Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How many ancestors did you "meet"

It's Saturday Night, time for some Genealogy Fun! Randy Seaver posted: Here is your challenge for tonight (or whenever you read this):

1) Write down which of your ancestors that you have met in person (yes, even if you were too young to remember them).

2) Tell us their names, where they lived, and their relationship to you in a blog post, or in comments to this post, or in comments on Facebook.

Here is my short list:

1. My father: Warren Matthew Tull (1923-1991). He was born at Rose Creek, McNairy County, Tennessee. His father died when he was ten so his mother moved to Weona, Arkansas to be near family. Daddy and Mother moved to Tennessee in 1952 and have lived on the same farm since then.

2. My Mother- living on our family farm.

3. Ethel Mae McIntyre Tull Williams, my paternal grandmother (1898-1973). She was born in McNairy County, Tennessee. After her 1st husband, my grandfather, Carson Tull, died in 1933- can one say in the middle of a depression- and left her with three children to raise, she moved to Weona, Arkansas to live near family. She later lived at Cherry Valley, Arkansas and Stantonville, Tennessee prior to moving back to Bethel Springs, Tennessee. She lived at Bethel Springs, Tennessee just down the road from my family my entire life.

4. Jessie James, my maternal grandfather (1900-1986). Jessie was born in Jasper, Alabama. His family moved to Amory, Mississippi when he was young and then to Gibson County, Tennessee and then to Booth Point, Tennessee. He also moved to Caruthersville, Missouri, where he met my grandmother. He lived in Weona, Arkansas when I was born and later moved to Marked Tree, Arkansas about 1962 or 1963.

5. Mary Ada Woods James, my maternal grandmother (1904-2002). Grandma was born in Paducah, Kentucky, but moved often as a child as her father followed the building trade. He was a carpenter and times were difficult, jobs were hard to find and keep. She lived in Metropolis, Illinois, near Little Rock, Arkansas, near Jonesboro, Arkansas, Blytheville, Arkansas and Caruthersville, Missouri. She also lived in Weona, Arkansas when I was born and later moved to Marked Tree, Arkansas. Grandma moved to Campbell, Missoui about 1992 and lived there fairly independently the rest of her life. She died at the hospital in Clay County, Arkansas a few weeks prior to her 98th birthday. She loved to crochet and finished her last piece in December 2001.


6. Alberta Virginia Neff Woods, my great-grandmother (1872-1963). Bert or Bertie was born to an ex confederate soldier and his wife. Samuel Henry Neff and Sarah Catharine Will Neff, married in Shenandoah County, Virginia in 1867 after the Civil War and by 1872 they had moved to Kingsport, Sullivan County, Tennessee, where their third child was born. Sarah Catharine is said to have been so home sick for her home in Virginia that she named her daughter Virginia after her home state. By 1880 the Neff family had moved to Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee. Samuel is listed as a farmer on the census, but family legend says he worked for the railroad. He died fairly young and left Sarah C. with ten children to raise. Bert married in Jackson, Tennessee and sometime after the birth of her first child, they moved to Paducah, Kentucky. She had at least two children there before moving to Metropolis, Illinois by 1910 where her youngest (to live to adulthood anyway) was born. They moved often and stayed with relatives near Little Rock, and Jonesboro, Arkansas. They finally settled in Blytheville, Arkansas where her husband died a few days before the 1930 census taker arrived, but he is counted on the census because he was living on the first day of April 1930. From 1930 until her death in 1963 Grandma Woods, as I called her, moved lived back and forth between her children in Paducah,Kentucky and Weona, Arkansas. I remember her living with my grandparents in Weona, Arkansas. She was basically blind by the time I was born and she sat in her rocking chair most of the time. She enjoyed listening to the television and visiting with her family. Apparently she had several strokes and was in a nursing home in West Memphis, Arkansas when she died a few hours prior to her 91st birthday.

Sixteen Great Grandparents

It is time again for Saturday Night Fun - Thanks to Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings. Well, this is Sunday afternoon, but I will participate just a little late.

1) List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.

3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

4) If you don't know all 16 of your great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.

5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

Here are my Great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. One will note I have several blanks. This is a work in progress.

1. Jasper Newton TULL, born 23 Feb 1842 in Alabama, maybe Walker County, son of Elizabeth _____________ and Unknown. Jasper died 9 May 1928 in Chester County, Tennessee.

2. Franky MORTON, born 29 Dec 1837 McNairy County, Tennessee to William MORTON and UNKNOWN. Franky TULL died 23 Dec 1884 McNairy County, Tennessee.

3. Woodson Johnson, born 10 Sept 1847 Graves County, Kentucky, son of Willis JOHNSON and Hester _______________. Woodson died 9 Feb 1921 Graves County, Kentucky.

4. Rebecca Jane COX, born 8 May 1841, Hardeman County, Tennessee, daughter of Joseph COX and Sarah ROGERS. Beck JOHNSON died 13 Nov 1941 Hardeman County, Tennessee.

5. Not proven, but alleged to be John Pink MCINTIRE, born 6 Dec 1848, McNairy County, Tennessee, son of William McInTYRE and Miranda HORN. John Pink McIntire died 7 Jan 1929, District 2, McNairy County, Tennessee.

6. Milly PATRIDGE or PARTRIDGE, born about 1838 Tennessee and died after the 1880 census, probably in McNairy County, Tennessee. Milly was the daughter of William and Nancy PATRIDGE or PARTRIDGE.

7. Daniel COOKSEY, born about 1821 in Tennessee to parents unknown. Daniel died about 1865 in Woodruff County, Arkansas according to oral family history.

8. Mary or Polly ____________, born Jan 1842 in Tennessee to Nancy ADCOCK and either a first husband to Nancy or it is possible she is a daughter of Nancy's husband, John VAUGHN, although oral family history reports Mary was a daughter of Nancy and a first husband. Mary COOKSEY died Feb 1913 Rose Creek, McNairy County, Tennessee.

9. ____________________ JAMES (Alleged to be William Ephraim JAMES, who was born about 1835 Tennessee and died between 1875 and 1880 Corinth, Alcorn County, Mississippi).

10. _______________ MYERS (Alleged to be Lydia Ann MYERS, born about 1842 Tishomingo (now Alcorn) County, Mississippi, daughter of Riley MYERS and Sarah LAWSON. Lydia Ann JAMES died after 1880 probably Alcorn County, Mississippi).

11. James RANDOLPH, born 2 Oct 1833 Lawrence County, Alabama, son of John D RANDOLPH and Frances BROWN. James died 16 Oct 1888, Walker County, Alabama.

12. Alcey Drucilla POE, born 4 July 1832, Boley Springs, Fayette County, Alabama, daughter of James POE and Mary McMILLAN. Alcey RANDOLPH died 21 Feb 1907 Jasper, Walker County, Alabama.

13. Unknown WOODS, Unknown WOODS was born in ARKANSAS and he probably died near counties of Faulkner, Lonoke, or Pulaski, Arkansas between 1875 and 1880.

14. Unknown, was born in ARKANSAS and she probably died near the counties of Faulkner, Lonoke, or Pulaski, Arkansas between 1875-1880.

15. Samuel Henry NEFF, born 10 Dec 1839 Jefferson County, Tennessee, son of Capt. David Tennessee NEFF and Lydia PENNYWITT. Samuel died 25 Nov 1887, Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee.

16. Sarah Catharine WILL, born 22 Nov 1840 Shenandoah County, Virginia, daughter of George WILL and Sarah RIDDLE or RUDDELL.RUDDLE. Sarah NEFF died 3 March 1936, Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee.

My 16 great great grandparents were all born in the Southern United States as were their parents. I'm not sure about their nationality since most are documented in the United States prior to the Revolutionary War. I guess they are just Heinz 57 like me.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- My Genealogical Threes

It's Saturday Night and Randy Seaver has posted our assignment as follows:

Tell us your three responses to the questions:

* Three genealogical libraries I frequent
* Three places I've visited on genealogy trips
* Three genealogy societies I belong to (or want to)
* Three websites that help my research
* Three ancestral graves that I've visited
* Three ancestral places I want to visit
* Three brickwall ancestors I want to research more


# 1 Three genealogical libraries I frequent are A. The Memphis and Shelby County Main Library in Memphis, Tennesse. B. The Tennessee State Library and Archives and C. The Jackson Madison County Public Library- although not as often as I would like.

# 2. Three places I've visited on genealogy trips: A. Jasper, Walker County, Alabama; B. Weona and Harrisburg, Arkansas and C. Richmond, Virginia.

# 3. Three genealogy societies I want to belong to (just waiting on my children to complete college) A. DAR; B. Daughters of Confederacy and C. Tenessee Genealogical Society.

# 4. Three websites that help my research: A. ancestry.com B. footnote.com C. findagrave.com I will go on and name a few more here: usgenweb; genealogybank.com, google.com; books.google.com and a beta site called familysearch record search.

# 5. Three ancestral graves that I've visited: A. Abraham Randolph buried at Farguson cemetery in Lawrence County, Alabama- one of my Revolutionary War ancestors; B. Coal City Cemetery in Jasper, Alabama, where I have many Randolph ancestors and C. Pinegar Cemetery, Graves County, Kentucky to visit Woodson Johnson's grave. I've visited many graves over the years and I could write many blogs just on ancestral graves I have visited.

# 6. Three ancestral places I want to visit: A. Shenandoah County, Virginia; B. I would love to take a road trip through Arkansas and stop at almost every courthouse as I have ancestors or my children have ancestors in most counties in Arkansas and C. Road trip to South Carolina especially Abbeville, Anderson, Greenville, Laurens, and Greenwood Counties.

# 7. Three brickwall ancestors I want to research more: A. Tull line, B. John Franklin James and C. Willis Johnson and his wife, Hester, who are living in Graves County, Kentucky in 1850.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Time Travel!

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings has posted the Saturday Night Assignment:
It's Saturday Night, time for some Genealogy Fun after your frustrating week of finding phantom ancestors in online family trees and trying to keep up with everybody on Twitter, Facebook and Genealogy Wise.

Here is your assignment for this Saturday Night (if you decide to accept it, of course - you can't have fun if you don't try):

1) Let's go time travelling: Decide what year and what place you would love to visit as a time traveller. Who would you like to see in their environment? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?

2) Tell us about it. Write a blog post, or make a comment to this post, or on Facebook, or in Genealogy Wise.

Let's begin in Hardeman County, Tennessee Summer of 1850. It would be hot and dry with the corn tasseling in the field and time to pick blackberries. I would visit the homes of Elizabeth Tull and Mary Tull. I hope they would answer the door. Maybe we could sit on the front porch and sip some sweet tea while we talked. I have lots of questions for these two ladies:

Where are your husbands? Who are your husbands? What is your exact relationship with each other? Where have you been? Tell me about your journey from Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to Tennessee. What was your trip like? Did you come by a "Tar Wagon" or did you come by boat, train, horseback? Did you come by yourself or did you come with other family members? Who are your other family members? Where were each of your children born and Who is their daddy? Last, but not least, Who are each of your parents and where are they from and oh yeah, Who are your grandparents? I'm sure each answer would lead to a dozen more questions and they would call me a nosey busy-body, but I have been seeking these answers for many years.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Let Freedom Ring!!

It's Saturday Night on the Fourth of July - let's have some Genealogy Fun! If you're reading this on Sunday morning, or even later, it's not too late for you to participate.

Here is the assignment for tonight:

1. Think of the best Fourth of July you remember from your childhood.

2. Think of the best fourth of July you remember from your adulthood.

3. What did you do today?

4. Write about one, or all, of them on your blog or in Comments to this post.

Okay here goes:

I remember two Fourth of July's from my childhood. The first one I remember my dad was farming in the Little Hatchie Bottom below our home and mother decided to surprise him with a wonderful picnic lunch. I remember we had fried chicken, slaw, fresh veggies from the garden including cucumbers and onions in a vinegar.sugar mix (yummy). The best part was the hot blackberry cobbler right out of the oven and sweet iced tea. We sat on the creek bank with the tailgate of the truck as our table. Mother really laid a nice spread for that particular Fourth of July. After eating we frolicked in the ice cold creek.

The second childhood Fourth of July I remember was one time my dad and I slipped off to pick blackberries and we let the time get away. We stopped by an elderly neighbor's house and sat a spell. Finally, Daddy said we needed to be getting home in time for lunch so mother wouldn't be mad. The problem was the elderly neighbor never changed their clock so we were an hour late for lunch. Daddy remembered this as we walked home- about 1.5 miles through the woods. I don't remember if mother was upset or what we had for lunch. I do remember walking in the woods, fields and pastures with my Dad and of course, the blackberry cobbler for dessert.

As an adult my favorite Fourth of July would have to be when my son was a baby. My husband took us to a great spot to watch the fireworks over the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, where we lived at the time. I had never seen spectacular fireworks like these. In fact, we didn't even shoot firecrackers growing up.

Today I went to the parade in Selmer, Tennessee. The Fourth of July parade lasted all of five minutes. I did see two very cute Boy Scouts as well as several local beauty queens, a couple firetrucks and two tractors.





I have never seen a street preacher in our town, but we had one today. From the little I heard, he was preaching truth from the Bible, but I prefer my preaching in a different venue and not quite so loud. I do thank God we live in America where he has every right and freedom to preach on the street corner. Let Freedom Ring!!


Preach it brother!

This is a real American Hero. My sister said this gentleman was a WWII Veteran who served in the Pacific Theatre fighting the Japanese. She didn't know his name.



I spent some time reading old newspapers to see how Independence Day was celebrated in earlier times. I found they generally had lots of toasts starting with a toast to the Constitution of the United States of America, A toast to memory of President George Washington; toast to "our little Navy"; toast to our soldiers, a toast to the current President; toast to the Declaration of Independence; toast to the Congress and Senate, and a host of other toasts ending with a toast to the Fair (women). In general they had lots of fireworks or firing of the cannon, parades, dancing, bands, poetry, speeches and lots of merry making to celebrate the Birthday of our great Country. Tonight we sat around the pool just enjoying a beautiful night and then the lightening and thunder came. we need a little rain, so no complaints, just back inside to the computer.

Happy Independence to all!!!

Revolutionary War Ancestors

A List of my ancestors who helped bring the United States of America to fruition:

1. Abraham Randolph (1762-1837)

2. John Will (1740-1815)

3. Isaac Ruddell (1759-1833)

4. Archibald Ruddell (1727-1786)

5. James Poe (1743-1827)

6. Jacob Pennywitt (1751-1813)and here

In their memory I will list the words of the Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Thanks to USA Flag Site for the words

Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Which genealogist would you like to meet?

Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Which genealogist would you like to meet?