Louisiana
Way Around the Brick Wall: The Plantations
As we were making our long way around the brick wall of my great-grandfather Richard William Gines (1860-?), the trail led to several plantations in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. The first plantation we found was called Marydale. What attracted us here was a nearly forgotten tax record from Tensas Parish that showed Rebecca Gines and “Don” Gines living on the …
June 4, 2009 Thursday at 1:42 pm
Reading the Writing on the Brick Wall
I had intended to move on today and discuss the plantations that we’ve come across in our long way around the brick wall of my great-grandfather, Richard William Gines. But I want to share an issue that has hindered our search and is not all that uncommon. The Wordle graphic above tells the story! To put the issue into genealogical …
May 29, 2009 Friday at 6:00 pm
When A Wild Goose Chase Isn’t A Wild Goose Chase
Some Lessons from Our Pursuit of Egans Gines We had started out to get past the brick wall of my great-grandfather, Richard William Gines, who was born in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, in about 1860. After years no success either on the ground (we visited Bossier Parish as well as Caddo Parish in 2004 to research this matter) or online, we …
May 22, 2009 Friday at 6:44 pm
The Round-About Way Around Collaterals to Your Brick Wall
Sometimes when you run up against a brick wall, you may have to go a long way in a parallel or perpendicular path to get around the brick wall. True in physics, true in life, true in genealogy. In illustration of that point, we’ve been trying for a long time to get past the brick wall represented by my great-grandfather, …
May 20, 2009 Wednesday at 7:26 am
Egans Gines (??-1948)
In which we beat the bushes for a collateral relative in hopes of finding our way past a brick wall! One of my big brick walls has been getting past my great-grandfather Richard Gines. [Another challenge I have is getting my voice recognition software to recognize that surname!] To deal with this brick wall I’ve been looking for collateral relatives …
May 16, 2009 Saturday at 7:55 pm
Louisiana Public Records Online Access: Good and Ugly
I’ve written favorably about the vital records index at the Louisiana State Archives. It’s easy to use to look up information and it’s set up to make ordering certified copies by snail mail easy. Unlike Texas, Louisiana does not have an on-line ordering capability run by the state. But since they make everything else so easy, I barely noticed. Now …
May 1, 2009 Friday at 1:58 pm
The UPS Man Cometh
Finally! Back in January, I ordered from Amzaon.com the book, Biographical & Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, originally published in 1890 by Southern Publishing Co. For several months, I kept getting notices from Amazon that shipping would delayed and they would give a date range during which it would ship. All truned out to wrong until the last notice, which …
April 28, 2009 Tuesday at 8:07 pm
The Mailman Cometh
“Was there anything in the mail today?” I ask. “Yeah, a lot of stuff. But nothing really exciting,” she replies. “It’s there on the table.” I look there on the table, and wade through the usual bills, sales flyers, charitable solicitations, junk mail disguised as first class mail, until I finally come to a big brown envelope marked “Louisiana Secretary …
April 25, 2009 Saturday at 8:06 pm
Why I Blog–Reason No. 1 and Reason No. 776,002
Several weeks ago, in a post called Happy Dance Days are Here Again, I posted some photographs. The photos were of Frank Gines and his wife Willie V. Cole Gines, and their children. Frank Gines (1883-1946) was a son of Richard William Gines (1860-?) and Sylvia LeJay Gines (1863-1940). One of Frank’s younger brothers was my grandfather, William Edward Gines …
March 25, 2009 Wednesday at 7:42 pm
The (New) Paripatetic Graveyard Rabbit . . .
. . . is here. Eh, I mean here! You’ll find up to the minute news about graveyards, cemeteries, and monuments, as well as the PGYR Video of the Week. This week’s video highlights a monument conservation training program put on by the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT). Located in Natchitoches, Louisiana, NCPTT is an element of …
March 25, 2009 Wednesday at 6:59 pm
