Comments for Confessions of a Twenty-something Family Historian

Comment on Watauga Spinnerette Indexes by Laurie Barthlow

Laurie Barthlow — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:00:10 +0000

I believe members of my Blevins family worked at this plant. I am currently working on a genealogy/family history book about my Blevins family from Carter County, and I see that your index has a reference to C.S. Blevins on page 11(p). I believe that is my great (great) uncle, Carmon Stewart Blevins, I would gladly pay a fee to see what that is. Please let me know how I may acquire a copy of the article and/or photo, and I would be very interested in seeing anything in this publication concerning the Blevins and Whitehead families. Thanks so much.

Comment on Family Finder DNA Testing by Family Tree DNA by Steve Peters

Steve Peters — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:33:10 +0000

I particiated in the Family Finder DNA testing program and currently I have not removed any brick walls. I have 8 close to immediate matches, but I have only been able to confirm 1 of those matches. I also have 50+ distant matches and only 1 of those is a possible match. My paper trail is pretty complete up to my gr-gr-gr grandparents and I have several lines back further than that. Many of those participating do not even bother to respond when you e-mail them and most don’t even bother to post their surnames let alone a brief GEDCOM file of their ancestry. I don’t believe that my close to immediate matches are as close as FamilyTreeDNA has calculated. I belive that if I am related to these people, it is much further back than my paper trail will go.

So far I am disappointed in the results of this test, but I am hoping that maybe if more people participate, it will eventually give some positive results.

Comment on FindAGrave iPhone app by Lisa Swanson Ellam

Lisa Swanson Ellam — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:33:43 +0000

I would purchase an IPhone for that app alone! Haha!
Lisa

Comment on Another Watauga Spinnerette index by Rick Becka

Rick Becka — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:20:32 +0000

I am searching for a couple of photos that are probably in the 1950 or 1951 Spinnerette’s. The two photos I am looking for are of Cave Springs School and the students – 1 photo states CAVE SPRINGS SCHOOL 1949-1950. The other photo is the class in school with Mrs Francis Anderson the school teacher. I would like to obtain a good scan of these photos if that is possible. I appreciate any assistance anyone can provide me. Sure would like to be able to contact Juanita Buckley who wrote the comment above on March 31, 2010. My e-mail is rrbecka@gmail.com.

Thank you,
Rick Becka

Comment on The Genetics of Genealogy by Steve Peters

Steve Peters — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:13:11 +0000

I wish I could get more people to participate in family DNA testing. I had my DNA tested last fall. I had pretty much determined before hand that I would not directly match many in Carter County with the Peters surname and my DNA tests proved as much. I did match another common surname from Carter County, but more people are needed in order for me to really find out what my direct male line really is.

I sometimes get annoyed with people saying they are from this line or that line with little or no proof, but hesitate when asked to do a DNA test. I guess they think that their privacy will be violated in some fashion or the DNA test will prove they are not who they think they are.

I also read the info about the Spinnerettes. My father worked at Bemberg from the late 1920′s until 1951. I saw many of those Spinnerettes, but have only been able to hang on to 2 issues. One is the 25th anniversary issue. This issue has pictures of all the employees. It is dated Oct, 29, 1951. I also have a 1948 issue. This one has a group picture of the Hampton Elementary students. I am on the front row of the picture of grades 1 to 4. I was in the 1st grade, however I do not remember having the picture taken.

Some of those Spinnerette’s had a lot of history in them and it would be a good project to have those preserved for historical purposes.

Comment on Another Watauga Spinnerette index by Michael

Michael — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:54:12 +0000

Hi Juanita,
The McClung Collection located in the East Tennessee History Center in downtown Knoxville, TN has actual paper copies of many of the Spinnerettes. These are the copies that I am working from for the indexes. If you want a copy of any thing I have indexed email me and I will get back to you. I am currently on vacation and out of state. The paper copies I use for the indexes are old and depending upon the person that is working may be considered to fragile to get a photocopy from. If this is the case, I can access the microfilm but it usually takes a week or so to have it sent to me. Another thing about the indexes is that a lot of the names are mentioned in the context of sporting events which is why some names will have several mentions per issue. My email is michael @ geneacentric dot com.

Comment on Another Watauga Spinnerette index by Juanita Buckley

Juanita Buckley — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:47:01 +0000

I have two Spinnerette’s 1950 & 1951.
Our family (Stevens) are in both.
Arwood family is in the 1930 one.
I would like to have a copy of the 1930, how do I go about getting a copie?
I will be in Tennessee last part of April for our family reunion.
Thank you, Juanita

Comment on Tombstone Tuesday : Michael Patterson Elliott by Keith

Keith — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:45:08 +0000

Michael: Peter Bollinger Elliott is my direct ancestor (through daughter Nancy Catherine) but I do not have much information on him (or further back) or siblings. Do you have anything further you would be willing to share with me? Keith

Comment on a couple of thoughts by Katrina

Katrina — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:38:02 +0000

Michael,

I appreciate your decision not to discuss WDYTYA on the blog. Regardless of what one thinks about the show, there is only so much to say about it, and it is all over my Google Reader already. Besides, the focus of my blog is not really aligned with discussing WDYTYA — or other media mentions of genealogy, or any new records sources, or affiliate linking programs. This doesn’t stop the hopefuls and enthusiastics from contacting me, and I appreciate their fervor, but unfortunately these topics will just not make it onto my site.

I look forward to seeing what you have planned though! Now I’m curious…

Regards,

Katrina

Comment on Further thoughts on Who Do You Think You Are by Michael

Michael — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:47:48 +0000

I stick by my thoughts on WDYTYA’s focus on major historical events. I doubt we’ll see an episode that revolves MORE around the personal and less around the greater historical moments. What did we really find out about Sarah Jessica Parker’s ancestors? Nothing about their daily lives, but plenty (at least for a 45 minute program) about how they were connected to historical occurrences. I will say that the show was entertaining and I will watch the rest of the series but there was nothing deep in this episode, which is fine. This is a series that is supposed to entertain and entrance the average television viewer into deciding to go forth with their own research and the style conveys an “ease” to the process which is what ancestry.com wants and when people reach the limits of ancestry.com then they’ll remember progenealogists.com. It is doing everything television is supposed to do. I look forward to more episodes. And I will eat my digital words if any of the celebrities they picked come from a line of “common joes.” I just think it would have been more entertaining, perhaps more in the spirit of tabloid reality television to have randomly chosen celebrities and pursued their genealogy without first vetting it against the events that everyone hopes their ancestors were connected to. I think it’s great that Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are going to have great stories to pass on to their children and really like that they’ll have the documentation to back it up.