Divorce and Other Records, 1800-1965

I have a love hate relationship with this database.  While I love that the information is online and available to view at home with an Ancestry subscription, I hate that the index is so misleading.  Yes, the vast majority of the records are divorce records however,  there are other types within this database.  The description says that only Divorce records are indexed and searchable but that is not the case.  I could provide several examples within the set of the Williamson Co TN record section as I have Putmans and Cooks from that area in the 1830s.  The examples below show how the index could cause problems within my Putman research.

Note the description of the Williamson Co TN record set as well as the statement on what is indexed and searchable.

This search result would be fine if it was a Divorce.....it is not

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As a researcher I am aware that you should check and double check records even if you feel there might not be anything within the database that would pertain to your research.  Because the records which aren't divorces ARE indexed(at least the ones I've found in Williamson Co TN) when you try and add the document to your tree at Ancestry it is tagged a Divorce record source and doesn't allow you to change that field.

This only happens when you try to add the first image or two to  a person in your online tree.  It doesn't happen if you try to add the pages after the index card.  Once you get past that point you will get an error on the additional pages which as it should prevents adding.  Sure there is a work around but how many will add the first page of the document without doing that and then have it listed as a Divorce and thus pass on this error.  Most people would notice in this example it is obviously impossible for a divorce to happen in 1837 or 1838 when one party has died in 1835.

More Frizzell & Manley segments identified.

Haven't posted much in a month with school being out.  I have been enjoying the last high school summer as this coming year is my daughter's Senior Year in High School.  Rest assured I have been tinkering in genealogy almost every day just haven't had extra time to write about it.  Today I wanted to make a point to post though.  I have been frustrated by lack of responses from DNA matches I have tried contacting from all of the sites where I manage kits...Ancestry, FTDNA and Gedmatch.  I keep telling myself I need to make a form letter...but I never have though I do have the lists of GGGG Grandparents for both sides that I can copy and paste into an email.  I generally find whatever my last letter was and adapt it each time.  I guess this will help especially at Ancestry not to get caught in their spammer filter.  At any rate the other night I was writing a few of my matches....actually it was one person who was over all the kits...so I wrote to her and I kept it pretty simple.  Basically I match 3 of your kits and would like to know the connection and briefly mentioned the Gedmatch site and that it was free with some neat tools.  Just got a message a bit ago and all the kits are now at GEDmatch!!!  I am thrilled as I have identified a large segment on two chromosomes.  So don't give up!!

Will of John Cathey--March 1837 Session--Lincoln Co NC

Read over some of the Lincoln Co. North Carolina probate records and found the will of John Cathey which was proved at the March 1837 Session of the Lincoln Co Court.  John listed all his children but apparently did not approve one of his daughter's choice of a husband.

4th I give and bequeath to my second daughter Jinny Mauney --one dollar

Later in the will he makes the following stipulation.  

also all my other property bequeathed to my wife at her decease to be equally divided among all of my children except my daughter Jenny Mauney.  it is my desire that she do not heir any of my estate until after the death of her husband Livingston Mauney.

You can find the complete will of John Cathey at the link below.

Will of John Cathey--March 1837 Session--Lincoln Co NC
"North Carolina, Probate Records, 1735-1970," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1940-1191876-1-8?cc=1867501&wc=MDRK-FZ3:169766601,170758801 : accessed 27 May 2015), Lincoln > Wills, 1824-1838, Vol. 01 > image 466 of 489; county courthouses, North Carolina

Livingston Mauney and Abram Houser took out a marriage bond on August 21 1829 in Lincoln County, North Carolina for Livingston Mauney to marry Jane Cathey.

Livingston Mauney and Jane Cathey 21 August 1829 Lincoln Co NC  Abram Houser.
Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

All records I could find showed the marriage as the same day as the bond.  While I am not sure that is accurate John Cathey's will proves that they must have married at least by the time of his writing the will and he was apparently not very fond of Livingston.  Livingston is thought to be the son of Dr. George Mauney Sr. even though he is not mentioned in George's will of 1840.  A check of the files at Ancestry and Rootsweb have Livingston's date of death as 16th November 1849 though I never found a source for that.  There are a lot of unanswered questions.  What caused John Cathey to not like Livingston?   What was the cause of death for Livingston?  Forties is fairly young to die..even back then.  What became of Jane "Jenny" Cathey Mauney?  Did she also die around that time?  Did she get her inheritance when her husband died if she was still living?  Now if I can just find info concerning one of my ancestors.

A Few Probate Packets of South Carolina Cook families

A hot topic of the Cook/Putman researchers lately has been trying to determine if the Cook and Putman families knew each other prior to their arrival in Williamson Co. TN.  The Putmans were in Union Co. SC.  With the rain today..it just made sense to use the time to see what Cook families I could find in the Union Co SC area.  I didn't find any obvious connection to my Cooks but I really enjoyed reading over them..

Several of these Cook families were Quaker Families.  The estate inventories provide a great deal of information about the deceased as well as listing the names of those who purchased items.  I enjoyed the beautiful writing on some of the pages.  If these don't interest you, go to the main FamilySearch site and find a state in which your ancestors lived and see what is available for the counties in which your families lived.

The SC Probate files at FamilySearch  aren't searchable however I found an index and then used that to navigate to the Cook images.  

Union Co SC

• Probate Records of Isaac Cook--Box 1 Packet 49  Year 1794--Images 308-314 of 416 
• Probate Records of John Cook---Box 2 Packet 43 Year 1798---Images 334-344 of 476
• Probate of Robert Cook-----Box 4 Packet 47  Year 1808----Images  354-364  of 432 

York Co SC 

• Probate James Cook--------Case 55 File 2451  Year 1795?---Images 68-71 of 417

While reading over the estate inventories, you might find tools with which you are unfamiliar.  There were several that I didn't recognize and too some that I just wanted to see.  There are several books at Google Books that will help identify tools.  I found The Illustrated Sheffield List to be very helpful and it is available free.  Most of the items that I was unfamiliar with had to do with horses.  In the inventory of Isaac Cook's estate there was a copy of Barkley's Apology as well as a Bible.

There are many State probate documents available at FamilySearch.  Most of the ones I have found aren't searchable but are browsable.  A great deal of these records have a  scanned index and once you find that you can use that to find the surnames of interests within the browsable probate documents.