Craig on July 16th, 2007

As of ten minutes ago, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight was running three hours late. So The Big Train Trip has yet to commence. That’s how it is on America’s (Passenger) Railroads. I should add another caveat: this project, at least the blogging-from-the-train part of it, is dependent upon certain technology we’ve mapped out as well.

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Craig on July 16th, 2007

Over the last four or five weeks, I’ve teased a bit about some great project that’s on its way. Well, the teasing is over and our great project has begun! Here it is: we are headed to Missouri on a major research trip . . . but the deal is we are going via Amtrak [...]

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Craig on July 11th, 2007

In the post about the Brayboy surname, I rather blithely mentioned that I had found photographs of Buena Vista plantation in De Soto Parish, Louisiana, where my great-great-grandparents Brayboy (and likely LeJay) were enslaved. I glossed over my feelings about that discovery. I was very much surprised and thrilled! The discovery was so unexpected! A [...]

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Craig on July 11th, 2007

And every census through 2000! Well, sort of. There are a lot of caveats here. First of all, it will cost you up to $75.00 per person. That’s right–$75.00 per person! The Census Bureau provides what it calls “Age Search,” under which they will search confidential census records from 1910 to 2000 and issue an [...]

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Craig on July 10th, 2007

Syntrilla Brayboy married Lewis LeJay in De Soto Parish, Louisiana, in about 1870. Their daughter, Sylvia LeJay, married Richard William Gines in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, in about 1883. The Brayboy, LeJay, and Gines families came to Louisiana from South Carolina. These are the most unusual surnames in my family tree and they have proven to [...]

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We would like to find out if there is anyone still alive in America who met a relative that was born in the 18th century. So read a message in Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak’s inbox. The redoubtable Megan went to work. Read what she found in Ancestry magazine.

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Craig on July 8th, 2007

Drew Smith of Tampa, Florida, correctly identified the photographs in Is this Your Street? as the Point Arena Lighthouse in California. (There’s no prize associated with this, Drew, but our heartiest congratulations on a job well done!). The GeneaBlogie research staff spent the Fourth of July holiday at Point Arena. The lighthouse, which at 115 [...]

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Craig on July 8th, 2007

Mom & Dad, 2003 This week, my mother will celebrate her 75th birthday. Seems like just yesterday we were marking her mother’s 75th birthday. That was 1977 and my mother then was younger (by almost a decade) than I am now. How does that happen? Tick, tock! Tick, tock! Mom was born in Kansas City, [...]

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Just 1935 through 1944 remain to be added. Check it out at http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/

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Craig on July 8th, 2007

If you’ve not seen History Detectives on PBS, you’ve been depriving yourself of a real treat. For five seasons now, the show has explored historical mysteries, explaing, confirming, discovering and debunking. About 75% of the matters investigated are things submitted by viewers. This Monday, July 9, 2007, the show tracks down the identity of a [...]

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