So this is another one of those blog posts that isn't about genealogy, except that it is. I'm not being facetious or flippant here. I actually had someone ask me how I stay inspired and how do I stay organized. The answer to the first part is imminent. The answer to the second part is, I'm not. Not really 😕.
Those stacks of papers that the cast of the TV show, The Office, in my heading is pretty accurate.
When I'm gone, my survivors will be aghast when they have to come fossick though what is left of my wordly possessions. There will be two acronymns uttered repeatedly by my descendants in their appellation, "OMG" and "WTH". OMG at the enormity of their task and WTH at the oddity of what they will find when they realize they never knew me, in spite of knowing me all their lives.
But the question is where do I get my inspiration to keep going in a genealogical search, when brickwalls abound, I must add, as that was the unspoken part. We'll start with my quiet little corner of the world.
What I call my office is not an office. I have an office at work, but at home, I have an unremodeled bedroom, unoccupied since my little ones flew the nest. It is still painted in my daughters favorite colors and echoes of the Charlotte Hornets in its paint job. When I sit down in the morning, before work, to begin my quest, for whatever is intriguing me that day, the above photo is what I am looking at. My skill is being gauche, so my fung shui is clutter.
I have a very old computer sitting upon an even older computer table, sitting next to another, more stream-lined computer table holding the printer and a router, with a filing cabinet underneath. Not that this two drawer cabinet is all, oh no! There's two on the other wall, a three drawer and a two drawer, next to a small bookcase. They don't match, one is gray, one is black and one is wooden. Let's get this out of the way to begin with, I'm poor. Not, not knowing where my next meal is coming from poor, but not having a beautifully designed office with matching furniture, poor.
Instead of this, (above), I have that cavalcade of confusion (further up). What jumps out first? It's similar to a "Where's Waldo" page. However, all are things I use, treasure, or what inspires me. The cardinal is not only my favorite bird, but my daddy's funeral announcement. The willow tree espouses one of my favorite sayings, "Sometimes the right path is not always the easiest one". The tree, art called 'Grandmother Willow', drawn by an artist who calls herself Pocahontas. There's water in my coffee warmer, random jewelry, fingernail clippers, and assorted desk trolls like a calculator and a pencil sharpener, under the screen. My papersorter is filled with disks from state archives. A church fan adorns the back wall stamped West 2nd Street, Oakboro, est. 1915. A couple of small books peek out over the CD's, Cider With Rosie, by Laurie Lee, about his time in Cotswold after the War, a treasure from a visit to my relatives in the UK, and 'Albemarle and Stanly County in 1891', by local historian Lewis Bramlett and his son, Andrew. The Bramletts and I share a tree branch of German ancestry through our decent from the Starnes family. My third Great Grandfather, F.F.Starnes (Frederick Fincher) and his Great Grandfather of some unknown degree of Great, F E. Starnes, (Francis Eugene), were business partners at some point, referred to as 'cousins' in the newspaper of the time.
And as for the cluttered collection of ancestors and descendants above it, beginning with a wooden tourist trap rendition of the hilly streets of Love, in Cornwall.....
It's twain! There's also a top row that begins with my little brother and ends with my oldest daughter. A photo of a paternal Great Grandmother sits next to a photo of my mom and her siblings at their parents 50th Anniversary party, partially blocked by a photo of the same 4 siblings with their Dad, my Pawpaw, as children. A photo of my Mom and myself connects to an old family photo of a different grandfather, with his family, as a little boy, followed by a current little boy, one of my younger grandchildren. Framed by treasures, hanging handmade ornaments, made of piory thatch by my friend, Meralda, from Pitcairn Island, an artist whose work can be found at Maimitihaven.com.
Then, there are the maps. I love maps. I collect maps. There's much to be gleaned from maps, whether studying history, or in particular, tracking of family trails. The one above the first photo, over my brothers' head is an 1870 Captain N. A. Ramsey map of Chatham County, NC. Chatham is a country of beautiful terrain, that an impressive number of my procreaters passed through, on their way here, to my home county of Stanly.
Next to that is a map that predates the Chatham one by over 200 years, the 1640 Blaeu Map of the Eastern Seaboard, from Virginia south, through the Carolinas to the Florida border, which was Spanish territory at the time.
To the far right is a map of Scotland with the names of some of the most populous Scottish Clans labeled in the area of their historic origins. I'm a mite sain of all things Scottish, as this land claims the largest hunk of my DNA, which comes from dozens of locations worldwide, primarily Europe, but not exclusively. The family names found upon this map that I know I descend from are Ramsey, Murray, McCoy, and McGregor.
My map collection also consists of:
- 1904 map of Anson County, very similar to a C. B. Miller Map.
- 1982 map of Stanly County encircled with small replications of the area, with towns and points of interest marked from 1841, 1850., 1875, 1900, 1925, 1950, and 1975.
-The C. B. Miller map of Stanly County, circa 1890-1910, that included place and people names, and marked schools and churches.
- 1982 map of Montgomery County.
- The First Lord Proprietors Map of the Carolinas dated 1672.
- An H. S. Tanner Map of North and South Carolina circa 1825.
I hope to add to this collection one day.
Ah, the print table! To the right of my ostrich flamingo pen is the surge protector and router and printer, watched over by not one, but two pictures of Great, Great, Great Grandfather, Henry Davis. There's a calendar with a beautiful model, who happens to be my only Granddaughter and another Grandchild flipbook of my fourth Grandson on the front. It's the boxes to the right they will need to be afraid of. All of them are full of genealogy notebooks, by family and filled to the brim with research and stuff. No better word for it than stuff. Shake in terror of those, they are heavy and mighty.
The printer table has a top tier, too. Left of the clans of Scotland is a portrait of one of my favorite founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. I named my firstborn Benjamin. The print comes with a quote, "Any Society that will give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
Sadly, we've forgotten this, it seems and are doomed to suffer the consequences. There's my 'currently working on' trays, and that little munchkin with the bronzed baby shoes is me, my mother had these done and they sat atop my dresser as a child. Now they sit in front of a clever montage of my oldest four grandchildren and is guarded by one of my horse statues and my gingham bunny, treatises spawned from childhood delights. If you can't splurge on childhood desires when you are a senior citizen, which is rapidly approaching, when can you?
Back to maps, one wall features the 1982 map of Stanly County, which I previously mentioned, adjacent to an ornamental family tree. Above them, the Charlotte Hornets design is on full display.
The Townships of Olde Anson adorn the door. To the left is another favorite poster, George Caleb Binghams, 'Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap'.
The walls aren't all covered in Maps, per this photo. There's a print of Shiloh Methodist Church in Montgomery County, NC, still standing, where a beautiful historic Christmas show, complete with antique instruments and decor, is put on in early December. A portion of the Lord Proprietors map I spoke of earlier. A print of Sequoia, the Cherokee who invented a written system of the Cherokee language, and the Daniel Boone print beside him. And oh yeah, I'm big on Native American decor, too. It's everywhere including here. No need to go through all the walls, but in addition to the maps, there's a big, beautiful black and white print of a casual John and Jackie Kennedy circa 1953, a UFC poster of Connor McGregor, A King's and Queens timeline poster from Egbert, the first Saxon king recognized as King of all the English in 827, to Elizabeth II., and a theater poster of Chris Hemsworth as Thor in the Marvel Movies. yeah.
Cabinet drawers hold books, reference books, family history books, and some casual reading texts, too. Above is shown, including The Biography of Frances Slocum, by Meginess, Stanly County, by D. Douglas Buchanon and the Stanly County Museum, Gold Mines in North Carolina, by John Hairr and Joey Powell, Uwharrie Bizarres, by Fred T. Morgan, Crossing Buckhorn, by George G. Thomas, Unruly Women, by Victoria E. Bynam, Cryin's For Hungry Babies, by Dennis Hayman, The Journey, by Eugene Broadway, and Broadway Royals, by the same. There's Family Maps of Sumter County, Alabama and Family Maps of Marengo County, Alabama, both by Gregory A. Boyd, J. D., as well as some books just for reading. I literally have books everywhere.
On top of The Boggan Family Patrick, Benjamin, James and their sister, Jane by Frances Henrietta Bingham Krechel are a couple of spare DNA tests I keep around, just in case someone might need one. These are under a couple of Brent H. Holcolm books, Marriages and Death Notices from the Southern Christian Advocate 1837 - 1860 Volume # 1 and 1861 - 1867 Volume # 2, and Southside Virgina Families Volume 1, by John Bennett Boddie. I have several of the Boddie books, and I mention this, because I don't mind doing look-ups, as long as it doesn't become overwhelming. Several of the books I mentioned in my first paragraph concerning books, listed authors with roots here in Stanly or Anson Counties. A few of them even share ancestors with me. Loving history, especially family history, seems to run in the family.
(Note: I better insert here that I don't give out free DNA tests. Oh no, it MUST be a party that is beneficial to my research, a relative, adoptee, etc. These things aren't cheap, $59 on sale, $100 normally.)
More books, yeah, I'm pretty boring. One on Andrew Jackson, a very old book called The Brandons, by Angela Thirkell. No, this isn't like a male version of the 'Heathers" movie, it's a genealogy book on a very old Virginia family with the surname 'Brandon'. The Story of Scott's Hill, Tennessee by Gordon H. Turner, Sr., is about a place where relatives of some of my Turner ancestors migrated to, and yes, I am related distantly to the author. These Is My Words, by Nancy E. Turner, Biographical Genealogies of The Virginia - Kentucky Floyd Families with Notes, by Nicholas Jackson; The Tudors by Jane Bingham, The True Story of Tom Dooley, by Fletcher, The Great Wagon Road by Dietz, Uwharrie Ghost Stories, Fred T. Morgan, and too, Cold Mountain and a decoupage map of Norwood, NC, and another entire layer of books behind those.
This is what the filing cabinet drawers look like. I wonder how much $ I've spent on copies. Let's not go there. I could probably buy a nice car.
While my family files are in alphabetical order per drawer, they're not necessarily in alphabetical order all together. Some families have a file in multiple drawers and there's at least one on every family I descend from and several I don't, that may have ties to my family. Among these, but not limited to, are Aldridge, Abshier, Alexander, Allen, Almond, Atkins, Bass, Blalock, Boggan, Brandon, Broadway, Bridges, Burgin, Burris, Byrd, Cagle, Callaway, Carpenter, Carter Coble, Cochran, Coley, Crump, Dancy, Davis, Dowd, Downer, Drew, Duke, Easley, Efird, Erwin, Exum, Faulkner, Fincher, Flowers, Freeman, Gallahorn, Gould, Gordon, Green, Gunter, Hathcock, Hatley, Herrin, Hildreth,High, Hill, Holmes, Honeycutt, Hooks, Howell, Hudson, Ingram, Kendall, Kennedy, Kernachan, Lambert, Lee, Ledbetter, Lemmons, Lisenby, Lowder, Love, Lynch, Marriott, Marks, Marshall, Martin, Mauldin, McGregor, McCoy, McQueen, Means, Meggs, Melton/Milton, Moffitt/Moffatt, Morgan, Morton, Murray, Nash, Nobles, Palmer, Parker, Paul, Parrott, Pfifer, Pickler, Pilcher, Preslar, Query, Ragsdale, Randall, Ramsey, Reed, Robertson, Robbins, Russell, Sibley, Siegel, Simpson, Smith , Solomon, Springer, Starnes, Thompson, Threadgill, Thrower, Tomlinson, Turner, Upchurch, Warren, Webster, Whitley, White, Wilson, Winfield, Works.
So, this untidy little enclave is where I do my thing, and where I find my inspiration. For every mystery I solve I find a dozen more. Every stone unturned leads to another pile. Every question answered leads me to ask another.
It's neverending. Sorry kids.
