Tensas Parish
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
The Process of Breaking Down a Brick Wall
Second in a multi-part series Here’s a synopsis of how I achieved my #1 research goal: finding the parents of my great-grandfather, Richard Gines of Shreveport, Louisiana. Bear in mind that eahcof these steps took months or even years to complete and some ran concurrently. Step 1: The Neophyte Phase. I was new to genealogical research and had fairly easily …
August 6, 2009 Thursday at 9:36 pm
The Brick Wall–Did We Really Knock It Down?
A week ago or so, I was making noise about hammering down a major brick wall in my research. I was getting ready to do the Genealogical Happy Dance. I have made a major advance in my research into the Gines family as a result of the research I’ve been describing here over the last several weeks. I’m thrilled about …
June 16, 2009 Tuesday at 9:24 pm
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
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
Back to Some Hard Genealogy . . .
Seems it’s been a while since we did any hard genealogy here. The best way to handle that is simply to just jump into it. Our subject today is one of my most resistant brickwalls. I’m going to describe my research and solicit ideas about how to proceed. So as they used to say on that early 1960s game show, …
January 25, 2009 Sunday at 11:25 am
