Joseph Smith Lanier and Nancy Jane Bennett’s fifth child, a daughter, first appears in the 1880 U.S. census as Hetta V. Lanier, age two years old.11880 U.S. census, Randolph Co., AL, population schedule, Rock Mills, enumeration district (ED) 114, p. 11, dwelling 72, family 82, Joseph Lanier; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6742 : accessed 21 Nov 2009); […]
Research & Analysis
Who Were Lewis H. Bennett’s Parents?
I don’t know who Lewis’s parents were. But I’m convinced they were not William N. Bennett and Susannah Dunn, who appear as his parents in many online trees. Lewis H. Bennett was born about 1803, died on 6 November 1851 and was buried in Rocky Mount Cemetery in Troup County, Georgia.1Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com : […]
Identifying Robert Lee Bennett’s Parents
Over ten years ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Is This John & Martha Bennett’s Robert?” Indirect evidence supported that Robert Lee Bennett, who died 13 Nov 1949, in Morgan County, Alabama, could be the son of John T. Bennett and Martha Gamble. Robert’s death certificate listing his father as Alley Bennett did not […]
What Was Great-Aunt Lula’s Real Name?
Great-aunt Lula was the oldest of Joseph Smith Lanier and Nancy Jane Bennett’s ten children who lived to adulthood.11870 U.S. census, Chambers Co., AL, population schedule, Beat 1, p. 28, dwelling 186, family 186, J. S. Lanier; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7163 : accessed 28 Sep 2008); from NARA microfilm M593, roll 6; Lula and her […]
Curious: Why Was Emma’s Middle Name Ewers?
Oh, sure. Now I’m curious. Too bad I wasn’t curious when my maternal grandmother was alive. You can add “Why was your middle name Ewers?” to the long list of questions I failed to ask her and wish I had. I did ask my Aunt Edna, who also carried that middle name, what she knew […]
Favorite Find: Elvie in Newspapers
Last year, while writing the stories of my paternal grandmother’s family, I discovered that newspapers held the story of her brother Albert Elvie Hankins. When I got started with genealogy nearly twenty years ago, I asked four of my aunts what they knew about Uncle Elvie. It wasn’t much, and it wasn’t all that accurate. […]
Uncle Doc Got Married in Kansas City. Who Knew?
A few weeks ago, I was browsing through some Ancestry.com hints and found a few interesting records. One was a marriage license application for my Great-uncle Doc—full name Howard Doctor Hopkins. In Kansas City, Missouri. A place I would never have looked for his marriage record. Uncle Doc was a musician who grew up in […]
Looking at Locations
Last week I filled my Facebook news feed with colorful charts showing the birth locations of five to seven generations of friends’ families. The idea was started by J. Paul Hawthorne, author of GeneaSpy and grew as others added different variations including death locations, ages at death, cause of death, religion, and DNA haplogroups. I played along […]
William W. Lanier: One Man or Two?
More to the point—was the William W. Lanier who died on 7 Nov 1931 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, the son of William Washington Lanier and Charlotte T. Jackson? Some people think so based on the online trees that give William and Charlotte’s son that death date along with the wives and children of the […]
One Thomas Son Found — Two More to Go
Sometimes you have pieces of the puzzle, but they don’t mean much until the rest of the puzzle falls in your lap. Or in this case, lands in the comments for an old blog post. Several months ago, someone who turns out to be a cousin found a post I wrote in 2012 about my […]
