Apology

I want to apology for not updating the blog for a while.  Recently, my brother passed away from a drunk driving accident.  I've been mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted.  And now, I am embroiled in a lot of legal paperwork.  So forgive for neglecting the blog.  Right now, it's just not something I'm thinking about.  I promise I'll return, just not right now.

Picture Puzzles

Most of us have mysterious old photographs in our own collections.  They may have been given to you because of your interest in family history or because the executor of an estate didn't want to throw them away.  Maybe some photos have a first name but not a date, or there's partial information passed on from family lore.  But most such images haunt us with their lack of identifying information.

By consulting city directories you can establish when a photographer was in business (note the imprint at the bottom).  This is a picture of my grandfather as a baby around 1887.

Women had short, frizzed bangs, popular around 1890.  Dress with tight sleeves and high, puffed shoulders was in style only briefly.

Man's basic black sack suit and buttoned vest suggest early 1890s. This is a photo of my biological great grandparents in their wedding photo.

The earliest type of photographic image, the daguerreotype, was on a shiny metal surface.  It actually needs to be held at a particular angle in order to see the image.  It was used for a relatively brief 20-year period.  But another type of metal image, the tintype, was introduced in 1856 and remained popular until the early 20th century.

The presence of a photographer's name, also known as an imprint, can be a shortcut to deciding on a time frame.  In the 19th and early 20th century,  photographers could order cards preprinted with their name and address on either the front or the back.  They would then mount photographs on the cards.  The resulting combination provided a sturdy support for the image and advertising for the photographer.

One of the most important details in the dating process involves clothing.  Clothing elements become key to narrowing down the date.  In general, fashion changes are most notable in the accessories of a woman's costume such as hats, hairstyle and jewelry.

Photographers generally used similar props in their images.  By grouping photographs together that have similar internal details you may discover that you have a number of images taken by the same photographer around the same time.

The intimacy in the way a young couple is seated together may suggest they are sitting for either an engagement photograph or, more likely, a wedding portrait.  In a group portrait, the central figure may be the oldest member of the family or the most successful.  Photographers carefully positioned individuals within a picture and included props that suggested a context.

If you have any old photos, I would love for you to send them to me. 

Wedding Bell Blues

Everyone has wedding certificates in their possession.  Working on genealogy, I probably have more than my share.  I have some as current as my own to ones back to the 19th century.  But there are more to wedding records than just wedding certificates.

Marriage bonds--as in money, not the bonds of holy matrimony--were common in some states, particularly in the South, into the 18th century.  They were posted in the county courthouse to help offset any costs of legal action in case the marriage was nullified.  The groom and usually the father or brother of the bride posted a bond; if a woman posted bond, it may have been the bride's mother because the father was deceased.

Licenses eventually replaced bonds in the 19th century.  In some states, however, a license wasn't required for a couple to be married, or the license might be recorded in a different jurisdiction from the marriage.  For those states requiring licenses, sometimes couple took out a license or application but never made it to the altar.

The oldest marriage license I have for the Bruton's is from 1918.  This certificate is for Cornelia Bruton and Perry Leland.  South Carolina licenses did not provide much genealogical information.

If anyone has marriage records in your possession, I would love to have a copy to document the marriage in the family.

Coming to America

The term "Coming to America" for African-Americans has a whole different meaning than it does for other races.  As a white person, so far, my family came from England, of their own accord.  We all have seen the TV mini series, "Roots".  Most African-Americans want to find their "Kunta Kinte".  

Besides watching PBS' African American Lives, there are several books and CD's about the subject.  One such CD is entitled "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM" by David Eltis, David Richardson, Herbert S. Klein and Stephen D. Behrendt.  This database was published by Cambridge University Press.  Unfortunately, it is not cheap to obtain, costing more than $195.  It contains records of 25,000 trans-Atlantic slave-ship voyages made between 1595 and 1866 from all over Europe.  

Most African-American researchers can get back to the "brick wall".  This is the 1870 U.S. Census.  This is the first census that lists all black/colored/negro/mulatto people by name.  Prior to this, they were listed only on the Slave Schedules by their sex and age under a slaveowner's name.  There are two Slave Schedules, one in 1850 and one in 1860.  Getting beyond this brick wall requires much research.  After identifing where someone was born, one must look to the slaveowner's in the area and look at the Slave Schedules to find a slave listed as the same age.  Then probate records need to be searched for the slaveowner's will.  These documents usually list the slaves by name.

Once a slaveowner has been determined, looking at transactions concerning the buying and selling of his slaves may lead to the ship on which the slave was transported from Africa.  Newspapers would publish the arrival and departure of a slave ship.  Knowing when a slave was sold could lead to an article about the arrival of the ship and what country it came from.  Finding an actual name of the slave would be next to impossible in documents, only family stories usually have that kind of detail.   

According to census records, Joseph Bruton was born between 1850 and 1860.  In the 1900 Census, Joseph was born-Feb 1860, 1910-approx. 1850, 1920-approx. 1854, and 1930-approx. 1850.  Therefore, he possibly could be listed on either of the Slave Schedules.  There are listings for a Joseph Brewton in 1870 and 1880.  If this is indeed our Joseph, his parents would be Reubin and Tamer.  This would take us back to the "brick wall".  Since Joseph is a common name, looking in probate records for Reubin and Tamer would be easier.  Joseph may also be listed in the same household.  Reubin was born approx. 1826 in South Carolina.  Tamer was born approx. 1820 in South Carolina.  Probate records could then replace the census the further back you go, possibly naming Reubin and Tamer's parents.  Eventually taking you back to a purchase order for the original ancestor.

I hope to be able to do this research for the Bruton line.  If anyone else if interested in assisting me, I welcome the help.

Welcome

This is the first entry in my blog.  I want to tell you about who I am and how I came to develop this website.  I was born in Eugene, Oregon and four days later I was adopted by Fred & Mickie Love.  We lived in Oregon for six months and then left for California.  I started my schooling in the Los Angeles area.  We lived there until I was nine.  We then moved to the Seattle area.  This was quite a shock to me because it was on my 9th birthday, which is in January, when we arrived at our new home and I walked out onto the patio and slipped and cracked my tailbone on the icy surface.  I immediately declared my hatred for our new home.  We lived in the area for 12 years.  I graduated from high school there and began my college education at a local community college and transferred to a state university for a year.  My parents retired to San Diego and I followed them there.  I finished my college degree there and while working at a Savings & Loan, I began my love of genealogy.

The spark started when my aunt and uncle visited and showed pictures of their trip to Scotland, where they did some genealogy research.  This was in 1987.  Fortunately, someone had already done a lot of research on my Love line.  No one had done any on my mother's line so I started working on her line first.  This was long before the internet.  I didn't even have my own personal computer.  Everything was done by hand and snail mail.  If I wanted to look at census records, I had to drive to the National Archives in Laguna Niguel, about an hour and a half drive north, to look at microfilm rolls.  It was very time consuming and expensive.

In 1989, I became a flight attendant and a year later I purchased my own computer.  There still wasn't the internet but technology was making research a little less time consuming.  At least now, when I had a layover in a town with a good genealogy library or family, I got research done.

I want this website to not only show my adoptive family roots but as a means of sharing my genealogy knowledge that I have acquired over the years and perhaps enlighten my visitors.  Therefore, I will discuss what actions I have taken, the results I have found, and topics of genealogical interest.  I want to teach others things I have learned and discovered all these many years.