HenrysHistories

In my previous post I mentioned how the flood of 1999 from Hurricane Dennis and Floyd destroyed records that were in the courthouse in Edgecombe County. It turns out that the state archives does have records for Edgecombe County during the period I am looking for. However, I will have to sit through a lot of microfilm/microfische until I find what I need. So needless to say I may be sitting there for a few hours. There are many other courthouses not only in North Carolina but across the country, especially here in the South, where courthouse records have been lost to floods and fires. Do not let this get you down. Look for other avenues to explore. Locate church records, graveyards, school records, check and see if your local libraries have any records. I know NC State University Library has many old books that record wills and census information and other important documents concerning the state of NC and its citizens. So keep trekking on.

So I went to Tarboro, Edgecombe County, NC today to see family and to get a copy of my grandma's death certificate. I also stopped by the cemetery to see grandma's grave. the grass has started to creep over the grave and in a few weeks I imagine it will be covered in grass and you won't even be able to tell that it's a fairly recent grave, well except by seeing the funeral home metal plaque that says her name and birth and death year. So the death certificate lists the causes of death as Immediate cause: End Stage Dementia with contributing factors of cerebrovascular disease, failure to thrive and hypertension. but the time of death is not recorded on it. While at the courthouse I decided to look into my grandma's first marriage. But I was told all of those records were destroyed in the flood of 1999, so I was told to check the archives. So I am going to do that tomorrow or sometime next week.

Hello again readers. Today's posting is about ancestry.com. I have found ancestry to be valuable in getting a hold of death certificates and making connections with others who are researching the same family names. Using ancestry has helped me gather some information that I didn't have. However, you must still be careful with the information that is shared by others as it may not be completely accurate. For instance I had someone on ancestry try and tell me that a great great aunts maiden name was Gwaltney when it was indeed Parrish. She happened to marry another Parrish(not related) but when they were doing the research they were afraid someone might think they were related and so they had made up a last name for her. Yes I have found back in the 1800's that sometimes indeed cousins married each other. Whether they knew they were cousins or not, I do not know. But then again when your cousins are the only people around for miles and miles, its bound to happen sooner or la...

My grandmother Ruby Coley Rawls died July 19, 2009. She was 87 years old. I will post more when I feel up to blogging again. Also on July 25, 2009 my aunt Jacqueline passed away.

So I have found a handful of states where it is next to impossible for genealogists to get birth and death records for individuals. Virginia = Death records public after 50 years and birth records public after 100 years Texas = Birth certificates after 50 yrs and death certificates after 25 years Oregon = Birth records 100 years and death records 50 years Oklahoma = Birth certificate available only to the individual named or the parent of individual Kansas = Must state relationship, provide ID and state the reason you want the record. You may or may not get it. Florida = Must show a direct relationship to the person and state the purpose of getting the record. So the same as Kansas, you may or may not get it. Delaware = Birth records after 72 years and death after 40 years Arkansas = Unclear - says access limited to family. To them, who constitutes a family? Alaska = Birth after 100 years and death after 50 years Alabama = Birth after 125 years and death after 25 years.

I have hit a wall in trying to find a will. I have been trying to find a will in Martin County for a maternal ancestor and haven't been able to find a thing. I am frustrated.

Dec 4 2004 my grandmother's house burned down. We salvaged what we could from the wreckage of the home and begin to catalog the contents. Among the contents was a metal lock box that had belonged to my grandfather , who passed in 1988. Grandma had never looked inside it because it was locked. With a little prying we managed to open the box. Inside was a birth certificate for me, his father's death certificate and a handwritten genealogy account from his sister Clyde Alice Parrish Willoughby. Alice had also written an autobiography, which I have read in its entirety. She didn't write this until she was in her 80's. While she was able to recall things with remarkable detail there were inconsistencies with dates. This is understandable considering how many children she had (15 birth dates to keep up with.) and how many places she moved during her life. So the point is, even if you get information from other relatives, you still need to verify it yourself.