December 5, 2012

At this month's Second Saturday workshop we will feature presenters from the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Second Saturday, November

In November the Second Saturday Workshop was held on the first Saturday because the second Saturday of November would coincide with the Candlight walk and the Kentucky Book Fair both held in Frankfort.

Brian Gerrard a Disciples of Christ Minister in Louisville was our Second Saturday workshop presenter in November. He recently was the winner in Sweden's version of "Who Do You Think You Are?"

Brian who's mother is one hundred percent Swede took quite some time off to take part in this presentation in Sweden. Brian was a very good speaker (minister don't forget) and had some wonderful visuals.

A very good presentation. Thanks Brian.

My cousin, Michelle Johnson, and I are hot on the trail of our Cherokee Indian great grandmother's trail.

Thanks to all of our veterans on this Veteran's Day.

My father, Charles T. Wright, fought in the second World War and was wounded twice in the Pacific Theater. My mother's brother, Russell G(uy) Monroe was killed in February, 1945 in the final thrust into Germany. He had survived the first wave landing and Omaha Beach, the St. Lo breakout, was wounded at Brest, had a narrow brush at Bastogne and was killed by a sniper weeks before his twenty-first birthday and just weeks from the end of the war in Europe.

Second Saturday

Second Saturday (October 13, 2012).

Good presentation by Lise Embley. Attendance fair. Kentucky State's Homecoming Parade, for which our prospective attendees were warned, might have kept some away. The parade passes right in front of the History Center and blocks several streets. Still all in all pretty successful.

Wright Family Reunion

We had the Wright family reunion Saturday. It was held at my cousin's home just outside of Alton Station on Puckett Road. We had a healthy turnout with all my first cousins attending with the exception of the three who have passed away.

A few of my cousins have grandchildren. I scarcely know all of the names of my cousin's children.

I requested several of my cousins to provide me with birth information of all of their family. I need to update my genealogy records. The family appeared to be very interested in learning more of our family history. The pressure is on me to make presentable much of the data that I have compiled over the years.

On the same day, in the morning, the Bald Knob School reunion was held at the Lakeview Park Pavilion Frankfort. A decent turnout with hopes of building on this first reunion.

Second Saturday Review

Our Second Saturday presentation went well from my viewpoint. I haven't see the evaluations yet but I do think  it was rewarding for all present.

The backdrop of pictures from the Frankfort Cemetery welcomed the guests as they went to their tables. It was a power point presentation of photographs taken by Dr. Gene Burch from Frankfort. When the presentation began the slides stopped and  on the screen was a photo of the Frankfort Cemetery Gate.

Jim's presentation touched upon the history of cemeteries in this country and how the Frankfort Cemetery came to be. In doing so he covered some of the other cemetery sites in Frankfort. He also spent some time discussing many of the luminaries who have been interred in the Frankfort Cemetery.

Tina Towles Wingate also took advantage of the audio/visual effects provided by the Kentucky Historical Society. She used the wide screen to show the Find-a-Grave internet site.  Her presentation was an introduction to the use of this source of grave sites and genealogical identification.

All in all a pretty decent program.

Second Saturday (09-08-2012)

Looks like we are starting to get things together. I got a call from one of our speakers, Tina Wingate. We are going to gather Friday and make sure all the audio/visuals work. She will have a slide show and present each participant with printouts. That is not often the case. Tina will discuss Find-a-Grave.

Jim Richardson will present in the morning and he too appears to be ready for his presentation on the Frankfort Cemetery.

Stone Rubbing

I recently saw a book about stone rubbing. It was a fairly thin volume and pretty much dealt with New England stones. The author had lived in central and southern Ohio for a while so she touched upon stones in that area. It did contain a sizable section on technique and materials.

If run across it again I will note the title and mention it in this blog. However, there appear to be a number of books regarding this practice.

William Harrison Monroe

My great great-grandfather, William Harrison Monroe, was born in 1814 and died in 1885.  Several family historians have hit the proverbial brick wall with this man. We cannot determine any of his descendants on the Monroe side.

He is buried at the Darnell Family Cemetery on the Anderson-Mercer-Washington County line. He was married to Barsheba Bowman.

Family Tree

I just loaded my old 2006 Family Tree Maker software. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 from Windows XP.  I had to download a patch from Family Tree Maker in order to make the 2006 functional on Windows 7. Seems to work ok.

I'm aware that there is a Family Tree Maker 2012 out there but my version works very well so I'll stay put for a while.

Lately

Not a lot done lately. I have spent a lot of time with computer/software upgrades. I need to reload Family Tree Maker.

Second Saturday, September 8 Revisted

Looks like we have landed an excellent selection of Photos for the A.M. section of the Second Saturday. This should assist Jim Richardson as he discusses his experiences as Superintendent of the Frankfort Cemetery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfort_Cemetery

KGS Second Saturday, September 8, 2012

The Kentucky Genealogy Society had decided to change our September 8, 2012 Second Saturday Workshop program. The morning session which was to be presented at the Frankfort Cemetery will be moved to the Brown-Forman Room at the Thomas Clark Museum for Kentucky History.

We determined that the logistics of getting seminar participants to the cemetery would ultimately prove to be cumbersome as well as strain the time limitations of the morning presentation. The morning presentation will still feature former cemetery superintendent Jim Richardson as the speaker. His presentation will be focused on his experiences as superintendent along with comments on cemetery photographs taken by noted Frankfort photographer Dr. Gene Burch. Dr. Burch has selected seventy-five or so of his cemetery photographs for presentation. They will be shown on the large screen in the Brown-Forman room before and during the presentation.

We are pleased that Jim Richardson is available to share many of his experiences and thank Dr. Burch for his  time and efforts in selecting those photographs to be presented on Saturday, September 8, 2012.

The AAGGKy is a growing and flourishing group specializing in African-American genealogy and family history. However, it is not exclusively as such so it you are not African-American feel free to join and participate in this organization. It can prove to be a learning experience for all, not to mention some good company.


This is a message sent by Mary Clay, Secretary of AAGGKy and an active member of the Kentucky Genealogy Society.

The August Meeting of the African-American Genealogy Group of Kentucky will be held on August 18, 2012 at the Mercer County Public Library, 109 W. Lexington St., Harrodsburg, KY. (<--click here for location) This meeting will feature Sarah Milligan, the administrator for the Kentucky Oral History Commission. Sarah has been the administrator for the Kentucky Oral History Commission since June 2007.  As administrator for KOHC, she assists with a statewide oral history preservation effort, as well as, encourages new and exciting oral history documentation in Kentucky.

“Our stories are often hidden in un-indexed volumes, stored forgotten on dusty shelves and omitted from the traditional history books of our country. With every passing minute we are losing our histories to death, memory loss, and record destruction.  Our group, the African-American Genealogy Group, is attempting to minimize this loss…to save our history and pass it on.”

 

Mary E. Clay

Secretary

Dick Eastman

Check out Dick Eastman's blog at:

http://blog.eogn.com/

Dick says some very nice things about our seminar on August 4. He also compliments Frankfort and the hospitality he enjoyed during his visit.

Milton Thomas Wright, my Third Great Grandfather. 

Milton Thomas Wright

James E Wright

Charles Wright

George Wright

Charles Thomas Wright

Russell Wright

William Russell Wright

Daisy Corbin Wright born July 14.1898 in Owen County, Kentucky, died November 1990 in Frankfort, Kentucky. Daughter of Lee Corbin and Cordie Towles Corbin. Mother of Charles Thomas Wright my father.

Seminar update July 30, 2012

Dick Eastman is in contact with the Kentucky Genealogy Society and is heading our way. He will actually be in Frankfort on Tuesday or Wednesday. We are making sure we have all the A/V connections in place to accommodate his presentation. We are still working on the final touches but so far everything is going pretty smoothly.

Darnell Family Cemetery

The Darnell Family Cemetery is located in Anderson County,Kentucky on the Hoophole Road. The first time I visited the cemetery was in 2006. I was surprised to see this cemetery as well kept as it was. It was located down a sparsely populated, narrow road.

The cemetery appears to be about two acres. My Monroe line is well represented in the cemetery. Many Bowmans and Barnetts, married into the Monroe line, are buried there.

There is a gathering every Memorial day. I have not yet visited the cemetery and participated in the pot luck. The last time I stopped by the cemetery a man and his elderly mother were tending to the grounds. He was mowing and she was weed-eating. I gave him some money for gas and thanked him for his contribution. He said he had been mowing for over twenty years.

2012 Seminar

We are getting ready for the 2012 Kentucky Genealogical Society Seminar. The speaker will be Dick Eastman of  Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com/).

The seminar planning committee last met this past Thursday night to smooth out the few rough edges in our preparation for this event. We have over 100 registrations and expect to see several more late signers and walk-ins.

The event will begin on Saturday morning with vendor browsing open to registrants at 8:15.

The 2013 Seminar will feature Mark Lowe as the speaker. I saw Mark this summer at a Kentucky Department of Library and Archives gathering. He could only speak for an hour or so.  We will have him for the entire day in 2013.

DNA:

Wright-Haplogroup I1

Family Names

Some of my family names:

Matrilineal-Monroe, Stratton, Young, Barnett. Monroe, Reed, Himes, Cruie, Doyle or Dyal.

Monroe, Barnett, Stratton, Young settled in Kentucky in the Anderson, Mercer, and Washington County area.  Reed, Himes, Cruie, Doyle or Dyal are from the Lewis Mason County area.

Patrilineal-Wright, Corbin, Towles, Kemper,Claxon, Hardesty. Kemper, Claxon,Corbin and probably Hardesty were pre-statehood. Wright mid 1790's Towles around 1800.

In the beginning........

A blog dedicated to my genealogical research. This dedication will be centered around my family lineage but will also include forays into general genealogy, family history, and history in general.