Tombstone Tuesday

Today's tombstone belongs to my great great grandmother 

Luella "Ella" Daniel 1868-1906

She is buried in Clarksburg United Methodist Church graveyard

in Deltaville, Va

She was the first wife of John Aaron Jackson, Sr.

 Ella was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star

which is shown on her headstone.

The Order of the Eastern Star is appendant body of the Freemasons that was started in 1850

but wasn't an approved appendant body of the Freemasons until 1873.

The Order of the Eastern Star was open to both men and women.

Men had to be Master Masons to join,

 and women had to have a significant relationship

with a mason to join.  

Ella's headstone is a newer addition 

having been added long after she was buried.

Noah Franklin and the 55th VA at Gettysburg

Noah Francis Jackson was my 4th great uncle.  He was brother to James Robert Jackson (Tulip James).  Both brothers fought in the Civil War; Noah for the Confederacy and James for the Union.  James was killed during the war when the ship he was piloting exploded in the Potomac River.  Noah who served in the 55th VA Infantry Regiment survived the war.  One battle the 55th VA was involved in was Gettysburg- a location near my home.  Here is a video explaining the involvement of the 55th VA during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Racehorse Jack

My great great grandfather John Aaron Jackson, Sr had a horse named Jack.

This is Jack.

You'll notice on the ground in front of Jack is a beat up old hat (trust me, that's a hat).  In order for John Aaron's son Wallace to get Jack to settle down enough to get his photo taken, Wallace had to lay his hat down on the ground.  Another interesting thing about this photo is that it shows the area where our current house on the creek stands now.  It's hard to believe there was ever such a clear view to the water (you can see the water in the background).

One of John Aaron's other sons John Aaron Jr. had a sulky cart and for fun he would hitch up Jack and take him out to race.

Not a picture of Jack or John Aaron photo public domain

A sulky, for those not familiar, is a lightweight, 2 wheeled single seat cart.  It was commonly used as transportation in rural areas, and today is used in harness racing.  The term sulky came about because people said the rider must prefer to be by themselves "sulking".  Apparently, back in the day it was also used for racing.  Many of the men in the area would hitch up their horses and race.  There was an actual race track just outside of town at Stingray Point owned by another family member where people would go to race.

Tombstone Tuesday

This weeks featured tombstone comes from the backyard of a private residence in Middlesex County, Virginia. During our genealogy trip, my cousin and I were told the location of the graves for Noah Francis Jackson, Sr and his wife Annie Eliza Crittenden.  The graves were located behind a private residence.  I must say, there's something about going up to someone's front door, knocking and then saying. "This might seem weird but do you have graves in your back yard?"  Luckily, we had found the right house, and the owner was happy to let us go check out the headstones.  She told us that she knew there were the 2 headstones for Noah and Annie and that there were also 2 infants buried there with no markers based on what she was told.
The headstones have been incorporated into a gorgeous perennial garden, and the owner said she does her best to see that the stones are treated with respect- which was obvious.

Annie Jackson's grave lists her birth year as 1841.  In my online research, I have a birth year of 1843 based on information listed on her marriage certificate that she was 16 in 1860.  She died December 12, 1905. Annie was a member of the Crittenden family which is another prominent name in the area.

Noah Francis Jackson Sr was born November 23, 1839.  He died February 5, 1909 according to research.  The death date on the headstone is below the soil line.   Noah Sr. was the brother to James Robert Jackson who my cousin and I refer to as "Tulip James" to differentiate between the other James R Jacksons in the tree.  Tulip James died during the Civil War aboard the USS Tulip.  Noah Frank (as he was called) also fought in the Civil War, though he managed to survive well past the surrender at Appomattox. He served in the 55th Infantry Regiment of Virginia and was present at many battles including Antietam and Gettysburg.  Noah Frank is one of those ancestors I am drawn to, mostly because I live only minutes from the Gettysburg Battlefield and visit there often.  I've also spent some time at Antietam.  I'm planning on a trip to both battlefields to take photos of monuments and areas where his regiment fought.


So far, I have had good luck being able to access family cemeteries on private property.  Keep in mind that you do need to get permission to go on someone's property.  In Virginia, property owners with private cemeteries are not allowed to deny access to descendants wanting to do genealogy research or visit family graves, though they can decide on dates, times and duration of visits.  You can read about it here.

Monday Monsters...er...Munsters

I have returned from my genealogy trip to Middlesex County, Virginia, and I must say, it was a successful trip.  I will get into the details of all that was learned, but I wanted to share these two interesting photos.  While talking with my cousins and sharing photos, he shared this photo of John Aaron Jackson, Jr:

John Aaron Jackson Jr (1887-1956) is my 2nd great uncle.  My cousins showed me this photo and referred to it as "Eddie Munster".  For those not familiar with Eddie Munster, he was the son of Herman Munster on the 1960's television show The Munsters.  Eddie Munster is the boy in the following photo.  No doubt, there is a resemblance.  But that isn't really the funny/creepy point of this post.

Last summer, my husband, son and I participated in our town's annual cabaret production.  The production was a celebration of the town's pool turning 50 years old and featured people portraying 1960's era television programs.  I was (of course) Velma from Scooby Doo.  My husband portrayed Herman Munster and my son, you guessed it, was Eddie.

Seeing the photos side by side was a bit uncanny, but what a thrill to have both photos for future generations!

Busting Through Brick Walls

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So I've been AWOL from posting the last couple of weeks as I finish up some family vacations and catch up on things at my job.  This week I've also been diligently working on sorting out some questions I had on my family tree in preparation for another trip next week.  I'll be traveling south once again with my cousin to hit the local library's genealogy department and the courthouse in hopes we can gain some insight and credible sources to prove our connection to Plantagenet Kings (I'll talk about that more in another post).

This week my goal has been to try and touch base with some of my genetic matches on Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA.  I'm still trying to learn all the ins and outs that go with using DNA for genealogy purposes.  There is a lot to learn!  And since I'm still very much in the beginner stage of my learning, I won't try to explain too much.  Basically, when you do a DNA test through one of the sites, you end up with a list of matches.  The matches are based on something called centimorgans (abbreviated as cM).  Centimorgans have to do with measuring genetic linkage.  It has to do with the distance between chromosome positions (that's all the definition I'm sharing right now because I'm sure I lost you at "chromosome").  When looking at your matches, the higher the number of shared centimorgans, the closer the relationship and the stronger the match.  For example, I have a known first cousin who also tested their DNA.  She is listed in my matches as a 1st to 2nd cousin  with the shared DNA being 840cM across 38 segments.  In comparison, someone listed as my 3rd-4th cousin shows the shared DNA being 101cM across 7 segments.  Anything above a 5th cousin is considered a good match.

Back to the story.... I'm currently trying to get past one person in particular in my Jackson line.  I have a James Jackson 1785-1836 and that is as far as my tree goes with Jackson (with any kind of accuracy).  I've also been trying to gain information on the Reade family that James married into (this would be the Plantagenet connection hopefully) and link Jacksons from the same area of Middlesex County, Virginia to my Jacksons.  So I emailed 3 different people listed in the Jackson DNA project on Family Tree DNA who are also listed as matches to see if they might be able to shed some light on any of my people.  Of the 3, I heard back from 2.  One gentleman is currently traveling and we have plans to email in the fall.  The lady I heard from was not able to help me out.  At first she didn't think there was any kind of connection, until she realized we're 3rd-5th cousin matches which is a strong match.  Her Jacksons are based in New York though some migrated down to North Carolina.  She has a brick wall for her family that she believes is somewhere in Virginia, and I have a brick wall getting past James Jackson in VA.  Somewhere there is a connection, and we're hoping that we'll be able to help each other bust through those brick walls.  I have not yet heard from the third person I emailed.

I didn't stop there, however.  The one lady I emailed gave me the names of a couple of websites to look at to see if anything might seem familiar.  So I started perusing Jackson genealogy websites, and I finally saw a listing for a tree that included a John Lewis Jackson, Sr born in 1806.  I too have a John Lewis Jackson, Sr 1806-1847 who is the son of the above mentioned James Jackson 1785-1836.  The link took me to a private Ancestry tree, so I messaged the tree's owner asking for any information they would like to share.  Thankfully, she messaged me back pretty quickly and granted me access to her information.  So last night, I added some siblings to the Reade line I'm interested in getting information about and linked those Jacksons in Middlessex County, VA all in about 30 minutes.  Better still, the information is actually backed up with research which isn't always the case with some trees floating around the internet.

So next week, my cousin and I are heading to Middlesex County, Virginia armed with some additional information that might offer some clues to help us in our quest.  My cousin is an excellent researcher- able to narrow her focus onto one specific goal while I tend to be like buckshot and scatter.  Together we make a pretty good team, so I'm hopeful we'll be able to come home with some more valuable information to share.

The Research

One thing about genealogy is that it requires A LOT of research.  I'm big on research.  I've always preferred to try to have a handle on a situation by making sure I possess as much knowledge about it as possible.  As G.I. Joe said, "Knowing is half the battle".  But when I research family genealogy, it's like I've suddenly come down with attention deficit issues and while I'm working on one person suddenly I'm all "Oh Squirrel!" and I'm following tangents on another person.

For some people, this isn't a big deal, but I want my information to be as factual and organized as possible because I want to prove who I am related to unless it's someone not great, then I wouldn't care. In my research, I'm trying to get things as organized as possible.  There is a research trip planned for August with my cousin and fellow researcher.  We are currently trying to amass as much information through internet channels as possible so we can be as efficient with the time we'll have to look through records at the courthouse.

There are tons of websites that offer genealogy information.  I personally use Ancestry.com to build my tree.  (Please note that I am an affiliate partner with Ancestry and receive a small bonus when someone signs up for Ancestry using my links.  And by small I mean I might pay for my first year of web hosting for this blog sometime in about 10 years) While easy to use, it can also be easy to get sidetracked and follow the wrong branch of the wrong tree.  That's why it's important to stay organized, take your time and pay attention.  I do enjoy being able to send and receive messages with other Ancestry members.

I've also mentioned previously about crowdsourcing on the internet, specifically on Facebook.  Facebook has been beneficial not only for gaining information in a specific town, but also with its many genealogical groups.  I am currently in two groups that have offered some insight on research:
The Genealogy Squad and Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques.  These are just two of many available groups on the topic.  Through these groups, I've found a couple of other good websites to help with research and organization:

Abundant Genealogy- Free Research Tools Abundant Genealogy has a plethora of links for research and tools.  I recently downloaded their Abundant Genealogy Research Checklist.  This is a comprehensive checklist for several different research categories.  I altered the checklist a bit when I downloaded it adding an area at the end for notes, including a header that allows you to write the name of the family member you're researching on each page and added a spot to add birth and death date information and locations.  I plan to print these out for each person I am currently working on so that I can make sure I look at all potential research. (Here's the link to my altered checklist).

Also on Abundant Genealogy are posts from the Archive Lady  She discusses things about preserving items from your family's history as well as places to research your family.  She also has a blog at A Genealogist in the Archives and a Facebook Page The Archive Lady.

Last but not least, I also recently became aware of Cyndi's List.  This site, as it's name suggests, has a list of research links for each state and some countries.  And within those links are lists of research sites.  This has been a new discovery on my part, but I'm excited to dive in and see what I can find.

These are only a few of the available online research options.  If you have additional helpful links, please feel free to drop them in the comments!

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