Photo: Marie Lovelace Carlton (1921-2022)
Welcome. You’ve made it to my blog.
Whether you are “part of the family” doing your own research or just curious about history or genealogy, I hope you’ll discover something here of interest. The posts are in chronological order and go all the way back to 2010. I’ve learned a lot since then, so the older ones have been dusted off, fact checked, copy edited and given a second life here. Of course, if you have more information, photos or corrections about any of those mentioned or facts in these posts, please email me at [email protected]. You can skip directly to the blog archives here.
Recent Posts
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The Bibles of Leonard D. Cobb and Will Williams
Old family Bibles that include genealogy information feel a little like time machines to me. They give me a written connection to ancestors I never knew but still somehow feel close to. A September blog entry included pages from an Outlaw family Bible. Since then, I have received photos from a couple of other family…
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Sister C. A. Williams Is Gone
Photo: D. G. Beers Co. of Philadelphia 1877 map of Haywood County, Tennessee showing the location of Catherine A. Williams homeSource / “Sister C. A. Williams is Gone.” That was the first sentence of my third great-grandmother’s obituary, written by John Charles Warren Cobb (1830-1914) and W.T. Morris (1842-1924) as it appeared in the Zion…
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George Williams Brick Wall
Holly Grove Baptist Church, pictured around 1913 is located in Bertie County about seven miles south of Powellsville on the east side of US Highway 13. It was organized in 1804 as Outlaw’s Chapel and was named for Ralph Outlaw. During the early 1820s the name was changed to Holly Grove. / While I have…
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Is a Fort Pillow commander buried near Poplar Corner Road?
Photo: An unidentified Union soldier; Photo credit: Library of Congress, Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs / Could a Union officer from Obion County, Tennessee who commanded troops during one of the Civil War’s most notorious massacres be buried in an unmarked grave near Nixon Creek in Haywood County? Rodney Wright, a longtime friend…
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Lots of Love, Cordilia
Photo: Dorothy Cordelia Brantley Jacocks (1919-present) / A few days ago, I posted a blog about the Haywood High School class of 1939 that included a photo of my great uncle J.T. Jacocks. He married my grandmother’s sister, Cordelia Brantley. I have a copy of a letter written by Aunt Cordelia to my grandmother the…
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Haywood High School 1939
This great photo of the Haywood County High School Class of 1939 was posted on the Haywood County Genealogy Facebook page managed by volunteers from the Genealogy Room at the Elma Ross Library in Brownsville, Tenn. Vicky Morrow Hutchings wrote she found it in a corn crib at her father-in-law’s house. I am very grateful she shared…
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A Civil War Widow’s Long Road From Haywood County to Tomato, Arkansas
For a long time, I have been curious about Daniel E. Brantley (1833-1864), the brother of my third great-grandfather, Henry Day Brantley (1845-1918). Many members of their family fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but I found Daniel listed as a Union soldier. That discovery raised an obvious question. Why would a…
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Red Wallet Photo Gallery
During the holidays, I was looking through boxes of old photos at my parents’ house when I came across an old red wallet crammed full of small Polaroids taken from the mid- to late 1960s. They feature me, the little boy in the photos, and my family as we lived and played more than 50…
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Finding Castellaws and Cobbs at the National Archives
Since moving to Washington, D.C., a research trip to the National Archives has been near the top of my list. A recent Saturday morning with nothing planned gave me the chance to check it out. I had time that day for only a few quick searches in the Civil War database, but in a matter…
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Checking Out Robert E. Lee’s View of Washington, D.C.
Earlier this year, I picked up a copy of “Robert E. Lee: A Life” by humorist Roy Blount Jr. (1941-present). It looks like a great book, but so far I have only had time for a quick scan. Reading it has moved to the top of my to-do list, especially now. Yesterday, my family and…
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An Outlaw Family Bible
I was recently given the opportunity to examine a family Bible that once belonged to my fourth great-grandparents, George Washington Outlaw (1803-1861) and Luday Perry Outlaw (1800-1840). If you are researching Outlaw family genealogy and landed on this page from a Google search, I hope these names and dates help you fill in some blanks…
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Auntie Mame, Memphis Style
In June, I posted some family photos and new information I received from Peggy Anderson, a distant relative I connected with online. Peggy’s great-grandmother, Nora Castellaw Hilburn (1878-1941), shown at top left in the photo, was the sister of my great-grandfather, Robert Edward “Bob” Castellaw (1868-1954). Peggy later emailed another family photo, taken in Baton…
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Visiting Old Salem Cemetery and Battlefield in Jackson
A few months ago, I ran across a website about Old Salem Cemetery and Battlefield in Jackson, Tennessee. So, when my family and I were headed east on Interstate 40, we stopped to check it out. According to the historical signage at the site, the land was originally associated with the Woolfork family and was…
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The Bettis Family Cemetery
Sunday morning, I was up early, researching the Patterson branch of my family tree, when one little leaf led me to a cemetery I had driven past for years yet never seen. The Bettis Family Cemetery sits off Angelus Street between Madison and Poplar avenues, tucked into a busy retail strip between Home Depot and…
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Blues, Barbecue and Memorial Day in Haywood County
Yesterday, we took a road trip to Haywood County, Tennessee, to check out the 2012 Exit 56 Blues Fest and celebrate Memorial Day a little early. We needed some mood music for the drive from Memphis, so we pulled out an old CD that came from a past music issue of The Oxford American. I…
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Agness Booth Clardy and Early Methodism.
Photo: Agness Booth Clardy / While working on my Haywood County Booth family line, I ran across an interesting obituary that deserved a closer look. The subject was Agness Booth Clardy (1755-1847), my fifth great-aunt. Clardy is interesting because she was born when Virginia was still a British colony. She joined the Methodist church the…
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Jones Station and the Booth Family
I finally got all my Booth family research added to my site after working on it for more than six months. It was an interesting family line to research, but it took a lot of time to work through census records and track the migration of the family from Virginia to South Carolina, then to…
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Aunt Jo
I love the way social networks allow those interested in gathering accurate records and stories of the past to share information and photographs. A distant relative I did not know previously, Joe Reid, emailed me last week, and we have been exchanging stories and information ever since. His grandmother, Jo Stella Williamson Reid (1896-1993) and…
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Bob and Zula Castellaw Siblings
You assume the families of your siblings will stay connected for at least a few generations, but genealogy research prooves that is usually not the case. Thanks to social networks like Facebook and genealogy sites like Ancestry.com, at least we can now reconnect with distant cousins who drifted away long ago. In this photo, the…
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The Gunter-Marbury Family Connection
A while back, I saved this photo on my computer because I liked it so much and planned to figure out who these people were when I giot a chance. I forgot about it until I ran across it again recently, and once again it captured my imagination. I originally got the photo from my…
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Louisiana’s Civil War Museum and the Robert E. Lee Monument
We were just in New Orleans and had a few hours before our train left for Memphis, so my wife and I checked out Louisiana’s Civil War Museum and the Robert E. Lee Monument. Having just visited Shiloh a week earlier, we are now one step away from throwing on period clothes and reenacting. Robert…
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Shiloh National Military Park
Last Sunday, my family and I took a slight detour on our way home to Memphis from Middle Tennessee and visited Shiloh National Military Park. I already knew the park had several special events planned because the 150th anniversary of the battle fell later that week. I did not, however, plan well enough to get…
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Early Settlers Richard and Temperance Cocke
For me, genealogy research feels a little like walking through an enormous old house with endless hallways and rooms. Some doors open into empty rooms. Others contain a few scattered clues, just enough to make you keep looking. Then, every once in a while, you stumble into a room previous generations of researchers have already…
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James Shield
As I am researching my family line, sometimes I spiral back and find myself looking for information about a family with a very distant connection. The branch of James Shield (about 1670-July 1727) sits way up and far to the side on my family tree, but it runs through a Revolutionary War story, a president…
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More Old Photos
Front row: Jess Williams (my father’s brother), Bobby Williams (my father), Whit Smith, Billy CastellawSecond row: Frank Reid, Bobby Castellaw, Joe Christmas, J. C. CastellawBack row: Lyle Reid / I received some great photos this week from one of my Haywood County cousins, Roland Reid. I love it when I get photos like this. It…
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The Most Forgotten Famous Person from Haywood County
Richard Halliburton (1900-1939) may be the most famous person born in Haywood County, Tennessee, whom almost no one remembers. For a brief, bright stretch during the Jazz Age and the years that followed, Halliburton ranked among the best-known adventurers in the world. He swam the Panama Canal, slept on top of the Great Pyramid of…
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Womanless Wedding
My cousin Sandra sent me this photo from The Brownsville States-Graphic. It shows my grandfather, Jesse Lloyd “Bo” Williams (1910-2008), dressed as a minister and looking a bit like Charlie Chaplin. Her grandfather, Bear Mann (1902-1966), was the bride in the wedding. The caption under the photo is: Nuptial Headliners – Playing top roles in…
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Sim Cobb’s Diary
I have been researching the family of my second-great-grandmother, Sarah Evelena “Lena” Booth Marbury (1868-1949). To me, one of the most rewarding parts of genealogy research is finding the information that turns a name and a date into a real person. I am grateful that Joe H. Cobb included the diary of Simion Amherst “Sim”…
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Lost History: The 1890 Census Records
I am still new to genealogy research and kept noticing a hole in the census records for my Haywood County ancestors in 1890. After a little digging, I learned why. Most of the 1890 federal census population schedules were damaged in a fire at the Commerce Department Building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10, 1921.…
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The Seeds of my Fascination with Genealogy
I recently found more really old family photos, thanks to my 12-year-old self and my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams (1915-1998). I got my first taste of genealogy from “Granny,” as we called her, one summer when I was about 12. I was spending a week with my grandparents near the Holly Grove community in Haywood…
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Hugh Jackman, Andrew Lytle and Me in the Bahamas
Last week, my wife and I were at the water park at Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas, with Hugh Jackman. OK, we were not exactly “with” Hugh Jackman. We were at the same place at the same time. But as you can see from the photo, I have proof that we stood close enough…
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Castellaw Cemetery in Johnson’s Grove
I recently wrote a blog post about my third-great-grandfather, Charles Randall Johnson (1802-1864). During the recent Christmas, my dad and I set out for the Johnson Grove area of Crockett County, near Alamo, Tennessee, to find the graves of Charles and his wife, Margaret Louisa “Louisa” Wood Johnson (1808-1862). A cemetery transcription for Castellaw Cemetery…
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Herbie Town
Yesterday, my Dad and I headed to Crockett County near Alamo, Tennessee, to look for the graves of some of our Johnson ancestors. We found what we were looking for, and I’ll share more about that another day. But our genealogy road trip also gave us an opportunity to stop by a place called Herbie…
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Lena Booth Marbury’s Friends List
Photo: Mable Marbury Jackson, Sarah Evalena “Lena” Booth Marbury and Allie Marbury Brantley / I have been researching the Booth family and preparing to upload what I have learned to my site. Christmas at my mother’s house gave me a good excuse to look for an interesting “Booth” document I thought I remembered among the…
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An Ancestry Clue Hidden in a Congressional Record
I was searching for the parents of my third great-grandfather, Charles Randall Johnson (1802-1864). I still have not found them. But genealogy has a way of rewarding one search with an entirely different discovery. In the “United States Statutes at Large,” I found an 1882 act authorizing a $250 payment to David Whittaker (1827-1889), administrator…
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Maggie Williams Sullivan
Photo: Recreation of photo of Maggie and Ellis Sullivan A few days ago, I wrote about Ancestry.com making a new batch of death certifcates available. One of them revealed more about my second-great grandfather being buiried in a field that was once called the Williams Family Cemetery. The other person I wrote was likely buried…
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Williams Family Cemetery Found
Photo: Milton Booth near what is left of the Williams Family Cemetery Since I first began researching my ancestry, I have tried to find the graves of my second great-grandparents, George D. Williams (1846-1919) and Martha Jane Watridge Williams (1852-1888). For years, family stories pointed me toward one place. Now, thanks to a Haywood County…
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Home Sweet Home
Photo: Dred and Ellen Yelverton and their home in Wayne County, NC I am finally taking a break from researching my Yelverton line. That took longer than expected because the Yelvertons turned out to be such an interesting family that I kept getting sidetracked. One of the things I enjoyed most was learning about the…
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The Man Named Vivian Married to the Woman Named Joseph
I recently attended a family reunion of my maternal grandmother’s family, the Brantleys. Joining us this year was a branch of the Brantley family we had never met. That particular branch descended from a couple who has always stood out for me because of their names. Vivian, the husband was married to a woman named…
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Cemetery Walk in Denmark, Tennessee
Last weekend I was in Amsterdam. This weekend I was in Denmark. Denmark, Tennessee, that is. Denmark is in Madison County, just north of Haywood County. I didn’t know much about it before this visit, but I quickly learned it is a historically significant small town with a strong commitment to preserving the history of…
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Bridgeman Joyner and Thomas Joyner Jr. and Bacon’s Rebellion
I was in Amsterdam last week and stumbled upon the “Occupy” protest in front of the Euronext stock exchange building. Regardless of a person’s political or social opinions, there is something exciting about being present at an event you know will someday be part of history. There was an intense energy in the crowd, but…
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B. F. Marbury and Mary, His Wife
On my list of favorite headstones is one in Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Haywood County, Tennessee. Until this week, I thought it marked the graves of my third great-grandparents, Benjamin Franklin Marbury (1849-1884) and his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Yelverton Marbury (1853-1884). The problem there is the name. While working on the Yelverton line, I…
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An Old Photo and the Story of Holly Grove Baptist Church
I found this photo of a group of children and adults at Holly Grove Baptist Church in Haywood County, Tennessee, a few weeks ago at my parents’ house. It appears to date to the early 1940s. The people in the photo are hard to identify, but I am fairly certain my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams…
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Abner and Irene Mann’s Stew Recipe
Photo: Abner “Bear” and Irene Mann / The blog post on Haywood County stew a few weeks ago generated a lot of messages and emails. One of my favorites came from my cousin Sandra, whose grandmother, Velma Irene Castellaw Mann (1904-1991), was a sister of my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams (1915-1998). You assume the grandchildren…
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42 Annual Lovelace Family Reunion
Every third Sunday in September, the descendants of James Luther “Jim” Lovelace (1885-1968) and Ruby Fowler Lovelace (1887-1952) gather for the Lovelace Family Reunion that has been going on for more than 40 years. The reunion now takes place at the home of my great-aunt Carolyn Lovelace. She and my great-aunt Marie Lovelace, who is…
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Lillie Overton Lovelace at Lakeland, 1962
Joe Lovelace of Texarkana, Arkansas, sent me a batch of great family photos this week. Joe’s grandfather, William Wilbert “Will” Lovelace (1883-1943), and my great-grandfather, James Luther “Jim” Lovelace (1885-1968), were brothers. Lillie Overton Lovelace, 1962 My favorite photo shows Will’s wife, Lillie L. Overton Lovelace (1883-1979), at Lakeland on July 8, 1962. Lakeland opened…
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Finding Aunt Helen Shirley
Photo: Aunt Helen Shirley Joan, the relative who sent me the photographs of my third great-grandparents, Thomas A. Lovelace (1812-1876) and Quincy A. Shirley Lovelace (1828-1898), recently sent another photo. This one is of a woman her mother always called “Aunt Helen Shirley.” Joan’s mother had given the photograph to Joan’s daughter, along with a…
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New Cobb and Lovelace Photos
I recently wrote about the photos of my third-great-grandparents that Diane Lyle sent me. She also sent photos of several relatives who sit a little farther out on the branches of my family tree. I had already included many of them in my ancestry charts, but photographs put faces with the names. I think when…
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Holly Grove Stew
This weekend, Michelle and I attended a “stew” at Holly Grove Baptist Church in Haywood County, Tennessee. When I was a kid, both sets of my grandparents seemed to keep an endless supply of stew in jars. They brought it out anytime the family gathered to eat. This particular kind of stew tastes unlike anything…
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Centerville School Photo
Photo: Children at Centerville School in Haywood County, Tennessee, around 1918 In a recent post, I mentioned that I hoped to find a better copy of a photo showing students at Centerville School. A distant cousin I had never met saw the post and called with good news. Joan Cobb—pronounced Jo Ann—who lives in Bells,…
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Blog Archives
You can skip directly to the full archives here.
Most recent 50 posts:
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Following the Footsteps of the Lovelace Family
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Lewis Grave Yard with Some Mention of Early Settlers Along Fifth Creek, Iredell Co., N.C.
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Will of Thomas Lovelace, 1772-1829
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Holly Grove Baptist Church: A Castellaw Legacy
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What I Discovered About my Family Tree from my DNA
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George Williams of Bertie County and the Battle of Stono Ferry
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Following my Williams Line Back to Bertie County, North Carolina
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Maggie Williams Sullivan: A Haywood County Tragedy
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Townmania: Marcus Winchester and the Making of Memphis
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Johnny Lee Williams: From Omaha Beach to the Bakersfield Sound to France’s Legion of Honor
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Johnny Lee Williams: French honor service of local WWII veteran
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Northern Ireland Trip Report: Belfast, Portrush and a Wedding at Dunluce Castle, Part I
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Northern Ireland Trip Report: Belfast, Portrush and a Wedding at Dunluce Castle, Part II
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John Williford of Bertie County, North Carolina
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Scotland Trip Report: Part II
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Scotland Trip Report: Part I
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Tech. Sgt. Aaron S. Castellaw: ‘Spirit, Courage and Devotion to Duty’
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A Chickamauga Battlefield Map With a Haywood County Connection
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The Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune of West Tennessee’s David Crockett
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Nathan Washington Parlow and his 170-Year-Old Clock
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April 4, 1920: 100 Years Ago Today in Haywood County, Tenn.
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Sharing Old Family Photos Found in an Envelope
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Barbara Trefren Mayer (1948-2018)
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Remembering Dempsey Williams, a West Tennessee Bird Dog Sportsman
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“Fury in the Earth”: Harry Harrison Kroll and the New Madrid Earthquakes
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The Battle of the Bozos
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‘I’d Like to Kiss You, but I Just Washed My Hair’: Tennessee Writer Harry Harrison Kroll
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Cotton-Picking Robots
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Unity Shirley: An Early Haywood County Settler
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William Smallwood: My Second Cousin, Seven Times Removed
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Nancy Ross Joyner and Her Family’s Journey to West Tennessee
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Exploring the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge
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Looking for Annie Plunk Fowler Robison
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The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878
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Elbert Williams: The First to Die
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James Sumler and Camp Morton
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The Mystery of Laurinda Jordon
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Brownsville and the Hatchie River
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The Cobb Family Cemetery
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Mrs. Serilda Warn Tells of 94 Years of Exciting and Colorful Experiences
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Will the Real John Dawson Please Stand up?
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Where was the Home of Richard Nixon, the First Haywood County Settler?
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My Ancestors’ Journey West
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From a Haywood County Stew Pot to Grocery Shelves Across America
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Samuel Cole Williams and the Beginnings of West Tennessee
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A Visit to the Brantley Family Cemetery
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Captain James Blount and Culpeper’s Rebellion
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2017 Castellaw Family Reunion
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James: The First Castellaw
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An Odd Book Launch
