How Did I Get Here? My Amazing Genealogy Journey

I cannot express enough how kind and generous fellow genealogists, researchers, and family historians can be . This week I decided to pay a visit to the Find A Grave website to see if there were any updates to one of my ancestral places, the area around Riverdale, NC. I saw the results of all the hard work that fellow researcher Nathaniel Glasgow had completed last year. He and I had connected last year via my blog post that had I had written about how I learned that my maternal 3rd great grandfather Mortimer Mitchell had worked the lands of Col. Peter G Evans from about 1860--1864. You can check out that post here . Nathaniel traveled around Craven County, NC photographing old cemeteries and uploaded his work to Find A Grave. Now you are probably wondering how this helped me figure out Mortimer Mitchell's neighborhood. Let me show you.  Small family cemeteries are located on private property. Who's property? Well right now I couldn't give you the specifics of who ow...

If you are not familiar with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Blog Prompt Series hosted by fellow blogger Amy Johnson Crow, please take a moment and check out the link here:  https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/ Week 4 Prompt: This week is "Invite to Dinner." Which ancestor would you most want to invite to dinner? Do you have a story of a memorable dinner with an ancestor? Is there a special recipe that's been handed down?  I wish I could have met Annie and Effie Sampson, my maternal 1st cousins 3x removed. They were two self-sufficient ladies who lived their entire lives in the small community of Riverdale, NC. Their mother Mary Jane Mitchell Sampson was my 2nd great grandmother's Rosa Mitchell Jones' sister.  The land that they lived on was a portion of land once owned by my 3rd great grandfather Mortimer Mitchell.   Image courtesy of Google Maps. The land that the Sampsons lived on is marked in red. If I could have...

Back in 2012, I visited Mt Olive Cemetery in Riverdale, NC. It's the final resting place for many from my Mitchell and Sampson family lines. At the time of that visit, I hadn't figured out what became of my 2nd great grand aunt Margaret Mitchell. She was the sister of my 2nd great grandmother Rosa Mitchell Jones of Morehead City, NC. A couple a years after that trip I discovered that she had remarried after her first marriage to Alonzo Pelham ended in divorce. She wed William Thompson on Oct. 2, 1912 in Riverdale.  Image courtesy of Ancestry.com Source Information:  Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC. This was the last record I was able to locate for Maggie for the longest time. That is until a couple of months ago, when I started to do so...

David Sampson Close up of an image courtesy of the New Bern-Craven County Public library. "Hey Andrea. Camp Bryan, isn't that where one of your ancestors was from or something? You have that picture, don't you? Or I've seen it somewhere on your blog or from your research?"  I peeked my head around the corner from the kitchen, pausing from making dinner. My husband was watching Antiques Roadshow and they were featuring items that were linked to Babe Ruth onscreen. One of the items happened to be a hunting picture. Babe Ruth posed leaning against a car with the animals he had killed resting on top of it. You'll can view the episode of Antiques Roadshow here . If you are new to my blog then I should explain that I have a distant connection to Babe Ruth. That connection is through my 2nd great grand uncle David Sampson of Riverdale, NC. You can read more about David in these posts: Dave Sampson a True Riverdale Character --Part one Dave Sampson a ...

Image courtesy of the book, Craven County  by Lynn Salsi and Frances Eubanks Dave Sampson is on the left. Amy Johnson Crow, the author of the blog No Story Too Small, is the host of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Blog Prompt series. If you are not familiar with the project please click on the following link:   Announcing 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2015 Edition. Week 47 (November 19-25) – Sporting. Do you have a relative who was involved in sports? This theme was a bit challenging for me. I had to think outside the box of typical sports to find an ancestor that fit this topic. Then I remembered that hunting is often considered a sport and so I decided to go in that direction with this week's prompt. My 2nd great grand uncle David Sampson was an excellent cook. He was the chef at Camp Bryan a hunting campground found in Craven County, NC.  He was not only a chef but quite the hunter as well.   In my post,  Thankful Thursday: Thankful For Ano...

Amy Johnson Crow, the author of the blog No Story Too Small, is the host of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Blog Prompt series. If you are not familiar with the project please click on the following link:    Announcing 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2015 Edition. Week 38 (September 17-23) – Favorite Place: What has been your favorite place to research? Which ancestor came from there? Riverdale, NC has turned out to be my favorite ancestral place to research, thus far. The town is located approximately 9 miles southeast of New Bern. Image courtesy of Google Maps It's a small rural community. It always has been. I would have never known about it if I hadn't begun researching my great grandmother Ophelia Jones Bryant of Morehead City. Ophelia's mother Rosa Mitchell Jones came from this small town and so that's how my journey to learn more about Riverdale began. I believe my 2nd great grandmother Rosa wanted a life that was different from the one her parents had. ...

Picture taken outside of Annie and Effie Sampson's House Amy Johnson Crow of the blog No Story Too Small is back hosting the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Blog Prompt series in 2015. If you are not familiar with the project please click on the following link:  Announcing 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2015 Edition Week 5, Plowing through — We will likely be plowing through a lot of snow by this time. What ancestor had a lot of struggles to plow through? Or take it more literally… It’s up to you. It's up to me huh? Okay well it took a bit of time to think of who and what angle I wanted to approach this prompt with. Then I remembered what someone had told me about a picture that they were so kind to share with me.  "That is the kitchen end of Annie and Effie's house. You can see the old refrigerator that they used for an ice box on the porch. They never had electricity. Looks like Garrett Ward's old tractor. Big old oak tree for shade." Ah-ha, that's ho...

It started in the Spring when I received a message on Facebook delivering these two wonderful faces to me. Annie and Effie Sampson   My 1st cousins 3x removed Thank you again Michael Grushinski for sharing this picture and your memories of Annie and Effie Sampson with me. I remember when we spoke on the phone the description you provided of what the Sampson homeplace looked like. I created a picture of it in my head. I wondered was the likeness I had imagined close to the real thing? What a joy it was to find out a couple of days ago that the answer was yes! It just so happens that John Green III a contributor to The Kellenberger Room blog wrote a post about Annie and Effie's father, Dave Sampson. In his piece he provided pictures, courtesy of the New Bern-Craven Public Library, of Dave and a beautiful view of the Sampson family home c. 1930.   Here's the picture of the homeplace. Sampson home, photo c.1930. After I saw this picture of the house, ...

If you missed my other posts that show the deeds of my 2nd great grand uncle Alfred Mitchell, here are the links: Amanuensis Monday on Tuesday: Alfred Mitchell --Deeds #1 & #2 Amanuensis Monday on Tuesday: Alfred Mitchell --Deed #3 No matter how I seem to plan I can't seem to get my Amanuensis Monday post out on Monday. Ugghh! Oh well. Here we go with it on Tuesday again. This particular deed is from January 1918 and shows a transfer of land from Mr and Mrs. C. K. Hancock, David and Mary Sampson, and Mrs. Rosa Jones to Alfred Mitchell. Mary Sampson and Rosa Jones were Alfred's sisters. State of North Carolina , Craven County.       This Deed, Made this           day of January 1918 C. K. Hancock and wife,          Hancock, David Sampson and wife, Mary Sampson, of Craven County, State of North Carolina and Rosa Jones. of   Carteret          County and State of Nort...

On my post,  The Wonder Of Wandering , I featured a couple of newspaper articles that discussed an enterprise that was run by a family with the last name of Mallett. They ran Clare Fibre Works in Riverdale, NC which employed a large number of individuals from the area. One of the the Mallets, specifically one by the name of Charles E. Mallet had a connection to one of my ancestors.  David Sampson was my 2nd great grand uncle who I have written about quite a bit on this blog.  If you are new to my blog, here are two posts about him. Dave Sampson a True Riverdale Character --Part one Dave Sampson a True Riverdale Character --Part two On the 1880 Federal Census, Dave Sampson was listed as working as a porter in a store for Charles E Mallett.  Charles and David were approximately the same age.  I wonder what their relationship was like.   Source Information:  Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  1880 United...

Nine times out of ten, it is the mother’s touch that makes a house a home. From tending to scraped knees, handling the wash, or cooking the meals, the way in which this is done will set the tone, the rhythm, and the spirit of the household. If done wrong, it can bring about a lifetime of pain and wounded spirits. If done well, it’s influence will spread to generations.  Annie…yes my Annie Taylor Mitchell, somewhere in my heart I know it was you with your kind spirit that set the tone, rhythm, and spirit of your family’s lives.  Although, you've been gone oh so many years, I can still hear the words of encouragement you whispered to your children. Your hopes are now part of our hopes and dreams for something better. Thank you seems too modest of a word to cast out to try to convey the depth of gratitude I feel in my heart for you. Your kindness and wisdom are part of my spirit now. I never met you, but I know you. I feel you.  According to ...

I am participating in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge put forth by Amy Johnson Crow of the blog  No Story Too Small . If you aren't familiar with the challenge be sure to check out her blog. Something has been in the air this week. I think my Riverdale, NC ancestors have been working behind the scenes to provide me with information. It all started with me receiving a copy of a picture of my 1st cousins 3x removed,  Annie and Effie Sampson .  That led me to corresponding with a few folks who grew up in the community. With all this Riverdale activity going on, I thought it would be the right time to highlight the life of my maternal 3rd great grandfather, Mortimer Mitchell. Mortimer Mitchell was born sometime around 1835 in either Martin or Granville County based on information I found on the death certificates of two of his kids. The following marriage record that I found in the North Carolina, Marriage Index, 1741-2004 online database on Ancestry.com, ...