Searching for roots in Hannibal, Missouri.

Today we went to Palmyra, Missouri and Hannibal, Missouri.  My third great grandfather, Shadrach Woodson is said to have lived there.  We were hoping to find his grave, but did not have any luck.  We did find an obituary for him, a reference to his will, and his family living in Mason, which is very close to Hannibal, in 1844 in a census.  It is funny how some of your biggest clues come from actually talking to people.  We first went to Greenwood Cemetery in Palmyra and found the oldest section.  It was near the office, so we went over to the office to see if Shadrach was buried there.  The man was very helpful.  He looked and looked through his records, but since Shadrach died in 1853, he didn’t have a lot of hope.  He said that he was probably buried on a farm somewhere.  Next we went to the library in Palmyra to see if we could find more information.  As we were sitting there, a man came in and started talking to the librarian about the pictures that he was taking for find-a-grave.  David started talking to him and he and the librarian produced a letter from a lady that was also looking for Shadrach, and it mentioned where his farm was!   Now if we could just find land records!  We also know that this man will go take a picture of the grave if we can pinpoint where it is.  After that we went to the Hannibal Public Library to look in their genealogical section.  It is probably one of the worst and least helpful libraries that we had been to.  We could not take anything in the locked room with us except for a pen, paper and a laptop.  I was a little disappointed in Hannibal overall.  I imagined a quaint little town on the Mississippi river.  I think at one time it was.  But now it is kind of run down.  We did take a hike up a couple of hundred stairs to get to an overlook of the Mississippi river.  It was beautiful!

An addendum to yesterday’s blog post:  When we were at the very top of the cemetery, we met a couple up there from Minnesota.  We talked for a few minutes and then went on with what we were doing.  Today as we left the condo for our daily adventure, that couple was moving in next door to us!  How weird is that?  The cemetery is ten miles from here!

Here are some pictures from today.

This is the bridge that goes from Hannibal over to Illinois.

Louisiana, Missouri and the Riverview Cemetery

We are back in Missouri doing family history research.  Louisiana is a quaint little town on the Mississippi River.  I will have to get a picture of it when we go back.  We started out at the Louisiana Public Library. I am trying to find the parents of Sarah Allison who married Robert Callison.  I found out that her mother was named Martha, but have not found out what her father’s name was.  So we did make a little progress.  Then we went to the Riverview Cemetery in Louisiana, Missouri.  We found some headstones for people on Find-a-Grave.  This cemetery was really big, and hilly.  When you get to the top, there is a beautiful view of the Mississippi river.  Here is a picture that we took.  Tomorrow we will go to Hannibal and find their historical society.

Picture of my grandparent’s headstones

Wow, it is hard to believe that a month has passed since I have blogged.  Since I haven’t been to California for a long time, I am not able to visit the graves of my grandparents.  In fact, I have been to the graves of my two grandpas, but I have never been to the grave of my grandmas, since I have not been home since they passed away.  Once again, Find A Grave comes to the rescue.  The other day, a Find A Grave contributor in California took a picture of my grandparents graves and sent them to me.  Here they are, along with a picture of John and Effie Naggas.  If you haven’t visited Find A Grave in your search for your ancestors, you should!

Google

Google is a great tool in genealogical research.  Every once in a while I will just google a name and I am blown away by what I can find.  This past week I was doing some research on the Woodson line, and I googled the name of my great grandfather’s brother.  His name was James Sloan Woodson.  Here is part of what I found.  This is a picture of James Sloan Woodson and his wife Harriet Eveline Hendrix Woodson.  They were the parents of 13 children.  They are as follows:

Dau: Olivia “Ollie” Woodson (1871-) (m John D Judy, Auxvasse, MO)
Son: William A Woodson (1872-) (m Susan E Paden, Bachelor, MO)
Dau: Mary Viola Woodson (1873-) (m Harp Dudley, El Monte, CA)
Son: James Lewis Woodson (1875-) (m Eva Mumford, Shamrock, MO)
Son: David Rudy Woodson (1877-) (m Lena Gertrude Meador, Bachelor, MO)
Dau: Eunice Woodson (1878-) (m Ernest R Meador, Mexico, MO)
Dau: Cecelia “Celia” Woodson (1881-) (m ? Griffin, El Monte, CA)
Son: Jesse S Woodson (1884-1929) (m Mary Etta Bishop, Shamrock, MO)
Son: John Woodson (1885-) (m Ethel Boswell, CA)
Dau: Nannie “Nina” Woodson (1887-) (m Leslie G Boswell, Moberly, MO)
Dau: Susan “Susie” Woodson (1891-) (m George Miller, Belverdear Garden, CA)

This is a picture of them and their first seven children.  I have tried to contact the submitters of these pictures, but their emails have bounced back.  I am also including a picture that I already had of James Sloan and his sister Ann Effie Jackson.  Try googling someone in your ancestry and see what you find!

The Carnes Family

These photos are of the family of Joseph Milton Carnes and Mary Catherine Webb.  They had eleven children, nine who survived to adulthood.   There are so many great stories about this family, I don’t know where to start.  This family was the epitomy of a Texas pioneer family – a part of the rough and tumble wide open frontier.  My great-grandmother, Lola Lillian Carnes, is the front left woman in the picture of the girls.  The other day as I was going through family notes that we have, I saw an article by a columnist in the Houston post.  He interviewed Webb McNeill Carnes about his grandfather, David Franklin Webb.  Webb Carnes is the young boy in the front in the picture of the boys.  He ended up passing away the same year that this interview was done.I have attached a picture of the article.  I hope it is readable.  It is a great story.  Along with that story I found a post-it note with more notes about my great-grandmother and Webb.  I am attaching that also.  I have more stories about this great family that I will share another day.

 

Find A Grave

If you haven’t seen the website of find a grave yet, you should hurry over and take a look!  This is a great website that covers cemeteries worldwide.  People can set up memorials and pictures for their ancestors in the cemetery that they were buried in.  There is a volunteer system involved where you can sign up to take pictures of the graves that are in your area.  When you set up a memorial for your ancestor, you can request someone in that area to take a picture of the grave stone.  So, I signed up a few months ago, but only signed up last week to take pictures for others.  I have already taken three up at East Lawn Cemetery in Provo, Utah.  The bad thing about East Lawn is that I can’t get hold of anyone to find a map of the cemetery.  I have spent about two hours this week wandering the cemetery, and only found three out of eight graves for people who would like pictures.  Today, I went back to look for more graves, and I did find one.  The really neat thing that happened today was, while I was at the cemetery, there was someone at a cemetery in California taking a picture of my great grandmother’s grave stone!  Here is the picture of what I received today, along with a picture of Lydia May Taylor to go along with it.   Lydia May Taylor was married to my great-grandfather, Orean Sale Trabue.  Later she married George R. Clark, thus the name on her grave stone.

Asbury Cemetery

Last summer we went to Illinois and went cemetery hopping in Morgan County.  We had so much fun.  We found the headstones of many ancestors.  Asbury cemetery was a little tricky to find.  When we finally found it, it had a little chapel in the front of it.  The cemetery was fenced in and locked.  There was a number that you could call to have them come unlock it.  We decided to forego the phone call and just climb over the fence.  There, in this small cemetery, was a large headstone for my 4th great grandparents!

George Taylor and Mary (or Polly) Ellen Tucker.  In front of the cemetery was a little country church that is still used.  Actually, I think that the cemetery is still used too.  Here are some pictures of the headstones and the church in front.