Growing My Family Tree: July 2012

26 July 2012

Thrifty Thursday: Johnston County, NC Records

Facts to know when researching your ancestors in Johnston County:

Formed in 1746 from Craven County
In 1752 a part of Johnston County was taken to form Orange County
In 1758 the eastern part of Johnston became Dobbs County
In 1770 a part of Johnston County was taken to form Wake County
In 1855 a part of Johnston County was taken to form Wilson County
Has the largest Civil War Battlefield in NC, Bentonville Battlefield

Johnston County Records available online

My goal here is to have resources other than your everyday census, cemetery, and obituary records. If you know of additional resources that can be found online, please let me know to add them.

1700s (some 1800s & 1900s)

1800s

1900s

Other

General Links:

25 July 2012

Daniel Boone Was A Man

Years ago while attending Appalachian State University, my roommates & I attended the first annual Boone Days. One of the things we took away from this experience- the Daniel Boone theme song and the catchphrase "Daniel Boone was a man, yes a BIG man".

So in my move from Boone, North Carolina to Kentucky it was almost a requirement to go straight to Daniel Boone's gravesite which is located in Frankfort, KY. The Frankfort Cemetery is not the original site of burial for Daniel and his wife Rebecca. Originally they were buried in Missouri. According to wikipedia they may even still be buried there (more info on his death & burial can be found here), but here is the gist:

"In 1845, the Boones' remains were supposedly disinterred and reburied in a new cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky. Resentment in Missouri about the disinterment grew over the years, and a legend arose that Boone's remains never left Missouri. According to this story, Boone's tombstone in Missouri had been inadvertently placed over the wrong grave, but no one had ever corrected the error. Boone's relatives in Missouri, displeased with the Kentuckians who came to exhume Boone, kept quiet about the mistake, and they allowed the Kentuckians to dig up the wrong remains. There is no contemporary evidence that this actually happened, but in 1983, a forensic anthropologist examined a crude plaster cast of Boone's skull made before the Kentucky reburial and announced it might be the skull of an African American. Negro slaves had also been buried at Tuque Creek, so it is possible the wrong remains were mistakenly removed from the crowded graveyard. Both the Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky and the Old Bryan Farm graveyard in Missouri claim to have Boone's remains."

As a anthropologist in training I have to say that I learned race is very hard to find via skeletal characteristics.

Just like with Col. Sanders we had to follow the yellow dotted line to find the famous Daniel Boone. Here are some pictures from the gravesite:

Daniel Boone this way! Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Boone has a really great overlook of the capitol of Kentucky, Frankfort. This is a panorama.
Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Pictures of each side of the monument. Some are not politically correct to say the least (see bottom right picture).

Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Daniel Boone Monument. Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

22 July 2012

Finding Col. Sanders (and others)

With my move to Kentucky a whole new world of cemeteries is opening up... and luckily my friends have realized that visiting cemeteries can be fun. One of my friends thought it would be fun to see the graves of Daniel Boone (post soon to come) and Col. Sanders while she was visiting me a week ago.

We found that Col. Sanders (yeah the KFC guy) is buried in the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. If you're ever visiting or riding through Louisville I highly suggest a visit to Cave Hill. It is HUGE! And as a warning it is possible to get lost.

This is by far the largest cemetery I have visited to date. Using directions from online we attempted to find Col. Sanders, but had trouble because we entered through the wrong entrance. Once we found the yellow dotted line though it was easy to find the site of Col. Sanders and his wife.