Family History Writing Challenge Day 11

Kenton County Public Library

In May of 2016 I traveled to the Kenton County Public Library in Covington in search of additional information about Thompson Hightower. Or any of the Hightowers, for that matter. I was cautiously optimistic as I had learned that the library had a "file" on the Hightower name.

I discussed my dilemma on finding Thompson's parents with the librarian, and she reiterated what I already knew - there would be no birth or death record for Thompson. She pulled the Hightower file for me. I noticed that it was painfully thin as she handed it to me.

Hightower file

Inside was a two page letter dated 1989 from a woman in Sacramento, California who was researching Austin Hightower, and his father George Hightower. She had written to the Kenton County Library inquiring as to whether the library had “a Family Surname File that contains the surname Hightower”. How ironic that I should be in the library 27 years later asking for the same information, only to find said Surname File containing her letter. Unfortunately that is all that the file contained, except for the library’s letter in response listing Hightower marriages in Campbell County. Those marriage records are now readily available online.

A review of early Kenton County history books yielded no new information about my Hightower family. Basically what the librarian said to me is, it is obvious that Thompson Hightower lived in this area along with George and other Hightower families as they appear in tax and census records as well as some will indexes. She felt that undoubtedly they were all related. But how? Therein lies the rub.

Family History Writing Challenge Day 10

In 2015 I traveled to Salt Lake City with a small group of genealogists for a week of research at the Holy Grail of genealogy, the Family History Library. The world’s largest genealogical library is the undertaking of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Open to the general public at no charge, the library holds genealogical records from over 110 countries and territories, and its collection includes over 2 million rolls of microfilmed records onsite. Additionally there are hundreds of thousands of microfiche, books, periodicals and electronic resources at the library. Volunteers at the library are available to help with your search.

My main focus for the visit was Thompson Hightower, with the goal being to find a link between him and George Hightower, Jr. At the time of my visit microfilms at the library were available for circulation, meaning I could have a copy shipped to a local LDS Family History Center. I decided to focus on items that were not available for circulation but instead could only be viewed at the library in Salt Lake City. (The microfilm policy changed in September of 2017, and they are no longer shipping microfilms as their goal is to have all their films digitized and available online by the end of 2020. To date, 1.5 of the 2.4 million rolls of microfilm have been digitized.)

The library had a good selection of books from Campbell and Kenton counties in Kentucky, so I spend a lot of time pulling them from the shelves and searching for any reference to Hightowers. The only thing that I found after all of my hunting was a listing for Thompson in the Linden Grove Cemetery book of interments. That was helpful because it gave me a month and year that Thompson died. Before this all I knew is that he appeared the 1866 Covington City Directory, but I found no evidence of him in directories or census records after that. The interment book further indicated that his daughter Marjorie had died in 1865, and that he was buried in the same plot as her.

Linden Grove Cemetery interments

It was time to sit down with one of the volunteers at the library to seek help. Before it was all said and done, several volunteers weighed in on my brick wall, and the only thing any of them came up with on Thompson Hightower was the Find A Grave memorial. I had come full circle.

Family History Writing Challenge Day 9

Another avenue that might provide a link between Thompson Hightower and George Hightower, Jr. is the existence of probate records or a will. Probate records are court records created after an individual’s death regarding the division of the estate to the heirs or creditors, and also the care of dependents. This process normally takes place when there is not a will, but sometimes even with a will the estate can go into probate. To begin the probate process, a petition must be filed with the court. Typically this is done by one of the heirs of the deceased. It often includes names, relationships, and residences of the heirs.

Quincy Public Library

Many resources for researching probates records are available online. But of course George Hightower does not appear in any of them. I visited Quincy, Illinois, which is the county seat of Adams County last year on the way back from visiting my in-laws in Iowa. I met with a local history librarian at the Quincy Public Library to discuss my Hightower family from the area. Ursa, where the Hightowers lived, is just 10 miles north of Quincy. The librarian was helpful, letting me know which websites to look at in the library, and showing me the local books which might be of assistance.

Unfortunately, I found no new information on any of the Hightower families. Before I totally give up finding any leads in Adams County I will need to contact the Adams County Clerk of the Circuit Courts office in Quincy. They have court records dating back to 1825, and probate records back to 1826. In this day and age of the computer, it is easy for genealogists to forget that not everything is online, nor has every document been indexed and placed neatly into a book for us to find at a library.

Preparing for Continued John Murdock Research

1857 St. Louis map indicates Murdock & Dickson land

Over the past several years I have accumulated many articles about John Murdock. Many of them are hard copies placed in several file folders. But a good number are items that I have found on the Internet, clipped into Word or Photoshop files on my computer. I spent today organizing the files in preparation for a trip to the headquarters of the St. Louis County Library system tomorrow. My goal for tomorrow is to determine what brought John Murdock as a young man of 24 to the city of St. Louis in 1838. What was going on here that enticed him to leave his parents in New Jersey and travel alone to a new city? What was St. Louis like at that time? I also want to know what took place in the 1860s that forced Murdock and his partner Charles Dickson into placing an ad in the April 29, 1869 Missouri Democrat to auction Murdock Farm to pay off debt.

One thing that tends to happen with me when I go to research facilities is that I go off in tangents. For a project this size, I think it will help me to have specific questions that I want answered. That way the librarians can direct me to the best resources as well. We'll see how well I stick to the plan tomorrow!

Days 2 & 3

Nearly 1,700 words flowed from my fingertips to my keyboard in the writing challenge yesterday. It was fun to relive my trip to Ireland to discover the town my Crusham ancestors came from and, more importantly, the spelling of the name in Ireland (Crisham, so not too far off). Today I barely managed to eek out 400 words. Part of the issue is that I spent 4 hours at the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center this afternoon researching property. I didn't attempt to do any writing until after I ate and watched the opening episode of Who Do You Think You Are Season 3. I love that show, and it is so inspiring to see the journeys that the celebrities take to find their ancestors. At any rate, I think by the time I sat down to write my brain was pretty drained. Tomorrow my strategy is to write first thing in the morning while I am fresh. I think it will make a huge difference.

I did have some success at the library today. My purpose in going was two-fold. First, I wanted to find out all the resources they have on Webster Groves because I have put together a facebook page for researching your house history in Webster Groves. I want to list the different resources held at the many repositories in St. Louis. Second, I am still trying to track down the wily owners of the house our business is in on Big Bend, and now that we have purchased a third house to find out something about those owners as well. I looked in their card catalog (yes, they still have the old fashioned index cards in addition to computers) under the map section. When I came across one for Webster Groves from 1897 I had the staff pull the map out for me. I have always wondered about the original border of Webster Groves since the houses I am researching are located right next door in Shrewsbury. Lo and behold, the 1897 map shows our houses to be in Webster Groves at that time. That is good news because Webster Groves has tax records I can look at; Shrewsbury has none, and it didn't even become a village until 1913. Now I am curious about when Webster Groves gave that land over to Shrewsbury. But that is a question for another day. My next stop will be to the Webster Groves Library to look at the tax records.

Book 'em, Danno

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at the St. Louis County Library headquarters. I want to add a little more color to a few of the areas in dad's book. I selected several nonfiction books about WWII to peruse. I struck gold with the first one, a short autobiography by one of the Hump pilots. The China-India-Burma campaign was involved with ensuring that troops and supplies got to China, which had basically been cut off by the Japanese. Utilizing air bases constructed in India, the pilots had to maneuver short runways quickly to gain enough altitude to clear the Himalayas in planes loaded with cargo. Hence the description of "flying the Hump". It was very dangerous, especially during the monsoons, and casualties were high.

My dad was not a pilot, but was the field supervisor at Chabua, the largest and most active air base in India. In reading the pilot's book, he really helped me picture the area and conditions these men and women lived in. He also took a couple of side excursions to villages my dad had taken photographs of, so that was interesting to read as well. It was disappointing to discover, though, that this pilot made no references to anyone else at the base during his long stay there except for the other pilots. I have to imagine that they all rubbed shoulders somewhere along the way on the base. It was in the middle of tea plantations, not a large metropolitan area. Nevertheless, the book was a nice find.

The other books on the CBI Campaign and the history of the Army Air Force were not as useful (or as interesting, for that matter). None of the books mentioned the particular unit my dad was in. I'm having little luck learning about the 1333rd unit.

I feel the need to comment briefly on a couple of the other patrons at the library. I sat in the reference section, because silence is golden in that area. While that does include cell phones, apparently bodily noises aren't covered by the sign. There was an elderly man with a runny nose a couple tables away. Sniff, sniff....crinkle, crinkle (his newspapers), sniff, sniff, etc. Seriously pal, go into the bathroom and blow your nose! But his annoyance factor was usurped by the oriental guy who plopped down at the table next to me. All of a sudden the silence was broken by the sound of a fart hitting the wooden chair. I about broke my neck swinging my head around. But no one else was looking, guilty or otherwise. I went back to my reading and shortly there was a repeat performance, and I knew it had come from the table next to me. I have to give the guy props for his demeanor. He kept his head down and went on reading. Seriously, pal, go to the bathroom if you need to do that. And take old man sniffles with you!

The Bloom is Off the Rose

So I called my print mis-manager today since he never gave me the courtesy of a return call after I left a message for him regarding the streaked books. In a nutshell, he is through with me. He said they could either refund my money or reprint the 44 books. But the printer used on my books is broken down (No fake? Is it because it is leaving streaks across the pages of everything they print on it???) He doesn't know when it will be fixed, when they could get the new books done for me, blah, blah, blah. But he doesn't have a problem refunding my money. Really? "Why would you have a problem refunding money to me when nearly half of my books can't be sold?", I asked incredulously. I told him to give my money back. Which he actually did by this afternoon, crediting me for 50 books. Big of him, since I made 5 extra trips due to their screw-ups, stressed over having the books in time for my signing, was embarrassed when a customer pointed out the streaking, and am now put in the position of trying to find a new printer so I can have a sufficient quantity of books before my next event.

On to better news...This morning I dropped off my business cards with the Director of the Webster Groves Library, as he had requested them for a meeting. That has already paid off with an order coming from the Kirkwood Public Library. Woo, hoo!