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.

Can you get microfilm-sick?

Does anyone else get motion sickness when you use microfilm? I do. Fortunately, I didn't have to look too long at the Atlanta Constitution microfilm today to find my great-great-grandmother's funeral notice.

Mary Brannon Yancey died 6 July 1960 and the funeral notice was in the paper of 7 July. The reason no library could locate it for me was that obituaries are published on one page of the paper, and funeral notices are published several pages later.

Mary had one child still living (Cliff); Eddie died in 1956 and Pearlie in 1948. Nineteen grandchildren (including my grandmother), and "several" grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The service was at Mayes Ward Funeral Home, which I remember seeing on trips to Marietta.

I'm enjoying all these connections I find as I dig into the past.

DAR

Spent last night on the DAR website, tracking Revolutionary ancestors. Their online database provides information not only on the Revolutionary soldier, but on civil servants and those who swore an oath of allegiance to the Americans.

Also, you can search descendants of the soldiers, which is helpful - though no one in my direct line has applied for DAR membership, descendants of other lines have. So I can follow collateral lines back to a common ancestor!

Baby steps

In my goal of completing a family history in 2011, I am blogging about the steps I take so that I can be accountable to someone, even if it is only myself.

Today, in my quest, I dumped all of the information from my website into four separate files, one for each of Husband's and my parents. I need to synchronize this information with my files in Family Tree Maker. Once all of the information is matched and corrected, I need to document as much as I can, so those following me can track my sources.

Then I will decide upon a narrative arc - should I divide it by families, or create a parallel chronological record, or try something else? There are many books about writing family history, and I've read so many of them that I have confused myself and feel paralyzed.

Hopefully, writing down the steps of how I proceed will help me continue to the end instead of leaving this muddle in the middle.

Presentation problems

A few years ago, I purchased several scrapbooks with a family tree theme, thinking that would would be a fun way to share the family history with my siblings and husband's siblings. They are still sitting in the top of a closet, waiting to be used.

I've been afraid to start doing anything with them, afraid that I will mess them up. I'm not sure how to start - chronologically, family groups, or what. I need to break through the fear of failure and start creating.

Data entry

I've spent a lot of time collecting papers - printouts from Ancestry.com, photocopies from reference books - and not nearly enough time collating that data and putting it into Family Tree Maker.

So, when the library closed early on Monday, I went home and spent the afternoon entering data from my collection of notebooks, adding in collateral relatives that will assist my search in the future. Starting from my child and working my way back, we have 15 generations and over 30 pages of relatives.

I'd update to FTM 2011, but I don't think my poor overstuffed laptop can take it. My really old version is working fine.

James M Yancey (1862-1924)

There are at least two James M Yanceys floating around north Georgia during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The James M Yancey who was my great-great-grandfather was fostered by Washington and Mary Collins (and is listed as James Collins on the 1870 census). He resided in both Milton and Forsyth Counties over his lifetime, and is buried in the Shady Grove Baptist Church cemetery in Cumming (link to FindAGrave here).

He married Mary E Brannon in the mid-1880s, and they had three children who lived to adulthood: Eddie, born in 1888; Clifford, born in 1890; and Pearlie, born in 1892.

The Inferior Court Records for Milton County show that James M Yancey served as Constable for the 842nd militia district in 1895 and 1896 (link to Rootsweb here, records A299 and A317).

James M Yancey's death certificate can be found in Georgia's Virtual Vault (link here). His birthdates differ on his certificate (6 May 1861) and on his tombstone (1862).