Sunday, December 26, 2004

How I came to have genealogy on the Bennett family:

William Thomas Bennett was married to my great grandmother, Louisa Lydia King, who later married my great grandfather, John Mack Hill. She might not have married my g.g. grandpa, except that William Thomas Bennett was killed during the Civil War in a battle in Atlanta (1864). Since it looks as though the same Bennett family was also connected to some of our Loftin's, I guess my Dad thought it would be wise to peruse the Bennett family lines and collect their relatives, in case there were more intersections. Or, more likely, he just wanted to acknowledge that his good fortune (being born) was due to Wm. Thomas Bennett's bad fortune (being killed in battle).

The fact remains that I have an accumulation of Dad's data on this family. I will try to get this entered on the computer and posted on the internet in some fashion, so that others, who are more closely allied to the Bennett Family, may also have access to it.

Research Diary Note for today: Looked on familysearch.org for Sarah Ballenger; found some stuff in Ancestral File, IGI, and the PRF. Also found much on ancestry.com. The Ballenger/Bishop connection is, by the way, in my dad's direct line of ancestors, as she is his 4th great grandmother.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Letter from Congressman

On letterhead from the Congress of the United States, William B. Widnall
wrote a response to a letter that my dad wrote on October 17th, 1951:

November 7, 1951

Dear Mr. Hill:

Thank you for your letter of October 17th which was just received by my
office. I appreciate having the information about the Suduth Development
and will place your recommendations in the Committee files for further
investigation.

Thank you for your kind comments about the housing inquiry.

Sincerely yours, William B. Widnall
[Mailed to Mr. B.W. Hill, P.O. Box 649, Fort Walton, Florida].



Margaret
http://familyhistorynews.blogspot.com

Sunday, November 14, 2004

"Operation on my Nose" by Wiley B. Hill, Jr.
In 1933, I was fighting for the light-weight amateur championship of Fort Benning, Georgia*. My opponent was Al Schneider. I had successively been the runner-up and winner in 1931/32. After a lop-sided fight against an octapus-fisted, supposedly amateur pug that emerged as a runner-up at the National Tournament at St. Louis. Joe Lewis won the light-heavy division, the same night.
Nevertheless, my battered beak didn't resemble a nose; it looked like a squashed tomato. Later investigation proved that Schneider had fought pro, prior to his army enlistment. That didn't rectify my demolished beak.
Eleven years, after consultation with New York's renown plastic surgeon, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, shook this head ruefully. Jack Dempsey had his nose fixed, successfully.
Dr. Maltz finally consented, for a $400 fee, to try. During the two hour operation, Dr. M.M. muttered profanely as he probed about my probscis with his razor edge scapel:
"&%*#, scar tissue....scar tissue...nothing but scar tissue!" Profanity every other word, "Nothing but scar tissue. Piles and piles of it...Have you ever seen the like?", he questioned his cutting crew. "I've had a lot of pugs and thugs on this table, but this is the worst of the lot!"
Though sedatives deadened the pain....the insults didn't! I grimly thought of the fat fee I paid. In a brief second, the humor of the hour overcame offense, and I weakly croaked, "What did you find up there?...Gold?"
Written by Wiley Benjamin Hill, Jr., 905A Cloverdale Court, Fort Walton Beach, Fla. 32547
*Other Fort Benning links:
From a diary note of Wiley Benjamin Hill, Jr., my dad:

8 May 1984: Our home teachers are coming. They gave a beautiful message to us. How to have love and harmony in the home. The message "Cornerstones to a Happy Home." Have:
  1. Mutual Respect
  2. The Soft Answer
  3. Financial Honesty

with the Lord, with your companion, with your neighbors. Have Family Prayer. The Lord will bless you as you do these things.

I'm so grateful for my home teachers. Bro. Grant Adams & John Barrow. For 36 years I lived with a wonderful woman who is worth a dozen like me, but she wasn't a member of my church. I gave her back parsimonious love. Because of my dear home teachers, who taught her the gospel, she announced quite unexpectedly one day that if I still had my white baptism clothes handy, I could lead her into the baptismal font. You could have knowcked me over with a turkey feather. [Some miscellaneous names follow this entry, I know not why! They are Brother Ira Thompson, Bro. Joel and his father, _____Harmon].

10 Feb 1985: I have been reading in D&C. My soul is filled with joy reading of the organization of the church. I found in my sister's Latin book, "Latin is a dead language and now it's killing me". [miscellaneous remark--"Some people, like turkeys, gobble up gossip, just because it's dirt cheap".]

From the files of Wiley Benjamin Hill, Jr., my father, b. 1913 in Hattiesburg, Miss.:

Dad was a realtor by occupation, but he was also involved and interested in politics. The following is "stuff" I found in the papers and files from his estate.

* A Quit-Claim Deed, executed on the 26th day of April, 1960 by Howard A. Parker and wife, Margaret R. Parker, first party, TO Trammel Settles and wife, Irene Settles, second party. For the sum of 1.00, the following described lot in the county of Okaloosa, State of Florida, to-wit:

Commencing at the Southeast corner of the Southwest Quarter of Section 34, Township 1 South, Range 24 West, thence North along the quarter section line a distance of 1840.5 feet to a point, thence West and parallel to the South line of Section 34 to the West right of way of Wright Road, thence West 118.5 feet to a point of beginnning of the land being conveyed: Thence West and parallel to the South line of Section 34 a distance of 188 feet, thence North 168.5 feet more or less to the half section line, thence West along the half section line a distance of 65 feet, thence South 200 feet, thence East 65 feet, thence in a straight line to the point of beginning.

Two documentary stamps (tax) are affixed, each being for 10 cents, with a Florida kind of seal (blue). The document continues, "To Have and to Hold...."; "in Withness Whereof....". This document was signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Erwin Fleet, Leila N. Gartner, Howard A. Parker, and Margaret R. Parker. Leila N. Gartner is the notary and affixed her seal on 17th day of February 1961. The deed was filed in Okaloosa County Court on July 29th, 1961.

A little more about Howard A. Parker: He was a doctor, had his office in Shalimar, Florida and before that, believe he was in Valparaiso, Florida. My dad used his services often. The above link will take you to a page on which his obit is included. Trammel Settles was my mother's uncle. This link will take you to a Niceville City Directory, where Trammel worked in 1966. His son, David, also worked there. The file indicates that Trammel was residing in the Wright community at this time, probably on the very piece of land referenced in the deed described above. Aunt Irene was a hairdresser in Fort Walton, I believe, at about the same time.

Friday, February 20, 2004

Using a Census Timeline. I do this just to get a feel for my ancestor's chronology. I list all the vital records dates that I know, along with any of the place info. Using the Census Timeline Form, I mark out all the census years that do not apply. I then estimate how old my ancestor is at the time each census during his lifetime was done.

Using google, I indicate that I want 1850 census information for choctaw county, alabama. The first of the results I get back sends me to a usgenweb/rootsweb site where I look through the index. Hill is on page 149A, 196B and 197A. The actual text of the census is also available through this link.

I find Joel Hill, age 28, male, a planter, born in SC, Page #1966. He is living with Mary A., age 26, (his wife), from SC. Children are Burtha?, age 6, b. in AL, John, age 4, b. in AL, and Margaret E., age 2 in AL. I believe this person to be a member of this family, but do not find John age eight.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Now, what if I hadn't found anything on my search. I would enter that information in my log, just as I do when I find stuff.

I would also modify my search to see what could be found by leaving the middle name out, etc.
I have decided to look for information at the Family Search Site for my grandfather, Wiley Benjamin Hill, Sr. This is my paternal adoptive line.

Wiley Benjamin Hill, Sr., was born 11 Feb 1881, near Purvis, Lamar County, Mississippi. He died 16 Feb 1954, in the same location.

I will enter in his information, now, into the Family Search "locator".

The results when I listed only his year of birth and his name and where his birth took place: One hit in Ancestral File. This is him! The preliminary screen that lists the hits even tells me that Lamar County was formerly Marion County, MS.

I click on this Ancestral File hit to get more information. First, I want to know who the submitter is, since I've already determined that this is my man. The submitters are my father and Clarence Hunt, who was my Aunt Bea's husband.

I learn from this submission that my grandfather is buried in Coletown Cemtery, near Purvis, Mississippi. This was information that I didn't have, before. I should go and visit the cemetery!

I can click on "Pedigree" to obtain the Pedigree Chart, where I am allowed to download a gedcom. Or I can try to print this information out. First I will change my page properties so that it will print in a landscape format. This didn't work as well as I had hoped, printing out two pages that I had to tape together! I will also try the portrait format, just to see what that delivers and I find out that this page is designed to print out in the portrait format! It is readable and complete.

I will also download the Gedcom to my hard drive and incorporate it into my PAF program (under an appropriate and separate file name).

My grandfather also shows up in the IGI database, primarily because a lot of my ancestors in that line were Mormons and the IGI is the database that is driven exclusively by member submissions. The information listed is the same as I already have.

There were no exact hits on the 1880 Census and since my grandfather wasn't born until 1881, I don't pursue any of those.

Interestingly, though, I do find a "Wiley Hill" on the Social Security Index, whose birth is listed as 1880. This fellow, however, died twenty years after my grandfather in a different state. The birth date is close and he was born in MS, but the other information makes it clear that this is not my grandpa.