Richardson spots in Missouri

Here are just a few photos in Morgan County from my great trip to Missouri.  With cousins Donald and Linda as our personal guides, it was easy to see things we could never have found by ourselves.  We spent several hours in the community room (which you can just barely see behind the church) at a Richardson reunion, meeting dozens of third-cousins for the first time.

The Glensted Church was established in 1888.  Great-grandmother Margaret had moved away by then, but great-great-grandfather John D. Richardson was still nearby and very active.  He may not have worshiped here, but he certainly would have been going by here!

The Glensted Cemetery is just across the road from the church.  If facing the cemetery, and then turning right , you'd see:

 Below is a shot of the property once owned by great-great-grandfather John D. Richardson.  I started to cry as I took this photo, filled with thoughts that my great-great-grandfather had been here and now I was, too.

His property continued on to the other side of the current "road."  Both parcels are about 6 miles from the Glensted Church.

I took this photo of the Versailles, Morgan County Court House on Sunday afternoon while standing in the middle of the road.  There is certainly no civic center in greater Los Angeles county where I could have taken such a photo with no people in it nor any cars to dodge!

It was a wonderful trip!  When I started my genealogy research, I didn't know I had Richardson ancestors, let alone that they were from Missouri.  Best of all, I have now met my dear friends, Donald and Linda, face to face.  That they happen to be my cousins is icing on the cake!  And, that Donald is a generous and incredibly thorough genealogist makes it double-thick, chocolate fudge frosting!

Happy Blogiversary and a State-of-the-Blog Report

My second blogiversary!  I would not have bet that I'd make it this far! 
 
Stats
It looks like 32 posts in the last 12 months.  Maybe it could have been more, but life keeps getting in the way....

The number of formal followers has doubled (it's easy to double small numbers!), and all comments have been so very supportive.

The number of monthly pageviews has been over 300 for each of the last several months, but that's not counting last May when I was a big, big hit in Russia (I think some machine was trying to get in; I am not aware of any ancestors or followers there!).  I have to credit the increase (but not Russia) to having been included in Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings "Best of" list for 6 February 2011.  Thanks, again, Randy!

Last January's Resolutions
So far, I'm three for six!  That's not bad... and, hopefully, there'll be more progress by December!

New Look
And, here is the first post in the design I've selected for GreatGreats' third year!  I hope it's easy to read and that it's pleasing in appearance.

WARNING: Blogiversary Approaching

It's hard to believe that GreatGreats' second blogiversary will be in two days.

Here's the warning:  I will celebrate by changing the design template.  Once a year isn't too often, is it?!

If you have any comments on color, font, layout, or whatever, now is the time.  All feedback is appreciated.  Thanks!  Have a great, great day!

First Friday Folder: Causier & Tolley

I selected this folder for review this month because it is the thickest one in my English line.  I was hoping I could thin it out a bit.  But, it looks like the big result of this review is that I found a huge error outside the folder!

After pulling the folder, the first thing I did was to check past posts and make sure I hadn't reviewed this couple before. Actually, there hasn't ever been a First Friday Folder on a Causier and no Causier posts at all in the past 12 months.  The yucky part was seeing that the last Causier post was titled 'William CARR in Dodderhill.'  I had written a whole post about William Causier and titled it 'CARR.'  That's terribly embarrassing....

The Couple
William Causier and his second wife, Ann Tolley, are my great-great-great-grandparents.  William was born about 1793 in Droitwich, Worcestershire, England, the son of Sacheverell Causier and Sarah Hunt.  He died 31 Jul 1873 in Whitwood Mere, (West Riding )Yorkshire, England; a snip from his death certificate appears above.  He and Ann were married 24 May 1829 in Dodderhill, Worcestershire.  Ann Tolley was born about 1809 in Droitwich.  She died about October, 1891, in Whitwood Mere.

 
The Causier's lived in this vicinity in Whitwood circa early 1870s, but on the 2006 personal tour Cousin Val gave us, she said none of the buildings they actually lived in remained.

The Folder
The folder is almost an inch thick.  I don't know Ann's parents, so I've been keeping Tolley clues and unknown Tolley's in this folder, but now I've moved them to their own folder.

There was a family group sheet from 2007 and one from 2009.  On one hand, I was surprised to see I hadn't printed a new one for 2 years, but it was also nice to see how far I've come in 4 years.  Otherwise, there weren't any duplicates or any papers misfiled.  Darn, the folder is still thick.

The Plan

1. I need to review maps of Dodderhill & Droitwich and the locations of other nearby parishes from the GENUKI database.
2. I need to review my extractions from1813-1874 the Dodderhill Parish Records to be sure I've entered all the appropriate info in my database.  Then, I need to go back further and find William's baptism and first marriage for myself.
3. Who is the Thomas Tolley who witnessed William and Ann's marriage?  Perhaps he will be a clue to her ancestry?  Judging from how rare Tolley is in the Dodderhill records, I'm expecting her family to have been from a nearby parish.
4. Who is the "niece" Elizabeth Bernat, age 6, living with William and Ann in the 1851 census?

Conclusions
Every month, I tell myself I am NOT going to continue the First Friday Folder blogposts.  But once again, the process has turned up a gross error.  So, I guess I better keep doing it....  Either that or stop making mistakes!

Variations in GIB

One of my CARR-line surnames is GIB.  It didn't take any time at all to find that it could just as well appear in records as GIB or GIBB or GIBBS.  Well, that's when it appears...it seems to be fairly rare, or at least it is where I've been looking! (East Riding of Yorkshire, 1770s)

Recently I picked up my Genealogical Research in England and Wales, Vol. 1, and I decided to see if the "Surnames -- Given Names -- Dialect" chapter had anything interesting.  That's not a topic that ordinarily excites me...and I've probably never looked at that chapter before.  First, I was surprised when I came to the name GIBB, and secondly, I was surprised to see a whole half paragraph!

Some variations in the spelling of surnames caused by local pronunciation are somewhat obvious, but others are not. ... A family of Gibb from near Chard in Somerset is found recorded under the spellings of Geeb, Geep, Gabe, and Geab.  One interesting case is that of Betty Geab recorded in the 1851 census, whose death was subsequently registered and appears in the indexes at Somerset House under the spelling of Gabe.  Although her burial at the parish church of Merriott is written Elizabeth Gibb, it was not until every entry recorded in the week of her death at the local superintendant's register office was checked, that the spelling Gabe was discovered. [1]

I wonder if I've missed any of these variations in my research?  I think I would have made note of these, given how rarely I see any one-syllable word starting with G, but I will certainly pay more attention now!

Conclusions

• I found this book in a used book store in Utah several years ago.  I think older books about research ofter have a lot to offer.  And, re-reading them occasionally can be useful!
• I've added these unusual variations to my GIBB family group sheet so that I'm more likely to be reminded to be creative in my searching.

Source

David E. Gardner & Frank Smith. Genealogical Research in England and Wales, Vol. 1.  Salt Lake City: Bookcraft Publishers, 1956, p. 273. [The italics are as they are in the original; the color is my addition.]

Great Resource at a Great Price

If you remember my last post earlier tonight, you can easily see that I'm catching up on reading the blogs I follow....

I've been meaning to do a thorough review/comment of Michael John Neill's Casefile Clues, but you know how time flies....  Now, I've just read Michael's latest offer for the whole first volume of Casefile Clues.  It says it's good as long as the link is hot; it was just a minute ago at 10:45pm Pacific time.

If it is still available and if you enjoy reading genealogy articles, emphasizing the research and thinking process, then this might be the best $10 you ever, ever spend.  I don't have the time to detail all the things I like about Casefile Clues, but some quickies are that

• it's not for beginners, 
• the examples are real and almost read like serial mysteries, and 
• the charts he develops are super. 

I'll still get around to a full review someday, but don't let this bargain pass you by.

NOTE: Other than being a subscriber, fully paying my own way, I am in no way connected to Casefile Clues or  Michael John Neill and this post is completely independent (and unknown to him).

Unexpected Gift from a Great Blogger

Bill West, of The Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit, recently posted lovely photos of the "Olde Beechwood Burial Ground"  in Cohasset, Massachusetts.  One photo that caught my eye turned out to be the headstone of my 5th great-grand-aunt, Sarah Bates, who died at about the age of 11 in 1737.

I know Bill also contributes to FindaGrave.com, so I quickly clicked over to their site and found out that Bill had indeed already submitted a photo and annotation for Sarah's father, Joshua Bates.  Thank you, thank you, Bill!

Thanks to Bill, I now have burial locations for both Joshua and Sarah!  I like filling in blanks in my database!  Now, I wonder if Bill West and I are related....