Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It's Saturday Night Again
-
Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!!
Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-MusingsGenea-Musings for tonight is to:
1) One of the goals of every genealogy researcher is to solve difficult name and relationship problems - and traditionally we do a "genealogy happy dance" when we succeed.
2) When was the last time
you did a "genealogy happy dance" after solving one of your difficult
problems?
Here's mine:
This is very difficult. I haven’t had a great “happy dance”
in a long while. I have not found new ancestors on any of my lines.
FamilySearch’s new Full-Text Search in Labs has not helped me with some of my
brick walls, i.e., the parents of Samuel Johnston or Benjamin W. Jones. It has
helped me locate records, though. Is being excited as good as a “happy dance?”
Benjamin W. Jones
I thought I would give Labs another try. I hadn’t searched
on his name yet, so let’s see what I get? He was born in Virginia in 1822 and
lived in Rankin Co, Mississippi between 1845 and the mid-1860s. That will be my
best bet for a first search. I will search using the following names:
- Benjamin W. Jones
- Benj. W. Jones
- Ben Jones
- B.W. Jones
I got over 700 hits on just searching his full name in quotations. I filtered by place to Mississippi and now I have 15 hits to look at. Some hits are duplicates, where the name is mentioned again on the next page of the volume.
1847 probate court record in Rankin County, where Dorcas Whitehead renounced her right as guardian of her son, J. James Whitehead and named her friend Benjamin Jones as a suitable person. Then after Benjamin W. Jones and Reubin McLimere post bond, the court appointed Benjamin W. Jones to be guardian of John J Whitehead of Rankin County.[1] Why would Dorcas name Benjamin to be the guardian? There has to be some kind of relationship and another question is why would Reubin McLimere act as surety unless there was a relationship? Two new FAN club members to research!
Interesting note, the bond
book has an index and Benjamin is not listed in the “J” section. If I had
checked the index, I would have moved on after not finding anything on
Benjamin. This every-word search is picking up items we would not locate
without browsing every page.
1847 bond, where Benjamin W. Jones is a surety and Reubin
McLemore is the Guardian of Mary Ann McLemore.[2]
Again, there is a relationship between Benjamin and Reubin to check out. This
one is new to me.
1851 deed. By not narrowing it down to only Rankin County, I located a deed in Copiah County, Mississippi, records for land the Haley heirs are selling that is in Simpson and Copiah Counties and part of Rankin County in 1851.[3]
Records that I already had:
- 1851 deed sale in Rankin County with Benjamin W. Jones and Haley heirs to John H Haley.
- 1851 deed purchase in Rankin County from the Haley heirs.
- 1852 deed sale in Rankin County to Michael Harvey.
- 1856 deed sale in Rankin County to John B Kornegay.
- 1856 deed sale in Rankin County to James T Kornegay.
- 1863 deed sale in Rankin County to Thomas L Summerall.
I am happy to revisit the above deeds. I will update my source citation in RootsMagic to include the full URL and update the IGN number and image numbers.
The bond documents don’t amount to a happy dance but give me
two more people to research and see if either of them can lead me back to
Benjamin’s parents. I’ll take that!
Samuel Johnston
I also gave another try locating something on Samuel Johnston in Yalobusha County, and I hit a jackpot. Grantor indexes don't have the sale of his land before he went to Texas in the early 1860s. Well, today, I found who he sold the land to.
In a deed on 8 Aug 1867, Henry Arington sold to his wife, Caroline Eliza Arington the same piece of land that Samuel owned. He mentions that he used his wife's money to purchase the land from Samuel Johnston on about 23 November 1860.[4] Now, I am doing a happy dance. I have a date that is close to when they moved to Texas. Plus, I like tidy land deeds, showing purchases and then sales.
[1]
Rankin County, Mississippi, Bond Book Wills, v.1, p. 303-04, bond of Benjamin W
Jones for guardianship of John J. Whitehead, 1847, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89QX-VZC6);
citing IGN 005842413, image 171 of 345.
[2]
Rankin County, Mississippi, Bond Book Wills, v. 1, p. 302, Reubin McLemore,
with Benjamin W Jones as surety, 1847, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9QX-VZHG);
IGN IGN 005842413, image 170 of 345.
[3]
Copiah County, Mississippi, deed, v. M, p. 380-81, Haley heirs to William Haley,
1851, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QP-W19D),
IGN 008562626, images 212-13.
Congratulations on a couple of good finds. I have often found that court minutes have very incomplete indexes that omit major parties mentioned and you're right in that full-text search has reduced the need to browse page by page. It will be interesting to hear how the Whiteheads and McLemores fit into the Rankin family. Could the wives all be sisters?
ReplyDeleteI don't think the wives are sisters as I have the Haley family worked out. But maybe Jones' in-laws?
DeleteI agree, finding two more members of your ancestor's FAN Club doesn't quite qualify for the genealogy happy dance, but I hope that when you find out how they are connected you do get to dance.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually more excited by finding evidence Sam sold his land and to whom.
Delete