Grant Genealogy
Volume 1, Issue 5
July-August, 2002
- Editor: Marty Grant, Kinston, NC,
USA
- E-Mail:
public@martygrant.com
- Website:
http://www.martygrant.com
Welcome to this issue of "Grant
Genealogy", a newsletter devoted to Grant Genealogy in North Carolina,
Tennessee and Virginia (and other states to a lesser extent).
Please visit my Grant web pages at:
http://www.martygrant.com/gen/grant.htm for documented web pages for
numerous Grant families in NC, TN and VA.
To change your subscription information
(change your e-mail address, or unsubscribe) refer to the instructions at
the bottom of this newsletter.
In this Issue:
Introduction
What I've been up to lately. Why there
was no July newsletter.
My Grant Book
Not much to report.
Family
of the month:
David Grant (1740/50) of Wilkes and
Wake Co, NC and Carter Co, TN. Revolutionary War Soldier. Cad.
What's New on the Grant Web
pages?
New pages, and recently updated pages.
Personal Ancestral File 5.2
Free Family Records program available.
I use it and love it.
Expert Advice:
Gathering Family Photo Stories.
Web Links
Introduction
Hi all, I'm sorry that I did not get a
newsletter out in July, but I was just too busy, so I'm making this one
a "July-August" issue. I may have to start going bi-monthly instead of
monthly if I have time limitations or nothing exciting or interesting to
write about.
I have been hard at work on genealogy
projects for my website, but mostly for other surnames than Grant. I've
been hard at work on pages for Patterson ancestry as well as my Stroud
ancestry. I know my Grant pages need a lot of work, especially in the
Grant families of Tennessee and Virginia, but I'll get to it eventually.
I'm still slowly recovering from my
tail-bone troubles, though I'm still not fit enough to sit down for more
than an hour at a time, and even only then if I'm well cushioned! This
has been troubling me since 1999, and my two surgeries in 2000 did
nothing to alleviate my pain, though the second surgery did help much
more than the first. I would love to have this behind me (no pun
intended), so I can once again go to the libraries, court houses and
state archives and do all the things a genealogist loves to do! In the
meantime, I'm content to work via my books and the Internet, and with
the data shared with me by so many other genealogists and family
historians.
My Grant Book
I have done some work on my Grant book
since the last newsletter, but not a lot. Several of my cousins have
sent me updated data on their branches of the family, and I've
incorporated some of it, and will get all of it in eventually.
Family
of the month:
David Grant (1740/50) of Wilkes and
Wake Co, NC and Carter Co, TN. Are these three different Davids, or are
they one and the same?
I've never heard from any descendants
of this line, so I've had a question for a long time about whether I'm
dealing with one David Grant in three different places, or two or three
Davids. I don't have a definitive answer yet, perhaps one of my readers
can shed some light on the subject.
I'll start with the most recent data I
have. There is a David Grant listed on the 1830 census aged 80-89, or
born ca 1740/50. He is the same David Grant who married Nancy Bowman
in 1823 in Carter Co, TN. His 1830 census entry showed a female aged
30-39 (born ca 1790/1800), and two apparent sons, one under 5 (born ca
1825/30), so probably Nancy's, and another 15-19 (born ca 1810/15), so
probably David's from a previous marriage.
I don't know how long David Grant had
been in Carter County prior to 1823, because the 1790, 1800, 1810 and
1820 census records are all lost for Carter County. I have not attempted
to search other Carter County records, but he may show up there early
on.
Backing up a bit, there is a David
Grant on the 1800 census in Wake County, North Carolina. This David was
aged 45+ (born before 1755), with a wife born ca 1774/84, and a daughter
under 10 (born ca 1790/1800). He was not listed in Wake in 1790 nor was
he still there in 1810.
Wake County deeds show that on 7 Nov
1800 three deeds were made to David Grant, all from Mayton Thompson. The
first deed was for land on Little Lick Creek, and the other was a bill
of sale for sundry property, and the third was for land on Herons Creek,
waters of New Hope Creek. All three were witnessed by John Rigsby and
Charlotte Rigsby.
There was a David Grant on the 1790
census in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He was living alone, so no
apparent wife or children.
It should be noted that although Wilkes
Co, NC and Carter Co, TN are right next to each other (or at least they
were back then), Wake County is well into central North Carolina. I've
always been quite sure that David of Wilkes and David of Carter Co, TN
were the same man, but I can't be sure that David of Wake is also the
same man.
A David Grant was a Revolutionary War
Soldier from North Carolina, and a pension application was filed by his
mother in-law, Mrs. Williams who stated that David Grant had married her
daughter and had abandoned her and their crippled child and fled the
state.
I feel quite sure that this is the same
David in all four instances, David of Wilkes Co, NC living there in 1790
by himself. To Wake Co, NC shortly afterwards, where he married Miss
Williams (1774/84) in the 1790's, having a daughter (born 1790/1800) who
was crippled. He was in Wake for the 1800 census, but very soon
afterwards, abandoned them and moved to Carter Co, TN. The Pension
request was denied by the reason that since he had fled the state, he
had forfeited all rights to a pension from the state.
On 9 Dec 1802 Joseph Holifield obtained
a marriage bond in Wake County to marry "Nancy Grant". David Daniel was
the bondsman. Was Nancy the abandoned wife of David Grant? Or is this
someone else not connected to David. There had been a William Grant in
Wake County back in 1790, but no longer there in 1800 (David was the
only Grant listed there in 1800). If Nancy was David's wife, then she
must have filed for divorce. It is possible that Nancy was the daughter
of David, though she couldn't have been more than 12 by 1802.
I found no other Grant marriages in
Wake County.
As I mentioned above, there was a
William Grant in Wake in 1790. He was gone by 1800, so I don't know if
he is connected to David in some way.
David Grant was listed in Wilkes in
1790, as was
John
Grant (married to Margaret Sale). It is possible that they are
related, but they were not listed near each other in 1790, though in the
same county.
So, we have David Grant, born ca
1740/50, location unknown. He was a Revolutionary War Soldier in North
Carolina, listed on the 1790 census in Wilkes County, married a Miss
Williams in Wake County in the 1790's, listed on the 1800 census in Wake
County, then gone after that, perhaps to Carter Co, TN where he was by
1823 when he married Nancy Bowman. He was listed on the 1830 census in
Carter Co, TN. No record of him after that, and no other Grants in
Carter County, to my knowledge. Did not find him on the 1840 census, so
he probably died in the 1830-1840 time-frame.
If anyone can add to what I've written,
I would appreciate hearing about it.
I don't have a web page on my site for
this family yet. I had one years ago that I deleted due to lack of
documentation. I'll add it back someday (and add documentation to it)
when I have time.
What's New on the Grant Web
pages?
I have made no Grant page updates since
the last newsletter. (Shame on me!)
Personal Ancestral File 5.2
I could be wrong, but it seems like
most people I know use Family Tree Maker for keeping their Genealogy
straight. I have the program (version 7.5) but I have never liked it
(for many reasons). I think version 10 of that program is now available.
I have been a "life long" PAF user. "PAF"
(Personal Ancestral File) is a free program that is far better (in my
opinion) than Family Tree Maker. I started out with PAF, so of course
I'm biased, but after all these years it just gets better with every new
version. It was always inexpensive, and just a couple of years ago, the
makers (the LDS church) started giving it away for free.
I can't give a point by point
comparison of PAF vs FTM, because I don't use FTM enough to know how it
works, especially newer versions, but I can tell you that there is no
risk to try out PAF considering the price (free!).
Check it out at the following URL.
Click on "Order/Download Products" and from there click on the PAF 5.2
link and follow the instructions.
http://www.familysearch.com/
Expert Advice:
Gathering Family Photo Stories
Reprinted with permission from Family Tree
Magazine Email Update, copyright 2002 F&W Publications Inc. To subscribe
to this free weekly e-mail newsletter, go to
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/newsletter.asp. For a free sample
copy of the print Family Tree Magazine, America's #1 family history
magazine, go to
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/subscribe_mag.html.
Talking with relatives is a necessary part of any family research, but
it becomes more important when photographs are involved. By showing the
images to family members, you may discover the names and the stories
behind the photographs.
In some cases, the older members of a family will remember stories,
while in others, the younger relatives will be the most helpful. You may
want to show the image you are trying to date and interpret to more than
one relative. Everyone remembers an event differently. An elderly
relative may remember all the names of the people in the portrait and
may also tell you a story about the day the picture was taken.
One relative talked about what it had been like to travel to the city to
sit for a family portrait. She recalled that she had never seen a tin
ceiling before and couldn't take her
eyes away from it. Her story explained why she was looking up in the
family portrait. She could provide a date for the image, but the story
she told about it enriched the family history.
When showing a photograph to relatives, prepare a list of questions
prior to your visit. And let the details in the image lead to other
avenues of enquiry. A friend showed her
much older siblings a box of family photographs in order to find out
when and where they were taken. All the images were taken before she was
born, so she was unfamiliar with the events and the people. During the
course of the interview, the siblings began using nicknames for each
other that they had used as children. The younger sibling was amazed.
She was unaware of these nicknames, her siblings explained, because they
had used them only to communicate between themselves. Her siblings
shared with her the origins of those nicknames and why they used them. A
whole new understanding of her immediate family was uncovered in one
afternoon by looking at family photographs.
--Excerpted from "Uncovering Your Ancestry through Family Photographs"
by Maureen Taylor, $18.99. Reprinted here with permission from the
publisher, Betterway Books. Available in bookstores or online at
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70452
Web Links
Marty and Karla Grant website:
http://www.martygrant.com
What's New at Marty and Karla Grant?:
http://www.martygrant.com/gen/whats-new.htm
Grant Genealogy - North Carolina, Tennessee and
Virginia:
http://www.martygrant.com/gen/grant.htm
What's New on the Grant pages?
http://www.martygrant.com/gen/grant/grant-new.htm
Grant Census Transcriptions 1790-1870:
http://www.martygrant.com/gen/grant/grant-census.htm
Grant Discussion Forum (North Carolina Grants
only):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GrantGenealogyNC/
Other Grant websites:
http://www.martygrant.com/gen/grant/grant-links.htm
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