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​Remembering Freedom is not Free

5/30/2021

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​Remembering Freedom is not Free

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was a day set aside to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country. Decoration Day began after the Civil War to honor those who gave their lives during our country’s bloodiest conflict, and was proclaimed, not by the president, but by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.

“The 30th of May 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

Many Americans have forgotten what the true meaning of the day is for. Most will celebrate the three-day “holiday” weekend by starting their summer – days at the beach or camping out, BBQs and enjoying family and friends. Not many will stop to reflect on the very reason they have the weekend to celebrate at all.

It seems as if Franklin D. Roosevelt’s prediction in 1941 has come to pass, “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men died to win them.”

All weekend I’ve been the recipient of gratitude and well-wishes – and although I am very grateful and honored people have been thinking of me and my service to our nation – today’s not about me.

It’s not my day. I’m not dead.

Nor is it about any other living military person or veteran…. our day is in November and it’s called Veterans Day.
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PictureSP4 Ronald Gordon Smith is buried in R.H. Munford Cemetery in Covington, TN
Tonight, I walked around my local cemetery looking at the numerous headstones, which had been decorated with American flags for the weekend. Many of the flags had been knocked down due to the wind and rain we had the night before, so I spent time righting flags, saluting fallen comrades and thanking them for their service and sacrifice. It also made me wonder, why we decorate the final resting places of our military heroes only for the weekend? Why we don’t ensure that the American flag, the very one they pledged to support and defend and the one, many died defending, is not permanently flown over their headstones?

As I walked between the rows of stones, drawn to those marked with flags, I stopped at each one I came across for a moment of quiet reflection. Not all had died in service for their country, but all had served.

​Tipton County has lost many young men who died while fighting for their county, just as many communities throughout West Tennessee have. Young men, like SP4 Ronald Gordon Smith, USARV, who was killed in Vietnam. He was 19 when he arrived in country on May 14, 1967, as a soldier with Co. A, 2nd BN, 1st Inf., 196th Infantry Brigade and celebrated his birthday a short 18 days later on the fields of the Republic of Vietnam. He drew his last breath at age 20 on Nov. 21, 1967 in a battle in the Quang Tin Province, six short months after arriving. He is remembered on panel 30E, line 60 on the Vietnam Wall and I came across this memory shared online on Memorial Day 1999 from one of his friends which shows he was very much loved and is missed.


“Dearest Smitty, in three days you could have been 52 years old-as I am. You could have had a wife, children, and a dog – a whole and complete life. Instead, you will always be 20 years old in my mind, driving a red Corvair, smiling and laughing. I still love you as my best high school friend. I think of you so often still and pray God’s blessings on you in heaven and on your family and friends left on earth. I love you, Judy.”

SP4 Odell Craig of Covington, Tenn.SP4 Odell Craig, eldest son of Andrew and Gertrude WIlliamson Craig, Jr. of Covington, Tenn.
Another of Tipton County’s lost sons of the Vietnam War was 20-year-old Odell Craig, who was just 15 days shy of his 21st birthday when he lost his life while on patrol with his unit in the jungles of the Bing Duong Province in Vietnam. His last letter home, written days before his death, spoke of being in the field for the first time since he’d arrived in Vietnam and that he’s out in the “boondocks for two weeks trying to fight the VC but I’m not scared though.” He wrote of the hardships of sleeping in the rain on the ground and of the mosquitos. He wrote that he was happy his brother, Lawrence, was thinking about going into the Navy if he got drafted, and that his prayers had been answered because he didn’t want him in Vietnam, going through what he was having to do. His family received that last letter on May 8, 1969, three days after he was killed on May 5, and just five months after he landed in Vietnam.
 
Since the dawn of our country, more than 42 million men and women have served to protect this great land of ours, and more than 1.3 million have died doing so. It seems the least we can do this weekend, is spend a few moments reflecting on those who have given their lives in combat so that we can live ours in freedom.

As the years pass, it becomes easier to forget the person behind the name, and so it falls on our shoulders – the legacy holders – the parents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends – to tell the story our soldiers can no longer tell.

​Today is the day to honor our war dead. Those brave men and women, who while answering the call of their nation, made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. They are who Memorial Day is for.

So, this Memorial Day, before you fire up the BBQ, take a moment to reflect on all of our fallen countrymen of all wars and the sacrifice they have made on our behalf and to remember that our freedom has never been free.
​
​Honor them.

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Using Maps for Genealogical Research

10/24/2019

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PictureSanborn Fire Insurance Map from Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tennessee.
​Our October 5th post discussed county boundary changes. Not only did county boundaries change, but state lines did too. (Tennessee borders eight states.) Bill Carey, cofounder of Tennessee History for Kids, and writer for The Tennessee Magazine has several excellent articles about these boundary changes and how the lines were drawn. Old maps can be useful in determining what state and county your ancestor lived in, even if they never moved.
 
Old maps also provide other information that can help a genealogist, from identifying neighbors and locating the closest church, to identifying key transportation routes likes roads, railroads and waterways. One site for historic maps is https://www.davidrumsey.com/. There are over 90,000 maps on this site and a wealth of information. Lisa Louise Cooke has an excellent tutorial on how to use the site.
 
Another set of maps that provide a wealth of information to the genealogist wanting to learn about their ancestors that lived in a city are the Sanborn Maps. These maps were originally created by the Sanborn Map Company to assess fire risk for insurance purposes. The detailed drawings show building placement on the lot, location of doors in the building, the number of stories and construction material and much more. The Library of Congress currently has 176 of these maps available online for Tennessee and they can be accessed at  https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/?fa=location:tennessee.

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Online Biographies

10/21/2019

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Here are some digital books with biographies of prominent Tennesseans that you can access on the internet:

  • County and Town Histories, which also contain biographies (Goodspeed).
    • Index to Biographical Sketches in The History of Tennessee by Goodspeed
    • Digital books listed by county: http://www.learnwebskills.com/family/countyhistories3.htm#tn
    • Index to Brief Biographical Sketches of 30,000 Tennesseans
  • A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans (Vol. 1-8) by Will T. Hale
  • Tennessee and Tennesseans by Bethania McLemore Oldham
  • Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans by William S. Speer
  • Notable Men of Tennessee by John Allison
    Volume 1:   https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Fag-AAAAYAAJ/page/n5
    Volume 2:   https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_6I9LAAAAYAAJ/page/n5


Keep in mind that many of these books were published as a form of vanity press, where a fee was paid by a prominent citizen of a community to be profiled in the book. The information contained in these sources needs to be verified with other sources. That is not to say these books are not useful. They often provide personal details not found elsewhere, as well as background information on the life and times of area where your ancestor lived.  They are also useful finding aids to assist you in further research.

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Using City Directories for Tennessee Genealogy Research

10/20/2019

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City Directories are a gold mine of information for genealogists. Not only are they a great substitute for the 1890 census, but they help fill in the gap between censuses. You can learn about the part of town where your ancestor lived and who the neighbors were. Information about their occupation and employer is often included; there may even by ads or other information in the directory about their employer. The directories can provide clues to when your ancestor arrived in the area, when they died, and other family members. They are useful for finding female ancestors since wives’ names, widows, and single employed women are listed. For one research project, Memphis City Directories helped us confirm that the Joseph Marshall in the 1870 census was actually the James C Marshall we were looking for. The neighbors in the census and the directory were the same, and there was not a directory listing for a Joseph Marshall.
 
City directories were published in Tennessee as early as 1849. Copies can be found in many local libraries. Ancestry has a robust collection, as does TSLA. A listing of the TSLA holdings can be found at https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/city-directories-tennessee-state-library-and-archives. They will even research and make copies for you!

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Using Newspapers for Tennessee Genealogy Research

10/19/2019

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Newspapers provide a wealth of genealogical information that other sources might not provide. Obituaries can contain the married names of females as well as names of family members and their relationships. Local newspapers often include birth, marriage, and death announcements. If your ancestor was a business owner you may find advertisements and other related articles in a newspaper. In the past, small town newspapers reported on many trivial aspects of their reader’s lives, which can add interest to your ancestor’s story.
 
Birth, marriage, and death notices might be recorded in your ancestor’s hometown as well as their current residence. Also check newspapers in surrounding towns and counties for news relating to your ancestors. If your ancestor's hometown did not publish their own paper, be sure to search for newspapers printed in the nearest town as they will often include regional news. 
 
There are several online databases where digitized copies of newspapers can be found:
      Chronicling America
      GenealogyBank.com
      NewspaperArchive.com
      Ancestry.com
   Newspapers.com (available at the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center library)

 
One website, The Ancestor Hunt, deserves special mention. It has a vast listing of links, frequently updated, to online historical newspapers from the United States and all over the world. Other features are lessons on how to perform searches in the newspaper databases and articles relating to newspaper research.
 
The Tennessee State Library and Archives provides access to The Tennessean (1812 – 2002) to Tennessee residents through TEL. TSLA also has a collection of Tennessee newspapers on microfilm. A list of newspapers available by county can be found here:
https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/tennessee-newspapers-arranged-county
 
Local libraries and history societies are also a good source for newspapers. 

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Tennessee Penitentiary Records

10/18/2019

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Has your ancestor disappeared from the Tennessee records usually searched? You may be lucky enough to discover that he committed a crime between 1831 and 1870 and was incarcerated in the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Davidson County, Tennessee. The penitentiary records on individual convicts are a treasure trove describing the appearance of the convict, where he had lived, where his relatives lived at the time, the crime he had committed and his sentence. A searchable index to the Inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary 1851-1870 is available on the Genealogy Index Search Site. 

These records have been published in "Tennessee Convicts, Early Records of the State Penitentiary Volume 1 (1831 - 1850)" compiled by Charles A. and Tomye M. Sherrill and in "Volume 2 (1851 - 1870)" compiled by Charles A. Sherrill. 

The following is excerpted from the entry on "James Barker":

'...was received into the Penitentiary the 18 March, 1832. He is 17 years old, 5'5" high, weight 116 lbs., blue eyes, fair hair and skin. He has a large scar on the left knee, on the cap... The big toe and the next toe to it, on both feet have grown together about half way from the foot to their ends." It continues on to list where his parents and married sister live, his crime of grand larceny,  his sentence and eventual release date - delayed due to "bad conduct".'
 
Wouldn't you love to have information this detailed on other, more law abiding, ancestors?
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Probate Records

10/17/2019

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Probate is the process where an individual’s estate is distributed to his or her heirs, whether or not there is a will. As a result of this, various records are created such as wills, bonds, petitions, accounts, inventories, administrations, orders, decrees, and distributions. These records are valuable to genealogists since they provide a death date, information on residency, and most importantly, demonstrate relationships in a family.
 
If your ancestors owned land, which is common in rural areas, you will want to search for probate records. Probate records do exist for women, although they are not as numerous as the records for men. If a woman was single, widowed, or divorced, it is likely that she owned property that would have gone through the probate process when she died. When you cannot locate a probate record for your direct ancestor, try looking for probate records for that ancestor’s relatives. 
 
A list of Tennessee wills has been published in the book “Index to Tennessee Wills and Administrations, 1779-1861” by Byron and Barbara Sistler.  A copy of this book is available at the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center library. In addition, the Tennessee State Library and Archives will check the index by e-mail free of charge (https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/how-do-i-find-probate-records). Probate records dated after 1861 can be found in the records of each county.  Contact the county courthouse clerk’s office for information on obtaining copies of probate records.  At Ancestry.com there is a database titled “Tennessee Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008.” This database is also available to Tennessee residents through TEL. There are also probate records available at FamilySearch.org in the following databases “Tennessee Probate Court Books, 1795-1927” and “Tennessee Probate Court Files, 1795-1927." However, these databases are only able to be browsed as images, they are not indexed. For assistance in locating the records using these two databases, it would be a good idea to have information on your ancestor’s probate record from the “Index to Tennessee Wills and Administrations” book mention above.

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Death Records

10/16/2019

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As with birth records, Tennessee did not start requiring statewide death certificates until 1908.  The Tennessee Vital Records Office holds death records for 50 years. Death records from 1969 to the present can be obtained from the Tennessee Department of Health, Office of Vital Records. Restrictions and fees apply, so be sure to check the web site. TSLA has statewide Tennessee death records for the years 1908-1912 and 1914-1968. No death records were recorded at the state level in 1913. Copies of available records can be ordered from TSLA, with instructions found on this web page: Ordering Death Records. The Ancestry.com database “Tennessee, Death Records, 1908-1958“ contains images of death records. This database is also available to Tennessee residents through TEL, and the FamilySearch database “Tennessee Deaths, 1914-1966” also contains images.
 
Other places to look for death records include newspapers, bible records, funeral home records and cemetery records. Many county historical societies have published books listing local cemeteries and transcribing tombstone inscriptions.
 
Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville all started recording deaths earlier than 1908. Later blogs will discuss records available for these cities.

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Birth Records

10/13/2019

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PictureBirth records from Robertson County, Tennessee retrieved from FamilySearch.org; Tennessee Births and Christenings, 1828-1939
Tennessee did not start keeping birth records until 1908, although some of the larger cities did keep earlier birth records: Nashville (beginning in 1881); Knoxville (beginning in 1881); Chattanooga (beginning in 1879); and Memphis (beginning in 1874). Later blogs will discuss records available for these cities.

The Tennessee Vital Records Office keeps birth records for 100 years; after that they are available for public access through the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Thus, TSLA has statewide Tennessee birth records for the years 1908-1912 and 1914-1918. No birth records were recorded at the state level in 1913; also, initial adoption was spotty. Copies of available records can be ordered from TSLA, with instructions found on this web page – Ordering Birth Certificates. Birth records from 1919 to the present can be obtained from the Tennessee Department of Health, Office of Vital Records. Restrictions and fees apply, so be sure to check the web site.
 
Other places to look for birth information are the Tennessee Births and Christenings, 1828-1939 index available at Family Search, as well as newspapers and bible records.

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Land Records

10/9/2019

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​Land Records are very valuable for genealogical research, and how to use them can fill volumes. In Tennessee, understanding the history of land settlement and land grants is crucial to using the records successfully. Particularly helpful record collections include:
  • the Ancestry.com database “North Carolina and Tennessee, Early Land Records, 1753-1931,” available to Tennessee residents through TEL, as well as the North Carolina and Tennessee, Revolutionary War Land Warrants, 1783-1843. 
  • Earliest Tennessee Land Records and Earliest Tennessee Land History, by Irene Griffey, and
  • the two volume set by Barbara, Byron and Samuel Sistler, Tennessee Land Grants.

One way land records have been valuable to TNGS researchers is in identifying which part of the state an early settler may have lived in. It is not unusual to get a request for more information on a person who was “born in Tennessee about 1820.” We tackle that by looking at early land grants and other sources to identify areas where that surname is common, and then doing further research in those counties. 

For further information on early North Carolina / Tennessee land grant records available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, click here. 
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