Military

Fighting for a New Nation

3 July 2009 Family Stories

As we prepare to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of our nation, I want to take a moment to recognize my ancestors who fought for (or supported the fight for) our freedom and independence.  I have seventeen ancestors and relatives who were involved in the American Revolution.  To see the complete list, click here.  [...]

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Daughters of the American Revolution

28 June 2009 Military

I’ve decided to join the DAR.  I’ve thought about this for awhile and finally decided to go forward for a variety of reasons. Identifying Revolutionary War patriots is one of the things that originally got me interested in genealogy. Obtaining access to the DAR genealogy files. Completing the rigorous application process will be a test [...]

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James A. McEntire Military Records

27 March 2009 Family Stories

As I reported here, I’ve recently found records related to James A. McEntire in two new Ancestry.com databases:  U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles and Confederate Pension Applications from Georgia.  Here is a summary of the information found in these two records. James was born in McDowell County, North Carolina.  He and his family [...]

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Civil War Databases

7 March 2009 Military

As many other blogs have reported, Ancestry.com has recently added five new databases to its Civil War collection.  I have found two particularly valuable: U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles Confederate Pension Applications from Georgia A quick search of the U. S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles database yielded the record for James [...]

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William Brookshire’s Revolutionary War Service

31 January 2009 Family Stories

William Brookshire, my 5x great-grandfather, served several tours of duty in the American Revolution.  He was drafted for his first tour in Rowan County, North Carolina in August of 1775 or 1776.    Under the command of General Griffith Rutherford, his militia company marched upon the Cherokee Nation, but found that the Indians had fled.  General [...]

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Found! POW Documentation for Francis M. Kendrick

26 January 2009 Family Stories

Family legend says that my great-great-grandfather was held prisoner at Rock Island during the Civil War.  My dad has really wanted me to find documentation of this fact, so it has been on my “Most Wanted” list for some time.  Until this week, I had had no luck. I’ve been slowly assembling facts related to [...]

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Hemphill Surname Fun Facts

30 December 2008 Military

The Hemphill surname is typically thought to be of Northern Irish and Scottish roots.  The name is derived from the Old English words henep (hemp) and hyll (hill) and referred to people living near the hemp hill (i.e. a place where hemp was grown) in a place near Galston in Ayrshire.  However, it could also [...]

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Tombstone Tuesday – Captain Thomas Hemphill

23 December 2008 Evidence

Captain Thomas Hemphill was my six-times great-grandfather.  This marker was placed at a SAR ceremony that I was privileged to attend about ten years ago.  The text of the service’s program can be found here. The inscription on the stone reads: Thomas Hemphill Captain N. C. Mil. Rev War May 4, 1826 Thomas fought at [...]

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Mrs. Hemphill’s Sheep

4 December 2008 Family Stories

This amusing anecdote refers to my five-times great-grandmother, Elizabeth (Patton) Hemphill.  It is part of a series of Biographical Sketches from Burke County, North Carolina that were written by by Col Thomas George Walton (1815-1905) and were first published in the old Morganton Herald in 1894. “The HEMPHILLs of Silver Creek and Old Fort emigrated from [...]

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Monteville Roberts’ Family Business

8 November 2008 Family Stories

Monteville Roberts owned and operated, with the help of family, the combined business establishment of a mill for grinding corn into meal and wheat into flour, a blacksmith shop, and general repair shop, all of which were vitally essential to the people. The combined enterprise, in Hamilton County, Tennessee, provided a flourishing business a home [...]

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