Thanks to everyone who came out this past October for another wonderful Kentucky Ancestors Town Hall! The third year of this amazing event brought an announcement we had all been hoping for – Our previous years’ episodes got picked up by KET (Kentucky Educational Television) and will air in 2020 on the...
By: David Baker Editor’s Note: This article, along with Part 1 published earlier in November 2018, showcase two different approaches to incorporating primary sources into family history writing. Part 1 provided examples of how one can fact check a letter or diary to better understand what the original writer was describing....
By: David Baker Editor’s Note: This article, along with Part 2 to be published later in November 2018, showcases two different approaches to incorporating primary sources into family history writing. Part 1 will provide examples of how one can fact check a letter or diary to better understand what the...
By: H. Scott Hankla Introduction In my paternal grandfather’s old cherry desk was a worn, dusty portfolio made of heavy black cardboard, and on its cover and back were engravings of a building with the words “New York Crystal Palace for the Exhibition of All Nations.” Inside the portfolio was a...
By: Ronald Clay Belcher David Cozine Westerfield of Mercer County, Kentucky, enlisted in 1861 and valiantly served with the Union Army, 19th Kentucky Regiment. On 2 January 1862, at Camp Harrod, Harrodsburg, his unit was mustered into service. Westerfield’s service with Company B took him from Kentucky to West Virginia...
By: Mary E. Clay This is a story about a surname puzzle. A similar story could be told by many other African Americans trying to find their ancestors. The search for the surnames the ancestors took after they were freed can be a true test of one’s research abilities. This...
By: Elizabeth Rouse Fielder The George Blackburn Family Major George Blackburn Sr. (b. 16 January 1745, d. 9 September 1817) was one of the early settlers of Augusta County, Virginia. He married Prudence Berry (b. 5 November 1754, d. 14 June 1836) in Virginia on the 12th of October 1771...
By: Clifford W. Lanham Thomas Lanham most likely was a typical young man of his time. Like many young men of 1776, he felt he had a calling to serve his colony, Maryland. There was an air of English resentment throughout the colonies. A strong desire to be free from...
By: Julie Maio Kemper, Curator, Museum Collections & Exhibitions, Kentucky Historical Society Around a corner in the Kentucky Historical Society’s permanent exhibit, “A Kentucky Journey,” two portraits sit enclosed in a large glass case. These are the images of Dennis and Diadamia Doram, dated 1839. Like many prosperous 19th century Kentuckians, the Dorams...
By Neil E. Mellen Mary Ann (Moore) Rains married Jacob Hudson on 21 November 1818 in Clark County, Kentucky. Almost exactly five years later, on 24 November 1823, Mary Ann filed for a divorce in the Clark County circuit court. She alleged that, “during the two years last past and...
