Old documents

[Gabob]

A lady sent me a packet of old documents today. In it was a handwritten copy of my G-G-Grandmother's will written in 1861. I still live on the land she mentioned in the will

[jack404]

Excellent! mine back home is granted back to the community

so 150 years plus eh ? cool!!

[Gabob]

Originally Posted by jack404

Excellent! mine back home is granted back to the community

so 150 years plus eh ? cool!!

Longer than 150 , Jack. The earliest deed I have is 1832 when the Indians ceded this area.

[jack404]

better , your own history under your own feet

excellent !

[Maine04657]

I also am a keeper of history. I have family paperwork going back to before the civil war. I am the only person left in the family interested and I am hoping my grandsons will also have a interest to keep it all for future family members.

[jjmitchell60]

I own one farm Bob that has been in our family, m y mother's side, since 1848. It has passed down to direct decendents till 1999 when it passed down to 12 living decendents which I was one and my brother and I bought the rest out in 2003. It will be passed on to my kids (my brotehr has no kids) so they will make the 7th or 8th generation of direct ownership. My other farm has been in the family longer than that except for a 12 year break when my father sold it and I bought it back in the early 1990s.

My late friend lived on a farm that was in his family with no deed, only a land grant from the Continetal Congress where one of his ?G-grand fathers fought in the American Revolution as an officer.

Lot of land in my area and I know in the south where Bob is has been in families since taken from Natives or settled by land grant.

[whirley]

Be grateful for the lady and others who care enough about family history to preserve these original documents. Many people consider them just old junk for the burning pile.

[carver]

Guys, that's some cool stuff! Wish I could chime in on this one, but I don't know enough about my family to say anything. All the Bryants were out of GA by way of TN.

[Caneman]

Originally Posted by carver

Guys, that's some cool stuff! Wish I could chime in on this one, but I don't know enough about my family to say anything. All the Bryants were out of GA by way of TN.

carver, you crack me up, man! you are the best, wish i could adopt you as my grandpa, and if i lived near you i would be over buggin you all the time!!! keep on keepin on brother

[wolfdog]

Heck Bob, I thought you were going to talk about your birth certificate.

[Rocketman1]

Originally Posted by Gabob

A lady sent me a packet of old documents today. In it was a handwritten copy of my G-G-Grandmother's will written in 1861. I still live on the land she mentioned in the will

Thats fabulous! It’s nice to find something like that about your roots.
I love genealogy, but it makes it much more interesting when you can find stories or other info like you have found to go along with it. Otherwise they are just names on a piece of paper.

I found all kinds of stuff like this when my wife and I were cleaning out her mother’s house. Old legal documents and bibles with generations of family names in them going back well before the civil war. I found one document that was a contract with specifications for a family grave marker. There were no drawings but all the dimensions were given. I grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing what I read, and when I got done, I had something representing a mini Washington Monument. The problem was finding the monument, all the document said is that it was for the family plot located in the cemetery north of the Baptist church. While out researching her roots one day, I showed the sketch I made to a couple of old farmers, and they told me where the monument was located. I drove down that county road, and as I came up over a hill, Low and behold there was the monument that I had drawn, with generations and generations of my wife’s family buried around it.

Things like this is what makes it exciting.

[jjmitchell60]

The ones who .ived through the Depression saved everything!!! When my great aunt died, the one who left the land to 12 of us, we had to clean out the 2 story house. in all but 2 rooms, the 2 she used, there was a path way through the center with boxes of stuff stacked to the ceiling on each side. We found sympthy cards from the 1880s!!! Found a doctors leter signed by the county clerk stating that one of my great-great-great-great uncles was unfit medically to serve in the home guard or regular military during the Civil War! Found mconfederate naval buttons from a cousin who served in the CSA Navy. Found all kinds of Civil War buttons from both sides where family members served. Found WWI military stuff, WWII military stuf, and on and on! My great ant and 2 great uncles never married, lived together till each dies in that house, kept a yearly diary each, and we found each years diary from each one of the 3 neatly stacked in boxes! We found a powder horn dated 1813 stuck in the closet with one of the families initials on it. Pulled a stone jug stuck in the hole where a stove pipe went in teh chimney in a room not used that brought $2000 at auction! My mother and her siblings auctioned off all that was not family marked (ancestors personal items not sold like the letters and buttone) and the auction brought in $80K with MANY off the items going to museums.
It is great to find old stuff liuke that BUT I could NEVER live in a house like that!!! I had been in that house thousands of times in my life BUT did not know till my aunt died that the wals and ceilings in all rooms but the 2 she lived in were hand hewn ceder boards. Some of the most beautiful walls and ceilings you ever saw till some azz wipe set the house on fire 2 years after my brother and i bought the rest of the heirs out. I found over $1K stuck in a post in the stairs banister, all in big biils from the 1930s!