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Ernestine Porter Manley was married to Warren who was my grandfathers brother. My grand fathers name was Joseph Sewell Manley.
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Surname Forum Activity
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MANLEY 1 M Eloise BODINE and Frank Ferguson

I photographed this gravestone in the Fairlawn Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Co., Oklahoma. Feel free to use this picture for your personal records.

This is one of the 230,433 cemetery photos at http://teafor2.com
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Join Ancestry.com’s Barefoot Genealogist, Crista Cowan, for Ancestry Day Las Vegas on Saturday, May 11^th at the LVH Convention Center. Come for a full-day of education and a chance to win fantastic door prizes throughout the day. The grand prize is a World Deluxe Membership and an AncestryDNA kit. Take advantage of the few remaining spaces. Register Today!

Whether you are new to Ancestry.com or a long time user, Ancestry Day will help take your research to the next level. The day’s classes include:

 

Registration is only $25. Ancestry Day will be held in Ballroom A at the LVH Convention Center at 3000 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV 89109

The Marriott Springhill Suites Las Vegas Convention Center is offering Ancestry Day guests the following special rate:

King Suite $124 per night
Book King Suite at SpringHill Suites Las Vegas Convention Center for $124 per night

Queen/Queen Suite $124 per night
Book Queen/Queen Suite at SpringHill Suites Las Vegas Convention Center for $124 per night

 

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This post has been contributed by the Brown Family on their Great, Great, Great Grand Adventure - 

Who knew that Lobster and Maple Syrup would be such a great combination? While camping in the mountains near Boston, we enjoyed a few day trips to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. We stopped at a local crab shack and enjoyed our first taste of fried clams, lobster rolls and fresh clam chowder. Let’s just say that our Western taste buds were in a bit of shock. It was a fun experience and yes, we are so glad we made the trek.

New Hampshire and Vermont are SWEEEET as Sugar, Maple Sugar that is! We loved learning at Collins Farm how the sugaring process happens and tasting the results of their hard work. We went into Putney, Vermont and had a little taste of Maple ice cream, Maple Popcorn, Maple candy. We had to bring home some rich Maple syrup for our future pancakes and recipes. It was a long drive from Vermont to upstate New York where we did a bit of research on Rob’s family history and our church’s history, then on to the amazing Niagra Falls. We froze while we stood and marveled at the power of that massive waterfall. The kids loved it!

From Buffallo, New York we traveled down the eastern shore of Lake Erie to Kirtland, a small town in Ohio. We did a little more church history and then headed into Dearborn, Michigan to experience the American Dream through the eyes of Henry Ford. What a great place! The Greenfield Village, The Henry Ford museum and the Rouge Factory tour is a must see for anyone who loves America and the entrepreneurial spirit it allows. It was hard to leave our last major stop of history but had to continue on to South Bend, Indiana where we made a visit to see Notre Dame University. So inspiring, and while we were there, we drove over to Shipshewana to learn about the Amish. We found them to be very hospitable, loved our home cooked meal, and were amazed at their beautiful farms. Our girls are convinced that we need to have a buggy and wear bonnets when we get home. Rob is already planning out the small farm he would like to own. Thanks for the memories and the opportunity to relate to a new culture.

As we say goodbye to the East, we know someday we will return. There are so many stones we left unturned, so much research to continue at home and on future trips, and so much to still record and ponder. We look forward to seeing mountains again soon, but will miss the beautiful East Coast!

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Finding the maiden names of our female ancestors can be tough.  But sometimes finding the women in our family is difficult even after they get married.  Sometimes they just seem to vanish.

Here’s one who did just that for a while: Mary Jane Hudson. Here, she’s living with her husband, Lewellan Gillespie, and their three sons in Amherst, Virginia, in 1860.

After that, they seem to disappear. Neither Mary Jane Gillespie nor Lewellan Gillespie appears in any subsequent census records. And no death records, either.

So what do you do now?

First, look for the children.  I could not find Lewis or Robert, but I did find Charles Gillespie. He’s living with his grandparents Micajah and Elvira Hudson, Mary Jane’s parents.

 

There could be many possible reasons for this:

1. The family has moved elsewhere and left their son with his grandparents to help out or for some other reason.
2. Lewellan and Mary Jane have both died, leaving Charles an orphan.
3. Lewellan has died, Mary Jane has remarried, and Charles has moved in with his grandparents.

Since I’ve already checked census and death records, marriage records make a logical next step. But there is no marriage record for a Mary Jane Gillespie in Amherst or surrounding counties on Ancestry.com. Now what?

You can widen the search to see if somebody out there knows something you don’t. Ancestry Member Trees and Message Boards can make a good next step. I find a tree that says Mary Jane died in September of 1870 and was married twice: first to Lewellan and then to Benjamin Franklin Campbell.

There are no sources listed, so reaching out to the member who published this would be a good idea.  Maybe he or she knows more than they have included here.

Campbell gives me another name to search, and I find a Benjamin and Mary Campbell in Amherst that might be them.

 

The Ancestry.com and Rootsweb message boards offer another hint:

The Benjamin F. Campbell (or Benjamin Franklin) mentioned in #3 of Lilly's post of April 24th is the son of James W. Campbell and Jane Massie. He moved back to Amherst County and was married 4 times. His first wife was Sarah A. Mays (married 12 Nov. 1857 in Amherst County; second wife, Mary Jane Hudson, m. 13 Sept 1865 in Amherst Co.; third wife, Sally Ann Hudson, m. 27 Oct. 1875; and fourth, Lelia Ann Henson m. 27 Feb. 1890. Benjamin died 16 Dec. 1907 and is buried in the Amherst Cemetery. All of the marriage records can be found and several list James W. Campbell and Jane Massie as his parents.

Again, there is no source to go back and examine, but the post does provide some clues on where to go look.  And some suggestions on what happened to Mary Jane.

There are still plenty of questions.  What happened to Lewellan? Was he killed in the Civil War? And what happened to Robert and Lewis?

We always hope to find our ancestors right where we expect them, leaving behind a trail of easy-to-follow clues.  But there are always a few who seem to try to remain in the shadows.  Look everywhere!  The answers are out there.

Happy Searching!

Ancestry Anne

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• In commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Civil
  War Trust, History,
  and the Center
  for Civil War Photography are calling for submissions to the 2013 Civil War Photo
  Contest. Amateur photographers age 13 and older can enter in five categories by uploading
  photos to the Civil War Trust’s Flickr page and tagging them for the correct category.
  The deadline is August 16.
  

You’ll
find the rules and entry instructions here.

• FamilySearch has added more than 1.7 million index records and images to its free FamilySearch.org record
  search (click on the Search link at the top of the site). The records come from Austria,
  Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Ukraine, and the United
  States. You can see
  the full list of updates and click through to search or (for as-yet unindexed record
  images) browse here.
  

• Ancestry.com will hold an Ancestry Day in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 11 (the Saturday
  of next week’s National Genealogical
  Society conference in Vegas). Registration for Ancestry Day costs $25; you can register
  and view the program here. 

• If you’ll be across the country in Washington, DC, during May, look into attending
  one of the genealogy records workshops at the National
  Archives. Topics include Civil War court martial records (May 15), nonpopulation
  censuses (May 18), and a genealogy clinic (May 18). You’ll
  find details here (scroll down to May).
  

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Genealogy site MyHeritage
announced that it has added the entire collection of US decennial censuses from 1790
to 1930—searchable indexes and record images.

MyHeritage has offered the 1940 US census since shortly after it was released to the
public last year.

The census records are accessible with a MyHeritage.com
annual data subscription (on spacial for $6.35 per month, billed annually) or
with prepurchased credits (5,600
credits cost $39.95 and are good for 180 days). That’s except for the 1940 census,
which is free to search and view, along with select other collections.

If you have a tree on MyHeritage, the census records also will be included in Record
Matching notifications. Also in MyHeritage.com’s records collection are vital,
military, immigration, newspaper and other records.

Census records are among the most popular resources for family historians, and often
the starting point for new researchers. This addition brings MyHeritage into closer
competition with Ancestry.com as a commercial provider
of records for genealogy research.

I’m still checking into where MyHeritage’s 1790-to-1930 census records were imaged
and indexed. (Update: That information isn’t being released due to a confidentiality
agreement, according to MyHeritage spokesperson Schelly Talalay Dardashti.) Its 1940
census was indexed separately from both the records on Ancestry.com and those on FamilySearch/findmypast/Archives.com,
giving you another search option for hard-to-find family in 1940.

Another plus for using MyHeritage.com: The website is available in 40
languages, making its records searchable by people all over the world who had
family in the United States. 

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FamilySearch.org made news last month in genealogy circles when it relaunched
a polished new FamilySearch.org website.

The new FamilySearch.org relocates some
favorite features (to
the consternation of several genealogy bloggers), updates its Family Tree online
trees program, and emphasizes the new photo and story uploading features, as well
as the attractive fan chart.

In our May 9 webinar, Making
the Most of FamilySearch.org, you’ll get a tour the new site and learn to make
the best use of its ancestor-searching potential.

Our presenter, Family Tree Magazine contributing editor Rick
Crume, will show you:

• how to navigate the redesigned FamilySearch.org

• the best search strategies for FamilySearch.org’s free genealogy records databases

• how to find and use the genealogy records databases that aren’t covered by the FamilySearch.org
  global search

• differences between the site’s new Family Tree program and its user-submitted Genealogies

• how to access FamilySearch records that aren’t online

• how to take advantage of FamilySearch.org’s genealogy help features

• … and more

You can submit your questions about FamilySearch.org to Rick before the webinar, and
there’ll be a Q&A session at the end. 

Webinar participants will receive our how-to guide for ordering FamilySearch microfilm,
a PDF handout of the presentation slides and access to view the webinar again as many
times as they like.

The Making
the Most of FamilySearch.org webinar is May 9 at 7 p.m. Eastern (6 p.m. Central,
5 p.m. Mountain and 4 p.m. Pacific). For a limited time, you can save
$10 on your registration with our early bird special!

Click here to learn more and register for Making
the Most of FamilySearch.org.

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Do you plan to seek your genealogical fortune at next week’s
National
Genealogical Society 2013 Family History Conference in Las Vegas?

The conference, May 8-11, offers opportunities to take classes; shop
for genealogy books, software, subscriptionwebsites and more; collaborate with
other researchers; and take local
history tours.

Valley of Fire State
Park

Nearly all of present-day Nevada was in Utah territory from after the Mexican-American
War until 1861. The discovery of gold
in California in 1848, and silver in Virginia City’s Comstock
Lode in 1859, sent miners rushing through the area, leading to the formation of
Nevada Territory in 1861. Nevada became a state three years later.

As the Comstock Lode dwindled during the 1880s, Nevada entered a depression that lasted
until new mineral deposits were found in 1900. The railroad and federally funded irrigation
projects helped, too.

Nevada legalized gambling in 1931. The
Las Vegas Sun has more local history here.

If you plan to play the genealogy odds during your trip to the NGS conference (or
from home), improve your chances with these Las Vegas research tips.

Local repositories you can visit in person and/or online include:

• Clark County Genealogical
  Society: One of several local
  NGS conference hosts, this society houses its research materials and provides
  volunteers at the Heritage
  Room of the Paseo Verde Library in nearby Henderson, Nev.

• Las Vegas
  FamilySearch Library at 509 South 9th Street: This large branch of the Salt
  lake City Family History Library has a vast collection of local research books
  and microfilm, in addition to helpful volunteers and 50 computers with access to subscription
  databases. It’ll be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday of the conference,
  and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. that Saturday.

• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  Department of Special Collections at 4505 S. Maryland Parkway: Find manuscripts,
  maps, photographs, oral histories and more related to local history, plus the Nevada
  Women’s Archives.

These tips and resources also will help you find Las Vegas and Nevada ancestors:

• Statewide birth and death certificates begin in 1911, and marriages and divorces don’t
  start until 1969. These, of course, document many couples from other states who wed
  in Vegas (and perhaps then changed their minds about too-hasty vows). Many counties
  have marriage and divorce records back as far as 1862; nearly all began birth and
  death registration in 1887.

• The free Nevada
  Online Census Database indexes about 310,000 US census entries from 1860 through
  1920.

• Find data from 1862 and 1863 Nevada Territory censuses, plus maps, state land patents
  and more online in the Nevada State Library
  and Archives’ (NSLA’s) digital archives. In addition to those partial territorial
  censuses, NSLA has an 1875 state census
  on microfilm (you also can search
  the 1875 Nevada state census on Ancestry.com).

• Got miners in your family tree? The Nevada
  Historical Society in Reno has mining company records including payrolls, customer
  lists and an “accident file” of miners killed in work-related mishaps before 1900.

• For purchases of Federal land, patents issued after 1908 are searchable online through
  the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) General
  Land Office record search. Records of earlier transactions are at the BLM’s
  Nevada office in Reno.

Research your genealogy across the USA with Family Tree Magazine‘s newly updated State
Research Guides e-book.

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Have you ever wondered what to do with all of your family history research?  What is the next step?  How can you put it all together so you can easily share it with your family members?

At the RootsTech genealogy conference in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago, I spent my time in the Ancestry.com booth talking with many of our customers face to face.  I helped people with genealogy research challenges, answered questions about Family Tree Maker, and, most importantly, shared information about MyCanvas.

I was amazed at how many of our long time Ancestry.com customers have never heard of MyCanvas.  Many of them said this was exactly what they were looking for and were so excited to hear that this program was available to them.  The response was overwhelming!

Due to that great experience, I realized there might be more of you unaware of MyCanvas and the tools available for you to publish and share your family history.  Allow me to share.

MyCanvas provides a way for you to create beautiful family history books and family tree posters to share with your family.  Using the information from your online tree on Ancestry.com, a simple book or poster is created that you can then customize any way you choose.

To access MyCanvas, click the Publish button on Ancestry.com.

Creating books and posters is free, so you can use it even if you don’t have a current Ancestry.com subscription.  Start a project by importing information, documents and pictures from your online Ancestry.com tree.  You can then add more generations, stories, or pictures.  There are also thousands of backgrounds and embellishments available to enhance your family story and make it truly your own.

Can’t finish your project right away?  Want to do just a little more research before printing?  No problem.  Any projects you start remain in your account until you choose to delete them.

I hope you will take a little time this weekend to try out MyCanvas.  And, if you have any questions along the way, just leave a comment for me here.

Need some help getting started on your family history book?  Check out this article or watch this video.