JeremyFountain.com

Our annual Summer research trip to TN is quickly approaching. We usually do one in the Spring as well, but that was temporarily suspended this year due to other obligations and the need to re-allocate time for the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ national convention in Philly! Basically, I’ll still have two major trips this year, but one will involve a train ride to the convention center.

I have set a few basic goals for this trip:

1. I will complete a few of those nagging to do items which are actually close to the house.
2. I will slow down & write (or type) legibly.
3. I will sort, file, digitize (if necessary), analyze, and publish the data in a reasonable time.

Planned research stops so far:

1. Nashville City Cemetery – Brunold, Diatikar, Staub graves (this time I will take the deed map)
2. Webb Cemetery (Burkesville area) – Daniel & collateral graves (need GPS for this one)
3. Auburn Cemetery (KY) – Johnson, Marrs, Maxwell, et al
4. Gasper River Cemetery (KY) – Willaford, Wilson, et al
5. Nashville National Cemetery – Diatikar grave
6. Spring Hill Cemetery – Diatikar,et al
7. TN State Archives – Fill out remainder of missing City Directories (Brunold, Diatikar, Gasser, Staub)
8. Metro Archives – (I’ll think of something I need)

Additional Plans:

• Tennessee Central Railway Museum
• Lake Radnor State Natural Area
• Shelby Bottoms Greenway – Cumberland River Crossing

Genealogy Happy Dance Time!

I’ve been searching for the marriage details of my 2nd Great-Grandparents, Samuel Estus Daniel (2 Jun 1891 – 13 Feb 1963) & Sarah Frances Elizabeth Scott (23 Jun 1895 – 15 May 1967) (my Grandmother’s namesake). For years I have been stumbling over a marriage index that reported a marriage between S E Daniel & S F Short. The year was about right (1910) based on census data and births. The location was correct (Clay County Tennessee). There were no other close candidates in the indexes I had reviewed.

My theory was Sarah Frances Elizabeth Scott must have married prior to Samuel Daniel. Being that she was born in 1895, her age was only 15 when she married Samuel; she would have been even younger at the time of a prior marriage. This was not impossible, but fairly unlikely by the early 1900’s. Still, the index had her listed as “Short”.

Along comes Ancestry.com to the rescue. Their recent introduction of Tennessee records, particularly “Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002“, made original documents available. While searching for “Daniel” marriages in “Clay County Tennessee”, I once again found the Daniel-Short marriage.

Upon examination of the scanned document, I finally got the answer to my quandary. The marriage license spelled the names correctly in the first section, S E Daniel & S F Scott. See below:

The second section of the marriage license contained a “clerical” error. In this case, the error was actually committed by the County “Clerk”!

Mystery solved. There seems to be no prior marriage for Sarah. This brings me back to something we all know and should remember. Always check the original sources. Indexes are helpful, but nothing beats the original source!

See the complete image: Click Here

Record Details

• Name: S E Daniel
• Spouse: S F Short [should be Scott]
• Marriage Date: 13 Mar 1910
• Marriage County: Clay
• Marriage State: Tennessee

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2008. Original data: Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm.

The heat continues unabated!

Started the day off at Portland Brew where I reviewed yesterday’s findings and planned a few follow-up activities. I promised the family I would only stay at the Archives for 1-2 hours.

This time I’m looking up some references on Clay County TN which pertain to my maternal Grandmother’s paternal side (DANIEL). Today’s record targets are:

• Bible & Tombstone Records of Clay County (F443.C55 B5)
• Clay County, Tennessee, Bible & Tombstone Records (F443.C55 T4 1937)
• Clay County, Tennessee, Marriage Book (F443.C55 T42 1938)
• Clay County, Tennessee, Tombstone Inscriptions (F443.C55 W43)
• Early Clay County, Tennessee Marriages (F443.C55 E17 2001)

I managed to keep my time at TSLA to 2:15, then headed up to Greenbrier. I had never actually made it to the Greenbrier Historical Society when they were actually open. I had one hour to check out the displays and hopefully pick up a copy of the 2nd edition of Village Green (the history of Greenbrier). The Museum is very well done. The space is also serving as a small library (the town’s first, I believe). The society is housed in the house formerly belonging to the Sprouse family. a prominent family in the early development of the tobacco industry.

As luck would have it, I had just missed an old friend from high school. Josh was in town for his Grandmother’s birthday, just as I was. We connected on the phone, but time didn’t permit more.

Mom prepared one of her usual fabulous meals. We were celebrating both mine and my Grandmother’s birthday. Mom made a “fruit pizza” instead of a cake (at my request). The featured fruit this time was kiwi and strawberry.

The day concluded with the death defying stunts of Double D!