Burning Questions ~ I haz 'em

Below is a transcript that I found last year quite by accident and this site and all of the hard work of the site owner had opened up a brick wall for me. I have since dug in to find out more about my Edwards family. It goes slow, that big re-do project everyone is very tired of reading about and so on (this is part of the re-do project btw!!).. Grin. I do have a copy of the original document but shamelessly did not transcribe because it was already done. I ordered "Alleghany County Heritage" from The Alleghany County Historical-Genealogical Society this weekend so hoping I find a lot of information. Edwards was a prolific surname in Ashe and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina, and still is today. I would like to add these counties to my travel list. A travel list that I don't get to do much of. I am committed to burn up my vacation to Pennsic this year but plan on 2012 to be a somewhere else vacation. I wanted it to be Scotland, I won't be able to afford it by then so I will be doing some Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia travel plans. See how quick I slide off topic?

Two more books I would like to find, they have Edwards Family mentions:

History of the Davis fam. des. of John Davis, d. East Hampton, LI. By Albert H. Davis. New York, 1888.

The family of Granville H. Cox, 1822-1888, of early Ashe County, North Carolina, and Atchison County, Missouri

This document had a lot of information and one of the informants, Jane Duncan, is my great-great-great-grandmother. Within is her father, his father, their families. It was easy to source. I could attach it to a lot of places in my database!
 
However, in putting the information in RM4 and doing my sourcing, the questions started to arise. The document is created in 1892 with a witnessed post script in 1954. The deed was registered in 1925. That is a long span of time. Why such a long time.

And.. The big question.

What required my ggg-grandmother and her two sisters to give this information and why is it all posted in a deed book? I think I will have to figure out why this proceeding happened. William Edwards died in 1869, so why was this done in 1892? I don't know much about deeds and land and all that but I find it odd that this document exists. I am grateful for it, it is a great genealogical find! But I want to know the why of it all, I always do! It is probably a very simple reason.

Here is the transcript with the website credit to the real transcriber:

Alleghany County, NC, Deed Book 33, pp.524-525
 
COPY
Edwards William Descendants
State of North Carolina, Alleghany County
 
Interlineations by Transcriber

This day Sarah CHOATE and Nancy FENDER and Jane E. DUNCAN comes before me and each in one form of law makes oath. Mrs. CHOATE that she was born January 13th, 1809, Mrs. FENDER 16th of April 1815, Mrs. DUNCAN, September 4th, 1817, in North Carolina.
  
That their fathers name was William EDWARDS and was born in Orange County, North Carolina, October 15th, 1776, and that his wife's maiden name was Nancy CARTER, and that the names of his brothers and sisters were Starling EDWARDS, David EDWARDS, Elizabeth EDWARDS, who married Henry BREWER, Polly EDWARDS who married Syl or Cil BREWER, Susan EDWARDS who married Charles TOLIVER, Sally EDWARDS who married Jacob CROUSE.

That their Grandfather's name on their father's side was William EDWARDS [actually their grandfather was David EDWARDS] and that he lived in Orange County, North Carolina [true], and that he died about 1779, according to their information, and that their said grandfather came from England and settled in Virginia, prior to his coming and settling in North Carolina, and that their said grandfather had two brothers, if no more, to wit: Thomas EDWARDS and Robert EDWARDS [not true], and he their said grandfather had a sister by the name of Frankie EDWARDS, but neither one knows who she married. That their grandfather's brother Robert EDWARDS, after coming to America and staying awhile, returned to England [not true], according to the information that they received from their father, and the reports and traditions of the family, when they were little girls, and that their said grandfather married Elizabeth or Betsy MORRIS [probably true], and that he either married her in Virginia or at least she came from Virginia.

That the brothers and sisters names of affiants were Thomas EDWARDS, Nathaniel EDWARDS, David EDWARDS, Johnathan EDWARDS, Joshua EDWARDS, and the three affiants. That after the death of their said grandfather his widow then married Richard WILLIAMS and Sarah CHOAT makes oath than when she was a child or little girl she often heard the lessee of the property of Robert EDWARDS, the brother of her grandfather, speak of and that he leased it, or in some way left it, and returned to England, and soon after he thus returned to England that he died: and that the said property of said Robert EDWARDS, was in the state of New York on in the vicinity therof.

That their uncle Starling EDWARDS children were Peggy who married RIGGINS, Rhoda who married Amos HOWELL, Betsy married Henry WOODIE, Sally married Wm. WOODIE, Rachel married a LAWRENCE, Lucy married a RHOUTS or FOUTS, and that his boys names were John EDWARDS, William EDWARDS and Clisby EDWARDS.

Their uncle David's childrens names were William EDWARDS, Henry or Hal EDWARDS, Morris EDWARDS, S.O. EDWARDS, and Phoebe who married A.B. COX, Sally who married Hutch BURTON, Mahala who married Henry RICHARDSON, Betsy who married Jesse CONLEY, Thursy who married Noah WARD.
 
They do not know who the children of Elizabeth, Polly or Susan were, but the children of their aunt Sallie CROUSE, Candace who married John WOODRUFF, David CROUSE, Jacob CROUSE, John CROUSE, Charles CROUSE, William CROUSE, Sally who married Martin GAMBILL, Betsy, James ANDERS, Margaret married Lorenza ANDERS, Frankie married Richard CHEEK.
 
[Signed] Sarah CHOAT, Nancy FENDER, Jane E. DUNCAN
Attest: W.C. FIELDS, J.F. WARDEN

Sworn to before me and subscribed before me at Sparta in Alleghany County, North Carolina, this March 24th, 1892. Given under my hand and official seal of office, at office in Sparta in said County and State, this March 24th, A.D. 1892. W.E. COX, Clerk.
 
Subscribed and sworn to before me, this May 15, 1925. A.F. REEVES, Clerk Superior Court.

Filed for registration May 15, 1925. Registered May 23, 1925. L.E. EDWARDS, Register of Deeds..

[The following is written in the margin of the deed book] Correction: David EDWARDS, Sr., was the son of John EDWARDS and was a soldier in Continental Army. He married Elizabeth MORRIS. David EDWARDS, Jr., was the son of David EDWARDS, Sr. He married Elizabeth ANDREWS and settled near Zion Church. This May 20, 1954. [Signed] Geo. W. EDWARDS. Witness: Ernest E. EDWARDS, Register of Deeds.

Pasted from <http://moonzstuff.com/edwards/william1776.html>

SNGF ~ Good Genealogy Luck

Tonight's Fun Assignment

1) When have you had a dose of good genealogy luck? What document or resource did you find just by happenstance or chance? By being in the right place at the right time? By finding a family history treasure in your family's attic or basement? By finding a helpful document or reference without even looking for it?

2) Tell us about it in Comments to this post, in Comments on Facebook, or in a blog post of your own.

My good luck was posted on this blog entry... an OMG! moment.

George W Duncan had been a hard man to track down and his wife was even worse since his son referred to her as "Miss Edwards" in his civil war applications. She turned out to be Jane Edwards. George was a man that I had spent 20 years off and on poking around trying to find him.

Tired of looking for him I thought I would see if there was any pension information out there for Jane and she lived and died in North Carolina. So I spent a night looking for all of the Duncan men on the North Carolina state archives website and finally thought to look for Jane Edwards. I was so excited when I found her civil war widows pension application so ordered a copy to be sent to me. That seemed all well and good, progress, another document to put to her life on my family tree. She had been difficult for years too and suddenly in a couple of weeks I had figured out who she was AND!! found that line of family history already documented by another family historian!

So mail day! In came the envelope and when I pulled out Jane's information, the WONDERFUL person at the North Carolina Archives thought to put a copy of the page from a book showing George W Duncan's death!! He died in Tennessee, I had been looking in North Carolina for years! It was not expected and it was an important find and solved the mystery of "just was that man the G. W. that went to Texas??" I was so glad that he wasn't!

GWD keeps becoming the Edwards Line

This has been the most interesting man to research... George W Duncan, he would be my three times great-grandfather (it is thought his father is John Duncan and his mother would be John's wife #1 out of maybe 4). Every time I sit down to focus on him, I end up with new Edwards information which happened to be his wife. A few weeks ago I did find a pension application for his wife, Jane Edwards Duncan and have sent off to North Carolina for it and lets hope it gives me more leads to him. The only thing I have known about him is that he died young as she shows up on two census' living with one of her sons.

This time, I googled "Jane Edwards Duncan". I got this... ready? Huh? This is what I said... "OMG!!!!" to my 18 year old daughter just looking at me like I lost my mind. Well it is a "OMG" moment! So here it is...

http://www.moonzstuff.com/index.html

Three new generations of the Edwards family to be filled in on my chart! Jane Edwards parents, grandparents and great grandparents. With sources and documentation. And... a very impressive site of research and resources which brought me to Alleghany County, North Carolina deed images search site. http://24.172.15.58/welcome.asp. I have spent a lot of time combing through this website and enjoying reading about the Cheeks who I am not even related to, haha.

From what I read, the Edwards family was a large family and active in the county... the counties confuse me because they change so much. I am not sure how my George W met Jane because I am not sure he was from the same county as she was. Oh to be a fly on the wall of history.

I am a huge fan of the tv show, Heroes. Me and co-workers have a frenzied water cooler chat about it on Tuesday mornings to which my boss just laughs and laughs as we really get into it with the "OMG, did you see that? And ohhhhh... he and so and so and such and such!" Well this year in the second episode, the evil Sylar was given another power. He can touch anything and know the history of it. When asked what power I would like of all the characters, I could always come up with four or more that I wanted. When I saw this episode, that was the power that I wanted to have.. the power of history, that would be the most amazing thing ever. I know, I digress. :)

So this last 24 hour period has given me this by a truly amazing find....

Jane Edwards daughter of William Edwards and Nancy Carter

William Edwards son of David Edwards Sr and Elizabeth Morris

David Edwards Sr son of John Edwards Sr and Mary "Unknown" (further research pointed to "Mary Stokes")

John Edwards Sr possibly son of John Edwards who came from Wales.

Organization has become my focus, I feel like I do a lot of things over and over so a solution was found, quite by accident. I put Windows Office 2007 on my pc and there is a program called OneNote that has moved me from scraps of paper and post-it notes stuck all over the place. I made a notebook for "Family History". The first page is all my subscriptions, terms, name and passwords and a list of links I find on my way. Second page is a to do list page so I can put things there as I am working in RootsMagic. I find this easier than using the program to do list. Then third I have a page of things I find or heard on a podcast, etc. and I know I will need that information when I start to work on another family branch. I paste that info there, links, what have you. Then I have started a page for each family name. You can create sub-pages on each of those so using the Edwards as an example. The Main page is called "Edwards", each sub page is for an individual. One page for Jane, one for William, one for David, etc. This way I can copy blurbs I find on the web, links, anything that pertains to that person so I can find those notes when I want them again. I paste Genforum posts there too so I don't have to go back and find it. I just past it on the persons page that I was inquiring about and OneNote keeps links live so you can access them right there, your browser window pops open to the site. I have gotten rid of a lot of post-it notes and I don't need to print so much now. Copy, paste, and you have the information at your fingertips!

Today I think I am going to make chili for the freezer.. tis that time of year.

Hot on the trail..

Today I continued on George W Duncan and Jane Edwards Duncan. I have made more progress on Jane this week than anyone and for a woman known only to me as "Miss Edwards" for a good fifteen to twenty years, she is stepping up for her close up lately. I thought to search the North Carolina archives for the 'men folk' today. I didn't find anything on George, I found absolutely nothing on Bannister Hensley or his daughter Martha Jane Hensley. I have her death date and can find nothing on her at all yet. So then I thought I would search Jane Duncan just for hoots and there she was! She has two files in the archives for widow's pensions so I have filled out the form to send off to the Archives to see if I can get copies.

Slowly I am forming a life for Jane. It seems she was a widow for a long time by census information, never remarried and anything on George is hard to find which I find odd since he was in the military. I am finding a few George W's but not mine I don't think. I almost wonder if he is named after a Grandfather or better yet an Uncle of the same name. One gentleman posted to a post of mine on Genforum that he found a George Duncan that married Patience Edwards in 1793 so it would be interesting to find out if George and Patience had a son by the name of John which would be my George W's father.

The Elusive "Miss Edwards"

I would have liked to have known William F Duncan (b. 1842 d. 1925). He would be my maternal great-great-grandfather. Everything I know about him comes from his pension files that I have. His handwriting is clear and concise. His spelling is good and it seems that I read into his sentences a sense of humor. It is not to say he wrote with humor but in the way he filled out the application, I feel he might have had a good sense of humor. He was a sickly man. He was pensioned from the service as he had a lot of physical problems and I believe this all happened after being kicked by a horse. However he still managed to have a lot of children.. haha. Eight to be exact.

He was born in North Carolina and died in Tennessee and I wonder if he was in touch with his family or estranged. His first wife died of tuberculosis leaving him with a small son, my great-grandfather David Washington Duncan. He left for Georgia with his second wife and family then onward to Tennessee. I am having a hard time working through his parents but I am saying that I am gaining some experience because I did finally find a census for his mother today proving her name is Jane. In his pension application, he was so formal that he listed his mother as "Miss Edwards".

Miss Edwards has turned out to be Jane Edwards. I stumbled upon her gravestone listing and that gave me her birth and death dates and so far I have found her on the 1870 and 1900 Census. On both she was living with her son Thomas (b. 1849) so George W Duncan, her husband, died before that yet. They had 7 children per her 1900 Census information.

Jane E. Duncan
born September 4, 1817
died April 20, 1912
A Tender Mother - A faithful friend