Update: All Farmhouses Look Alike / and new Tabitha Wray information

Update from last post: I discovered looking more closely at the house I thought may have been in a photo shared on Ancestry.com, as a Moses Wray house, that it doesn't match the house in the photo. I knew it wasn't his house, he would have lived in a log house, but thought it could have sat on his land. 

The only house I could find similar to that house, using Google Street View, compared more carefully, can't be the same house in the old photo. When I looked at Google street view from another angle I could see the house didn't have 3 windows on one side. It has only one window on the side. 

Posting about my mistake on Facebook several people identified the house in the photo as being a house on Poff Lane. The house was at one time owned by a Wray family, but the original owners of the house and property were Wrights. This 1906 built house was constructed around a log cabin, likely belonging to the Wrights, sometime before the Civil War. 

Looking more carefully at the Inn it doesn't have 3 windows on the side of the house. The second floor of the house was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. I suppose windows may have been removed when the house was remodeled? An old photo taken in the 50s or 60s also shows only two windows, however I don't know which side of the house the photo was taken on? Also the slope of the land, looking at the right side of the photo is different. 

Someone would have to verify the house in the photo on Poff Lane is the same house. It may not be. Many farm houses were built just like these. The house in the photo may have been torn down, or remodeled? I think we are learning which houses are not the house in the photo. 

Old photo

What we do know is that Moses and Elizabeth Wray owned property on both sides of White Oak Bottom Creek, north of Maggotty Creek. 

Some unanswered questions about the location of their land. Is White Oak Bottom Creek the same as today's White Oak Creek? Has White Oak Creek always followed the same course? Water can always change course and people sometimes change its course. What we do know is the creek existed as early as 1755 when Jester Cox made a survey on that creek. 

Moses and Elizabeth also own land on Maggotty creek. So I'm figuring their land on White Bottom Creek was likely near where White Bottom Creek emptied into Maggotty Creek? 

New Wray Information

I've questioned whether Moses Wray's wife Elizabeth Morris could have been the mother of all 18 of his children. That seems to be more children than possible for one woman to give birth to. It is possible though. It's happened, but not frequently. My ancestor Benjamin Wray was one of Moses Wray's oldest children. So was his mother Elizabeth Morris? 

Robert Grant shared some of his research with me. His research, on the Wright family, can be viewed at FamilySearch. Sorting some of the Wrights of Southern Virginia : part III, 1809 William Wright of Franklin County, his wife Mary (Grant) Wright and his descendants Sorting some of the Wrights of Southern Virginia by Robert Grant contains information about many associated families. 

My ancestor Benjamin Wray had a sister named Tabitha Wray-Wright. 

According to Robert Grant's research Tabitha Wray-Wright's daughter married in 1792. What does this mean? It means she was likely born around 1761 or earlier. I had about 1767 as the approximate year she was born. It's very likely Elizabeth named Tabitha after her mother, her mother's name was Tabitha. My ancestor was born a few years earlier than Tabitha, but she was born much earlier than 1767. This suggests that most of Moses Wray's children were Elizabeth's. So Elizabeth Morris could be my ancestor Benjamin's mother. 

  

The information provided by Robert Grant proves there is more information out there that maybe I've missed? Eventually my questions may be answered. 

Using Parcel Maps to Find Ancestors' Land/Current Owner

 When I visited Franklin County, Virginia last August I mistakenly thought our Wray family land was located on Maggotty Creek (Maggodee Creek today). When you research the Moses Wray and Elizabeth Morris family online that creek is generally mentioned. If I read the deeds more carefully I would have noticed most of the land transactions involving Moses and Elizabeth, and their descendants, actually refer to their land being on White Oak Creek. Maggotty Creek is also mentioned because it appears their land was located in an area where White Oak Creek empties into Maggotty Creek. 

Someone on Facebook provided a link to an old photo they said was of an old Wray family house. Not old enough to be the home of Moses Wray and Elizabeth Morris, who lived during the 18th and early 19th century, but could be on their land, and could have belonged to a descendant. 

I found a similar house using Google street views from previous years. 

The photos below could be of the same house? The oldest photo, apparently, was taken decades ago. The other two are screenshots from Google Street View from 2009 and 2012. It's a little hard to compare because one of the houses has been abandoned for quite awhile. There are some differences in the sloping of the land between Google Street View and the old photo. Street View often doesn't show the sloping of land correctly. I think the gable with the window was removed when they installed a corrugated metal roof. There isn't another house in that area that looks like that house.

Sadly the old abandoned house has been torn down, and this is what the site looks like today. 

How do I confirm the Wray family owned this land and house? I tried using deeds to trace the Moses and Elizabeth Wray land forward. Deeds were not always filed, and the land was divided up so many times it's difficult to follow. It's possible the current owners of the land, where the house sat, are related to the Wrays, or they might have some information about previous land owners? Parcel maps, many are online, provide the names of the current owners of a piece of property, and sometimes recent previous owners. The name of the current owner also allows you to trace a piece of property backward using deeds or tax records. 

Since I had the address number of the property I was able to find the parcel using the Franklin County, VA - Online GIS Office. From the home page you select the Comprehensive Parcel Viewer. You can click on any parcel to find the owner, or use a name, or address. 

The Franklin County, Virginia parcel maps provide the names of the current owners of a piece of land and recent land transactions (sometimes older transactions). If there is a house on the property the size and age of the house are included. Importantly the information includes the deed book and page, plat map, and page. 

Here is the information you get when you click on a parcel.

If you click on the property card (at the bottom) you get even more information. 

Sometimes photos of the structures on a property are included. Since you can't always see houses set away from the road using Google Street View it's nice to be able to see the structures using the parcel viewer. 

Here is an example of the land transaction information. Generally fairly recent transactions are listed. In this case we see a transaction that took place many decades ago when Juanita Wray-Murray transferred land to her parents, Frank and Bertha Wray, who died a long time ago. Juanita is a distant cousin of mine. A Thurman family now owns the land and I'm likely a distant cousin of this family also. 

I'm confidant I have found the area where Moses Wray and his wife Elizabeth Morris once lived. Sorry I missed visiting that spot on my last trip. Hopefully I can return and visit the White Oak creek area. 

I've found parcel maps for many counties, and many states online, I wish they all provided the detailed information Franklin County, Virginia provides. 

Photo Fun And Confusion Apps, DPI, Sizing, Storage /Scanning Photos and Negatives

A collection of our old family cameras

In the past decade, I've found myself inheriting family photos by the hundreds. Many aren't marked. I've been using photo facial recognition software to try to identify people in the photos. I've also been looking through old boxes for negatives of our family's lost photos. I watched a Legacy Webinar, "Got Old Negatives? Scan Them With Your Phone and These 5 (Mostly) Free Apps!" by Elizabeth Swanay O'Neal, on how to use phone apps to scan negatives. These apps produce positive images of your negatives so you can get digital copies of old photos. I've been meaning for years to try to restore the lost photos, using the negatives.

Scanning Photos

Scanning old photos has been very time-consuming. It's been especially time-consuming because I've rescanned photos more than once. I should have done more research before scanning the photos. According to several experts, it's best to scan photos at 300 DPI (dots per inch) and as TIFFs. The size of your scanned photos should be at least 1280 x 720 pixels. The one scanned below was too small to enlarge even on a computer screen. I'm rescanning everything not large enough, or that is scanned as a JPEG.

 

My laptop had to be restored to factory settings due to a virus. I haven't reinstalled my scanner software yet. I decided to use my phone to make copies of some photos. I noticed the phone actually saves my photos at a larger size. I used Google Photoscan app for some of the photos. Some of the scans didn't come out sharp enough. I then tried using my phone's camera, and the results were sometimes better.

You can see below that the photo on the right is sharper than the one on the left. The one on the right was taken using my phone camera, the one on the left was scanned with Google's phone app. I think generally, if you're using a phone, just using your camera generally produces the best results.

A problem using the phone goes back to the DPI (dots per inch) debate. My Google Pixel phone saves photos at 96 DPI. The DPI recommended to make prints is at least 300 DPI. I've set my scanner to 600 DPI. It does sound like DPI is important if you decide to make prints.

From Google AI

I'm not planning on making prints at this time. I would like to save them at a good resolution to print in case family members would like prints. I plan on reloading my scanner software and using that instead of my phone.

I tried using a scanner at a library, but their scanner didn't automatically crop the photos like mine. When I cropped the photos myself, the DPI went below 300, down to 120 DPI.

I've been backing up the photos using Google Photos. I didn't realize they didn't automatically save photos at the original quality. Storage saver is the way they save the photos unless you choose original quality. The photos are compressed to save storage space. That might be fine, but if I've gone to the trouble of producing high-quality scans, I want high-quality backups.

Scanning Negatives

As I said, I watched the Legacy Webinar about scanning negatives using phone apps. I have not made a lightbox yet. A lightbox would produce the best quality prints. I've installed Kodak, Photomyne, and Filmbox negative scanning apps on my phone. I'm using Filmbox the most. That app seems to produce the best results for me.

Different size negatives I've found. The bottom 35mm negatives, on the bottom, are easiest to develop. 

Filmbox suggested using a laptop screen to scan your negatives. I have actually gotten better results using my iPad, which I can lay down flat.

This scan turned out well. The only thing I don't like is the graininess; otherwise, it's acceptable considering I no longer have the original. Better than nothing.

I took the negatives to Samy's Camera, in Pasadena, California, and had them scanned there. Most photo developing places don't scan or develop old Instamatic camera negatives. Below is the photo scan they produced.

The image produced by Leona at Samy's Camera isn't grainy and is lighter in color. The cost to scan these at Samy's Camera is $2.00 per digitized negative photo. That is the least expensive scan. The price goes up if you want them scanned larger. For that price, I received a CD with the scans, and I brought in a flash drive to also have them saved to.

Leona, at Samy's Camera, got a better scan than I did, the comparison below. My Filmbox scan is dark and grainy, on the left.

These party photos are from 1973. Some of the negative images may be deteriorating a little. Some of the photos were blurry to begin with, as you see in the photos below. The old Instamatic camera didn't take good photos of moving objects.

Without the original photos, it's hard to say whether the photos developed 50 years ago were any clearer or the colors more accurate?

In the case below, I'm not sure if this old Brownie Camera negative can produce a better image? This negative is over 60 years old, taken in May 1962. A wedding photo of my parents. I'll eventually have a professional scan it.

I love old family photos and want to make sure they are backed up and not lost so we can continue to relive happy family moments.

Can Names Give Us Hints To Family Origins/Can AI help?

The most common first names in my Family Tree

This isn't an April Fools' Joke. Yes, in some cases, names can indicate family origins. You can use AI, with the caveat that it can sometimes generate inaccurate information, to point to a possible place of origin based on naming patterns.

For instance, no one in the family knew where our Kapple line originated. Doing some library research using books on surname origins, we discovered it's of Germanic origin. It's also easy to identify colonial American German ancestors because they tend to use different first names, sometimes written in German, such as Johann or Ludwig.

I've been interested in tracing my colonial American ancestors back to a place of origin in the British Isles. In most cases, that is impossible to do because passenger lists weren't kept. British Isles ancestors were citizens of the empire and didn't have to swear an oath of allegiance when arriving in America. I know my Forgey ancestors were Scots-Irish. Family members left a written record of where the family was from, and approximately when they came to America, which was in the mid-18th century. The fact that they were Presbyterians was also a clue to their origins.

Most of my colonial ancestors settled in the backcountry. According to the book "Albion's Seed," most of these backcountry people were from Northern England. The settlers were often from both sides of the Scottish Border, and Ulster Ireland. I know I have several Scottish and Scots-Irish lines.

Lines I'm not sure of the origins of are my Browning, Wray, and Hicks lines. I decided to do a quick comparison of popular first names in England and Scotland in the 18th century to see if I could relate the choices of names to either England or Scotland. I already know, from my Forgey family, that Andrew, James, and Hugh were very popular names for the Scots and Scots-Irish.

According to ChatGPT, these male first names were most popular in 18th-century England:

The most popular 18th Century Scottish male first names according to ChatGPT were: 

According to ChatGPT the most popular girls names in 18th century England were: 

According to ChatGPT the popular Scottish girls names in the 18th Century were:

Some popular names should have been on the Scottish lists are Hugh, and Eleanor. Otherwise I think ChatGPT did a good job coming up with popular names. 

The names used by the lowland Scots and English are quite similar not really helping me much. The names Andrew, Alexander, are helpful in identifying families with Scottish origins in the 18th century, otherwise the names used are basically the same. 

I then gave ChatGPT the names of my ancestors Moses and Elizabeth Wray's children's names and asked about this families origins. 

What ChatGPT came up with is very plausible. I don't know when the Wray's came to America. They certainly could have been mixed English and Scottish. 

Moving on to the Browning family. What does ChatGPT have to say about them?

ChatGPT is predicting English ancestry based on these names. Edward, the father of this family, was likely an indentured servant. He may have come from England. Could be right? Unfortunately nothing was past down in the family regarding where the family originally came from? 

ChatGPT also predicted English origins for the Hicks based on first names used:

Let's test ChatGPT with ancestors with known origins in Ulster Ireland, my Forgey family. 

It identified them correctly as Scottish or Scots-Irish. 

I'm not sure how long the Wrays, Brownings, or Hicks families were in America or whether they married out of their ethnic group? They could be mixed English and Scottish. Mainly English and Scottish. Without surviving records it's hard to say. 

I mainly did this for fun. The information regarding origins is impossible to verify, at this time. 

Childhood Greeting Cards 1960s

 

Me sometime in the 1960s. Probably taken at JC Penney in El Monte California.

Going through some old boxes of stuff I found some old greeting cards from the 1960s. I was born in 1963. 

The earliest of my cards was congratulating my parents on my birth in 1963. 

A 1964 1rst Birthday Cards from my parents, and another from an aunt, uncle, and cousin:

A card from my Aunt Grace who was also my godmother:

A 1966 3rd Birthday Card from neighbor children:

Some 4th Birthday Cards from 1967:

A Valentine from my maternal grandparents Charles and Graciela Forgey:

A season appropriate card. An Easter Card from my maternal grandparents. My grandmother Graciela was Nicaraguan. English being her 2nd language she had a little problem spelling grandfather: