Giles Holt, the Slaveowner

I have been researching Giles Holt for 13 years now. He enslaved my ancestor, Malinda Holt. I was reading a blog post by Luckie about how she and Sandra were talking about how long you should research an enslaved ancestor. I’d had this thought many times about Malinda Holt. I concluded about a year ago that I may never find out where and how Giles acquired her. There’s simply a limit to the written records, and at some point, accepting this and being happy about what I had discovered seemed the right thing to do.

We can find so much about our ancestors through probate and land records, tax records and court records, and many others. But the reality is that because slaves were considered personal property, they could also be purchased with no surviving record of their purchase. Perhaps there’s an entry in a slave trader’s logbook (a logbook no longer extant). Perhaps they were purchased at a slave auction, with no surviving record. The nature of slavery was so colossal and tragic. That feeling never escapes my mind for long.

There’s always the possibility that some clerk searching in a dusty courthouse closet will uncover a trove of unprocessed records, or some person’s passing will result in their family papers being donated to a university archives. Barring that (which I’ll always hold out hope for) I can be proud of the job I’ve done fleshing out Giles’ very complicated life.

Giles was born ca. 1790 in Amelia County, VA to Jesse and Mary Holt. At some point in the early 1800s he migrated to Smith County, TN, a popular migration route for the times. Tennessee was still considered “frontierland” and many sons wanted to head south/west and start their own fortunes. Giles was married by 1820, with a large family, and still there by 1830. By 1840, he had moved further westward to Hardin County, TN, where he died in 1876.
Giles served in the Union army, at odds with many of his sons who served the Confederacy. He had between 11-15 children.

Because of the spareness of data census records at this time, it was county level records that provided critical details about Giles’ life.

Early on in my research, descendants of the slaveowner provided me the info about his migration and possible parents (who knows how long that would have taken me to find out?) I had to gather the evidence, though, which took years. The hardest part when talking about migration is proving that the Giles Holt in Amelia County, VA is in fact the same Giles Holt in Smith and Hardin County, TN. A power of attorney, recorded in a deed book, helped tie my Giles’ to both his mother and the VA roots. Chancery court records also helped greatly. We need to always be conscious of not assuming identity just because the person has the same name & age. I wrote a Proof Summary on this dilemma.

The other problem was the fact that there are other Holt families living near the Giles Holt family both in VA and TN. Deconflicting families is important to show that you are tracking the correct people. I had to show and prove that the families were in fact separate lines. Chancery court records and tax records helped me to do this. When another Giles Holt appears on the 1820 census the same age and family makeup, but living in Connecticut, I had to prove it was not my Giles Holt.

During this time, Giles married at least 4 times, divorcing at least once, possibly twice. The wives were difficult to figure– his first wife is never named in any document. I had to prove her existence and name through indirect evidence. None of his marriages had surviving records. However, I uncovered a premarital agreement and a divorce and criminal complaint (along with post 1850 censuses) that helped.

Several bills of sale listing slaves in 1843 and 1845 were important pieces in identifying Giles’ ownership of my ancestor. Malinda is not living far from Giles in 1870, and she died in 1881.

It’ s been quite a journey and I’m working on a lengthy article on Giles Holt to submit to the genealogy journal in Hardin County, TN.  I always wanted to find a picture of him, and it doesn’t seem as though one exists. Although I may never find anything documenting Giles’ purchase of Malinda, I do find solace in the knowledge that I’ve gone this far and brought back the voice and at least some of the details of an enslaved ancestor. I think Malinda would be proud;)

Central Maryland AAHGS Chapter Kickoff Meeting

If you live in the Metro MD/DC area, I’d like to invite you to the kickoff meeting of the Central Maryland Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) chapter this Saturday, January 23, at 1pm:

• Owen Brown Community Center
• 6800 Cradlerock Way
• Columbia, MD 21045

Our topic is for the meeting is Oral History Research, and our guest speaker is Millie McGhee-Morris, who discovered the shocking family secret of being a cousin of J. Edgar Hoover. She’s written about it in two books, “What’s Done in the Dark” and “Drifted Back in Time, Deep Secrets Revealed” and both will be available for sale.

We’ve got lots of exciting things planned and we’re hoping that many who attend will choose to join us for our regularly scheduled meetings.

Happy 101 Award

I have been given the Happy 101 Award by none other than my favorite genea-buddies, Sandra, Michael, Renate and Mavis. I have been under the weather lately, tired alot and not at all feeling my normal happy genealogy self (which explains my dearth of postings), so this was something that put a much-needed smile on my face. My humble and gracious thanks to all of you.

The Award asks me to list 10 things that make me happy so here they go:

1. My life, family and friends. Even more so at times of tragedy like the current one in Haiti.
2. Doing genealogy and all the great people I’ve met in this endeavor.
3. Lying on any Caribbean beach.
4. Helping other people.
5. Cooking–I love to cook.
6. The sound that doves make. Reminds me of summers spent at my grandmother’s house as a child.
7. Getting any kind of massage or facial or spa treatment.
8. Watching movies and listening to classic music.
9. My two cats, Max and Roman and pretty much all animals.
10. Reading a good book.

And I will recognize simply my favorite blogs:

Georgia Black Crackers
Our Georgia Roots
I Never Knew My Father
Taneya’s Genealogy Blog
Into the Light
Find Your Folks
My Nola Heritage
African-American Genealogy Examiner
Geneablogie
Conversations with My Ancestors
Geneabloggers

History of Social Security

Image from Jeffjacoby.com

I’m a big fan of expanding our knowledge about the various kinds of records we utilize, and I found a terrific PDF file on the history of the Social Security Program. I discovered lots of interesting tidbits I didn’t know. The History page of the Social Security website has lots of other details as well, including tallies of the votes cast for this momentous new law, the text of the original 1935 act, and photo galleries.

I hope you’ll enjoy this information as much as I did.

Have You Checked Published Family Histories?

Recently, I was perusing the Library of Congress’ genealogy reading room website. I clicked on the link to “Bibliographies and Guides” and the first PDF file in the list is the guide to African-American Family Histories and Related Works. I realized I hadn’t looked at this list in years so I printed it out & gave it a looksie.

Don’t you know I found one of my ancestral families on there?

Well, not a direct ancestor, but basically the family that one of my ancestors married into, the Crowders of Decatur County, TN. You know I cannot wait to get back down to the LOC in order to look at it.

So, if you haven’t looked at the list lately (or you haven’t ever looked at the list) take a look & see what you found. Many of the items I noticed were programs from family reunions that people submitted. Even that is a great find.

I’m convinced that those of us who have been researching 10 years or more (or just those of us who have researched enough to have a good collection of material) need to have submitted copies of our work for inclusion on this list. That means me too.

And while you’re at it, check the published family histories at your State Archives, local historical societies and libraries. Just like I was amazed to actually find a match, you never know what might turn up.

Prologue Magazine at NARA

From NARA's website, Summer 1997

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my Christmas/New Year holiday as you can see by my lengthy absence. I missed you all & have sufficiently awoken from my month-long slumber to try to stick my big toe back into the genealogy waters. I was reading the latest issue of Prologue magazine trying to figure out what to blog about, when I realized I was holding it in my hands.

Prologue is NARA’s official magazine, and it highlights how to utilize the rich and vast resources of the Archives. It’s been around for 30 years, but I’m often surprised how few genealogists I meet actually subscribe to the magazine. It’s $24/year (4 issues).  I have been a subscriber for many years now & I can assure you, it is one publication that I anxiously await and read from cover to cover. The magazine will expand your mind, showing you little known record groups, explaining various finding aids, and helping you navigate through the more expansive collections. The articles provide terrific historical detail on NARA’s records and agencies and America’s people. It also highlights the extraordinarily talented and brilliant professionals that work at NARA and are the “experts” in their areas. Sometimes, I even write the authors name down & track them down if I have a specific question! I have obtained numerous genealogical leads over the years from being a faithful Prologue subscriber.

I want to point out some Prologue links on NARA’s website that deserve mention.

1) In Summer 1997, a special edition of Prologue was dedicated to African-American research.  Although the original is out of print (I would love to own this one), you can read all the articles online.  Some titles include:

• “Freedmen’s Bureau Records: An Overview”
• “Preserving the Legacy of the US Colored Troops”
• “The Panama Canal: The African-American Experience”
• “Documenting the Struggle for Racial Equality in the Decade of the Sixties”

2) NARA has actually pulled all the genealogy articles, in all subject areas, out of Prologue and made them available online. Of course, all of the ones under the African-American section (different from those in the special issue) are worth solid gold. Some of my favorites in the other categories include:

• “Native-Americans in the Census, 1860-1890″
• “The 1930 Census in Perspective”
• “First in the Path of the Firemen: The Fate of the 1890 Population Census”
• “Enhancing your Family Tree with Civil War Maps”
• “Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years”
• “Those Elusive Early Americans: Public Lands and Claims in the American State Papers”

3) The Fall 2009 issue of Prologue featured an article called “Face to Face with History”. It discussed the rare finding of a photograph of an  African American doctor in pension files. The article described his life story.

4) One other thing I’d like to mention that is available on NARA’s website: their “Researchers News” newsletter is a downloadable PDF file that is created quarterly and includes all the data about what books, microfilms, databases and other records have been recently purchased or accessioned. It also details all the classes and seminars available at NARA. Make sure to bookmark this location & start downloading the issues as they become available. I read them all.

If there’s room in your genealogy budget, I highly suggest a subscription to Prologue as all of the articles from every issue of course do not make it online. But, there is a good sampling available and I hope if you haven’t explored these articles yet, you will.

Memories of Santa

Darren and Robyn, ca. 1976

In the spirit of being snowed in, here’s one of my favorite pictures of me and my brother.

Newspaper Research

Newspapers are a wonderful genealogical source, we all know that, but one of the main reasons I suspect they still remain untapped for many of us is how difficult and cumbersome they are to research.  Although commercial enterprises like GenealogyBank and  public efforts like Chronicling America aim to make newspapers more accessible, I  must say I often find trying to sort through the digital morass just as much of a struggle.

I luckily (or crazily?) have a microfilm reader in my home that I purchased from Ebay years ago and newspapers are one of the types of time-killing resources that benefit from this. I purchased several reels of microfilm  of the local paper (the Savannah Courier) from the Tennessee State Archives. This paper covered Hardin County, TN, one of my research areas.

I thought I’d post examples of the variety of genealogical jewels that I’ve found in the pages of the Courier. There are things that you simply won’t find anywhere else.

There are the expected death and marriage notices, well before state mandated vital record-keeping, but there were lots of other things that stood out to me as I perused the pages. This is a small, very rural farming Southern community, and I was surprised to see things like a regular column on high fashion and periodic articles on international news–even serialized fiction stories. The ads are in and of themselves a telling source of social history–you see all the medical potions and crack “cures”, stoves and sewing machines, the local country stores and their wares and the schedules and prices of the steamboats that plowed the mighty Tennessee river. As you travel across time (1870s-1930s in my case) you see the changes in life brought by the advent of the car and other technological advances (especially the car–people crashed all the time!). Farming was a major theme, with articles on animal husbandry and the latest crop techniques.

Local news was big–seemingly every action a person took was “monitored” by the paper. Short trips people took (“Tom Jones went to Paducah today for a week to visit his mother”) illnesses (“John Reed is stricken with small pox and has been quarantined”) and even visits to the city of Savannah (“Mssrs. John Holt and Sol Bradley were in town today.”). I suppose the nature of a small town is just that–you pretty much know everything everybody is doing. If not, the paper will sure tell you;).

The quality of the copies varies, but hopefully, taking a look at some of these article clippings (and yes, this post is LONG) will inspire you to check your local newspaper if you haven’t yet. I suggest giving yourself a timeframe (perhaps an hour at a time) as not to destroy your eyes.  I also recommend my friend Tim Pinnick’s excellent book, “Finding and Using African-American Newspapers“, and be sure to subscribe via his website to his new email newsletter on using Black Newspapers.

Savannah Courier Clippings (the year of each post is stated in the caption)

I found postings from local courts that I used to locate court documents. This also illustrates that if your locale had fires that destroyed records, newspapers can still provide some of that information:

1888

1935

Look at all the black organizations I found evidence of. I couldn’t find data on these anyplace else:

1885

1885

There were short periods of time where very small articles covered the black community. I would expect this to be different for different locales. In Savannah, one of the black areas was called Newtown–thus the Newtown “Dots”:

1887

While deaths of white locals were almost always covered, only periodically were deaths of blacks noted:

1890

1889

Fairs were always a big deal in rural areas, and the “colored” fair was no different and was noted every year:

1888

Hints at emigration can be found in the paper. This one I believe included some of my collateral ancestors–I wish it would have stated names!:

1909

As can be sadly expected, lynchings were often noted and the period of the late 19th century was particularly brutal. The first one is my gggrandfather’s brother. Notice how they said it was a “suicide”:

1887

1886

1890

And this ominous editorial snippet in the paper reads to me like a threat:

1889

By 1908, at least some on the community were obviously not in agreement with the methods of the “Night Riders”, but the very fact that it shows up so much as a topic tells me it was a problem:

1908

1909

1911

The crash of the titanic was a huge story in 1912. It was interesting to read this story after having seen the movie:

1912

This snippet hinted at the possibility of a semi- interracial celebration in 1919 for World War I soldiers. Everytime I read this I wonder if my great-grandfather Lawson Holt was there. It also notes the ‘Holtsville’ glee club, Holtsville being a school started by my ancestor John W. Holt.

I found lots of information on black teachers and black schools every year:

1911

By the 1930s, they were printing lists of people who had lost their land to tax sales. How useful is that for us!:

1930s

Indicative of the times, minstrel shows were a big part of entertainment:

1929

A few were pretty humorous to me, with my 21st century sensibilities. This one talked about the nuisance of people letting their hogs run loose in the city:

1919

And my personal favorite–this poor man, a minister, has to announce that his wife has left him:

1888

There is lots of other information I found on the black community (on churches and ministers, for example) but I hope what I have posted has encouraged you to take that dive into these valuable records.

Aaron’s Ancestor Wall

I thought I’d show off my friend Aaron’s gorgeous ancestor wall. I have one too but it looks nowhere near as beautiful. Go ‘head, Aaron! The ancestors are watching.

Genealogy Dreams and Goals

The holidays always get me even more reflective than usual, which is pretty hard to do for such an analytical person as myself. I was thinking the other day: in terms of my genealogy research , what would be my dream find or dream occurrence?

Of course, like all of you, you know there’s not just one. But here’s my list of what I would consider the answer to my genealogy dreams:

1. To discover where and when the slaveowner Giles Holt acquired my ancestor, Malinda.
2. To discover anything about the Georgia roots of my ancestor John Smith (arrgghhhh).
3. To connect with any living descendants of my John Smith and Walter Springer lines (beyond the very few that I personally know.)
4. To find out where, and possibly find the headstone of, my ggrandfather Daniel G. Waters.
5. To find a picture of my ancestor Margaret Barnes.
6. For closed record states not to exist.
7. For the ability to order FHC microfilm online, instead of having to go there in person.
8. For the Social Security Administration to have mercy on us po’ struggling genealogists, and cut us a discount on those SS5s.
9. For me to not have to still work full-time, and be able to spend all day researching, transcribing, compiling & meeting with my genealogy buddies.
10. For the fires that destroyed the 1890 census and the bulk of 20th century Army records to not have happened!
11. For more interest on the part of family members in preserving our precious family history.
12. For my two grandparents, Luther Holt & Pauline Waters, to magically come back to life so I could actually interview them about their families. Hey–we are dreaming right?

I also read an intriguing article in the NGS Magazine where the President called upon us to make a list of our genealogy goals for the year. So, while my dreams at the moment remain only that, I’d like to share my tangible goals for the year as well:

1. Publish at least 3 articles about my family in various journals and newsletters.
2. Finish adding complete source citations to my genealogy software program & my Ancestry online family trees.
3. Distribute the documented family history on at least 3 of my lines to the Library of Congress, the archives of that line’s state, the public library of the county and the county’s historical society. My descendants will find my work!
4. Contribute at least 3 bodies of work to the genealogical community to help others–abstracts, transcriptions, compilations, etc.
5. Continue to meet and encourage others to research & especially to publish our histories.

So…what are YOUR genealogy dreams and goals?