This is the second installment in a series of nine posts in which I transcribe the will of my Revolutionary War ancestor, Captain Thomas Hemphill.  In the first post, we learned that Captain Thomas’ will was contested by two of his children and a son-in-law, and that the date usually seen for his death may be wrong.  Let’s see what page two¹ has to offer.

Click to enlarge

Transcript

This Cause was then Continued from Court to Court until

March Term 1830.  When came the parties aforesaid by their

Attorneys aforesaid and also a jury to try the Truth of the

Issue aforesaid to wit

1 Charles Duncan             5 William Connally            9 John Kincaid

2 Wm L Baird                     6 George Corpenning       10 James McCall

3 Willliam Murphy          7 James Avery                    11 Jacob Mull

4 John Fleming                 5 Benj Burnett                     12 James H Perkins

The Jury find the paper writing offered for probate is the

last will and testament of Thomas Hemphill deceased and

that he did devise. that the same was proven to be the last

will & Testament of the Said Thomas Hemphill dec^d by the

oath of Adam Jourdan one of the Subscribing witnesses there

to and by proof of the handwriting of Robert Logan the

other Subscribing witness, who it is proven is dead.  Also

proof of the handwriting of the Testator Tho^s Hemphill de^d.

and his acknowledgement that it was his last will &

Testament   Which is in the following words of [??????]

State No Carolina }          January 12^th 1824.  I Thomas Hemphill

Burke County }                 of Said State and County, do make &

Ordain this as my Last Will & Testament. And first I

will and bequeath my immortal Soul to God who gave it

and my Body to be buryed in a decent, and Christian

manner at the discretion of my Executors. And all the real

and personal property that God has bestowed on me in the

Course of his providence, I dispose of in the following man

ner (viz). In primus, I will and bequeath to my son by

Law John Young Three tracts of Land in Bumcomb County

in the upper Settlements on French Broad River. The titles for

Said Land will Show their situation and Dementions.

Item.  I will and bequeath to my Son Andrew one tract of Land

lying on Silver Creek known by the name of MacCluskeys tract

one tract in Buncomb County of which Postell formerly

lived, one tract in Said County lying on flat Creek below James

Whitaker’s land.  Item.  I will and bequeath to my Son Thomas

the whole of that s of Land which I bought from John Davidson

and on which I now live, also one hundred acres lying on

What I learned from this page

The copy of the will starts on this page, so we are starting to get to the meat of things.  The verdict in the appeal is also noted on this page:  the jury found the will to be valid in a session held in March 1830.

The will was dated 12 Jan 1824, so we know that Captain Thomas was still alive at that time and was a resident of Burke County, North Carolina.  (The area where he lived became part of McDowell County upon that county’s creation in 1842.)

He named John Young as his son-in-law and bequeathed to him three tracts of land in Buncombe County, NC.  John was married to Thomas’ oldest daughter, Rosannah.  (Asheville is in Buncombe County and borders present-day McDowell County.)

He named Andrew as his son and bequeathed him three tracts on land, one on Silver Creek, one in Buncombe County and one in Burke County.  Andrew was either the second or third son, after James.  Silver Creek, I believe, is in an area that remained in Burke County when McDowell County split off.  I need to look into this further.

He named Thomas as his son and bequeathed to him the homeplace, which is on land purchased from John Davidson and one hundred acres. . .

[I have two John Davidson’s in my database (they are father and son);  I must make a note to determine if either of them is the John Davidson from whom Thomas purchased the land.  These Johns are related to theJames Alexander of Buncombe County who married Rhoda Cunningham.]

Check back next Monday for page 3 of Captain Thomas Hemphill’s will.

One of our first topics in US Records Study Group was “Organizing and Evaluating Research Findings.”  When people talk about “being organized,” I think they are often referring to the physical “stuff”:  the documents, photos, and artifacts that they have accumulated.  Can any of this stuff be located at a moments notice?

I have a pretty good handle on my stuff, because I keep all my records in electronic format.  This is not to say that I don’t always have a backlog of things to be added to the computer, because I do, but everything that is in the computer is named and filed using a system, and tagged extensively, so that a quick computer search finds whatever I want.

The areas that plague me have less to do with finding the documents and more to do with the questions “what have I already done with this person/family/document and what do I need to do next?”  In other words, with keeping up with where I am in the research process.

In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, Greenwood suggests that we write regular research reports to ourselves, just as if we were working with a client.  I have done this a few times, but not with any kind of regularity, and I can definitely see how it would be beneficial.  Every time I switch family lines, I have to completely refresh myself on my prior research and half the time I find myself wondering “why did I think that?”  I have citations for all the facts, but I don’t always have documentation for my conclusions.  I think that a research report that lays out the events and conclusions in chronological order, and that also includes all the abstracts, transcripts, and photocopies, would be very helpful in getting myself back up to speed and I want to get in the habit of writing them.

Greenwood also suggests that we write reminder notes at the end of a day’s work.   These notes will probably vary from day to day and project to project, but could include a to-do list, sources to check, next steps, what you did last, etc.  The general idea is to be able to “read your reminder and proceed from where you left off,” whether that is days, months, or even years later.  I usually have a file folder by the computer of things I’m working on and I always think I’m going to remember what to do next, and if I get to it in the next day or so, I usually do.  But sometimes I find myself picking up a file folder a long time later than I intended to and then I’m just lost.  I want to get in the habit of writing a quick sticky note and dropping it in the working file.

These are not New Year’s Resolutions and I hesitate to call them “goals,” even though I put that in the post title.  They are simply habits and additions to my process that will help me be more efficient and organized.

I was in the neighboring county a couple of weeks ago when I realized I had about thirty minutes to kill, so I sped over to the library. Normally I would not have done this, because I didn’t have any genealogy information with me and I would have thought I didn’t have enough time to accomplish anything.  But I did have a few “to-do” items in my head based on some recent internet research on my Patterson line, so I decided to give it a shot.

I’m fairly familiar with this library, so I headed straight to the Genealogy Room and to the corner where I thought that land records were shelved. Fortune was with me and I quickly found three books that matched up with what I had in mind.

1. 1832 Georgia Gold Lottery – I had seen a reference online that Nancy (Chapman) Patterson was a fortunate drawer in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery, but I hadn’t been able to corroborate that. I wanted to see if the library had a book on the 1832 Gold Lottery to see if she drew land in it instead.  They did, and while I didn’t find Nancy listed, I did find three of her children, including John, my 4th great-grandfather.
2. 1834 and 1838 Georgia Census Records for Lumpkin County – following along a similar theme, I had found some of the Pattersons in Lumpkin County in 1840 and had seen online references that some were there in 1834 and some in 1838. The library did not have the 1834 Georgia census, but they did have a book that included 1827 Taliaferro County, 1838 Lumpkin County, and 1845 Chatham County. A quick look revealed William Patterson (my 4th great-grandfather’s brother) in 1838 in Lumpkin County.
3. A Random Book – The same section had a book called Indexes to seven State census reports for counties in Georgia, 1838-1845. That seemed promising so I took a look at the table of contents. It included Forsyth County, 1845. I had already found the above William Patterson in Forsyth County in 1850, but he did not appear there in 1845, so now I know that he moved between 1845 and 1850.

Three records in thirty minutes. Not bad, huh?

Have you had any luck researching in short “found” blocks of time?  Tell me about it in the comments.

A couple of weeks ago, a tweet passed through my Twitter stream from @FSHistRecords announcing that North Carolina Probate Records had been added to FamilySearch.  Since I have many, many ancestors who lived in North Carolina, I immediately clicked on the link.  This is one of those non-indexed databases that FamilySearch is doing now, in order to get the images out there as quickly as possible.  I must say, I’m thrilled that they are doing this.  I can browse through images online just like I can microfilm.   I clicked on browse images to see if any of my known counties were represented and was pleased to see so many county names.

I wasn’t doing any research at the time, just watching TV and catching up on my RSS feeds, so I decided to go on a little fishing expedition.

First I clicked on McDowell County, because that’s the last place that my Hemphill lines lived before coming to Georgia and I figured the chance of finding at least one Hemphill represented was pretty good.

As you can see there are a number of options, including estate records, executor records, and wills.  I zeroed in on the Will Index and skipped through until I found the page with Hemphills listed.

“Thomas B.” jumped out at me; that probably would be Thomas Bratcher Hemphill, brother to my 3rd great-grandfather, Ben Hemphill, and half-brother to my 2^nd great-grandfather, J. Y. Hemphill.  The index told me that Thomas B. Hemphill’s will was probated in 1903 and was recorded in Will Book 2, on page 554.

I went back to the McDowell County page and looked at the options again.  It isn’t organized by Will Book name, but rather by date, so I chose the link that included 1903, which is called “Wills 1869-1903.”  I quickly realized that the page number from the will book didn’t match the image numbers from the database, so I started jumping around in the images toward the end, until I narrowed in on p. 554, which turned out to be image number 308.

Sure enough, in the middle of the page, a new will started for “I, Thomas Bratcher Hemphill.”  Yay!

I printed out Thomas’ will, which took up 3 pages in the will book, but is only two images online.

Thomas never married, so he left all his property to various nieces and nephews, including my 2^nd great-grandmother, Josephine (Hemphill) Butler.

This whole process only took 29 minutes.  And I did it all in my pajamas from the comfort of my living room sofa.  I love 21^st century genealogy!

This is the permit to bury my grandmother’s only brother.  I’m excited about this record for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, I’d never seen a burial permit before; I had no idea so much good genealogical information would be included.  For another, it corroborates my grandmother’s story about her brother’s death.

Analysis of the record

Person Asking for Permit:  N. C. Ward.  This is my great-grandfather – Worth’s father.

Residence:  Newport, Ga.  The date of this permit is 11 Jul 1939.  According to my great-grandfather’s Social Security Application, he lived in Chatsworth, Ga.  in December 1939, so the family moved sometime between July and December.

Full name of the deceased:  William Worth Ward.  I didn’t know Worth’s first name was William.

Date of death:  9 July 1939.  This matches the date on his headstone.

Cause of death:  bleeding.  According to my grandmother, he was stabbed to death, so yes, bleeding makes sense.

Place of death:  Morganton, Ga.  I knew he died in Fannin County, but I didn’t know the specific town.

Residence:  Newport, Ga.  Also new information.

Place of burial:  Stock Hill.  I’ve been to this cemetery and he is buried next to his parents.

Date of burial:  11 Jul 1939.  New information

On this date in 1933, Walter T. Hemphill and Julia Bowers were joined in the holy bonds of matrimony.  They were married in Murray County, Georgia.

Walt was my grandfather’s older brother.

Analysis

From this record, I learned Walt and Julia’s marriage date and place.  It also gave me a primary source for Walt’s middle initial and for Julia’s name.

Source:  Murray County, Georgia, Marriage Book O: 273, Hemphill-Bowers, 1933, recorded license (with original signatures) and return; Probate Court’s Office, Chatsworth.

Last month I spent time working on finding sources for some unsourced people who had been in my database for a long time.  There was one family, in particular, for whom I wanted documentation, but I didn’t find much.  The children in this family had all moved out long before the 1850, every-name census and I didn’t find anything else that connected the children to the parents.

Then a light bulb went off in my head.  The father, William Brookshire, was a proven American Revolutionary War patriot; I could look in the DAR records.  I had ordered one DAR application a few years ago via snail mail, but now one can order them online for immediate delivery as a pdf file (I am all about immediate gratification).

Looking in the DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS), I searched on William Brookshire, with service in North Carolina and came up with several hits, all for the right William Brookshire.

Three of the records matched my own line of descent down to my 3^rd-great grandparents, Robert Garrett and Nancy Emeline Brookshire, so I just picked one of them.

A few minutes later (after going through the shopping cart process), I had a link to the actual application in pdf format, which I was able to save to my computer.  This also saved me from having scan paper documents, as I would have had to do in the past.

The cost for records delivered online is $10.00, compared to $15.00 if one orders through traditional channels.  Faster service and a lower price.  What’s not to love?

Check back tomorrow to see what I learned from this application.

I had considered skipping To-Dos this month, given my recent lack of motivation and the fact that summer is here, the cicadas are mostly gone (yea!), and I want to spend time outside.  Instead, I decided to do a very abbreviated list.

Research

• Saturday I was contacted by a DNA match from 23andMe.  We think the Pattersons are our connection, so I”m going to spend some time working on my Pattersons and hopefully our shared ancestor will reveal him/herself.

Organization

• Do some database cleanup work.
• Spend some time dealing with the papers on my desktop (my printer-top is getting out of control, so I may work on that).

Education

• This one’s easy.  I’m going to the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree next weekend.

Writing

• Write 8 blog posts.  This should be easier this month, since I will certainly be posting about Jamboree.  Stay tuned!

What do you want to accomplish this month?

Ugh.  I started off strong in May, but I’ve been oddly unmotivated since about the third week of the month.  The fact that I’m writing this post on June 5, rather than May 31 is further evidence of that apathy.

Research

The last three months, I’ve focused my research on one surname per month.  I’m switching gears this month.

• Unsourced people:  I have a number of people in my database that don’t have sources, from the days when I was less diligent about citations.  I’m going to spend some time looking for census records to make sure I have the right children with the right families and general birth and/or marriage information.  I don’t have a specific number in mind to complete, but I’m going to start with the low-hanging fruit – those alive between 1880 and 1930 (the years that relationships were recorded).  I did a LOT on this task.  I actually stopped counting the number of people I found sources for, because there were so many.
• Finish the 1910 census transcription that I started in April – Wards and Johnsons in Fannin County, GA. – I cannot seem to work up the steam to deal with the Johnsons.  There are just too many of them.  I set this aside and made notes on what I had done, so hopefully I can pick it up a little later on.

Writing

• Write 8 blog posts. - I only wrote 3.  With writing, for me anyway, the writing motivates me to write.  So the less I write, the less I want to write and vice versa.

Organization

• Spend 15 minutes a week dealing with papers on my desktop. – Another area that I did well with.  I spent one weekend going through one of the folders that sits on my desk and entering information.
• Do a little database cleanup work. – Done.

Education

• NGS Home Study Course – finish Lesson 7 (Church & Cemetery Records).  I have to order microfilm for the church records, so it’s possible I won’t get this lesson completed, therefore:
• I’ll also start Lesson 8 (Probate & Court Records);  I at least want to complete the reading. – I didn’t do anything with either of the NGS lessons.
• Take the U. S. Courthouse Research online course by Christine Rose at FamilySearch. – Nope.

All in all, I’d say I did about 65% of what I intended to do in May.

On this date in 1910, Miss Rhoda Hemphill and James W. Gregory were joined in the honorable state of matrimony in Murray County, Georgia.

Rhoda was my maternal grandfather’s first cousin, making her my first cousin twice removed.

What I learned from this document:

I did not know that Rhoda had married; for some reason I thought that she had died as a girl.  So I learned her marriage date and place, as well as her husband’s name.

Source:  Murray County, Georgia, Marriage Book N: 84, Gregory-Hemphill, 1910, recorded license (with original signatures) and return; Probate Court’s Office, Chatsworth.