Learning about Ancestors from Eulogies and Obituaries/And where to locate them

 

I first discovered the value of a eulogy for family history research when I received one for a great-great aunt, Bridget aka Sister Mary Kathleen Mullen, from an aunt. She was a Catholic nun. The eulogy states she was from Galway; my father thought our Mullen family was from Cork. He probably was told his grandmother, Helen Mullen-Mason, left the port at Cork and thought the family lived there. The eulogy also gave the names of her parents, Patrick Mullen and Mary Huvane. I had never heard anything about the surname Huvane until then. My grandmother, Dorothy Mason-Kapple, and her siblings knew the maiden name of their grandmother, Mary Huvane-Mullen, but I didn't. I guess I just never asked. I should have asked more questions. 

Relatives are a good source when looking for eulogies. The more relatives, including distant relatives, you collaborate with the more likely you can find something like a eulogy. I've also gotten prayer cards with information about the deceased from distant relatives. 

After learning the maiden name of my great-great grandmother I began researching the surname Huvane. To some family members the name seemed foreign. They thought it might be Spanish? Maybe the name came from Spanish Armada survivors? Once I had internet access in the 1990s I was able to find Huvanes living in the San Francisco area. I made contact with them and they shared the information they had about the family, and they shared some research done in Ireland by a researcher there. He stated the name Huvane, a variant of Huane, was likely a variant of Hoban. 

This Huvane family also attempted to help me learn more about my Mullen family. Our shared Huvane family relatives lived near the Mullens, in Pollaturick, Ireland, they of course were cousins of their family, and mine. My new cousins gave me contact information for a Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton, they received from relatives in Pollaturick. She was the only Mullen closely related to me still alive, being that she was the first cousin of my grandmother Dorothy. The relative also stated that some of the Mullens lived in London. I wrote her a letter but never heard back. She was born in 1921 and was likely in poor health, or living in a care home when I wrote her. When I visited Ireland, and the townland of Pollaturick in 2019 a neighbor told me Mary Ellen was in a nursing home. The family hadn't lived on the land in decades because Mary Ellen's husband had land in another townland where she lived after her marriage. 

Asking questions on Facebook in 2021 I discovered Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton was still alive, and 100 years old. Until then I had no idea she was that old! I was very surprised. Her aunt, Sister Mary Kathleen Mullen, was 103 when she died. This family has a longevity gene.

Fast forward to December 2023. I learned that Mary Ellen had died in November 2022. This month is a busy month in the United States with Thanksgiving, and Christmas coming, so I missed that funeral stream on YouTube. Googling her name and the places she lived I found an obituary. Internet obituaries are free and easy to post so they are very common. Often funeral homes put these on their websites. Commonly these obituaries include a photo of the deceased, and sometimes there is a slideshow with multiple photos that include family members. I've seen photos going back to the deceaseds childhood. I've also seen videos posted with these obituaries. 

A video produced by the family of my father Robert's first cousin can be viewed at this link . This video, with photos, helped me identify some unmarked photos. 

I've found many obituaries for relatives who died before the internet in old newspapers. Sites like newspapers.com or newspaperarchive.com are great, but you have to pay to view the obituaries. Chronicling America is a free newspaper site, but I haven't had any luck there myself. An Irish newspaper site with obituaries is Irish Newspaper Archives.

Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton's obituary provided the names of her children, which I didn't have. It confirmed two of her children lived in England, and one in London. The letter proved to be correct, one of her children did live in London. Great to see a photo of my grandmother's first cousin too! 

I remembered that in Ireland funeral services are streamed on YouTube or the churches website. The Mullen family church St. Joseph's Milltown, Tuam, Galway, Ireland, streams funeral services live. Unfortunately, after a short period of time they make them private. You need the link to view them. Thankfully, I was able to get a link from the church to view her funeral mass from last year. Unfortunately her family didn't give the eulogy. The priest did and he provided some interesting information. He confirmed that she was born in Pollaturick, when times were hard and no one had any money. Her occupation was housewife. He said she could speak Irish. He didn't know Irish was spoken in the village during her lifetime. Her aunt, my great-grandmother, also spoke Irish. He stated one of her daughter's names was actually Bernadette, which wasn't in the obituary. Dette in the obituary is apparently a nickname for Bernadette. 

The name of the care home Mary Ellen lived in was named during the service. The neighbor I spoke to was correct; she was in a nursing home. 

Prayers were said for the Thornton and Mullen families. It was nice to hear the Mullens acknowledged. 

The priest also stated that some of her siblings died shortly after birth. He also said her brother Patrick died as a teenager, which doesn't seem to match some information I have? I know he was born in 1919. A Patrick Mullen sold land in Pollaturick in 1950 which I assumed was him. Maybe I'm wrong? Patrick Mullen isn't an uncommon name in Ireland. 

The reason I'm interested in information about her family is I would like to know if they have any old photos of my great-great grandparents? 

All of my great-grandmother's siblings, except for Michael Mullen, Mary Ellen's father, left the area. He inherited the family land. Mary Ellen was the only one of his children that lived long into adulthood. For this reason the Mullen family land was passed down to her. Her father's house, not lived in for decades, was falling apart when I visited there. I assume she was born there in 1921? My great-great grandmother was present at her birth according to her civil registration record. 

Interestingly Mary Ellen Mullen-Thornton was present when her grandmother, my great-great grandmother, Mary Huvane-Mullen died, according to her death record. 

I'm hoping to find a way to get in contact with Mary Ellen's descendant's in hopes they might have photos?

Obituaries and eulogies are great sources for family history. You can find obituaries online, and in newspapers, and sometimes in books. Family members might keep copies of eulogies, and some churches now live stream funerals on the internet. Also family members may have made videos of a funeral service. A relative may have presented a eulogy for a relative, friend. or neighbor, which may include information about themselves, and the area they lived in. Because of Covid restrictions many churches now stream their services. We now have more places to glean information from. 

Court Papers/ Determined Papers Franklin District Court Virginia

 

Looking for a court record regarding my Wray family I discovered the Chancery Court records online at Virginia Memory aren't always complete or thoroughly indexed. If your family lived in the counties of Franklin, Bedford, Campbell, Pittsylvania, Patrick, and Henry you might find a court case that your family was mentioned in using another source called determined papers at FamilySearch. These files were created after court cases were determined. It is nice to have the more complete files available at the FamilySearch site. Since these records were filmed, in 1976-1977, some of the file pages have become separated and aren't in their original file. That's why the recently scanned files at Virginia Memory aren't always complete.

You can  search the FamilySearch catalog using the keyword determined and the link should come up for this record set. You can also search by county, and then find the link under court records. Elizabeth Shown Mills pointed this record set out to me. Somehow I overlooked this valuable source. Honestly wish more YouTube family history videos would focus on these little known types of records. 

These records aren't indexed. If you are looking for a particular court record and have dates you can just search around that date. Knowing when the case was finally settled helps. Generally all the paperwork was filed together when the case was determined. 

You can search these records page by page or just look at each cover page. The cover page will generally be written on paper folded longways, which looks like a book spine. If you've done courthouse research you will quickly spot the cover pages. 

Things I found included in these determined files:

Case details:

I saw some newspapers in the files:

Lists of witnesses:

There was a legal dispute over the tax lists and  full tax lists were included in a file:

Interesting the time court would meet is outlined in this document. Since there wasn't good lighting available sunset ended the court day. 

The cases often involved slaves. If someone is researching slave ancestry these records do provide the names of slaves. Also there are cases involving land disputes which include land records and sometimes land surveys. 

Court records are a very important source for family history, especially in the south where vital records weren't introduced until the twentieth century.

My Wray/Ray Family and the Disabled Slave Betty

 

During my August trip to Virginia I stayed in a hotel near Liberty University. On the other side of the campus there was a major street with a Target and Walmart, and restaurants. Walking through the campus to get to this area it began pouring rain one day. I decided to take shelter in the library until the rain let up. I didn't think this religiously oriented institution would have genealogy related material but thought they would at least have some Virginia history books. I was surprised to actually find a book marking the bicentennial of the county I was researching. "Franklin County, Virginia, 1786-1986 : a bicentennial history" is a book I found in that library. I had never seen it before. 

I didn't expect to find anything about the Wray family in a chapter about slavery. I've been researching that family over 20 years and never found a record of them owning any slaves. 

I was floored by the story of Moses and Elizabeth Wray and a slave girl named Betty. Evidently a man named David Morgan bought a slave girl named Betty and her father Sampson from William Lee. Moses Wray leased Betty from Morgan for $7 a year. The Wrays returned Betty to Morgan after discovering she was lame, either due to an injury or one leg being shorter than the other. 

What happened to slaves like Betty who were disabled? Someone who could not walk could sew and do tasks with their hands. Other more severely disabled people were cared for by mother's who had to be their caregivers along with performing their own work as slaves. These severely disabled slaves were kept or sold off with their caregivers. Some disabled slaves were sold to doctors who performed experiments on them, according to an article on Wikipedia.

I wanted to confirm the story in the book so I ordered a copy of the Elizabeth Ray affidavit cited in the book from The Library of Virginia archives. The case she provided the affidavit for was named Morgan v. Lee, because Morgan was suing Lee because the slaves he purchased from him turned out to be unsound. I quickly received a reply from a reference librarian after submitting my order. She said the affidavit wasn't in the box which was referred to in the book citation. 

I corresponded with the reference librarian by phone and email trying to figure out where the affidavit might have been filed? I was nearly giving up thinking it was lost. It took a month for the affidavit to be found. 

I learned that the other affidavits were a part of the chancery records online at the Virginia Memory site. I had already checked that site back when I was in Virginia. Nothing came up about this case? Why? Because the case was indexed under the variant spelling Morgain. Also the name Ray, or variant spelling Rey, actually are in the file documents online, but aren't in the index. I just found the file a few days ago. 

Two of the case affidavits involve the Rays. Elizabeth Ray and William Waid provided their recollections of Betty, and the leasing of her by the Ray family. The two affidavits don't completely agree. Apparently Waid worked on the Ray plantation for a year. According to William Waid the Ray's had Betty for some time before returning her to Morgan because of her disability. He states Morgan offered to lower the lease rate and even offered to give her to the Rays as a gift. According to him Moses said he couldn't afford to feed and clothe her if she could not work. 

According to Elizabeth Ray she immediately noticed the girl was limping as she left the wagon when she was brought over. She asked the girl to show her the wound. She did see a wound on the girl's hip. She also stated if Betty had a child she would likely become completely disabled. 

Since one page from the Morgan v. Lee case was missing from the file I'm doing a little more research on the case in Virginia determined papers at FamilySearch. Not knowing exactly when the case ended it's been difficult to find in those papers. 

Not sure what became of Betty? Sadly, someone like her wouldn't have had any good future prospects in 1794 America. The best outcome would have been that she was granted her freedom because no one wanted to buy her. 

Finding An Ancestor's Land On A Map/ a challenging process

When I visited Virginia and Tennessee this past July and August I wanted to visit the location of my ancestors' land. I had descriptions of the approximate location because creeks were mentioned in their deeds. Since creeks can run for many miles it's difficult to say where, exactly, their land was?

Virginia does have county historical maps that were produced by a cartographer. These maps show approximate locations of early settlers' land. They were produced by H. R. Hildebrand. My ancestor Moses Wray is listed in the Franklin County. Virginia map. I wondered what the source for these locations were? I did some research in the courthouses and didn't see any information there pinpointing land locations? I did find a description of what the sources were at the East Tennessee State University website. "Compiled from old maps, historical records, and traditions by J.R. Hildebrand." The fact some of the locations were based on traditions worried me a little. I had taken these maps more literally. I now felt like I needed to verify the approximate location, also. 

I visited a surveyor's office in Rocky Mount because I thought they might have some tips regarding locating an ancestor's land. The office had some hunting trophies (which reminded me of my grandfather Forgey who liked to keep taxidermy animals).   

The surveyor's suggestion was to trace the land ownership forward using deeds. Once the current owners information is found the exact location of the land can be found using tax records. 

I attempted to trace the land forward using deeds, but quickly lost the ownership trail. Could be later owners didn't file deeds? I wasn't sure why I was having problems? I decided to try to trace the land ownership backward instead. 

So how do you find current land ownership information? The best way is to use a parcel land viewer. There are many of these online and free to use. Franklin County, Virginia's parcel map is located at the ArcGIS Franklin County, Virginia website. 

Moses Wray owned land on Maggodee Creek and White Oak Creek in Boones Mill. White Oak Creek on Google Maps is mismarked Gills Creek. That creek runs east west whereas White Oak creek runs more north south and eventually meets the Blackwater River. 

The most accurate topo maps are on the USGS website. They have maps showing creeks going back to the 19th century right up to the present. I was thinking the name of White Oak creek changed when I didn't find it on Google Maps. That slowed my progress locating the land. 

What I know from the deeds is Moses Wray had land on Maggodee Creek and White Oak Creek. using the USGS map I found the creek. Since White Oak Creek flows into Maggodee creek  I guessed the land is in that area. 

Now I had a general location to search the parcel map at ArcGIS. My hope was actually to find someone with the surname still owning the land in the area, but I was thinking I would likely have to trace the many parcels backward. 

Clicking the first few parcels I didn't see any surnames I recognized.  To my surprise I did click on a parcel owned by someone with the surname Wray! I've decided to contact this current Wray owner and ask if he knows whether Moses Wray owned his land. They'll probably think I'm crazy but the worst that could happen is I don't get a reply. 

If you look at the blue outline of the land currently owned by a Wray it gives us an idea of how much land the family once owned. The current owner owns 86 acres. The Wrays owned hundreds of acres in this area. Their land would have covered a substantial amount of land on White Oak Creek. That creek is shorter than Maggodee Creek. 

Now that I have a better approximation of where the Wray land was, how accurate is the H. R. Hildebrand map? Since there is no scale on this map it's tough to say. Hildebrand did have Moses Wray's name written on the correct side of the highway. Comparing where the current Wray land owner owns land Moses Wray's land would have been about 3 miles east of the highway. The Hildebrand map is generally right but would give some people the false impression Moses Wray's land was closer to the highway and farther north than it likely was. 

The current Wray landowner, on White Oak creek, owns parcel 7. Two of Moses Wray's sons inherited what they called lots 4 and 5. I wonder if two other sons inherited lots 6 and 7? I have no idea whether the numbering is the same? 

Moving on to Tennessee I wasn't so lucky. I'm looking for ancestor Hugh Forgey's land. Unfortunately the Forgey family didn't stay in the Corryton, Knox County, Tennessee area. Since Hugh Forgey's land was described as being at the head of Little Flat Creek I have a general idea of where the land was located. I tried to again trace parcels backward and forward to get the exact location of the land. The Forgey land was probably broken up into smaller parcels, and I haven't been able to establish the exact location of the land. Hugh Forgey owned 300 acres of land. The current owners in the area own much smaller parcels of land. The map outline, below, shows 7 acres. Hugh Forgey's land would have covered a large portion of the Little Flat Creek area. 

The online parcel maps showing current landowners has been helpful when it comes to finding the names of current landowners, and viewing  how the land has been broken up into smaller parcels. Great tool for genealogists! 

Research Trip Serendipity

I took a trip to the Virginia Piedmont area and East Tennessee in August. My Wray and McPike ancestors were from the Piedmont area of Virginia. I started my journey in Lynchburg where I visited the Jones Memorial Library which is a genealogy library.

Traveling around Lynchburg was easy. The city has a bus system, it’s pretty limited but cheaper than renting a car or using Uber or Lyft.

 

From Lynchburg I moved onto Franklin County, Virginia. I took a Greyhound bus from Lynchburg to Roanoke (I found out train service was also available and I probably should have taken the train). Roanoke being a city it was easy to get a Lyft to my hotel in Franklin County. 

I arrived in Rocky Mount on a Saturday. I was told by the front desk person at my hotel that there was no public transportation, Uber or Lyft. The one car rental agency was closed until Monday. I wanted to travel about 12 miles to Boones Mill where some of my ancestors lived. I decided to try to schedule a Lyft for Sunday morning.

A Lyft driver did pickup the ride. I believe they picked it up because the wrong pickup location was given to them. I received a message that the driver had arrived, but didn’t see him? I called to ask where his car was. We then discovered he was about 20 minutes away from me. He agreed to pick me up anyway. If he knew I was farther away he probably wouldn’t have picked me up.

Talking to him on the way to Boones Mill we discovered we had a mutual interest in visiting cemeteries. He agreed to take me to cemeteries, and other places of interest, if I paid cash for his gas.

I had worried about getting back from Boones Mills. He agreed to come back and pick me up later. If he hadn’t picked me up I would have called a taxi in Roanoke, and it would have cost a fortune and there would be no guarantee they would pick me up.

Since the driver knew the area I saw more of the area than I would have on my own. He has family living in Boones Mills. I didn’t lose any precious time waiting to rent a car and didn’t get stranded somewhere without the ability to get back. When I was in Lynchburg I visited Poplar Forest, but couldn’t visit the town of Bedford without a car. I wanted to do some research there. The Lyft driver took me to Bedford where I was able to see and hold an ancestor's 1767 will.

I also met a friend of the Lyft driver who is distantly related to me. She knew quite a bit about our shared Wray family. 

When I went on to Knoxville, Tennessee I was able to get around easily using buses, and walking. I decided to visit the rural area where my Forgey family came from one day. Like Roanoke it was easy to get a Lyft to the Corryton area. I worried a little about getting back. I again figured I could call a taxi if worse came to worse.

It seemed the easiest to set my ride destination as the Nicholas Gibbs log house. I had been wanting to take a closer look at that house after reading about an archaeological dig there. Also my ancestor Hugh Forgey was acquainted with Nicholas Gibbs because Gibbs posted a bond for Hugh. The Lyft driver had difficulty finding the log house. We did finally find it. The house is operated by the local historical society. I was just going to look in the windows, and then walk around the area where I believe my family’s land was.

There were phone numbers on one of the windows. I decided to call and ask if it would be possible to go inside the house? By chance one of the volunteers was in the area and came right over and showed me around.

As I did everywhere I went I asked if the volunteer knew anything about the Forgey family? He said absolutely. He found a trunk full of papers in an old house in the area and there were a few documents with the surname Forgey. He told me most of the papers were now at the Calvin M. McClung Genealogy Library in Knoxville. I had been there several times and didn't know about that special collection. I planned on returning to that library later in the day.

The volunteer, Mr. Longmire, was very nice. He offered to take me around in his truck and show me the area where my ancestors lived. Again I lucked out. It was very hot and humid and would have been difficult for me to walk very far. Actually the area where my family's land was turned out to be farther from the Gibbs house than I thought. It was about 3 miles away. He also took me to the Sawyers house where the many of the papers found in the trunk were originally stored. They were actually moved to the McBee house, which he also showed. A Sawyer's daughter married a McBee. These families were related to the Forgey family by marriage.

 

Mr. Longmire also showed me his collection of genealogy material at his house. I also met his wife, and dog. He left me off at a Target where I was able to get a Lyft back to Knoxville, that was ideal. I couldn't believe my luck meeting up with him!

I spent 2 days going through the McBee/Sawyers papers at the Calvin M. McClung collection. There were documents naming Forgeys, and Civil War letters that were fascinating.

In hindsight, not renting a car for this journey turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The challenges I faced led to unexpected encounters, deeper insights, and a richer understanding of my ancestral roots. My trip reinforced the notion that on a research trip, the more people you engage with, the more you are likely to learn.

I also attended the all day History Hootenanny during my trip, which included historic home tours

My Wish Has Come True For An Every Name Index to Deeds at FamilySearch!

United States Wills and Deeds Experimental Search

What have I been wishing for years now? An every name index for deeds! I've been hoping for this for ages, and guess what? FamilySearch made my wish come true with their new OCR search that works as an every name index. How awesome is that?

It actually also is a will index, and brings up other types of records too. 

It's about as accurate as the old newspapers indexed with OCR.  It can be a bit hit and miss because of messy handwriting and fading text. But hey, no system is perfect!

Also if your ancestral area prohibits FamilySearch from making their records available from anywhere you won't be able to see the actual documents, unless you visit the FamilySearch Library or a Family History Center. As you can see below one search result brought up one blank document. 

The second result, brought up by my surname search, did return an actual document. You can click on the transcript to see a transcribed copy of the document or just view the actual image of the original document. 

 

When you do view the original documents pages sometimes your search names are surrounded by red dotted lines, which are helpful. 

Oddly, sometimes, you can't turn the pages once you're on the image. That's a problem if your document is multiple pages. Also, these limited pages, don't have additional information so you can find the microfilm in the catalog. Most pages do, however, allow you to turn the pages and provide information about the source. 

If I don't find what I'm looking for with one search, I brainstorm!  I just tweak the search a bit. I was looking for a deed related to my several times great-grandfather, and at first, I couldn't find it. I then searched using his wife's name instead and it came up! 

I've been researching my family history for over 20 years and still I've found new information using this search. 

For instance I found a brief will for a 3 times great-grandfather. In all these years I've research I missed it somehow? 

One piece of information scared me. I worried I identified the wrong family for my ancestor Nancy Melvin-Hicks. When searching for Nancy Melvin I found a will for James Blades. He  said his sister was Nancy Melvin. I wondered if my Nancy Melvin married before and I was wrong about her parents being John Melvin and Mary Redden. Actually when the will was written my Mary Redden was married to Elijah Hicks. 

I wanted to make sure so I researched this other family. I figured Melvin would have been Nancy's married name. I searched for a Melvin marrying a Blades and only found someone marrying after the will was written. I finally discovered Nancy Melvin was married to William Melvin and it was her second marriage, that's why I couldn't find a Blades/Melvin marriage before.

I've paged through countless deed books in my quest to learn about my ancestors. I don't have all the time in the world to go through hundreds of books from my ancestral areas. That would take forever! It would probably take indexers a lifetime to create every name indexes for all those deed books. That's a massive task!

So, a big thank you to FamilySearch for this innovative OCR search feature. It might not be perfect, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.