Disagreeing Records: James Monroe Skidmore

I'm going to try to write a blurb on all of the children of Katherine Abernathy and William Skidmore. First up is James Monroe Skidmore.

My current research on James Monroe Skidmore, also known as "Mun" or "Uncle Mun", has shown me that a lot of records for Mun disagree on many of the basic events in his life.

The things I am sure of: Mun was born to Katherine Abernathy & William Skidmore. He married Susan Moody and had no children. And most, if not all, of his life was in the Riverbend area of Gaston County, NC.

Photo from findagrave.com taken by Jennifer

Now for the disagreeing records.

Birth Date: I have found two different dates for Mun's birth. According to most of the census records his calculated birthdate is 1856, but that could be because of when his birthday falls in the year.

1. 5 Apr 1855 (Sources: 1,2)

2. 16 Apr 1855 (Sources: 3)

Marriage Date: Again I've found two dates. Biggest problem here is that I haven't found the actual marriage record, which would help me out a lot. According to one census record Mun's marriage to Susan Moody was about 1874. According to these dates James Monroe Skidmore was about 17 years old when he got married to Susan.

1. 4 Apr 1873 (Sources: 1)

2. 8 Apr 1873 (Sources: I found this on one website that doesn't state its original source for this date and after further looking on familysearch.org there is a marriage record for "W.M. Skidmore" to Susan Moody in Riverbend, Gaston, NC. )

Death Date: Once again, sources give two different dates. Either way, he died at the age of 81. He is buried in the Hickory Grove Baptist Church Cemetery in Gastonia, Gaston County, NC.

1. 2 Jan 1937 (Sources: 3, 4)

2. 30 Jan 1937 (Sources: 1,2)

Other information on James Monroe Skidmore:

Roanoke Rapids Post Office

Old Roanoke Rapids Post Office

Thrifty Thursday: Wake County, NC Records

Facts to know when researching your ancestors in Wake County:

• Formed in 1771 from parts of Cumberland, Johnston, & Orange Counties 
• 1787 some parts of Wake were taken for the formation of Franklin County
• 1881 & 1911 some parts were taken for the formation of Durham County

Wake County Records available online

late 1700s to 1800s

1770s - late 1800s Deeds
1772-1881 Bastardy Bonds
1781 Wake Tax List (partial)
1785-present Land Deeds & Real Estate Records
1789 Wake Tax List
1799- early 1900s Wake County Deaths

1799-1893 Marriage & Death Notices

1800s to present Wake County Obituaries

late 1800s to early 1900s

1872-1944 Wake & Raleigh Directories

1899-1900 Raleigh City Directory

1891 Farmers & Landowners

1905/1907 Wake County Public Schools Biennial Report

General Links:

• Wake County Wikipedia article
• Wake- ncgenweb 
• Oakwood Confederate Burial Index
• Revolutionary & Military Service

Thrifty Thursday: NC (& Other) Census Records

As a poor college student with little money and a hobby for genealogy I have had to find as many free records as possible over the years. So for this Thrifty Thursday, some of the most important records genealogists have at their disposal: Census Records! Most of these links are for North Carolina censuses, but pages are available for all states on these sites.

• CensusFinder

A compilation of sites, by state and county, that offer free transcriptions & indexes of census records. Some counties have "Other" types of records as well, like tax lists. 

• The USGenWeb Census Project 

Set up almost like a spreedsheet, the USGenWeb Census Project shows the online transcription status of every census record and the provider of the transcription. 

•  Census Online

Similar to CensusFinder, Census Online connects users to other sites which have transcriptions & indexes of census records sorted by year and county.

NC Cemeteries and beyond

Warning, this post contains shameless self promotion:

So because I have so much time (hahaha) I have a second blog that focuses on cemeteries in North Carolina.
Hopefully this will become a good resource for people searching for their NC roots, but right now I have only a couple of my cemetery visits added. I plan on sharing detailed notes about cemeteries found throughout NC (& some international cemeteries), so stay tuned (especially during December).

Graveyard Rabbits Always Bring Bugspray

Nameless Negatives: Post #2 Two Boys

Photo of two boys taken in Oxford, North Carolina (Granville county) by J.D. Brinkley. A list of North Carolina Photographers through 1910 shows that J.D. Brinkley was in operation in Oxford in the late 1800s.

Wordless Wednesday: 96 years old

Grandma Edna: "Can we just say I'm 100 today?"

Surname Saturday: A Week of Celebrating the Wood Family

Today I am celebrating my great-grandmother's 96th birthday with family. To honor her, my oldest living relative, I will dedicate this weeks posts all to her ancestry.

Wood

mainly a topographic name for someone who lived in or by a wood or a metonymic occupational name for a woodcutter or forester, from Middle English wode ‘wood’ (Old English wudu).

nickname for a mad, eccentric, or violent person, from Middle English wod ‘mad’, ‘frenzied’ (Old English wad), as in Adam le Wode, Worcestershire 1221.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

James Wood (4th Great-Grandfather)

b. abt. 1800 in North Carolina 

m. 19 Feb 1822 to Thursey/Thiresy/Theresy in Wake County, NC

children: 

1. James Wood (abt. 1828) 
2. Mars Wood (abt 1831)
3. Larkin H. Wood (abt 1833)
4. Archibald Wood (abt 1836)
5. Mary Wood (abt 1839)

Larkin Henry Wood (3rd Great-Grandfather)

b. 1833 in North Carolina

m. 26 Feb 1861 to Frances Buffaloe in Wake County, NC

d. between 1882-1900

children: 

1. Thursey A. Wood (abt 1862)
2. Calie V. Wood (27 Sept 1864- 11 Jan 1928)
3. Ella F. Wood (30 Dec 1865-21 Sept 1940)
4. Francis Wood (abt 1868- 3 Feb 1950)
5. Anna C. Wood (31 Jul 1871-22 Apr 1917)
6. Minie Wood (May 1873)
7. Hattie Wood (abt 1876)
8. Nelly G. Wood (abt 1878)
9. Tena May Wood (15 Jun 1879)
10. Rena Rey Wood (15 Jun 1879- 20 Aug 1916)
11. Kelso Kedron Wood (7 Mar 1882-10 Nov 1931)

Kelso Kedron "K K" Wood (2nd Great-Grandfather) 

b. 7 Mar 1882 in North Carolina

m. to Burlena Murray

d. 10 Nov 1931

children:

1. Murry Wood (abt. 1906)
2. Cullen Wood (abt 1907)
3. Elberta Wood (abt 1908 4 Dec 1907- 19 Nov 1986)
4. Jackson Wood (8 Mar 1909- 18 Apr 1989)
5. Allen Wood (abt 1911)
6. Exum Wood (abt 1912 26 Sep 1912- 30 May 1991)
7. Evelyn Wood (abt 1913)
8. Ruth Wood (1 Nov 1913-28 Dec 1968)
9. Edna Wood (13 Aug 1915)
10. Larkin Henry Wood (11 Dec 1916- 9 Jan 1993)
11. Francis Wood (abt 1918)
12. Kelso Kedron Wood Jr (14 Apr 1921- 17 Mar 1994)
13. Arline Wood (abt 1925)

Edna Wood (Great-Grandmother)

b. 13 Aug 1915

m. 13 Feb 1937 to Marvin Edwards

children:

• 7 living
• 2 deceased

Thrifty Thursday: North Carolina Digital Collections

NC Digital Collection screen shot

One of my favorite ways of researching my ancestors online is to find free resources online. Not only does this save me a trip to the local library (& the gas money), but it also provides faster digital searches and an opportunity to save digital copies for later use. Here are just a few of my favorites....more to be added later of course!



North Carolina Digital Collections
By the Archives & Library of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

The NC Digital Collections offers up great free digital resources like

• NC Family Records

One of the more popular collections, the NC Family Records provides bible records, marriage & death notices from NC newspapers, and cemetery photos all searchable by family name and recently updated as of June 13, 2011

• NC Maps

 This collection offers historic maps from the late 1500s to 2000. It can be searched by location, date and subject; and their is an interactive historic map overlay which compares historic maps with current road maps. 

• NC Newspaper Digitization Project

 This collection provides select digitalized newspapers that date from 1751-1890s, mainly from the cities of Edenton, Fayetteville, Hillsboro, New Bern, Salisbury, & Wilmington. 

Those Places Thursday: The Straubs Long Journey

A few years back I wrote a term paper on the migration of the Straub/Stroup family. This Google Earth video shows the many kilometers the Straub/Stroup family traveled to go from the Rhine to North Carolina in just a couple of generations. Here is the simple version of what went on:

The Straub family (Pieter Straub, Anna Maria Straub, & children Jacob & Pieter Straub) traveled from:

• Großgartach to the nearby Heilbronn (approx. 6 km)
• Heilbronn to Rotterdam, Holland (on a ship up the Rhine River, probably took 4 to 6 weeks)
• Rotterdam (stayed for a few weeks and left 24 June 1733) to Plymouth, England (arrived 12 July 1733)
• Plymouth to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (arrived 18th OR 29th Sept 1733)
• Lived in various places including Freeburg (originally "Straubstown") and New Hanover, PA. 

Jacob Straub

• by 1746 migrated to Maryland
• by 1772 migrated with his family (including son Philip Stroup) to Tryon County, North Carolina (now Lincoln County, NC)

My "Heritage Pie Chart"

I first stumbled upon the "Heritage Pie Chart" idea on Are You My Cousin?... and found further information on the premises at My Tapley Tree... and its Branches: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. So I thought I would give it a try- first with my 16-great-great-grandparents. I do want to note that because of "bad sentiments" towards two of my great-great-grandparents, no one in the family will tell me their names, but I have been working on my grandmother to get her brother to tell me...so hopefully someday I'll be able to add them in.

First I looked at origin by country

HA! No surprise here... thoroughly American.

So I wanted to see if there was any variety in origin by State: