Category: Castellaw Family
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Following my Williams Line Back to Bertie County, North Carolina
Photo of four generations: From left: Will, Scott, Bo and Bob Williams For years, I have been able to trace many of my ancestral lines back 10 or more generations. But my Williams line, the one that gave me my last name, has stopped at my fourth great-grandfather, George S. “Brother George” Williams (1797–1852). George…
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Tech. Sgt. Aaron S. Castellaw: ‘Spirit, Courage and Devotion to Duty’
Photo: Aaron Samuel “Sammy” Castellaw, far left / When I was a boy, my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams (1915-1998), often took me to cemeteries around Haywood County, Tennessee. As we walked among the headstones, she shared stories about our ancestors and helped me understand who they were and how they connected to me. The…
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Nathan Washington Parlow and his 170-Year-Old Clock
Photo: In 1909, Nathan Washington Parlow (1849–1919) and his second wife, Martha B. Womack Parlow (1852–1928), posed at their home in Alamo, Tenn., beside a clock that Nathan said was 170 years old and “still keeping correct time.” / Although this West Tennessee couple is not in my direct family line, I recently came across…
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Will the Real John Dawson Please Stand up?
Researching the Castellaw family has always been entertaining, but one ancestor in that branch has remained elusive. And to tell you the truth, I am about to ready to let this one go. My fourth great-grandfather, John Dawson Castellaw (1780-1859), left Bertie County, North Carolina, for Haywood County, Tennessee, in the early 1830s. Family tradition…
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2017 Castellaw Family Reunion
I traveled back to Tennessee last week for a reunion of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson Castellaw (1808-1878), and the gathering reminded me of the important role storytelling plays in passing family history from one generation to the next. I have long been fascinated by the story of Thomas Jefferson Castellaw. With his two wives,…
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James: The First Castellaw
Photo: The Bertie County Courthouse in Windsor, photographed in the early 20th century. Built in 1889, the courthouse stands about two miles downstream from the earlier colonial courthouse site established on or near James Castellaw’s Cashie River plantation. / Some ancestors leave behind nothing more than a name, a marriage date and a line in…
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Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw
Photo: Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw with some of her grandchildren, photo credit: Lynn Graves / Lynn Graves, one of my many Castellaw cousins, recently found the photo above among his mother’s belongings. Lynn and I both descend from my third great-grandparents, Thomas Jefferson “T. J.” Castellaw (1808-1878) and Mary Elizabeth Cole Castellaw (1809-1875). The older…
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Anderson Grammar School in Brownsville, Tenn.
I was recently back in Tennessee for a week and got to spend some time looking through the archives in the Reese J. Moses-Scallions Genealogy Room at Elma Ross Public Library in Brownsville. I am usually in a hurry when I am there, so it was fun to have a few hours to check things…
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The Last Will & Testament of Francis M. Wood
The Old Plantation is an American folk art watercolor probably painted in the late 18th century on a South Carolina plantation. The painting is currently held by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg. / My most recent post included an exploration of Francis M. Wood’s bible. In this post, we’ll take a…
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Eden House
Photo: Eden House historical marker located along the Westshore Chowan River, 1952. Charles Brantley ‘Aycock’ Brown (1904-1984), State Archives of North Carolina Source / As the North Carolina Department of Transportation began preparing for work on the U.S. 17 bridge over the Chowan River in the late 1990s, the department knew it was working near…
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Know Your County: James Castallaw
Photo: Hoggard’s Mill was located in an area established in 1736 by James Castellaw. The site was the first Bertie County seat (circa 1722 to 1769) and is known as the “Lost Town of Cashy.” The first courthouse, public warehouses, jail and other various commercial buildings were also located there, making it a historically significant…
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Who was Margaret Dawson Castellaw?
Photo: Edward Moseley 1733 Map of North Carolina featuring Bertie Precinct, including notation of “J. Castellaw” on the Cashie River. This was a notation to James Castellaw. Historically, “I” and “J” were treated as the exact same letter. The letter “J” originated as a decorative flourish for the letter “I.” Source / I began this…
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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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Home Sweet Home
Photograph that appeared in the Brownsville States Graphic newspaper in an article about my grandmother’s updated kitchen. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house in Haywood County, Tennessee. Lloyd “Bo” Williams and Elizabeth Castellaw Williams, whom we called Daddy Bo and Granny, both grew up near the house on Poplar…
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Stitching keeps church neat amid Providence landmarks
This article, published in the Jackson Sun on Friday, Aug. 12, 1983, includes my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams. By BETTYE ANDERSONJackson Sun reporter Jane Carr, Doris Naomi “Nonie” Warren, and Elizabeth Williams, far right, work on a cross-stitch quilt to raise money for Providence United Methodist Church. The women, including the pastor’s wife, Faye Howard,…
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Solomon Norman Brantley, Sincerely Yours in Peace
Photo: My third great-grandfather, Henry Day Brantley, (1845-1918) The country is currently marking the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the The Civil War. A few nights ago, I was flipping through channels and stumbled across Ken Burns’ documentary “The Civil War” on PBS. It caught my attention because I recently discovered Solomon Norman Brantley’s…
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Davy Crockett at SWSW
I had some really good times while at SXSW last week talking about Elvis.com. One of the best happened because on my way to the airport to return to Tennessee, I couldn’t resist stopping at the Texas State Capitol. I was hundreds of miles from home and did not expect to run into anyone from…
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The Texas Castellaws
The internet has changed genealogy in one important way. It allows people who care about their ancestors to find one another and share photographs, documents, stories and small pieces of family history that might otherwise be lost. A recently discovered cousin, Lynn Graves of Texas, shared a great photograph of our mutual ancestors, the family…
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George Phenney Search in Nassau
When I first came across George Phenney, it was because of my research on Penelope Johnston, whom I suspected was my seventh great-grandmother. Penelope’s third husband was George Phenney, who served as colonial governor of the Bahama Islands before marrying her. After digging further, the family connection grew less certain. Still, when I found myself…
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Castellaw Family Reunion
Gathering at Holly Grove Baptist Church A Castellaw Family Reunion was held this past weekend at Holly Grove Baptist Church in Haywood County, Tennessee. It was a fun time as descendants of Thomas Jefferson Castellaw Jr. (1841–1879), and Nancy Marianna Johnson Castellaw (1844-1921) gathered with descendants of their son and daughter-in-law, Robert Edward “Bob” Castellaw…
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John Dawson Castellaw of Bertie County, North Carolina
From Possibility to Proof For a while, I thought I had made a remarkable discovery about the ancestry of my fourth great-grandfather, John Dawson Castellaw of Bertie County, North Carolina, and later Haywood County, Tennessee. Like many amatuer family historians, I had followed a trail that seemed to connect him to a prominent colonial Virginia…
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John Castellaw and Martha Butler
The story of my fifth great-grandfather and his early mixed-race marriage While researching the Castellaw side of my family, one story that deserves closer attention is that of my fifth great-grandfather, John Castellaw (c. 1726–c. 1813), and the relationship he had before his later marriage. John Castellaw appears in records in Bertie County, North Carolina,…
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Jack Castellaw and the Immortal Ten
A Disaster in Texas My second great-grandfather, Tom Castellaw Jr., spent his entire life in Haywood County, as did most of his children. His brother Fletcher’s family took a different path. Fletcher’s son moved to Ennis, Texas, before the turn of the century. There, Jack Coleman Castellaw became a pharmacist and owned a drugstore. Jack…