Not Genealogy, Not Middle Age, Just Life

2012, here we come........

She's engaged. November 23rd!

Date chosen - check

Wedding Venue - check

Rehearsal venue - check

Dress - check (she's so thrifty too)

Rehearsal dinner location - check

Colors/material - check

Hundreds of other things on the list - still to come, but doable. Postcards, invitations.....

Cakes/cupcakes/candles/menu/(chairs/tables/silverware - all included - check)

Graduation with masters - coming in May

Student teaching - underway

Mom still applying for jobs - underway

Ears have stopped working - what's hearing????? Sheesh..... Oh well.

Daughter - wanting to teach inner city kids, learning a bunch - some good and some different.

Son - farmer, goats, chickens, planting in the spring.

Son - ASL, scouting, raising kids (not the goat kind), software.

Life happens and it's so good to see all the children happy. Hooray 2012.

Tennessee Books for Sale

The Tennessee Genealogical Society and the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center have duplicate copies of some of their Tennessee books and are offering them for sale. To see a list, scroll down about four paragraphs on the main page at http://www.tngs.org and view the available books.

By the way, if you didn't know, this library in Germantown Tennessee has set as a goal, to own every book published on a Tennessee County. They have a great collection of other books, but they should be THE place to go for Tennessee books. Hope you make a trip to visit us soon. Check the hours they are open on their web page. You can also search their library catalog - the link to the library is in the left side column of the above webpage. When searching, look for THAT library only and when typing Tennessee, try the state spelled out and also TN. They're in the middle of a conversion of their system catalog/database. If you don't find what you want, you can give them a call and you'll always speak with a very friendly person.

Tennessee Books for Sale

The Tennessee Genealogical Society and the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center have duplicate copies of some of their Tennessee books and are offering them for sale. To see a list, scroll down about four paragraphs on the main page at http://www.tngs.org and view the available books.

By the way, if you didn't know, this library in Germantown Tennessee has set as a goal, to own every book published on a Tennessee County. They have a great collection of other books, but they should be THE place to go for Tennessee books. Hope you make a trip to visit us soon. Check the hours they are open on their web page. You can also search their library catalog - the link to the library is in the left side column of the above webpage. When searching, look for THAT library only and when typing Tennessee, try the state spelled out and also TN. They're in the middle of a conversion of their system catalog/database. If you don't find what you want, you can give them a call and you'll always speak with a very friendly person.

Wonderful resources in unexpected places

I attended the final services at Friendship Methodist Church in Lyon County Kentucky yesterday. The land for the church was supposedly given by my great great grandfather, Noah H Cummins, in the 1850's. Attending that service were two other people descended from two other sons of Noah Cummins. One of them brought a bible which looks to have been owned by another son of Noah Cummins. Listed in the bible were the birth and death dates of several children, of Noah, who were born and died before the 1850 census records. I already had these names and dates, but they had come from a wonderful person working in the Princeton library who had found them "written on an envelope", so I had been looking for proof of the data for years. I promptly accosted this poor bible carrying newly found relative after the service to ask if we could please take pictures. He kindly agreed. I enjoyed meeting my new relatives yesterday and am overjoyed at the genealogical find. It's sad that the Friendship Methodist Church building is now up for sale, along with the lands surrounding it, which includes the graves of so many of my Cummins (and other) relatives (including my parents). A couple of my first cousins, along with my daughter, were at the service yesterday. Here's to you Noah!

Keep searching and make sure info is correct

The marriage records of a woman listed her as a Smith. A later census record showed she had 9 children with 6 still living. The children with the current husband did not seem to add up to the 9 children. The span in years for her pre-marriage to current marriage was across the 1890 void of census records, and we know the birth records are spotty for that period in the local court houses. I found a later census record with this woman living with an adult daughter after my "Smith" became a widow and living with them was a "brother-in-law" of the head of household son-in-law. The brother-in-law's last name was different from what I would have expected. I started looking for another marriage for that original "Smith" woman. I found one but couldn't prove it was her either. I finally found a death certificate for her and then went to look on find-a-grave and some kind hearted soul had posted a photo of this woman's tombstone. Boldly printed on that tombstone was the maiden name that I had thought I'd found, but been unable to prove, along with the final married name. Thank goodness for all the genealogy community doing the wonderful work that you do.