Skip to main content

Preserving Family Legacies, No. 1, Part 3

Letters from Aunt Helen, Part 3

The first section of the LETTERS file to hold genealogical correspondence was the "C" section. As I read through the letters found there, I began to wonder about my aunt's filing system. I had expected each letter found there to focus on surnames beginning with "C", or at least from correspondents whose surnames began with the letter "C." But it appears that was not the case.

The surnames found there were BLISS, ENGLISH or ENGLIS, and DARLING. The only "C" connection I found was a series of letters from Carlos Darling.

One researcher from New Lebanon Center, NY wrote on August 28, 1930 that John Darling's name appears in their charter. "The Columbia County history states that John Darling owned mill property on the stream in West Lebanon but doesn't mention store or Hotel. States that first place of meeting of No 9 was held at the home of Casporus Hewson and John Darling was S.W."  Morris G. Bowman reports that the minute books from 1788-1800 "were stolen some years ago in a post office burglary," but not knowing what "No. 9" refers to makes it difficult to reconstruct what my aunt was researching.

At that point I thought I could do a search for Casporus Hewson and try to establish what he and John Darling shared in common. At the end of the letter was the note "Unity No. 9 F&AM." A quick reference from Google shows that F. & A. M. stands for "Free and Accepted Masons." The Manual of Freemasonry states that the abbreviation "S.W." stands for Senior Warden (p. 190). 

On November 6, 1940, Carlos Parsons Darling of Lawrenceville, Tioga County, PA, stated in a letter to my aunt that he has been "interested in compiling records of the various branches of the Darling family for the past thirty or more years, and have accumulated some ten thousand pages of manuscripts on the subject. . . . If the work is ever published, it would have to be under different heads, as it wouldn't be possible to put it all into one book."

I found a reference to him in The Darling family in America: Early Settlers Prior to 1800 (1913, p. 5), where "he asks that all members of the family shall send him their family history and record. He also asks for newspaper clippings referring to births, deaths and family gatherings . . . ."

For further information, I plan on contacting The Darling Family Association (USA).

Comments

  1. I have had good luch with family associations and find most of the information to be correct. There were a couple false or maybe exagerated stories but that's par for the course. Good luck in your quest and queries!
    Welcome to the geneabloggers family!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Estate of Isaac Dove (1826): Transcription of Summons, Image 5

Summons: ....14 November 1825 "North Carolina, Estate Files, 1663-1979," index and images,  FamilySearch   (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VKJM-FYZ :  accessed 08 Aug 2013), Isaac Dove, 1826. Image 5/45 [As you can see here, the Summons referred to in the transcription of Image 3/45 was attached to the description and plat.] STATE OF NORTH-CAROLINA. To the Sheriff of Craven County, GREETING: YOU are hereby commanded to summon Hardy L. Jones, James T. Jones Esquire, Gideon Jones, Joseph Davis & Benjamin Borden ------------- to me at such place and at some time before the next Court, to be held for your County, on the second Monday of February next, as to [scratched out] you shall seem fit, then and there to make partition of that part of the lands (which were formerly held in common between Isaac Dove and Anthony Brown) which belongs to the heirs of Isaac Dove and are situated in Craven County on the east side of Spring Branch. ---------------- -------

Using Estate Files to Document Family Relationships on FamilySearch.org

FamilySearch The other day I had a Facebook exchange with a fellow genealogist regarding the valuable resource of FamilySearch.org. This researcher was looking for estate records for South Carolina, and since my husband's maternal line descends from Horry County, I continued to tell her about the records on FamilySearch.org, until I rediscovered why I had chosen to work on my husband's paternal line from North Carolina: not all states' records are represented equally on the site, by far!  Browsing records by location In case you've never searched using the "browse the records" method, here is the process: After signing in and clicking on the "Search" option, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the country file you would like to explore. For this purpose, I'll be clicking on "United States." On the left side of the screen you will find a listing of states to select from. I'll be clicking on "South Ca

Honoring our Ancestors: Free Black Patriots of the Revolutionary War

When I was first contacted last October to assist in some research for a member of the DAR who was looking for the burial ground of her ancestor, Isaac Carter, I had no idea it would lead to such a wonderful tribute--with full honors--to our free black ancestors of Craven County, North Carolina. Nor would I have guessed that I would be meeting together with Ms. Maria William Cole, National Vice Chairman Insignia, of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and a host of other dignitaries, from the highest officials of the SAR to state and local political and community service leaders, to pay tribute to these patriots. The turnout exceeded my expectation when this event proceeded on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon, with close to a hundred and fifty people or more, seated on folding chairs under three canopy tents. The microphone cable lay along the wet grass and soon died out, and we, the speakers, were asked to use our "mother's voices" to make o