My Trails into the Past

During the government shutdown, Brian Rhinehart of CivilWarRecords.com, presented a webinar, “Researching Your 19th Century Ancestors,” about researching military records at Fold3 . His pitch was to help support his employees since they could not work at the National Archives while it was closed. Learning to do better searching at Fold3 is always welcome, and I liked the idea of supporting those who were caught in the shutdown. I didn’t attend live, as I had other obligations, and watched the recording later, which turned out better because we had exercises to try out his methodologies. Seeing the recording allowed me to work on the problems without any stress. The way Fold3 is set up is different from most websites, where you enter a name in a search field and you’ll get all the documents about that person or persons with similar names. You can do that at Fold3, but you won’t get everything. Fold3 is better searched using their browse feature. He used the analogy of file drawe...

In 1943, my husband’s grandmother filled out a family tree on binder paper. She described her grandparents as Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas. She listed their children, including her father, Fred H. Davey. One of Fred’s sisters was listed as Lydia N. Colby, who had two sons, Albert and Alfred, and she identified them as twins. [1]  She included no dates and no locations for this family. I do not have much to work with, but I want to know if the boys were actually twins. Obituaries of Thomas and Mary Davey Thomas Davey died on 6 February 1886. The survivors included Mrs. Lydia Jackson of New York City. [2] Five years later, Mary Davey died on 18 September 1893 in Indianapolis. Mrs. Lida M. Colbey of New York was listed as one of the survivors. [3] The obituaries give two surnames for Lydia: Jackson and Colby. Both obituaries list her residence as New York City. An 1891 city directory lists a Lydia Colby, widow, living at 410 W. 57th Street. [4] This was the only directory fou...

My husband’s second-great-grandparents, Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas, lived in several small villages in County Cornwall after marrying in 1832 in St. Agnes. [1] Census and baptism records of their children help document their moves. St. Agnes Parish St. Agnes is a town on the north coast of Cornwall, about five miles north of Redruth. The mines in the area produced copper, tin, and arsenic. Besides mining, there were iron foundries, a smelter, and a stamp mill. As a blacksmith, Thomas may have worked at one of the mines or other industries. The first two daughters, Elizabeth and Susan, were born and baptized in St. Agnes Parish. [2] Constantine Parish Their first son, Thomas Nicholas Davey, was born in Bridge in the Parish of Constantine in County Cornwall, as well as their second son, Edward Nicholas. [3] Constantine was on the other side of the County Cornwall. The mines in the area extracted copper, tin, and iron. Bristol Mary Jane was born in Clifton, Bristol, in County ...

George Thomas Davey registered for the draft on 5 June 1917, the date of the first registration. He was twenty-seven years old and worked for the American Car and Foundry in Jeffersonville, Indiana. He claimed his mother and three children were dependent on him. He also claimed an exception because he worked at a plant making war material. On the back of the card under disabilities, it states “weak ambler.” [1] None of the statements on the card prevented him from being drafted. He was listed as Class 1 (eligible for the draft) by the Clark County Exemption Board in April 1918. [2] He entered the army on 26 April 1918 and was sent to Camp Zachary Taylor on April 27. [3] Camp Zachary Taylor was located in Louisville, Kentucky and used during the war as a training center. [4] He was a private with the Detachment Quartermaster Corps of the School for Bakers and Cooks. He spent the entire war at Camp Zachary Taylor as a cook. [5] He was discharged on 29 July 1919. [6] Camp Zachary T...

I have many challenging research subjects, both in my family and in my husband’s family. This past week, I have chiseled away on one of them. FamilySearch Full-text Search In the new FamilySearch full-text search, I decided to expand a targeted search out a bit. [1] I searched on “Thomas Davey” and instead of focusing only on Clark County, Indiana, where he lived, I decided to see what else I could find. Sometimes records come up in unexpected places that I would not have searched. A deed record came up for Thomas and his wife, Mary, in Franklin County, Kansas. Upon reading the deed, I discovered that this was likely my Thomas and Mary Davey because their residence on the deed was Jeffersonville, Clark County, Indiana. Also, one of the witnesses was Fred H. Davey, who was likely their son. What puzzled me about the deed was the amount they paid for several pieces of land: $12,000 for 423 acres. They purchased this land from Henry and Mary Jane Hawkins. [2] I wondered if they bought ...