Time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Saturday Night 

Time for more Genealogy Fun! 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  What was your best research achievement in 2018?  Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph.  Brag a bit!  You've earned it!

2)  We all have elusive ancestors.  What research problem do you want to work on in 2019?  Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find.


Well, it is actually Sunday afternoon, but I thought I'd accept the challenge.

I think my best research achievement for 2018 would be finding evidence to support a story my grandmother Briles told me about her grandfather. According to my grandmother, her grandfather got involved in a creamery and 'lost his shirt'.  I wrote about finding newspaper articles about a court case referred to as the creamery mess  involving George Mentzer in my previous blog, Creamery Mess.

Upon further research, I found quite a few newspaper articles about the Yates Center Creamery. I also found two court transcripts related to the case. Those newspapers articles and the court transcripts were transcribed in my blog post, Creamery Mess Part 2.

Shortly after writing those blogs, I was able to make a research trip to Woodson County, Kansas. During that trip, I visited with the clerk of courts. It was from that visit that I obtained some of the court case file. I haven't transcribed the case file (yet), but I found it interesting that George Mentzer's sons, J. F. Mentzer and C. O. Mentzer were included in the list of defendants.

So what would I like to find in 2019? I'd love to break thru one of my brick walls. Since most of my brick walls involve dead ends in Kentucky, I need to learn more about early Kentucky records. Based on my current research, I believe a lot of those Kentucky lines go back to Virginia. Thus, I also need to learn more about Virginia records, especially the collections of the Virginia Historical Society.

While it sounds like I should be making a research trip to Kentucky or Virginia, I was thinking that I needed to go to the Wisconsin Historical Society to use the Draper Manuscript Collection. This collection of papers may hold the key to several of my Kentucky lines: Crawford, Currey, Thompson, Bland, or Burke. Thus, my immediate goal needs to be to not only learn more about this collection but to use any available finding aids in preparation for such a trip.

Looks like I have some prep work to do and travel plans to make! Where will your 2019 goals take you?