WINTER 2010 GENEABLOGGER GAMES MEDAL STANDINGS

So here are the standing for team "Where I Come From" after 3 days of competion....

Can they move ahead?  Will they faulter?  No one knows.... we still have several days of competition and the hardest events for team "Where I Come From" are still ahead.  Organization, Backup files, and Citations.  Can they do it?  Only time will tell....

So far these are the Medal Standing for "Where I Come From"

Saturday, February 13, 2010:

Competed in Event #4:  Expand Your Knowledge
1-Task B:  Created a Time Line for Abigal Bardin
1-Task E:  Created a surname Visualization using Word It Out
1-Task C:  Created a Memorial Page for Alama Elizabeth Clark (Evans) My Great-Grandmother


Competed in Event #5:  Write, Write, Write: 
1-Task D: Write a brief Biographical sketch on one of your ancestors. (I wrote about Joseph Dougan)

Medal Total:  1 Gold & 1 Bronze

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Competed in:   Event #5:  Write, Write, Write!
1-Task B:  Participate in a genealogy/family history blog carnical.  (GYR Carnival for March 2010:    Forgotten Cemetaries, my submission is on Beaver Creek Cemetary in Wichita County Texas)
1-Task D:  Write a brief Biographical sketch on one of your ancestors.  (I wrote about My Great-Grandfathers and his Farm)

Competed in:  Event #6 Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness
2-Task A:  Comment on a New to ME Genealogy Blog  (Glenview Public Library,  Hellenic Genealogy Geek,)
3-Task G:  Use Follow Feature on a Blogger-based genealogy blog to follow one or more:  (Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, GYR of South Alameda County,) 
1-Task D:  Assist another researching with a request or lookup. (I helped my boss locate her Grandfather's burial site.  He was buried at the National Cemetary in Houston)
1-Task F:  Join a genealogical, historical, heritage or lineage society.  (Joined the North Texas Genealogical Association.  (in progress invitation to luncheon on Saturday with DAR, have not counted yet)

Daily Medal Total:  2 Silver and 1 Platinum
 
Monday, February 15, 2010
              
Competed in: Event #6 Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness                
1-Task C: Invited Deborah A., from "The Sum of All My Research to GeneaBloggers.
1-Task A:  Commented on a "NEW TO ME" Blog  The Sum of All My Research
1-Task G:  Use the follow me feature on a blogger-based genealogy blog, The Sum of All my Research

Competed in:  Event #4 Expand Your Knowledge
1- Task A:  Use Google Maps and embed into your blog.  (I actually did this twice.  The second time I noticed someone placed a photo of a house at street level on GeneaBloggers.  Didn't know it did that.  So I went back and played a little more and then posted an update with several street level photos of the old family farm.)

Competed in Event #5:  Write, Write, Write!
1-Task F:  Participate in a 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Challenge(Used Google Earth and posted my findings)
4-Task C:  Prepare Several post in draft mode and pre-publish  (I drafted two post for Wordless Wednesday to publish tomorrow night at 11:59pm and then I drafted 1 post for Tombstone Tuesday to publish tonight at 11:59pm and then finally the updated post I did for the Google Map event, I drafted it to post later this evening around 5pm.

Daily Medal Total:  1Bronze, 1Gold and 1 Platinum

Overall 3 Day Total:  2 Gold, 2 Bronze, 2 Silver and 2 Platinum


Well, overall we are looking good, but need to work harder on the other 3 Competitions to get ahead of the game.  Stay tuned for updates, now back to GeneaBloggers for more news.

Event Submission #4: Biography of Joseph Dougan

Winter 2010 GeneBloggers Event #5 Write, Write, Write ask that we write a brief biographical sketch on one of our ancestors.  This is my biographic submission for this event.

Joseph Dougan

Born:  abt 1840 somewhere in Indiana

Died:  3 October 1864, Pine Bluff, Arkansa

Married:  Nancy Cron

12 April 1860

Spencer Co., Indiana

Records obtained show that Joseph and Nancy were married in Spencer Co., Indiana in 1860.  They had only one child:  Amanda Elizabeth Dougan (Clark).  Josephs wife Nancy is the daughter of Jon and Cron of Sumner Co., Tennessee and Maria Catherine Johnson of  Tennesse.  Both of her parents are buried somewhere in Spencer Co, Indiana.

One year to the date after Joseph and Nancy married the American Civil War began.  Records obtained show that Joseph enlisted on 14 Jan 1864 as a Private for the Union.  He served for the State of Indiana in Company A of the Indiana 1st Calvery, 28th Regiment.  He mustered out on 3 October 1864 in Pine Bluff Arkansa.  He died there in the hospital of diesease during the war.  At this time, I have not been able to locate a place of burial.  I am assuming that he is buried somewhere in PineBluff, Arkansas.  Nancy received a war pension after Josephs death.

Joseph's wife Nancy later remarried to Marcus Layfette Goodman on 15 January 1868 in Rockport, Spencer, Indiana and had 7 children together.  The couple migrated from Indiana, to Kansas and finally ended up in Oklahoma.  Nancy and Marcus are both buried at the Bristow Creek Cemetary in Bristow, Creek, Oklahoma.

At this time, no information is known about Joseph's parents or whether he had any sibilings.  Documents in posession at this time are copies of the marriage license between he and Nancy and a copy of the pension papers that Nancy received after his death. 

Their daughter Amanda Elizabeth was born on 22 March 1862 in Spencer Co.,Indiana.  She married William Henry Clark of Indiana in 1878 in Labette Co., Kansas.  The couple moved from Kansas to Texas and finally settled in Fannin County.  They had a total of 13 children together.  Their daughter Alma Elizabeth Clark-Evans is my great-grandmother on my father's side. 

My grandmother tells of a story where "Grandpa Clark" as he was so called, had obtained a recipe from local traveling medicine shows for an ointment to cure cancer.  My grandmother still has the actual recipe he wrote down in her possession.  She said she can remember "Grandpa Clark" using the ointment and cutting cancer off of various members of town when she was a little girl, including "Grannie Clark". 

Photo given to me by my great-grandfather Clarence Evans

Place of photo unknown

The woman on the front row is Amanda Clark, daughter of Joseph and Nancy Dougan.  The men standing next to heron the left is her husband William Henry.  The others so the photo states are her sibilings.  It was not until recent that I relized they are not Clarks, they are Goodmans.  We do not know who the man is on the front.  It seems as if the photo had been cut at the bottom per the had writting on the back. (see next photo)

On the back of this photo there are actually 4 different handwrittings.

The title "Grannie Clark's brother's and sisters and then that in the lower right corner that says "Grandpa's Brother is that of my Grandmother (Granddaughter of Amanda).  The handwritting in the left corner that starts with "Grandpa Clark(Evans crossed out) is that of mine when I was about 15 when I first obtained this photo.  (I didn't know any better at the time) .  Then there is the handwritting that use the green ink and I am unsure who it belongs to or even what it says.  The handwritting that has everything circled is also unknown as to whom it belongs to.  However, if I could figure out who Susan is, I could narrow down the handwritting to her daughter.  But at this time, I don't know who Susan is.

Event Submission #3: Forgotten Cemeteries Submission for the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal

Well once again I am rapidily working on my events for the Winter 2010 Geneblogger Games. 

Event #5 Write, Write, Write!  One of the task is to in one of the genealogy or family history related blog carnivals.  So my submission went in for the March 2010 Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal, Forgotten Cemeteries.  This topic was given to Graveyard Rabbit by Tina Michael Ruse of  Campo Santo-holy ground, The Graveyard Rabbit of Alta California.  Submissions are due by:  February 25, 2010.  You can view the sumbitted article at Graveyard Rabbits of Wichita County Texas.

Last year I kept hearing about "Beaver Creek Cemetary which is located outside of Electra, Texas just off of HWY 25.  The Cemetary is very secluded and grown up.  One might not even notice it when driving by as Cattails cover the fence line near the enterance and the headstones are set back up on a hill.  Most people have told me NOT to visit during the warmer months as the cemetary is home to many large rattlesnakes.  If your not from Texas and don't know about them, they are nothign to mess with.

On 19 May 2009 my youngest son and daughter ventured out with me to see what Beaver Creek Cemetary was all about.  That particular day was cloudy, wet and cool, so no rattlesnakes happend to appear that day.  However, we did come upon a couple of our little Graveyard Rabbits lerking about.  As I was walking in the tall grass, I almost stepped on one of the little guys. 

The condition of this cemetary broke my heart.  Headstones that have fallen over are thrown in a pile near the fence and we have no idea where they belong.  The grass is grown up to where you can hardly see some of the small markers.  Then there are even markers that have tree's grown up around them where it makes it almost impossible for the NON-Graveyard Rabbit to view. 

After visiting the cemetary, I placed a call to one of the local Funeral Homes in Wichita Falls, TX and spoke to a very polite lady on the other end of the phone.  I told her my crazy story and why I was looking for the information and within a few days she called me back with the name of the caretaker for the Cemetary and his phone number.  At this time, I have not been able to reach him.

Submission #1- Time Line for the Life of Abigail Smith Bardin-Burleson

Here is my entry for my first competition in the Winter 2010 GeneaBlogger Games, one of my events requires me to create and publish a timeline through TimeToast.  I was not able to embed the timeline into my post, but have included a link to the timeline.  Just click on the title to take you to the time line.

This submission is for Event #4:  Expand Your Knowledge.  The taks is to create a timeline for a specific ancestor and then publish it on your blog.

One of the most interesting facts about Abigail is that her and her second husband Cummings Burleson opened their home in 1882 to hold services.  Abigail and Cummings are credit for the creation of the First Primitaive Baptist Church in Llano Co., TX.