RootsTech 2019--Day 2

Day 2 of RootsTech 2019.  Here is my take on Thursday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech.

Thursday's Live Stream

Making the Leap—Becoming a Professional Genealogist (Power Hour) --Luana Darby, Valerie Elkins, and Anne Teerlink  If you are thinking of going professional as a genealogist, this session was so FULL of great information.  Make sure you download the handout.  This presentation made me so glad that I have never wanted to go Pro. Not that I don't aspire to have my research at the professional level.  So glad they are now streaming the Q & A for the sessions today.

Finally! German Church Records and How to Use Them on FamilySearch--Trish Melander
Trish told the story of how the German Church Records were saved by Paul Langheinrich.  These are on FamilySearch and she showed how to navigate to them either using Records or Catalog.  I also enjoyed the case study by Karl Bodamer.  Loved the use of the Geogen site.  This has given me several ideas on where to search when working on my daughter's paternal lines.

Thursday General Session: Patricia Heaton--It was fun hearing from Patricia Heaton.  She's a funny lady.  She was so excited about her DNA reveal.

What You Don't Know about Ancestry (Sponsored by Ancestry)--Crista Cowan
YouTube feed was not working on this Livestream but I did manage view via the RootsTech.org homepage.  I think everyone wanted to hear what Crista had to say and that broke the feed. She talked about the new tools at Ancestry:  MyTreeTags™, DNA Matching List. and ThruLines™. ThruLines have replaced DNA Circles although you can still view your circles at this time if you have DNA tested.


Heirloom, Documentation or Junk: What to Keep or Toss--Janet Hovorka
What's important to keep? Preserving your personality.  Who should inherit specific items? Organize and explain what you can now. Preserve your digital materials. Who will you pass the torch on to...who will best preserve your precious items'  She also brought up the need for a Digital Will.  Definitely, something to think about.


Perilous Assumptions: Revisiting Those First Finds--Kris Rzepczynski
Love the case studies especially the one of the letter found in the WWI records.  An amazing account!  I've been researching for almost 30 years.  I need to revisit ALL of my earlier research.  Sometimes we build our own brick walls..


Thursday's Hottest News
The official announcement of the new Ancestry Tools.  Also monitoring social media and genetic genealogy Facebook group members' post as they worked with the new tools was insightful.  The announcement that GeneticAffairs' AutoClusters would be coming to MyHeritage was officially made and that option appeared on my account at MyHeritage this morning.

Link to RootsTech 2019 Day 1  --

RootsTech 2019--Day 1

Today was the first day of RootsTech 2019.  Although I'm not physically there are many ways to participate.  Here is my take on Wednesday from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech.


Wednesday's Live Stream

What’s New at FamilySearch?--Ron Tanner(FamilySearch International) talked about the exciting additions at FamilySearch as well as some new tools in the works.  I like the expanded fan chart(see mine below)  Also high-speed possible duplicates.  He also talked about an upcoming feature which will allow corrections to indexed images.  This is something that has been needed for a LONG time and I'm so glad to hear that's in the works.


Hear Them Sing! Social History and Family Narrative--Rebecca Whitman Koford CG, CGL
What a great reminder of something I need to do more of--write the stories of my ancestors.  She talked about using timelines to pull the history together.  I LOVE timelines.  They are such a great help in our research.

Uncovering Family Stories with British and Irish Historic Newspapers--Myko Clelland(FindMyPast)
Lots of great information on wildcard searching in this session.  Excellent list of the different types of articles in which you may find ancestors.  Get the App and download the handout!  It contains links to Newspaper sites, some of which are free.

Connecting Your DNA Matches--Diahan Southard
Great outline of what a genetic network is and how to create them.  Also, some tips about how to search for ICW(in-common-with)ancestors.  She also included a bit about the new features ThruLines(at Ancestry) and MyHeritage's Theory of Relativity.  I loved that she gave examples of why these are HINTs.and some situations where the suggestion is wrong.  I always enjoy Diahan Southard's presentations.


Wednesday's Hottest News

Today's hottest news--Genetic Network tools from MyHeritage(Theory of Relativity) and Ancestry(ThruLines).  Ancestry also has several other tools including TreeTags and AncestryDNA Custom Groups

The most exciting news for those with African American ancestry beyond the new tools for use with DNA research would be the donation of $2 Million dollars by the LDS church to the International African American Museum.


I also love the Extended Fan Chart mentioned in Ron Tanner's presentation.

My personal favorite announcement was that the GeneticAffairs' Autocluster tool will now be part of the MyHeritage Tools.  A VERY busy day!.

50+ Persons Mentioned in a Tennessee State Supreme Court Case from 1835

In early January I obtained a copy of a Tennessee State Supreme Court case in which my 2nd great grandmother's brother, William Putman was accused of fraud in the sale of a horse.  There is an amazing amount of people involved in this case.  People involved included citizens from 4 different counties of Tennessee--Bedford, Dickson, Rutherford, and Williamson counties.  If you are a researcher whose ancestors were in Tennessee, please consider at least running a search or two in this collection. It appears these are a work-in-progress.  The last update from what I can tell showed it being only 25% complete.  I look forward to the day when it's 100%


Listing of persons involved in the case of Robert Williams vs William Putman, et al. 

The case is heard by the Middle District of the Tennessee State Supreme Court in 1835 and originated in Rutherford County Tennessee on 7th of October 1829.  I ordered the file from TN State Library  & Archives via https://supreme-court-cases.tennsos.org/ and it was delivered  2nd Jan 2019, via email and contained scanned digital images in a 41 page PDF document.  The physical location of the case at TSLA is in the TN State Supreme Court Cases Collection Range: 33 Section: A  Shelf: 2  Box Number: 375 as noted by the listing at the previously mentioned webpage.  The quickest way to find it is by searching for Keyword "Putman"  in Rutherford County in the search box of the site.  I've tried to alphabetize by surname after removing duplicates and came up with 50 persons which I have listed below.

Anderson Anglin
Samuel Anglin
Zepheniah Anglin
Thos L or S Anthony
Wm Brady
William G Childress
John Coleman (age 28--1833)
William C Cook
Charles Coursey
John Burnett Coursey
V. D. Cowan
M.S. Cummings
Richard Davidson
William Deason
William B Dotson
Daniel Dwiggins
Charles A. Frensley(age 27--1833)
William Gilliam
BarnaB  Haley
Thos Heaton
Jordan Holden
Andrew J. Hoover
John Jackson
Dennis Lark (age 56--1833)
Richard Ledbetter
William Ledbetter
James H Lyle
James C Mitchell
John B Nixon
David Pounds
Pleasant Puckett
Noah Putman
William Putman

Lemuel Ransom
Richard Ransom
George Redmond
Jesse Roberts
Enoch Rushing
James Sanford(age 42--1832)
John G Smotherman
Yancy Stokes
Thomas Stuart
Valentine M Sublett
William Taylor
Amanuel Toomes(age 55--1832)
John Toomes (age 57--1833)
Anderson Vaughn(age 20--1832)
William Venson

John C C Vernon
Absalom Vickery

Lee? Williams
Nathaniel W Williams
Robert Williams


Source:  Tennessee State Library & Archives. Tennessee Supreme Court Clerk’s Records 1810-1955, Record Group 191.TN State Supreme Court Case Middle District Range: 33 Section: A Shelf: 2 Box: 375 Robert Williams v. William Putman, et al. (41 pages).

Enslaved from Probate Records of Newton Cannon--Williamson Co. TN 1841

Two listings of enslaved negroes found in the inventory portion of the probate file of Newton Cannon which was filed in 1841 at Williamson Co TN. 

List from Nashville & Williamson place(45)--There were two different copies of this list so I compared them as they were in the same numerical order and consulted both when one was hard to read-- See image 23 & image 39 of the source.

1 Jacob 38 years
2 Tabby sickly 40 years
3 Jacob 9 years
4 Mitchel 5 years
5 Frierson 6 months
6 Eliza 3 years
7 Jim Cole 50 years
8 Lucy 32 years
9 Hezekiah 6 years
10 Henderson 1 year
11 Hatty 8 years
12 America 4 years
13 Mary 23 years
14 Henry 2 years
15 Emily 6 years
16 Carmella 4 years
17 Jo 23 years
18 Polly 20 years
19 Simpson 4 years
20 Howard 2 years
21 Nathan 4 months
22 Hal 63 years
23 Miles 55 years
24 Ailsey 48 years
25 Washington 3 years
26 Miles 10 years
27 Edmond 33 years
28 Dan 19 years
29 John 23 years
30 Malinda 16 years
31 Tipton sickly 10 years
32 Julia 38 years
33 Fanny idiot & deformed 20 years
34 Jack 57 years
35 Kitty 38 years
36 Malissa (Rickety)  2 years
37 Elizabeth 22 years
38 Jim Westley 7 years
39 Letitia 20 years
40 Lunah 15 years
41 Mary 13 years
42 Minerva 17 years
43 Martha 12 years
44 Emeline 12 years
45 Aaron 24 years

Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008 [https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9176 : accessed 4 February 2019]  > Williamson > Probate and Divorce Records, 1800-1899 > Cannon, Mary-Carter, D Ruth > images 23& 39 of 2964.

List from Randolph & River Farm formerly owned by Jones(74)--There were two different copies of this list so I compared them as they were in the same numerical order and consulted both when one was hard to read-- See image 23-24 & image 40-41 of the source. (Total number is actually 75 due to math and logic error of administrator)

1. Named Age(sic)
2 Peter 50 years
3 Sarah 40 years
4 Jackson 20 years
5 Ruth 18 years
6 Bob 15 years
7 Rhody 8 years
8 Frances 6 years
9 Lina 4 years
10 Nancy Jane 2 years
11 Dianna 8 months
12 Angelina 7 months
13 Diley 26 years
14 Antony 7 years
15 Gabriel 2 years
16 Dandy 55 years
17 Dinah 50 years
18 Simon 17 years
19 Hezekiah 12 years
20 Jane 38 years
21 Harriet 13 years
22 Amanda 10 years
23 Washington 8 years
24 Matilda 6 years
25 Jim 4 years
26 Washington 2 years
27 Lucy 3 months
28 Henry 26 years
29 Jinny 23 years
30 Caledonia 4 years
31 Daphine 2 years
32 George 2 months
33 Alfred 20 years
34 Jacob 28 years
35 Lott 25 years
36 Louisa 24 years
37 Frances Ann 1 year
38 Bassell 40 years
39 Joicy 30 years
40 June 13 years
41 Simon 5 years
42 Mary? 4 years
43 Sally 2 years
44 Cato 1 year
45 Reuben 50 years
46 Clora 37 years
47 Jeny? died Jany 11 years
48 Joshua 3 years
49 Chary? 1 year
50 Hanny 55 years
51 Lewis 25 years
52 John 18 years
53 Lucy 13 years
54 Andrew 30 years
55 Judy 28 years
56 Nelly 14 years
57 Patsey 13 years
58 Liley 45 years
59 Andrew 19 years
60 Rany 2 years
61 Enoch 16 years
62 Harriet 14 years
63 Alennica? 13 yrs
64 Narcissa 4 years
65 Jim Beard 50 years
66 Monah 35 years
67 Horrace 12 years
68 Pauline 16 years
69 Houston 14 years
70 Cullen 12 years
71 Saml 17 years
72 Alfred 16 years
73 Mack 35 years
74 Ned 18 years
Three Infants
Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008 [https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9176 : accessed 4 February 2019]  > Williamson > Probate and Divorce Records, 1800-1899 > Cannon, Mary-Carter, D Ruth > images 23-24 & 40-41 of 2964.

My Genealogy Happenings over the last 6 months

During the past 6 months, much of my research has been focused on Old Hickory, Tennessee as I completed a few projects and added some new ones.  About 18 years ago when I'd designed my original genealogy website(hosted on Rootsweb's Freepages) I'd coded several pages which focused on my Dad, his parents & siblings, and the neighborhood in which he grew up.  My website was in bad need of updating and with Freepages pretty much going the way of the dinosaur, I made the decision to move my pages to my blog.  This sounds like a big project but seems to be going rather well.

What's been happening in my Genealogy World

• Moved my Confederate Pension Application Abstracts here to my Blog
• Studying the Clark Street and Dodson Street neighbors
• Found a TN State Supreme Court Case that my 2nd Great Grandfather was involved in and got a copy of it(41 pages)  Lots of people involved in the case which is about the sale of a horse.  Testimony given by my 2nd Great Grandfather about the horse was awesome to read.  The biggest surprise was the Dickson Co TN connection.
• Contacted Hagley Museum and Library to inquire about any Rental Records Dupont might have had from Old Hickory's Company Town Days.  They do not have them but did send me two reports done on another of Dupont's company towns to give me an idea of what all was involved with that process. (I contacted Dupont about it just to cover all bases and was told they didn't know the answer to my question.  Maybe contacting someone local will help)  If the Old Hickory Dupont plant still has them it would be a wonderful project and good PR for Dupont if they could let a Historical Society or TN State Library and Archives scan them.  I believe 1946 was the time when the homes were up for purchase.  Up until that point all the people that lived there pretty much worked for Dupont and rented from them. 
• Ordered my Uncle Morris' Official Military Personnel Files thru Veterans Voice.  I was able to get a discount on the order.(One of the perks of being a Virtual Genealogical Association member.) Excited to finally do that.  He has no descendants so I ordered his as my first order.  I hope to be able to order Dad's soon.
• Still working on trying to find the missing connection for my Cook(e) line.  I have Y111 DNA results and numerous autosomal testers.  Slowly but surely.  This past year has been a good one for finding out more information about our Cook(e)s and the ones that our DNA results suggest we most closely match.  I have our back to the 2nd Gr Grandparent level so I feel like there are likely about 2 generations in between the connection.   Time to make a grid for all the Joseph's we've collected from the same area...and another grid of the William C Cook or W.C. Cooks.  I know from past experience this works and when I get all of the grid filled out I will likely discover more information and have to redo it so I should do this like yesterday.
• In the midst of working on the Old Hickory projects I decided to contact the Register of Deeds here in Dickson County and get the listing of the people who owned the house that my grandmother lived in from about 1970-1976.  I have many great memories of the house on 203 North Charlotte Street and I even remember the neighbors.  I'm hoping to do a blog post on the house though I've written a good bit about it in the tribute to my Grandmother, Pearl Gray Jakes Cooke. 
• I've also been working on an archive notebook of the papers which my Grandmother Pearl saved.  You can read more about the types of papers and info at the linked blog post. 
• I hope to start on my own archive notebook of papers soon.
• Continuing to work my DNA matches and log genetic networks to help find kinship.
• Attending Webinars to further my Genealogy education. Enjoying the Genealogy Podcasts and blogs.  Also I'm looking forward to Rootstech though I will only be able to participate in the streaming portion of it.  I'm hoping there will be some great announcements by the sponsors. 

What's happening in your Genealogy World?

Neighbors near Zepheniah Anglin--1840 Bedford Co. TN Census

A listing of the names near Zephaniah Anglin from the 1840 Bedford County Census. He along with William Putman was involved in a State Supreme Court case which included a deposition by my 2nd Great Grandfather(William Clifford Cook) and several other persons of interest in my family research.   As always please check the images as this is simply a listing of the persons as I see them listed.  There may be mistakes.  I am human ☺️

1840 Bedford Co TN census
Pg 43
John McFarland
William Brown
John Dickson
John Morrison
William Pounds
William Rucker
John A Chambers
John Maxwell
William Hooper
Kenedy Almon
John Norman
Robert Allison jun
William Thomas
Mary Davis
John A Moore
Stephen E Hale
Lewis Weatherford
Enoch Rushing
James Underwood
Lewis Heath
Rutha Pinkerton
Stephen Hargrove
Elizabeth Davis
James Merchant
Mansfield Whitehead
Owen C Briant
Alfred Ransom
David O Briant
Lucinda Robertson
Crawford Carlton
Saml Wheeler


Pg 44
Jesse Wheeler
William Taylor
Oliver Bullock
Pious Ward
Hardy Pope
Joseph Hoit(Hight)
Ezekial Ward
Solomon Pope
William C Ward
Thomas Carlton
Burrel Ward
Absalom Stockard
R.F. P Jones
Andrew Vickory
Margarett Vickory
Jonathan Vickory
John Ray
Allen Cooper
James Smith
John Scott
William Elmore
Thomas Wilson
Saml Daughtery
Esther Lamb
Sarah Cooper
James Mankins
Hugh Sherwood
Merrett Corbett
Jeremiah Phillips
Zephaniah Anglin
Willis Lamb

pg. 45

Joshua Sutton

Joseph Sutton

Thomas B Carlton

Nancy Boiler(These are likely Bylers)

James Boiler  "

1840 U.S. Federal Census, Bedford County, Tennessee, population schedule, pg 43-44; imaged at Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8057: accessed 20 January 2019); citing National Archives microfilm publication M704-519.