Louisiana
My Families in the 1940 Census, Part II
Once the indexing was completed I set about trying to find my families by name in the 1940 census. I concentrated on what I consider to be my four main lines: Manson, Gines, Bowie, and Bryant. My results were somewhat underwhelming. Gines family: I’ve already mentioned that I found my maternal grandmother and some of her children but that their …
September 8, 2012 Saturday at 5:42 pm
A Second Monroe Bryant Potentially Opens A Nasty Door
Second of three parts When last we met we learned from Monroe Bryant how not to volunteer for military service. Around the same time that Monroe Bryant had stolen money from the Navy recruiting office in Corpus Christi, Texas, the FBI (then known as the Bureau of Investigation) conducted a sweep of so-called “draft delinquents” in San Antonio. Among the …
July 29, 2012 Sunday at 9:00 pm
The Grand Genealogy Journey 2010 (Virtual Edition) Starts Anew
Believe it or don’t, but it’s been three years since the Big Train Trip. I’m really ready to go again, but circumstances currently won’t allow that. So we started to lay out our virtual genealogical dream trip traveling via Amtrak and other conveyances. We ran into a set of difficulties soon after the beginning of the trip. As a result, …
June 30, 2010 Wednesday at 2:34 pm
Lewis LeJay (1835-1921)
There are some ancestors I have given up any hope of ever seeing in a photograph. So it was with my second great-grandfather, Lewis LeJay of De Soto Parish, Louisiana. He was the husband of Syntrilla Brayboy and they were the parents of Sylvia LeJay. Sylvia married Richard William Gines, and they became my mother’s grandparents. Researching the LeJays has …
February 20, 2010 Saturday at 6:43 pm
The Mysteries of Adline Gines & Belle Wheeler
The more you learn, the more you don’t know. One of the men named Henry Gines (and that’s a whole other story) was married to a woman named Adline Gines. Wanting to know more about her, I obtained her death certificate some time ago. [Her name is spelled “Adline” on her death certificate and I’ve seen it spelled that wya …
October 2, 2009 Friday at 6:54 pm
I Say Tomato, You Say Pearl Onion
Resolving Conflicting Data North Carolina? Arkansas? Alabama? In the last post, we saw that all of these had been offered as possible birthplaces for my gg-grandfather, John Wesley Bowie. I said I’d bet on Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. Why? What does one do when confronted by multiple conflicting data? Let’s start with the fact that the researcher at first has no …
September 22, 2009 Tuesday at 5:24 pm
John Wesley Bowie was born . . . where??
Sunday Monday Tuesday Afternoon Take on Saturday Night Genealogical Fun: John Wesley Bowie (Yeah, it took awhile to get this together!) Randy Seaver at Genea-musings has made a relatively regular item a feature called “Saturday Night Genealogical Fun.” It usually involves some quiz or meme or game and is highly popular with the Facebook genealogy crowd and others. These items …
September 22, 2009 Tuesday at 4:35 pm
Good Schools A Staple of Ancestors’ Lives
This was produced for the 17th edition of “Smile for the Camera” I really don’t have much in the way of photographs on my ancestors’ school days. I have in the past posted school census records from the very early twentieth century in Milam County, Texas, where my gg-grandmother and her descendants lived. But I know virtually nothing about my …
September 10, 2009 Thursday at 3:05 pm
Freedman’s Bank Records Open New Doors, Reveal Much
The Freedman’s Bank, a distinct entity from the Freedman’s Bureau, was established by Congress on March 3, 1865. The bank’s official name was the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. The bank’s purpose was to assist African-Americans recently freed from bondage to adjust and thrive economically. It had branches in 16 states and the District of Columbia, where former slaves, black …
September 5, 2009 Saturday at 9:41 am
