Tennessee Genealogical Society Blog

Knoxville

10/28/2019

A Brief Account of the Execution of the Six Militia Men - The books, pamphlets, ephemera and maps included in this collection are selected from the rare and fragile print materials held by the library. These items are held in closed library stacks and may be missed by the casual researcher.

Knoxville (Knox County) began as James White’s fort in 1786. The fort became the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790. Renamed Knoxville in 1791, the city served as the first capital of Tennessee from 1796 to 1812.

As one of Tennessee’s major cities, Knoxville began keeping vital records earlier than some other parts of the state. Knoxville started recording births and deaths in 1881. Indexes and/or scanned images of this data are available in two Ancestry.com databases, Tennessee, City Birth Records, 1881-1915 and Tennessee, City Death Records, 1872-1923. These databases are available to Tennessee residents through TEL. Marriage records as early as 1792 are available for Knox County. The Knox County Public Library has an excellent set of web pages linking to online vital record databases for Knox County and much of Tennessee.

Knoxville first published a City Directory in 1859. City directories from 1859-1943 are available at Ancestry.com. Hardcopies of the directories from 1859-2018 are available at Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) and the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection located on the 3rd floor of the East Tennessee History Center.

More information about Knoxville/Knox County history and genealogy research can be found through the Knox County Public Library, the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, the Knox County TSLA Fact Sheet, FamilySearch wiki, and the East Tennessee Historical Society.

Chattanooga

10/27/2019

Chattanooga (Hamilton County), Tennessee’s fourth largest city, was incorporated in 1839. The area was settled as early as 1816, with the establishment of a trading post, Ross’s Landing, by brothers John and Lewis Ross.

As one of Tennessee’s major cities, Chattanooga began keeping vital records earlier than some other parts of the state. Chattanooga began recording births in 1879 and deaths in 1872. Indexes and/or scanned images of this data are available in two Ancestry.com databases, Tennessee, City Birth Records, 1881-1915 and Tennessee, City Death Records, 1872-1923. These databases are available to Tennessee residents through TEL.

Marriage records as early as 1857 are available for Hamilton County. The Hamilton County Clerk’s office has a searchable database of these records.

Chattanooga first published a City Directory in 1871. City directories from 1871-1960 are available at Ancestry.com. Hardcopies of the directories from 1871-2018 are available at Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) and the Chattanooga Public Library holdings contain many years as well.

More information about Chattanooga/Hamilton County history and genealogy research can be found through the Hamilton County Tennessee Genealogy Society, the Chattanooga Area Historical Association, the Hamilton County TSLA Fact Sheet, the FamilySearch wiki, Chattanooga History and the East Tennessee Historical Society.

Passports of Southeastern Pioneers

10/26/2019

Another fascinating book at the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center is Passports of Southeastern Pioneers 1770-1823: Indian, Spanish and other Land Passports for Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, North and South Carolina by Dorothy Williams Potter. It is shelved in the Regional section under USA/Southeast/Pot.

Before 1824, the Secretary of War was responsible for the Federal government’s relations with the Indian tribes. The department wanted to insure that only “reputable” people, with good intentions, entered the area; thus, the issuance of passports authorizing travel. State Governors, military commanding officers, and those authorized by the President actually issued the passports.

Sometimes a pass only contained the date, the name of the person(s) it was issued to, where they were traveling to and who issued the authorization. Other times, the pass and supporting documentation contained more information about the individual, their family and acquaintances. For example, a passport was issued on 17 Feb 1798 for “Mr. Robert Trimble … to call upon his brother-in-law Thomas Tirchey.” Families travelling together were frequently identified. In one passport issued 18 Mar 1798, a large party travelling down the Holston and Tennessee rivers was identified as including “five negroes;” and the back of the passport included the names of the “Negroes.”

The book is well indexed, easy to consult, and a great resource for tracing early inhabitants of Tennessee.

Tennessee Tidbits

10/25/2019

Shelved in the Tennessee section under “TN Register Fis” at the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center are four volumes of Tennessee Tidbits, 1778-1914 compiled by Marjorie Hood Fischer. It is a fascinating collection of items (derived from county court records) showing “birth, death, marriage, divorce, guardianship, naturalization, illegitimacy, lunacy, migration, residency, relationship, adoption, disability, military service, emancipation, tribute, apprenticeship.” The author selected items that she felt would be of genealogical interest; and, in preparing Volume 1, she read “every available record left” after a courthouse fire.

These books may offer you some research “shortcuts” because the information is listed under the individual’s name in alphabetical order, citing the particular county court record in which it was found. Each volume includes records from the specific counties listed in the front of that book. But you might want to check all the volumes, not just the one listing information from your ancestor’s home county, because, in each, there are references to people from other counties.

An example of an interesting entry packed with “tidbits” of information:
“GANTT, Jesse V. – Married before 3 May 1847 to Caroline M. Basey, heir of James T. Basey, deceased, as shown when Jesse came into court and asked to be appointed guardian of Caroline (Har TN, Co Ct Min, D/254).” The parenthetical reference means this entry was from Hardin County, TN County Court Minutes Volume D, page 254.

Using Maps for Genealogical Research

10/24/2019

Sanborn 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.

Civil War Pension Applications

10/23/2019

Tennessee began providing pensions to Confederate veterans in 1891, and to their widows in 1905. The pensions were granted to eligible residents of Tennessee, regardless of where they served. Eligibility included the inability to support themselves, having been honorably separated from service, and having been a resident of the state for at least one year prior to their application. In addition to service information, the application contained the applicant’s place of birth, number and gender of children, and information about their personal and real property. Many people provided more information than just what the application asked for, e.g. the year or date of their birth, not just the location and many application files contain correspondence and affidavits that provide additional detail about the individual’s life. Widows had to provide proof of marriage. Thus, the pension application files are a great source of genealogical information.

These records can be accessed in the “Tennessee, Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965” database at Family Search.

Apprentices: Tennessee's Forgotten Children

10/22/2019

Records on apprentices from 27 East Tennessee counties, dating from pre-statehood years to the early twentieth century, reveal an often poignant story about young people - both boys and girls, white and "of color," who became apprentices. You can begin your research on apprentices in these 27 counties in East Tennessee's Forgotten Children, Apprentices from 1778 to 1911 by Dr. Alan N. Miller.

Middle Tennessee's Forgotten Children: Apprentices from 1784 to 1902, the second volume of Tennessee's "forgotten children" contains more than 7,000 apprenticeship records scattered among the minutes of the county courts for Middle Tennessee. Spanning the period from 1784 to 1902 and covers 35 MIddle Tennessee counties: Bedford, Cannon, Cheatham, Clay, Coffee, Davidson, DeKalb, Dickson, Franklin, Giles, Grundy, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Jackson, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Marshall, Maury, Montgomery, Moore, Overton, Perry, Robertson, Rutherford, Smith, Stewart, Sumner, Van Buren, Warren, Wayne, White, Williamson, and Wilson.

West Tennessee's Forgotten Children: Apprentices from 1821 to 1889, also written by Alan N. Miller, is the third and final book in Miller's apprentices' series. This third volume contains over 4,000 apprenticeship records spanning the period from 1821 to 1899 and covers 19 Tennessee counties, including: Benton, Carroll, Crockett, Decatur, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henry, Lake, Lauderdale, Madison, McNairy, Obion, Shelby, Tipton, and Weakley.

Originally, the English system had been designed to teach the professions and crafts; but in the colonies, it developed into a "system whereby children who were or were likely to become indigent could be supported without cost to the local government." Often these children were orphans or a child "whose father had abandoned him or utterly failed and refused to support him."

In the beginning, Tennessee followed the laws of North Carolina: Children were to be taught to read and write and were to be provided with food, clothing and shelter until the male reached the age of 21, the females to 18, unless "mulatto or mustee," in which case the age was 21. These were formal agreements recorded in county court minutes.

Each listing in the series includes the name and age of the apprentice - some as young as two and three-years-old, the date the apprenticeship began, the name of the "master" and notes which might indicate parentage, the fact that the young person was an orphan and / or the occupation the young person was to be trained in.

Online Biographies

10/21/2019

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.

Using City Directories for Tennessee Genealogy Research

10/20/2019

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!

Using Newspapers for Tennessee Genealogy Research

10/19/2019

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.