Category: Castellaw Family
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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,…