Wednesday, December 14, 2016

A Baby Genealogist Grows Up – Part II


I spent the weekend celebrating Fredericksburg history by serving as a head hostess for the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc.’s 46th Annual Candlelight House Tour. Not the easiest of tasks as I was on my feet for 10 hours on Saturday, with five of those outside in 40 degree temps, followed by another six hours on Sunday. Over those two days we hosted 1400 people through the 1906 house that has a very interesting history – the original house was purchased in 1881 by a former slave, Hester Tuckson (widow of Abraham Tuckson). Pooling her husband’s Civil War pension of $31.00 a month and working as a washerwoman she was able to purchase the house for $600. After she moved to DC, Alpheus Wilson Embrey tore the house down and rebuilt it in 1906. During that process they discovered remains of a Union Soldier. That unidentified soldier was buried in Fredericksburg’s National Cemetery at Marye’s Heights.

With that responsibility behind me, I now focus on my own family history and continue to think about how best to organize/prepare my files for publication and for future generations.

I will continue to work on monographs for each family line, but also provide a segue into the next family for the larger volume that weaves together all my family lines.

My immediate task is to work on an overall index for the larger volume. Just this week hubby found a maiden name he has been searching for – Ennis. The name Cora Ennis popped into my head. Where did that come from? I looked in all the appropriate places and couldn’t find Cora listed anywhere. I will figure this mystery out at some point, and wonder if an up-to-date index would help in finding these elusive ancestors.

I do have a genealogy software program, but tend to write my family history first, and then when I have time I input the names, dates, etc. into my software. If Cora is indeed part of my family, she didn’t make it into the software program, poor girl.

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