It's genealogy blog party time again! Elizabeth O'Neal of the My Descendants Ancestors   blog is back hosting and has provided this month's theme. If you aren't familiar with the blog party, please take time out to visit Elizabeth's blog for more information.  This month's question is: How Will You Preserve Your Family History Research For Your Descendants? There's been a few things that I've been doing to preserve my research. I realized early on that I would have to turn all these bits of birth records, censuses, and various other records into something my descendants could relate to. Also, I had the oral history that was passed down to me from various relatives. Lastly, I wanted to record the excitement of discovery. You know that moment when you catch yourself gasping out loud because you found something out for the first time. All this had to be transformed into stories. The point of view of course was mine.  So with all that in mind I s

Which strand of DNA will lead me to you? That's one of the questions that enters my mind as I review through my DNA connections on the various platforms I've tested with. Which strand of DNA is the one that connects us? A thread that links the past to the present.    I find it all so mysterious and fascinating at the same time.  Good news! I have two new DNA cousins and this time they are on my father's side of the family. In fact, these recent connections have finally cleared up the mystery behind the following document.  Image courtesy of New York City Department of Records/Municipal Archives. Marriage Certificate for Ollando Dix and Edna Smith A couple of years ago, I wrote to the New York City Department of Records Municipal Archives to obtain a copy of my great grandmother Ella's marriage certificate. If you are new to my blog you can read more about that here . I also sent off for a copy of my paternal grandparents's marriage record. T

It's kind of funny that I'm posting pictures from our last family vacation while on our current vacation. Let's just say it's been a bit busy the last couple of months between school concerts, soccer games, gymnastics competitions, and oh yeah, I had knee surgery three weeks ago. It's nice to finally have time to slow down and take in these precious moments with the family. These pictures were from our trip to Florida back in April. We visited the The Florida Aquarium in Tampa and really enjoyed it.   Hold on. He deserves a close up. "Duh" "Help! I'm trapped at The Florida Aquarium."

If you missed my last post, you'll want to start there. Here's the link:   Mortimer Mitchell's Neighbor Vine Allen Tolson --Part One Newbern Journal of Commerce,  23 Feb 1869, Tue,  Page 1 You can see from this newspaper post Vine Allen Tolson was not able to make payment on money owed to Alexander Mitchell and his son Thomas. This must have been an extremely stressful time for Tolson family. Vine's own words from the trust deed most accurately describe the dire circumstances he found himself in .  "if the said sale should take place I will be entirely delivered of the only means whereby I can reasonably expect to raise sufficient money where with to support my family and pay my debts" Did Vine Allen Tolson get his land back? That will be in my next post. 

Part of researching your ancestors involves researching their neighbors. I've been working on building family trees in the last couples of weeks for neighbors of my 3rd great Mortimer Mitchell. One of the reasons why I am doing this is to see if I can identify any families who originated from Martin County, NC. Martin County, NC is where I believe my 3rd great grandfather was born. Perhaps he migrated with one of these family lines to Craven County. The other reason why I've been researching my 3rd great grandfather's neighbors is to figure out what connection they might have had with a man named Alexander Mitchell of New Bern. For a long time now I've been working on the theory that Mortimer Mitchell was likely the slave of this wealthy landowner.  I began with  Mortimer Mitchell's neighbor Vine Allen Tolson. Images from the book "The Heritage of Craven County, North Carolina, Volume 1" Page 318 Barbara Maxine Howard Thorne Vine Allen Tol