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Showing posts from August, 2014

Amanuensis Monday: Watts Family Bible Record

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The Family Bible Record of George Richard Watts and Emily Jane Chaffin Family Bible Record of George Richard Watts and Emily Jane Chaffin  The Holy Bible, Containing The Old and New Testaments, Translated out of the Original Tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. New York: American Bible Society, instituted in the year MDCCCXVI. 1851. "This Book now belongs to Kenneth Lee Watts" written in ballpoint pen. George R. Watts was born March 7, 1839 Emily J Watts was born February 17, 1845 John W. Watts was born July 27, 1860 George W. Watts was born April 9th, 1862 James T. Watts as born February 24, 1866 Mary E. Watts was born November 8th, 1868 Samuel L. Watts was born June the 9, 1870 Emma Frances Watts was born July 11, 1872 Lulan May Watts was born August 21, 1875 Richard Walter Watts was born April 1, 1878 Joseph C. Watts was born June 12, 1880 Harry D. Watts was born June 15, 1882 John Wat

Black Sheep Sunday: Unlawful Gaming

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Woodlawn Plantation of Col. Henry Embry Coleman, Halifax Co, VA Well, I am on a roll with blog writing and figured I might as well tell you more about my ancestor Henry Cheatham. An elderly Watts cousin of mine who resided in Halifax County, Virginia all his life warned me years ago that if you go back far enough in the family tree, you might find a horse thief or worse. What records I have located on Henry seem to indicate that he often incurred trouble of one form or another. The only reference to him I found in Halifax County, Virginia was in the General Index to Court Orders-Defendants.  Henry  Cheatham  was listed twice in Superior Court records for the years 1825 and 1826.  The records state the following: "Henry  Cheatham  for gaming at cards with one of Col.   Coleman's  slaves, Phil, on the side of the Public Road, near the aforesaid  Cheatham's  in Halifax County, a place of public, on Sunday the 18th of the present month by the information of Peter  Huds

Sibling Saturday: Further Lessons In Intermarriage

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One of my earliest introductions to some of my ancestors was through the Zetta Daniels letter (see this post here ). In page 2 of the letter shown below, Zetta refers to common ancestors Wyatt Chaffin & Betsy Cheatam [sic]. As Zetta wrote, two Moorefield brothers married two Chaffin sisters and a third Chaffin sister married a Watts. Emily Jane Chaffin was my second great-grandmother and married George Richard “Dick” Watts (the notation of "Dad's grandmother" on this sheet is in my dad's hand). I will post a scan of that Watts family bible record on this blog soon. The marriages of these Chaffin girls are recorded in Halifax County, Virginia (as is the marriage of their parents Joseph W. Chaffin and Elizabeth Cheatham in 1837). Intermarrying among the same families was quite common. One of my first contributions to the World Wide Web was an article about the lessons in intermarriage among the daughters of Nash Glidewell of Halifax County, Virginia which

The Dash In Between: Ada's Story

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Ada E. Flint Guthrie 1873-1946, Willoughby Cemetery, Great Valley, Cattaraugus Co, NY photographed 10 August 2014 Megan M. Westfall I am always doing research in one form or the other. I thought I would share information that provides data on the dash shown above between Ada's birth and death date. This was an interesting history romp around the internet chasing preliminary records on this family. I started by looking for information on a George Abbott who buried an infant child at Peth in the area of Shin Hollow (town of Great Valley) in Cattaraugus County, New York on 6 February 1894 according to the Ellicottville Post newspaper. I used the fultonhistory.com website to find this newspaper item. Census searches revealed that George was the son of Timothy and Jane (Nelson) Abbott of Great Valley and born in May of 1868. He was living with his parents during the census years of 1870, 1875 (New York did a state census for several years in between the federal census) and