What to do now? Who were these people in the scrap of paper? Were they "my" people? I thought I recognized my Grandfather's name, it was pretty close (Archa instead of Archie), but for the rest, I admit, I did not know who they were. They all had the last name "Smith", and their birth dates are all from 1800's. I made the assumption (I know, I know) that they are related (to each other? to me?), but how to find out more information? I contacted a friend who used to work with me. His wife does genealogy (at the time, I did not even know how to spell the word). What luck, she volunteers at our local Family History Center. We met at the FHC and she gave me advice on how to proceed. So, I began a research journey that has not ended.
The first thing that she suggested was, starting with me, write down the information (names, birth dates, and places) for the people in my family that I knew, or thought I knew. This is where to begin searching for ancestors? Being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to do both...I wanted to find out who the people were on my scrap of paper...okay, so off I went...
I think the first document that was found is the 1880 Census for Arkansas, Washington County, Marrs Hill Township. Success!??
What information is in this Census? The date on the page was Jun 19, 1880...Where is Marrs Hill? Where is Washington County? Arkansas? ...Okay, I had a pretty good idea where Arkansas is located.... I had only heard stories about "Owl Hollow (Holler?)" and I didn't know where that was, either.
Found nearly all the names on the paper. Henrietta was born and died in 1857 (so sad to lose an infant), so she wasn't included, but everyone else was there and a new member of their family.
R C Smith became Robert C, Jane, Ira N, Uriah, Perry, Flora E, Archibald G, George Ferrel (who was this? Oh, son-in-law), Susan M and Robert S. Names seem to match pretty well, now we have approximate birth dates (which match the dates on my scrap of paper), occupations and places. Cool, Birth Places, now we are getting somewhere...
Occupations, Robert - Farm Laborer, Jane - Keeping House, Ira - Works on Farm, and George Ferrel - Farmer. What's the distinction between Farm Laborer, Works on Farm and Farmer?
Birth places...sticking with immediate family...let's see... Robert in Ohio, Jane in Virginia, Ira in Illinois, Uriah in Ohio, Perry in Kentucky, Flora in Virginia, Archibald in Arkansas, Susan in Illinois. Oh, somebody has been moving around... a lot!
But wait, there's more...Birth places of their parents (Father/Mother). Robert's - Ohio/Ohio, Jane's - Virginia/Virginia
Whoever gave the information to the Census taker (Enumerator), of course reflected Ohio/Virginia for their children. George Ferrel was born in Tennessee and his parents Virginia/Virginia.
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