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January 15, 2012
- The digitized images of the Henry County estate records for years 1820-1916 are now online and can be viewed for free. Thanks a million to Jeff Gamble for this great scoop, and bless FamilySearch.org for providing the records free of charge. Most Estate Case Files contain a wealth of information and are often very interesting. Follow this LINK, click on Henry, and take a look.
- Thanks to new member Richard L. Cawthon, we discovered that William Cawthon and William Wilson Cawthon were different men, and so a new web page was created for William Wilson Cawthon.
- The website has been intolerably slow for weeks. Unfortunately, when Wetpaint reinvented itself as Wetpaint Entertainment, they apparently lost interest in their Wiki product and customers. I suppose we're fortunate they haven't pulled the plug on us completely. Moving the Pre-1830 Henry County Pioneers content to Google's Wiki platform has been considered but no action taken because it would take a lot of work. For now, please bear with us and keep your fingers crossed.
October 24, 2011
New additions to the website during the past several weeks were:
- Richard McGriff's and William McGriff's birth and death dates were added to their web pages.
- John A. Chumney's parents and birthplace were added to his web page.
- Jeff Gamble added factoids from Early County, Georgia deeds to the web pages for Thomas Fulgham, Wiley Hays, Bryant Sholar, Anthony McCulloh, and John McDougald. The original information for the factoids was provided in discussion threads by "Old Columbia" (David).
- Jeff Gamble added Early County, Georgia Deeds as a new source for Pre-1830 Henry County Pioneers and information.
- Discussion threads were started for: Save Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery and William Erwin Hunt.
June 7, 2011
During the past eight weeks:
- The web page for Mrs. E.W.I. Taylor was deleted. She was already included on the website under her maiden name E. W. I. Hodges, daughter of Joseph Hodges.
- New member “Old Columbia” (David) created a new Pre-1830 Henry County Pioneer web page for John McDougald. John McDougald’s pre-1830 Henry County residency was proven through a new source: Early County, Georgia deeds. This source could easily lead to the discovery of additional pre-1830 Henry County settlers.
- David was also very active providing new information on existing Pre-1830 pioneers through enlightening discussion threads and photos. So far, these include:
- The “Benjamin Lewis deed, Henry County, Alabama, 1839” thread attached to Benjamin Lewis’s web page. Furthermore, David created a new “Benjamin Lewis deed, Henry County, Alabama, 1839” photo album and added images of the deed to it.
- The “Bryan Sholar” thread appended to Bryant Sholar’s web page. Bryan Sholar was a witness to Benjamin Lewis’ deed to his land in Early County, Georgia.
- The Wiley Hays thread appended to Wiley Hays’ web page. Wiley Hays was a witness to Benjamin Lewis’ deed to his land in Early County, Georgia.
- The “Battle of Breakfast Branch - Time line on Josiah Dabney Cawthon” thread appended to Josiah D. Cawthon’s web page.
- The “Mr. Attaway from Columbia” thread appended to Ezekiel M. Attaway’s web page.
- The “Benjamin C. Lansdale - Henry County Surveyor” thread appended Benjamin C. Lansdell’s web page.
- The “Anthony McCulloh buys land in Early Co., Ga.” thread appended to Anthony McCulloh’s web page.
- An image of an 1844 Henry Co. Deed Witnessed By A. C. Gordon.
- A lively discussion ensued on “The Scattered Thoughts of a Simple Minded Man” by Daniel Henry Pelham, and member pcpurvis (Chris) shared images of the preface to the book with the group. It’s attached to the bottom of Humphry Pellum’s web page.
- There continues to be a lot of interest in the “Earliest Land Ownership Records” thread. Take a look and add your two cents.
- An anonomyous “Pelhams of Henry County Al” thread was added asking for information on John King who was living with the W. L. Pellum family in 1850.
- An anonymous Watson/Dorough thread was added to the slave Harry Waton’s web page asking if the two Henry Watson slaves could have been sold to their neighbor John Dorough.
- An anonymous “Jane Crawford Whitehurst” thread was added to John Whitehurst’s web page asking for information on Jane’s parents and/or maiden name.
- Member JBailey3062 started the “Children of Joel T. and Mary McClendon” thread. Member bbatdega subsequently identified the couple’s four children.
- Member ae2harris started the “general William Irwin” thread asking about William Irwin’s parents and relationship to Governor Jared Irwin of Georgia and received the answer from member MaryAnn Caldbeck.
April 20, 2011
During the past seven weeks:
- March 7th was the Pre-1830 Henry County Pioneers Wiki's second anniversary on line. Discoveries of Henry County's earliest pioneers and history continued to delight and inform throughout the website's second year.
- New web pages were created for Hasting E. Owens, Linsy Hays, Capen Freeman Smith, James Alexander Williams, and Reason Smith.
- Additional facts were added to the web pages for William Owens, George N. Trawick, Nancy Galloway Trawick, Phoebe Price, and John A. Chumney.
- William H. Goocher was added to the Excluded Individuals page.
- Discussion threads were started about John Green Holley, William C. Williams alleged father of James Alexander Williams, and Cuffie Powell (Wade Powell's father).
- The preface to "Scattered Thoughts of a Simple Minded Man" by Daniel Henry Pelham was attached to Humphrey Pellum's web page.
- A photo of Wade and Mary Powell was added to the photo collection of descendants of pre-1830 Henry County pioneers.
March 1, 2011
- A discussion thread was started on why there are no land deeds in Henry County prior to 1830.
- Factoids from the Memorial Record of Alabama were added to the web pages for William R. Kelley, Bryant Sholar, and Polly Kirkland.
- Jeff Gamble added land warrant factoids to the web pages for Benjamin Lewis, Hickman Davis, Leonard Ham, John Shoulars, and Joel Strickland.
- A new pioneer web page was created for Charles Cox and a related discussion thread started on the relationship between Charles Cox, Edward Cox, and Ichabod Cox.
- A discussion thread was started on the children of Joel T. and Mary McClendon.
February 26, 2011
- Added factoid to Ezekiel Alexander's web page.
- A discussion thread was started by MaryAnn Caldbeck on Ezekiel Alexander's web page.
- Additional factoid added to Whitman Owens' web page.
February 23, 2011
- Added a photo of Virginia Pynes Leslie, youngest daughter of pre-1830 Henry County Pioneer James Pynes, to the Descendants of Pre-1830 Pioneers photo album.
- Added Hickman Davis's obituary to his web page.
- Added Whitman Owens' obituary to his web page.
- Added Sarah McGriff, wife of Richard McGriff, to the Excluded Individuals List and started a discussion thread about Sarah at the bottom of Richard McGriff's web page.
February 21, 2011
- Added the July 11, 1873 "Early Recollections of Henry" article from the "Henry County Register" to the Henry County History web page. The article was previously intentionally omitted but is included now for completeness.
- Updated James Pynes' web page with birth date, death date, and tribute from Masonic lodge.
- Added Masonic lodge membership rolls and minutes to research dead ends list because earliest lodge was chartered in 1848.
- Jeff Gamble added bounty land warrant information to Benjamin Parmer's web page.
- No additional "Old Settler" articles were found in the "Henry County Register" through July 31, 1874 (the end of the microfilm). A few tidbits were found that will be added to the website.
February 14, 2011
- Added web page for Achey McMillan Pellum, wife of Humphrey Pellum.
- Three discussion threads were started at the bottom of Humphrey Pellum's web page.
- Jeff Gamble added bounty land warrant information to Whitman Owens', Laban Beauchamp's, Green Beauchamp's, and WilliamBeauchamp's web pages.
February 10, 2011
- Added new factoids to Green Beauchamp's, Littleton Beauchamp's, Laban Beauchamp's, and William Beauchamp's web pages.
- Deleted Caroline Kennon Beauchamp's web page, and added her to the Excluded Individual's list. Decremented the count of pioneers accordingly.
- Added a note that a microfilm of the "Henry County Register" was received and will be researched forthwith for additional "Old Settler" articles, obituaries of pre-1830 pioneers, etc..
January 28, 2011
- A wonderful photo of Pre-1830 Henry County pioneer Colonel James Bennett was added to the photo album courtesy of Michael Bennett. Incredibly, the website now includes photos of eight pre-1830 Henry County pioneers.
- In addition, two threads were started about Colonel James Bennett:
Looking for Picture of "Bennett Mansion" and Conflicting Information on when James Bennett Arrived in Henry County.
- JHutto created the Stephen Johnagin thread.
- Jeff Gamble and Jim Chumney finished adding Military bounty land locations to Blackshear's and Lewis's Company rosters in the Creek War of 1836. In addition, an image of John Gamble's land warrant was added to the newly-created Historical Documents photo album as an example of a typical land warrant. Plus, they added land warrant factoids to the web pages of several pre-1830 Henry County pioneers who were members of one or the other of the companies.
- Rodney Lassiter started a thread seeking information about a cemetery that includes a number of Farmer family members near the old town of Franklin.
- A new web page was created for Mathew Jackson, and images of Mathew Jackson's tombstone were added to the photo album by Kaye S. Also, Mathew's web page was renamed to reflect the correct spelling of his given name.
- J. Hutto started a thread regarding James Fears is Seminole Indian War Veteran.
- Gail Walsh started a thread regarding the Sion Smith and Moses Speight families of Henry County.
- Jim Chumney started treads regarding two Sidney A. Smiths in early Henry County and a Second Peter Messer in early Henry County.
January 12, 2011
A Success Story from Jim Chumney
Thanks to a tip from Jeff Gamble, I recently broke through a 10-year-old brick wall. What worked for me could work for you, too.
The breakthrough came from an unlikely source, the Bureau of Land Management’s General Land Office (BLM GLO) records. The BLM GLO recently started putting land warrants on their free searchable website. Land warrants were awarded to soldiers who fought in some of the country’s earliest wars, such as the War of 1812, the Creek Indian War, etc. I was unaware of the BLM GLO’s actions and would probably not have paid much attention anyway, if it were not for Jeff. He advised me that the application file, which was created when a soldier applied for a land warrant, should contain his enlistment date, town, county, and state. Furthermore, Jeff explained, the information on the land warrant should allow me to get a copy of my ancestor’s compiled military service record which would include, among other things, the county and state where he was born.
I hurriedly searched the BLM GLO’s records and discovered my forefather served in Captain Peter’s Company, Seventh Regiment, United States Artillery in the Seminole War. Bingo!
Armed with the information from my forefather’s land warrant, I ordered a copy of his Bounty Land Warrant application file and a copy of his Compiled Service Record from the National Archives using its efficient on-line ordering process. It cost me $25 for each file ($50 total). I elected to receive the documents electronically on a CD (pdf format) which worked great for me.
When the information on my forefather finally arrived, I discovered a number of interesting details about him and his military service, AND I discovered the key evidence that I needed in his Compiled Service Record: the state and county where he was born. Knowing his birth county allowed me to quickly break through the brick wall that had thwarted me for so long, and I rapidly determined my forefather’s parents which pushed back my family tree another generation.
Disclaimer* If a soldier served in a regular army unit the record will show his place of birth. If he served in a volunteer unit the place of birth will not be available in the Compiled Service Record, except in rare cases.
It could work for you, too. Give it a try, and let us know what you discover by adding it to your ancestors' web pages or starting a thread.
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