What this blog is about

Discoveries made while researching family history throughout the nation - find out more at the Wise-Stewart Family website!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wales

I've tracked Husband's great-great-grandparents to Orange County, New York, but they originally came from Wales. They have fairly common Welsh names (William Lloyd and Margaret Morgan), but a little digging around Ancestry has given us a likely point of origin: Carmarthenshire.

William and Margaret had a son named Theophilis, though he usually used the name Thomas. When searching for a William Lloyd born around 1865 in Wales, I found many in the 1871 census - but only one with brothers named Theophilis and Thomas.

The nice thing about the UK censuses is that if they don't have a street name or number, the name of the house or farm is provided. The Lloyd family lived at a farm with the euphonious name of Glog. There is still a Glog Farm in Carmarthenshire, listed as a bed and breakfast. Wonder if we still have cousins there?

Thursday, February 3, 2011

I bought microfilm . . .

because it was cheaper than driving to the NARA office in College Park, MD to view the daily Secret Service reports held there.

Captain James M. Wright was the agent in charge for the Atlanta area in 1906, and he traveled throughout Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida to track down counterfeiters. One of the ones he caught, with the help of the Atlanta police, was my great-great-grandfather Virgil Baldwin.

Zan Talton, who was arrested at the same time as Virgil, was released because a search of his home turned up no evidence that he had manufactured or passed false coins. The mold for the false coin was found at Virgil's home.

The day after the search, $1,000 bail was set for Virgil, but since he could not pay, he was held in the Fulton County jail. Virgil appeared before the Grand Jury on October 5th, Wright testifying for the prosecution. The jury returned a true bill. My next project is to find out what that means.