Friday, August 30, 2013

Land Deeds for Christian Brown

The deed described below was made by my 4th-great-grandfather Christian Brown (father of Sarah Brown Lambert). This is transcribed from a copy provided by the Whitewater Valley Genealogical Association.

From Book L, Page 590 - Fayette County, Indiana

Daniel Rusch Auditor to Christian Brown

Whereas Christian Brown assignee of James McGann has paid the sum of Two Hundred and Ten Dollars in full of the NorthWest Corner of the SouthEast quarter of Section No. 16 in Township No. 14 and Range No. 13, East containing forty acres. Now know ye that in consideraion of the promises and in conformity with the Statute in such case made and provided at Daniel Rusch Auditor for the County of Fayette Indiana for and in the name of the inhabitants of Congressional Township No. 14 Range 13 do Give grant and convey the said NorthWest Corner of the SouthEast quarter of Section 16 Township 14 Range 13 to the said Christian Brown and to his heirs and assigns forever. February 22nd 1844.

Daniel Rusch, Auditor of Fayette County {Seal}

Attest William Webb, School Commissioner of Fayette County
--
Brown completed a second transaction on 12 December 1844, as the deed below shows:

From Book M, Page 202 - Fayette County, Indiana

Jonas Frank to Christian Brown
Know all men that Jonas Frank and Mary Frank his wife of the County of Fayette and State of Indiana in consideration of the sum of four hundred and twenty five dollars in hand paid by Christian Brown of the County and State aforesaid have bargained and sold and do hereby grant bargain sell and convey unto the said Christian Brown his heirs and assigns forever the following premises situate in the County of Fayette in the State of Indiana and bounded and described as follows (to wit) the same being twenty acres of land more or less (20) lying and being in the NorthEast corner of the SouthEast quarter of Section Sixteen in Township Fourteen and range thirteen in said County of Fayette the same being the land heretofore deeded by George Monger to the said James Frank for an indenture bearing date the 10th day of March 1840.

To have and to hold said premises with the appurtenances unto the said Christian Brown his heirs and assigns forever and the said Jonas Frank for himself and heirs does hereby covenant with said Christian Brown his heirs and assigns that he is lawfully seized of the premises aforesaid, and that the premises are free and clear from all incumberances whatever, and that he will forever warrant and defend the same, with the lawful claims of all persons whomsoever.

In testimony whereof, the said Jonas Frank and Mary Frank his wife relinquish her right to dower in the premises, have hereunto set their hands and seals this 12th day of December, in the year of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.

Signed sealed and acknowledged in presence of John Tate {seal}
Jonas Frank {seal}
Mary Frank {seal} 
--
The map posted on 12 August 2013 of Waterloo Township (see http://jonesandrelated.blogspot.com/2013/08/mappy-monday-waterloo-township.html) shows the location of Christian Brown's land in Fayette County.  

Monday, August 26, 2013

Marriage Certificate for Plutarco and Manuela

The marriage certificate copy below comes from the Arizona State Library, History & Archives Division in Phoenix, for my great-grandparents, Plutarco Campuzano and Manuela Portillo.
The marriage license was obtained on 8 November 1923, almost a year after Manuela arrived in the US for the first time. They were married on 1 December 1923 by Catholic priest Friar Lucas Tristamy. At the bottom is a note that the copy recorded in 1961 was mailed to 453 South Main Street - this is located in the heart of Barrio Viejo.

I do not yet know the relationship between the witnesses, Eliza and Francisco Sermeno, and my great-grandparents. In the 1930 US Census, Francisco appears as a painter, so perhaps he was a friend and colleague of Plutarco. In the 1920 US Census, it shows Francisco and Eliza were brother & sister.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Sepia Saturday - Paris Bookseller, 1911 & 2011

The photo below is part of the Getty Museum's awesome Open Content Program, dated 1910-1911 by photographer Eugène Atget.
Source: Getty Open Content Program, http://search.getty.edu/museum/records/musobject?objectid=62227
Two of my own photos from a layover enroute to Singapore in June 2011 are below:
Times change, they stay the same...

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Important Land Transfer for Lambert Researchers

If you're a descendant of Clayton Lambert (or his parents Josiah and Lucy Lambert), you will be interested in this land record from Fayette County, Indiana. Last week I asked a helpful researcher at the Whitewater Valley Genealogical Association if there were land deeds filed by Clayton Lambert in Fayette County. She sent me a copy of the map that I posted last Monday, showing Clayton's 160 acre plot in Waterloo Township. She also pulled a copy of the deed from the Fayette County Recorder's Office.

The Land Transfer

This indenture made the 17th day of February in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty six between Josiah Lambert and Lucy his wife of the first part and Clayton Lambert son of the said Josiah Lambert of the other part all of the County of Warren State of Ohio as will for and in consideration of the natural love and affection which he the said J L [Josiah Lambert] hath and beseeth unto the said C L [Clayton Lambert].

As also for the better maintenance support livelihood and preferment of him the said C L hath given granted aliened enforced and confirmed and by these presents doth give grant in lieu of and confirm unto the said C L his heirs and assigns forever are that certain tract or parcel of land situate lying and being in the State of Indiana it being the South East quarter of section three of township fourteen in range thirteen east of the second principal Meridian line together wish all and singular hereditaments and appertenances thereunto belonging or in any wise apperteuning and the reversion and reversions thereunder rents issues and profits thereof all estate rights titles interests claims or [unclear]. Whatsoever of the party of the first part either in law or equity of and to the above granted premises with the said hereditaments and appertenances to have and to hold the said premises above particularly maintained and described to the party of the second part his heirs and assigns that they the said party of the first part are lawfully seized in fee of the aforesaid granted premises that they are free from all incumberances that they have good rights to sell and convey the same to the said party of the second part as aforesaid and that he will and his heirs executors and administrators shall warrant and defend the service to the said party of the second part his heirs and assigns forever against all lawful [unclear].

Of all persons do witness whereof the said Josiah Lambert and Lucy his wife have hereunto set their hands and seal the day and year first above written.

Josiah Lambert [seal]
Lucy Lambert [seal]

Signed sealed and witnessed in presents of us

Harlan Roach
Elizabeth Roach

The State of Ohio}
Warren County}

On this seventeenth day of February in the year of our Lord On thousand Eight hundred and twenty six. (Recorded 18 July 1826 in Fayette County, Indiana)

Implications of the Land Transfer
When this transfer was made, Clayton Lambert was approximately 23 years old. Josiah and Lucy were setting him up with land in Fayette County. Clayton remained on the land and became a prominent member of the Township (including being featured in the History of Fayette County in 1885.

In that book, it is noted that Josiah Lambert purchased the Southeast corner of Section 3 in Fayette County on 19 March 1814. The book also lists Josiah as a pioneer in Waterloo Township (see below), and showing that Clayton Lambert settled the land in 1822 (shortly after his marriage to Rhoda Lee in Warren County, Ohio).

A copy of the land grant for the Southeast quarter of Section 3 in Fayette County filed by Josiah in the General Land Office in Cincinnati is below:

Since this land purchase in Indiana occurred before Indiana was a state, this also qualifies those on the Josiah Lambert line with status in the Territorial Guard Society of Indiana (if you're an Indiana Genealogical Society member).

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Building Roads in 1838

The Jefferson County Court Minutes from May 1838 (transcribed in 1939 and reprinted in the Tennessee Genealogical Society's Ansearchin' News from Summer 1999, page 44) describe two roads that were commissioned involving my 5th-great-grandfather Thomas Jones and 5th-great-grandfather Joseph Thornhill (father of Elizabeth Thornhill Jones). The text below describes these roads and mentions a number of Jefferson County residents in 1838:

Monday, 7 May 1838

The Jefferson County Court met at the courthouse in Dandridge on the first Monday of May (it being May 7), 1838. Present: William Hill, William Manson, and John Roper, Esq., being the quorum court elected.
...
Thomas I. Routh was appointed overseer of a first-class road from Thomas Jacobs' to John Routh's with the following assigned hands: Benjamin F. Franklin, hand on William N. Haskins farm, from Widow Gass' farm, Thomas Kimbrough, John Routh's farm, John Gass' upper farm, James I. Gass' farm, and that part of Joseph Thornhill's farm on the south side of Dumplin Creek.
...
The court received and confirmed a report by James Cox, Martin Bailey, David Bettis, Conaway Jones, and Thomas Jones, who had earlier been appointed a jury to view and lay off a second-class road by leaving the present road near the branch below the Gap, thence the best way, passing the stable of Robert Moore and thence intersecting Dumplin Road near the corner of Nicholas H. Davis' fence.
...

In 1821, the State of Tennessee created three classes of roads. A first-class road was to be a stage road, up to 30 feet wide. A second-class road was up to 12 feet wide, and a third-class road was wide enough for a horse and rider.

The entries above give a pretty clear picture of where Joseph Thornhill lived (on Dumplin Creek), and also shows Conaway (or Conway) Jones working as a hand for his father Thomas. Conaway would have been 26 years old at the time, while Thomas would have been about 60 years old.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Still Hoosiers at Heart

For our kids, Indiana has been "the place where Grammy, Grandma & Grandpa live." For me, I was raised in the state, went to undergrad & law school there, and continue to follow the Colts, Pacers and IU basketball from afar. Our Jones family has been living in Indiana since the mid to late 1870s. In the next month, my parents will be moving from Indiana to Northern Virginia. We are very excited to have them within a 40 minute drive instead of a nine hour drive or multi-hour flight including connections.

This is not the first move away from the state for them. Before I was born they lived for a brief time in Northern California. They later moved to Houston, Texas, before returning to Indiana. When I was younger, we made the move as a family to West Texas, and later to Germany in 1985. But now that they are joining us in the Metro DC area, my sense is that this is the last of our Jones line to live in Indiana for the foreseeable future.

Since the start of the blog, I have shared some of our family stories that have touched on the Hoosier State. Here is a list of the counties where various branches of the family have lived, or where their presence has been recorded on my side of the family:

- Boone County (Jones, Armstrong, Vail)
- Montgomery County (Jones, Armstrong, Vail, Hampton, Booher)
- Marion County (Jones, Reid, O'Brien)
- Morgan County (Jones)
- Johnson County (Jones)
- Tippecanoe County (Oyler)
- Dearborn County (Oyler)
- Daviess County (Oyler)
- Gibson County (Lamon, Smith)
- Parke County (Lambert)
- Fayette County (Lambert, Brown)
- Vigo County (Lee)
- Harrison County (Lamon, Smith, Muck, Fellme)
- Crawford County (Smith)

I will be using this list to help guide research for off-line records in these counties, primarily in Boone, Montgomery, Dearborn, Daviess, Gibson, Fayette, Vigo, Harrison and Crawford.

It appears that through my 4th-great-grandparents Ursula Fellme and John Muck, we qualify for membership in the Indiana Genealogical Society's Territorial Guard Society of Indiana (documenting ancestors who lived within the boundaries of Indiana on or before 11 December 1816). Ursula was born in Indiana on 1 May 1816 and John Muck was born in Indiana in 1812. I'll add this to my to-do list for later this year.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Clayton Lambert in the History of Fayette County

Last Monday I posted a map of Waterloo Township in Fayette County, Indiana, showing lands owned by my 4th-great-grandfather, Clayton Lambert. A helpful researcher at the Whitewater Valley Genealogical Association is in the process of sending me copies of the deed records for this land. In the meantime, below is a copy of page 289 from the History of Fayette County, Indiana (courtesy of Google Books), showing a biography of Clayton Lambert.

This is a great find, describing Clayton's birthplace (Warren County, Ohio), birth date and parents (and their native states in Virginia and New Jersey). In a subsequent post I will include copies from the census and photos of Clayton's headstone and the headstone of his first and second wives (Rhoda Lee and her older sister, Rachel Lee Pearce).

The bio has an error, he came to Fayette County at least as early as 1830, according to the US Census, and filed land grants for the property in Fayette County in 1835.

More on the Lambert and Lee families to follow in upcoming posts.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Using Flipboard Magazines

Since the introduction of Flipboard, it has become an indispensable app on my devices. I use it throughout the day to follow news and events, and I covered this on the blog last July (see Tech Tuesday - Flipboard, from 10 July 2012). In March, Flipboard released Version 2.0, enabling users to create their own magazines. This post describes some of the ways one can use Flipboard, including some for stories related to family history and genealogy.

When Flipboard introduced this feature, I began using it to curate a magazine called Connaissance ("knowledge" in French). The sub-heading for this magazine is "Internet Coordination". I tend to focus on articles, photos and stories related to my primary field. An example cover is below:

Over time I wanted to "flip" (meaning, save for later or curate to the magazine) articles and photos beyond the broad topic of Internet & tech-related issues. This week I launched a new "title", called Ezagutza, which means "knowledge" in Basque. This title is a nod to my Vasquez and Suastegui ancestors, but keeps the theme as a connection to my underlying view that the Internet is the world's greatest platform for knowledge.
As I begin to use this new title, I expect the focus to be primarily on articles, stories and photos with a connection to genealogy, history, travel and art. This will allow Connaissance to focus on Internet, tech, security, governance, ecological economics & big data, and of course, some travel connected to upcoming meetings.

The cool part is that these and other magazines can now be viewed on the web in addition to phones and tablets. Creating a magazine within the Flipboard app is easy - look for the [+] symbol to "flip" stories and curate your own.

Wordless Wednesday - Street Art in Five Points, Columbia, SC

Photo by Patrick Jones - Columbia, SC

Photo by Patrick Jones - Columbia, SC
Photo by Patrick Jones - Columbia, SC

Monday, August 12, 2013

Mappy Monday - Waterloo Township

The map below shows Waterloo Township in Fayette County, Indiana. The plots of land that have been highlighted on the map belonged to my 4th-great-grandfathers - Clayton Lambert (father of Henry Donham Lee Lambert) and Christian Brown (father of Sarah Brown). Thanks go to the Whitewater Valley Genealogical Association for sending a copy of the map.
Waterloo Township is located northeast of Connersville, Indiana.
I'll have more on Clayton Lambert and Christian Brown in future posts.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Funeral Notice 1976

The short news clipping below was published in the Lebanon Reporter newspaper (Boone County, Indiana) from December 1976, on the death of my great-grandmother, Alma Oyler Jones.
Thanks to the Boone County Library for sending me a copy of this clipping. I'm still hoping to find a longer obituary in an Indianapolis newspaper.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Two Gibson County Marriage Records

Another find from the Indiana Marriage Records, 1811-1959 collection on FamilySearch, this time for my 2nd-great-grandparents Uriah Lamon and Anna Luiza Smith in Gibson County, Indiana. Their license was obtained on 8 November 1884, and the marriage occurred on 9 November 1884 in Gibson County.
Source: FamilySearch, Indiana Marriage Records 1811-1959
After checking Wolfram Alpha's computation engine, 8 November 1884 was a Saturday, the wedding would have taken place on Sunday, 9 November 1884.

I looked a little further back in the Gibson County records, and found the marriage license for Anna Luiza Smith's parents - Jesse A. Smith and Rebecca Muck. The license was recorded on 3 June 1856, after the wedding on 27 May 1856.
Source: FamilySearch, Indiana Marriage Records 1811-1959

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Marriage License for Edgar and Alma Jones

Here's a new find via FamilySearch's collection of Indiana Marriage Records from 1811-1959, the marriage license of my great-grandparents Edgar Lawrence Jones and Alma Oyler from Boone County, Indiana in 1916.
Source: FamilySearch, Indiana Marriage Records 1811-1959
The license was witnessed by my 2nd-great-grandfather Thomas Robert Jones and signed on 31 August 1916. The wedding occurred on 3 September 1916.

I'm glad they both answered "no" to question 27 - "Is he/she an imbecile, feeble-minded, idiotic or insane or is he/she under guardianship as a person of unsound mind?"