Where Was Moses When the Lights Went Out?

This has nothing to do with my own family history, but this old drinking song was supposedly played by the Tombstone Brass Band at the funeral of Frank and Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton after the shootout at the O.K. Corral. Listen here (Note the warning about old-timey language.) Catchy, right? I vote we make it

Read More »

Civil War POW John Priestly Gravitt

Of course it would have to be in the middle of the busiest weekend in my year that I discover that my 3rd Great-Grandpa on my dad’s side, John Priestly (J. P.) Gravitt (1836-1921), was a Civil war POW. This all came about when I discovered that another collateral ancestor’s Civil War Pension application was

Read More »

Wednesday’s Child – Grover Cleveland Rice, Jr.

Grover Cleveland Rice, Jr. (1917-1922) is buried at New Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery in Acworth, in Cherokee County, Georgia.  He was the son of my 2nd great grand uncle, (also named Grover Cleveland Rice) and Ada Lovingood, also both of Cherokee County, Georgia. The thing that struck me about his grave is that his tombstone

Read More »

Some Forsyth County, Georgia West Land Records Transcribed

I spent all this time transcribing these land records having to do with my 4th Great-Grandfather, George W. West, so I thought I would share them with you. The Book and Page where they can be found is at the top of each record. This is my first experience with land records so I have

Read More »

Follow Friday: Scalping, Slaveholder Fraud and Roy Acuff’s Accent

It’s Friday again! And that means my only job today is to point out all of the other awesome blogs, posts and sites I’ve encountered during the week. Without further ado… Blogs & Sites Yesterday I became enamored with Many Branches, One Tree. Maybe this is because I’m very interested in Mexico and Mexican history

Read More »

Thrifty Thursday: Try TurboScan instead of Copying

I’ve been slack on blogging because I’ve been doing lots of actual work – genealogical and otherwise. Yesterday, I finally made the hour drive to to poke around in Forsyth County’s land records. Though I haven’t yet found where my ancestor George W. West actually bought his land, I did find where he was selling it off

Read More »

Narrowing Down the West Burial Site

Today I got over myself and headed up to the Forsyth County, Georgia courthouse to look at old land records. I didn’t find everything I wanted, but after seeing which parcels of land my ancestors sold off, I’ve narrowed it down… THIS is where I have to find the cemetery. Yep, there is a highway

Read More »