Just Three Generations

The following speaks exactly to why I have been spending so much time trying to get everyone in the family to get our family stories written down and verified.

Just Three Generations by Judy G Russell

Connecting past, present and future
It was The Legal Genealogist‘s honor and privilege to be a keynote speaker this morning at the fourth annual RootsTech, that massive gathering of genealogists in Salt Lake City that brings so many people together to share, study and learn about family history.
RT-Speaker-badge-200sqThe theme of this year’s conference was connecting the generations, past, present and future, and I drew inspiration for what I wanted to say from an article by Texas genealogist Judy Everett Ramos, published in Examiner.com in December 2013.
She quoted Aaron Holt, an archivist with the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas, as saying that “it only takes three generations to lose a piece of oral family history. … It must be purposely and accurately repeated over and over again through the generations to be preserved for a genealogist today.”
Think about that.
Without a real effort to pass down our family stories purposely and accurately, the richness and depth they add to our family history can be lost in just three generations.
From grandparent to child to grandchild. That’s just three generations. Things that were absolutely critical in the lives of our own great grandparents — even our own grandparents — could be utterly unknown to us today.
From us to our own children to our own grandchildren. And even the small trials and treasures of our own daily lives could be lost to our own descendants… in just three generations.

Read more about this at https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2014/02/07/just-three-generations/

MAPPING OF CARTERVILLE CEMETERY COMPLETED

I heard from Carl Scott today.  On Friday (a cold, miserable day by his reckoning) they completed the imaging of the Carterville cemetery with their rented ground penetrating radar machine.  They now know the boundary of the cemetery and have located an additional 60 new burials.  I believe initially they had found burials for 130 people so this means the cemetery probably holds remains of around 200 early pioneers.   We will have more information when we get further reports from the Historical Pioneer Group filter down to us.

Supposed site of Carterville (Kathy Robbins-Wise 2013)

               This is all very significant to us as so little is really known about our family during their time in the Winter Quarters area.  Once the Saints left this area and everything was abandoned the land went back to its primal state.  Our ancestors were not a great journal keeping people and so our knowledge is sketchy.  Both Dominicus and William Furlsbury buried wives in the Carterville cemetery and Dominicus had a child buried there too.  This makes the study of the old burial ground that much more important to us.  

                The post before this describes the work of the Historical Pioneer Research Group and how to do this survey of our family cemetery they had to rent equipment at the cost of about $3000 a day.  This is the second day in the past two or three years that they have worked our cemetery.  They ran out of time the first time they came out and had to return to finish the job.  If you can please consider a donation to their group to help them pay for this service for us.  Donations are tax deductable - see the prior post.

CARTERVILLE CEMETERY MAPPING - FUNDING NEEDED

November 11, 2016

Dear Family Members,

For those of you who were with us at the last reunion in the Omaha area, we were fortunate enough to have at the reunion representatives of the Historical Pioneer Research Group serves as a coordinating and facilitating organization that links, the work of the BYU Winter Quarters Project, The Nauvoo lands and Records database, Mormon Places database and the work of local researchers and historians. Ultimately all of this work feeds the earlylds.com Pioneer website managed by the Historical Pioneer Research Group.

Their effort that pertain to us directly is the mapping of the pioneer Carterville Cemetery in Council Bluffs, IA.  I received a note from him this week that states:

                “Just a note to let you know that the owners of the property where the Carterville Cemetery is located have given permission to complete the ground penetrating radar[GPR] survey. We have scheduled the engineering firm from Kansas City to complete the GPR on Nov 18, 2016. A day of their time and equipment including the follow up reports usually costs about $3,000.00. We plan on trying to fit in at least one other site, if we have time following the work at Carterville. It would be helpful if your organizations could contribute at least $1,000.00 to this project. Thanks for your consideration.”

The Historical Pioneer Research Group is a 501c3 non-profit corporation therefore, any gift you make is tax deductible.  Like us they are all volunteers trying help others to learn more about their heritage.  Learning the number of burials at Carterville is a first necessary step and will go a long way in helping us to determine who might be buried there.  If you, or anyone in your family would be interested in helping fund this worthwhile project please contact:

                                                Carl E Scott at ccscott1919@msn.com for more information

                                                Or

Make your check payable to: The Historical Pioneer Research Group

Mail to HPRG at 5204 Country View Lane

Papillion, NE 68133

Attention: Maury Schooff, Treasurer

I want to thank you on behalf of the officers of the John and Hannah Knight Libby Carter Organization for your support on this matter.

                                                Robert Givens, President

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY – Part 19 – THE MOVE TO ILLINOIS

              There is no record of the exact date that John and Hannah, with their son Richard, left Missouri but we know in May, 1841 John bought land in Hancock County, Illinois.  John first obtained land from his son, William.  This land was first purchased by William (of Hancock County) from William C Wilson and his wife Rosana (of Adams County) on 27 October 1840 for $179.37.  The land was described as Part East/2 Northeast Section 31 Township 3 North Range 8 West.  The legal Description was:  Beginning Southeast corner Joshua Vance line on East/2 of the Northeast/4 Section 31; running East 71 ¾ Rods; North 50 Rods; West 71 ¾ Rods; South 50 Rods to beginning, being 22.765 acres.   This exact piece of land was then sold to John Carter on 26 May 1841 for $250. (Hancock County, Illinois, Deeds, Book I, p. 300 – 301 (FHL Film 954598). Transcription in Susan Eaton Black, et. al., Property Transactions in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois and Surrounding Communities (1839 – 1859), Vol. II C-F, p. 749.)

                One would think that this would place John and Hannah in Illinois at the beginning of the growing season.  William had probably prepared the land the prior year so John would be able to plant a crop and harvest it that year.  John most likely had sold his farm in Missouri when they left but the transaction was incomplete as it wasn’t until 15 May 1843 that John actually recorded the deed in Illinois following the receipt of $400 for the land.  Now with the land in Missouri disposed of, John and Hannah were in Illinois for the long haul.

                Hannah had to be thrilled to be living among most of her children.  Besides Dominicus, William, Hannah, John Harrision, Eliza Ann, and Richard Harrison (who still lived at home) who were all LDS, Hannah was joined in Morleyville by Mary Jane and her husband Jacob Dooley.  Almira and her husband Alvin B Tripp, though LDS, did not join the family until after the birth of her ninth child, Sarah, who was born in Newry on Christmas day in 1843.  By then the only missing child was Philip Libby who had left Maine for Massachusetts where he married Martha Eames York in 1845.  He was still there in 1850 as he was enumerated with his family in Lowell, Massachusetts.  He and his family arrived in Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois about May, 1851. ("Charles Carter (1846 - 1925)" in Biographical Review of Hancock County, Illinois (Chicago, Hobart Publishing Company, 1907), pp. 551 - 552.)

                Surely John felt that Morleyville, or Yelrome as it was known then, was far enough away from Nauvoo that they would be safe there.  Unfortunately that was not to be.

OUR MCKENNEY CONNECTION TO SCOTLAND

               John Carter's mother was Jane or Anne McKenney.  Her line is proven back to John McKenney who was in early Scarborough, Maine.  The McKenneys appear to be from the northern highlands of Scotland and Skye Isle in particular.  Here is a link to an outstanding blog entry about our McKenney origins.

https://ridge-dweller.net/2013/03/17/highlanders-the-mckinneys/