My Patterson family line starts with Mary Elizabeth, my great-great grandmother.  She was born 7 Feb 1867 in Gilmer County, Georgia, where she lived until after her marriage.  She married William E. Whitener in 1883 and they moved to Murray County, Georgia sometime in the next year or two.  Between 1904 and 1907, they moved to Oklahoma and stayed there until Mary’s death on 6 Apr 1920.  She is buried in Ward’s Grove Cemetery in Foyil, Oklahoma.

2nd Generation

Mary’s father was Jeremiah “Jerry” Patterson, who was born about 1833, probably in Lumpkin County, Georgia.  By 1840, the Pattersons had moved to Gilmer County.  Jerry married Elizabeth Sarah Davis, probably around 1857 or 1858.  He died on 15 September 1872.

Children from this marriage were:

1. William Henson Patterson was born 23 April 1859 in Gilmer County, Georgia. William married Susan Anne Tatum in 1878.  They had five children.
2. John W. Patterson was born March 1866, probably in Gilmer County.  He married Martha Ledbetter on 4 Mar 1890.  They had three children.  John and Martha divorced before 1910.  Both are found in Oklahoma in subsequent years, so it is unknown if they divorced before or after moving west.
3. Mary Elizabeth Patterson (see first generation above).
4. Andrew Jackson Patterson was born Jun 1870 in Gilmer County.  He married Julia Anne Terry on 1 April 1887, also in Gilmer County.  They lived in Cherokee County, North Carolina and Monroe County, Tennessee, and then returned to Georgia, living in Murray County and possibly Whitfield County, where they both died.  Andrew and Julia had four children.

3rd Generation

Jerry’s parents were John “Jackie” Patterson and Jane “Jinny” Chapman.  Jackie was born about 1794, likely in Pendleton District, South Carolina.  He and Jinny were married on 6 October 1828 in Hall County, Georgia.  They had moved to Gilmer County by 1840 and Jackie died in adjacent Fannin County on 18 April 1854.

Children from this marriage were:

1.  Nancy Patterson, born 28 November 1829 in Hall County, Georgia.  Nancy married her first cousin, Samuel Patterson about 1848 or 1849.  They had 10 children.  Nancy died 19 August 1919 in Hall County.
2. Jeremiah Patterson (see 2nd generation above).
3. Malinda Patterson was born about 1836 in Gilmer County and died 10 Apr 1894.
4. Louisa J. Patterson was born about 1839 in Gilmer County and died there on 10 April 1897.  She married John Burch.  Louisa had a son named William Patterson.
5. Henson Patterson was born about 1843 in Gilmer County.  He died 16 December 1864 in Nashville, Tennessee from wounds received in the Battle of Nashville.
6. John Patterson was born about 1845 in Gilmer County.  He died 25 December 1878.
7. Julia Anne Patterson was born about 1848 in Gilmer County.
8. James G. Patterson was born about 1850 in Gilmer County.  He married a woman named Francis and had three children.
9. Fields C. Patterson was born about 1852 in Gilmer County. He married a woman named Martha and had two children.

4th Generation

Jackie’s parents were John Patterson and Nancy Chapman.  John was born between 1755 and 1774, possibly in Ireland.  In 1790, he appeared as head of household in Pendleton District, South Carolina.  He died between 1807 and 1810 in Pendleton District.

Children from this marriage were:

1. Hannah Patterson
2. Joseph Patterson, born between 1790 and 1794, likely in Pendleton District.  Joseph had 12 children.
3. Jeremiah Patterson, born between 1794 and 1800, likely in Pendleton District. Jeremiah had seven children.
4. John “Jackie” Patterson (see 3rd generation).
5. William Patterson, born 17 December 1795 in Pendleton District. He married Martha Welch about 1818.  He died 16 April 1895 in Forsyth County, Georgia.
6. George W. Patterson, born about 1796 or 1797, likely in Pendleton District.  He married a woman named Mary and had eight children. George died about 1870, probably in Fannin County, Georgia.
7. Hiram Patterson, born about 1801 in South Carolina.  Hiram married Elizabeth Cantrell on 26 August 1830 in Hall County, Georgia.  They had five children.
8. Enoch Patterson, born about 1802.
9. Samuel Patterson, born between 1804 and 1810.
10. Elizabeth Patterson, born 18 Jun 1808.  Elizabeth married James Cantrell and had 10 children.

Patterson Surname Fun Facts

Patterson is of Scottish and Northern English origin.  It is a patronymic, meaning “son of Patrick.”  In 1840, there were 3,015 Patterson households in the United States; 5% lived in Georgia or South Carolina.    In 1880, there were 50,255 Pattersons in the U. S., with 7% in Georgia or South Carolina.  In 1920, there were 28,328 Pattersons living in the United States: 6% were in Georgia or South Carolina.  I wonder what happened between 1880 and 1920 to cause the frequency of this surname to decrease by almost half?

More about the Patterson Family

• A complete list of deceased Patterson family members in my database.
• Posts about Patterson ancestors and relatives in this blog.
• Patterson documents, photos, and headstones.

If you would like more information about this family or would like to share what you know, please contact me.

This post is part of ongoing series focusing on specific surnames.  To see all posts in the series, click here.  

Last year at the FGS conference, I visited a vendor booth for a new web-based service to keep research logs, called Research Ties.  The program had not been released at that time, so I signed up for the mailing list.  When I was planning the sessions I wanted to attend at RootsTech and spotted one called “Research Ties: An Online Research Log.”  I thought it was probably the same program, but since I hadn’t received any email about a launch, I checked their website and recognized the logo.  I immediately added this session to my calendar.

I was intrigued with what I saw while attending the session, so I signed up for a two-week free trial.  My two weeks is almost up, so here’s my experience.

The program is pitched as an advancement on paper logs, word processor logs, and spreadsheet logs.  I use a spreadsheet, so I was curious to see if it really was faster and more efficient.

What I Liked About Research Ties:

• I like the idea of having my log accessible via the web.  While I almost always have access to my spreadsheet, if I’m at a repository with only my iPad, using the spreadsheet is difficult.
• I really like the templates for creating research objectives.  They are well thought out, thorough, and specific.  Here’s a screen shot of the “Add Objective” screen (click to enlarge):

And a sample objective that I wrote using the template:  ”Search the probate records of Murray County, Georgia for the surname Baxter.”

• I also like the template for formulating a search statement.

Here’s a screen shot of the objective above with a search and search result attached:

What I Didn’t Like About Research Ties:

• While the idea of online access to my research log was attractive, the reality didn’t measure up.  I first tried using the program over 3G at the Family History Library and it was so slow as to be unusable.  I tried again when I got home, using my own wifi, but it’s still so slow that I can’t stand the wait.
• It requires too much duplicate data entry.  Surnames, families, repositories, sources, places – they all have to be entered into this program in order for it to work.  Yes, you can upload a small gedcom (no more than 100 names recommended), but I just didn’t see that as a viable alternative.  I could pick a few names that I’m working on right now to create a gedcom, but then I’d have to do it again when I move on to a different set of names.  I especially didn’t like entering all the source information into separate fields, when I’ve already done that in RootsMagic source templates.
• It’s not always clear what information should go in the fields.  Some fields give a clue, but some don’t.
• I also found that the drop-down lists for fields didn’t always work.  In fact, sometimes the same field would produce a drop-down list if I was using my iPad, but not my laptop or it would produce a drop-down list one day but not the next on the laptop.
• The reports don’t make sense to me.  I can run a report of objectives, or a report of searches, or a report of results. . .but not all three at the same time. The results report includes the related “search,” but not the objective.

The Bottom Line:

It’s too slow for me.   When I was at the Family History Library, I felt like I was wasting valuable, and limited, research time by waiting on the screens to load, so I finally gave up.

At home,  I could have put up with the duplicate data entry if it went faster, but it’s still too slow.  I can enter the information (or copy and paste) in my spreadsheet much, much faster.  And I can sort and filter to my heart’s content to get just the information I want to look at  and create reports that make sense to me.

If you would like to try out Research Ties, click here.  I would advise you to read the slides and posts in the learning center and blog first.

As for me, I’m sticking with my spreadsheet.

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A couple of weeks ago, I went to Salt Lake City for the 3rd RootsTech conference. While the conference was fun and interesting, the highlight of my trip was the Family History Library. I knew it would be.

I arrived in Salt Lake City about 2:30 MDT and after checking into my hotel, immediately walked over the FHL to get the lay of the land and do a little research.

The first floor houses family history books (i.e. compiled genealogies), the second floor has U. S. / Canada microfilms, and the third floor has U. S. / Canada books.  The other two floors are dedicated to International and British Isles, but I knew I would be focusing on United States research, so I didn’t visit them.

Before leaving for Salt Lake City, I had made two lists (in Evernote, of course) of things I wanted to look for at the library.  I had a list of books – both family history books and state/county books – and a list of microfilms.  After visiting the 3rd floor and seeing all the U. S. books, I brainstormed a list of localities to search in, with the idea that I would focus on will abstracts and land records.  I later added genealogical society journals for those localities to my list (which turned out to be fruitful).

It’s hard to comprehend just how much is available at the FHL without going there.  According to their website:

The collection includes over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 727,000 microfiche; 356,000 books, serials, and other formats; over 4,500 periodicals and 3,725 electronic resources.

Here is a tiny portion of the microfilm stacks:

Each one of those drawers is packed full of microfilm rolls.

After a few hours on Tuesday, I spent most of Wednesday, and then several hours each on Friday and Saturday at the FHL.  Rather than making copies, I used my iPad to take photos of all my finds.  I took 337 photos during my research time.  Now, some of those photos are about the source (i.e. book cover, microfilm box, etc.), but still.

I found A LOT.  It will take a long time for me to sort through everything I found, process it, add it to RootsMagic, etc.  Fun times and one item checked off my Genea-Bucket List!

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Several months ago, I discovered that the (non-indexed) images of Georgia Probate records had been added to FamilySearch.  I started searching through the Administration & Guardian Bonds for Murray County and immediately hit pay dirt with a guardianship bond for my 3rd great-grandfather, Andrew B. Baxter.  I also found a guardianship bond for the children of a 2nd great-grandfather, J. Y. Hemphill.

Last night, I was reviewing what I had found.  I thought I had searched the entire record and found nothing else, but I was jumping around in the images online and found at least two more records.  I realized that I need to be more organized and methodical about searching these images.  I also realized while at the Family History Library last week that I need a list of relevant surnames for each locality that I’m searching; I can’t rely on my memory anymore, because there are simply too many names to remember, especially in the counties where I have a lot of people, such as Murray County, Georgia.

So, here’s my research plan for searching this record.

Objective:

Search the “Administration and Guardian Bonds 1844-1896″ records of Murray County, Georgia for the following surnames:

Adair, Alexander, Bailey, Baxter, Beamer, Black, Botten, Bradford, Bright, Bruer, Butler, Campbell, Carter, Caylor, Chable, Childers, Coffey, Couch, Dillard, Dwight, Ellis, Elrod, Fouts, Goodwin, Green, Greenlee, Haney, Harris, Harrison, Headrick, Heartsill, Hemphill, Henderson, Johnson, Jones, Kendrick, Kilgore, Langford, Langston, Lankford, Lawson, Littlefield, Love, Lowery, Lytle, Manley, Matthews, McClure, McEntire, McIntyre, McKinney, Moreland, Morgan, Mullinax, O’Neal, Osborn, Patterson, Poteet, Ridley, Roberts, Rogers, Sampler, Saunders, Sharp, Shields, Stanfield, Stanford, Stroud, Stuart, Terry, Thompson, Townsend, Tucker, Vineyard, Wallace, Ward, West, Whitener, Wofford.

Yes, that’s 79 surnames.  I don’t know why I thought I could keep them all in my head and associate them with Murray County.

To come up with the list of surnames, I did a people search in RootsMagic on the following criteria:

• “Any fact” place contains Murray and Georgia – this gives me a list of people have any event associated with Murray, Georgia.
• Color coding is not Yellow – this is how I designate people outside my research mission, which is direct ancestors and two generations of descendants.  People who are color-coded yellow might be three or more generations away from my ancestors or parents of spouses, etc.
• “Any fact” date is after 1843 and before 1897 – the date range for this record set is 1844-1896, so I want to exclude people who died before 1844 or were born after 1896.  By searching on the “any fact” field, I don’t inadvertently exclude people for whom I have other information, but don’t have a birth or death date.

This search turned up 305 names.  I exported the report, pulled it into Excel, and ran the Remove Duplicates tool to trim the list down to one instance of each surname.

My next step is to review the handwritten name index in the books and then start paging through, image by image, with the list of surnames by my computer.

I bet I find more records that I’ll be interested in.  But even if I don’t, I’ll know that I didn’t miss anything important.

As more people carry smart phones and tablets on a daily basis, we want to be able to use those devices in our genealogy research.

Here are few apps that I could not live without (note: I use Apple devices, so this post will not cover Android and other operating systems; however, please leave comments about ANY of your favorite apps).

1. Maps – this is essential when I’m on a genealogy road-trip, for finding cemeteries, courthouses, places to have lunch, etc.
2. Evernote – Evernote is my go-to app for storing everything, so it includes all kinds of genealogy notes that I may need to access.
3. Goodreads – I keep a list of genealogy books that I own and a wish-list of books I want to buy.  This prevents me from buying duplicates and ensures that if the opportunity arises, I have the exact name and author of books that I want to purchase.
4. Gedview – this is a handy little app that lets you upload a gedcom from your desktop genealogy program.
5. RootsMagic – this lets me access my actual RootsMagic file via Dropbox.
6. Dropbox – I like to keep my genealogy photos in my Dropbox account, so that I can show them off if the conversation turns to family history.
7. Ancestry.com – I love being able to view my source documents no matter where I am.
8. WordPress – I mostly use this for reading and responding to comments on my genealogy blogs throughout the day, although you can do more.  It’s so much easier to stay on top of things.
9. Flipboard – I use this to stay on top of my Twitter feed and read posts from the many genealogy blogs that I follow.
10. Toodledo – this is a task-tracking app that I use for all my to-dos, genealogy and otherwise.
11. Instagram – I use Instagram for genealogy purposes when I’m in cemeteries that have old, worn headstones.  I can add a note with the name on the headstone, so that if I can’t read it in the photo, I still know whose stone it is.

I use other apps, as well, but these are my faves for genealogy.

What apps can’t you live without?  Let us know in the comments.

My local library received a new book this week:  Confederate Voices by Debbie Stephenson Moore.  It’s not a book about the Civil War or the Confederacy, but rather is a collection of biographies, family histories, and organization vignettes with Confederate soldiers from southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia as the unifying theme.

I like the way the book is organized and laid out.  It’s in alphabetical order by surname of the veteran or group name.  Each story is usually one page long, although a few are several pages.  Confederate Voices draws on pension records, census records, newspaper articles, letters, obituaries, and photographs to flesh out the lives of its subjects.

My second great-grand uncle, James A. McEntire, is an example of a typical biography included in Confederate Voices.  It tells when and where he and his wife were born, a bit about his service in the war, where he lived after the war and the state of his health, then death dates and places.  It also includes pictures of both James and his wife.

“The O’Neal Family of Polk County, TN” is a six-page chapter that covers the family history of another of my collateral lines – the family of John Silas and Elizabeth (Kendrick) O’Neal.  This chapter includes some information about John and paragraphs about most of John and Elizabeth’s children and their families, such as when they were born and died, who they married, and where they migrated to, all interspersed with photos.

In addition to the bios and family histories, Confederate Voices includes chapters on various Confederate cemeteries, chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Confederate Veteran Camps.

The book includes a table of contents and an index (link to full index here), so it’s easy to find particular names that you might be looking for.  If you are researching people in Bradley, McMinn, and Polk counties in Tennessee or Murray and Whitfield counties in Georgia, Confederate Voices is worth checking out.

Joseph Lytle Burgin was born 30 Aug 1846, probably in McDowell County, North Carolina.  He appeared on the 1850 and 1860 censuses in the household of his parents, Merritt Burgin and Susannah Adeline Lytle.  He died 23 Mar 1927 in Old Fort, North Carolina.

Sometime before 1880, he married Dulcina and had two children, Mollie G. and James Alonzo. (They may have had more children; I have not researched this family extensively.)

Joseph died on 23 Mar 1927.  He had gangrene in his left leg and foot, caused by diabetes.  He is buried at Bethel-Cherry Springs Cemetery in McDowell County.

Joseph was the grandson of John Burgin and Elizabeth Mann (my fifth great-grandparents) and of Thomas Lytle and Jennie McEntire (my fourth great-grandparents).

I was trying, without luck, to locate a marriage record for some of my Patterson ancestors.  This family line is confusing to me, so I decided to make a table of all the marriages that took place in Gilmer County, GA that included a Patterson.  I’ve linked to the people who are already in my family tree.

My hope is that this table will help me sort out who is whom among the Pattersons I already know about and as I find new Pattersons in Gilmer County, I can refer back to this table.  Really, it’s an organizational tool.  It’s both sortable and searchable, so if you are looking for a Patterson, just click on the arrows in any of the column headings to change the sort order or enter a name in the table search box.

A caveat – some of these may be dates of marriage licenses with no return; please do your own due diligence and seek out the image copy (which can be found out Georgia’s Virtual Vault) before using this information as proof of a marriage.

Sources:

Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. “Georgia Marriages, 1851-1900,” database, Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com.

“Georgia Marriages, 1808-1967.” Database. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org/ : 2013.

“Marriage Records by Brides.” Database. Kimberly Miller Bates. Gilmer County, Georgia Marriage and Cemetery Records Index. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gilmercountyrecords/: 2013.

“Marriage Records by Grooms.” Database. Kimberly Miller Bates. Gilmer County, Georgia Marriage and Cemetery Records Index. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gilmercountyrecords/: 2013.

Last week’s Tombstone Tuesday post was about James A. and Dora Burgin.  Tragically, they lost a son who was just shy of manhood and he is the focus of today’s post.

Eula Herman Burgin was born 11 December 1910 in Old Fort, North Carolina.  He died on 28 March 1928 at the age of 17 years, 3 months, and 17 days from pyemia, which is a form of septicemia that was almost always fatal before antibiotics came into use.

Herman is buried, along with his parents, at Bethel-Cherry Springs Cemetery in Crooked Creek, McDowell County, North Carolina.

William Everett Whitener was my 2nd-great grandfather.  He was the son of Phillip B. Whitener (1833-1865) and Levina J. Searcy (1830-?), both from North Carolina.

1855 – William was born in December, probably in Gilmer County, Georgia, as his parents were married there in 1852.

1860 – William appeared on the census in Gilmer County in the household of his father, Philip Whitener.

1865 – William’s father died in Ellijay, Gilmer, Georgia.  He was supposedly killed by a roving gang of Union soldiers in the aftermath of the Civil War.

1870 – William was living in Gilmer County with his grandmother, Anna Searcy, at the time of the 1870 census.  His mother and younger siblings lived two households away.

1872 – In about 1872, William married his first wife, Roxy Cynthia Sinyard in Gilmer County.

1873 – His first son, Harley, was born about 1873.

1876 – On October 14, William’s second son, Avery Pollian Whitener was born.

1878 – Brownlow Whitener, William’s third son was born about 1878.

1880 – William lived in the Boardtown District of Gilmer County, along with his wife, Roxey C. and sons, Harley, Avery, Brownlow, and baby Samuel who was born March 16th of that year.

1882 – On January 7, William and Roxy’s fifth son, William Adolphus Whitener, was born in Ellijay.

1882-1883 – Sometime in 1882 or 1883, Roxy died.

1883 – William married for the second time on July 3, 1883.  His new bride was Mary Elizabeth Patterson (1867-1920), my 2nd great-grandmother. They were married in Gilmer County.

1883-1885 – Sometime between 1883 and 1885, the family moved to Murray County, Georgia.

1885 – William and Mary had their first child, a daughter, on August 27.  This was my great-grandmother, Maud Angeline (1885-1975).

1889 – Four years later, a second daughter was born – Beulah Beatrice Whitener (1889-1966).  She was born in Murray County.

1891 – In 1891, William and Mary had their third daughter, Minnie Louise Whitener (1891-1967).

1892 – John Arthur Whitener (1892-1950) was born on February 14th.  He was William’s sixth son and Mary’s first.

1898 – Another son was born on October 6 in Murray County.  His name was Rex Venable (aka Dewey Rex) Whitener (1898-1988).

1899 – William’s son, Brownlow, died in Guantanamo, Cuba during a yellow-fever epidemic that occurred in the midst of the Spanish-American War.  Brownlow is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

1900 – In 1900, William appeared on the census in Murray County’s Doolittle District.  He was farmer.

1901 – William and Mary’s sixth daughter was born in Murray County on May 6.  Her name was Ethel.

1904 – Mary Theo, another daughter, was born on February 28.  She was the last child born in Georgia.

1904-1907 – Sometime between 1904 and 1907, the family moved to Oklahoma.

1907 – William’s thirteenth and last child, Bertha Neoma, was born in Oklahoma on July 27.

1910 – William and Mary appeared on the census in Rogers County, Oklahoma.  They had been married 24 years.  William was a farmer.  Arthur, Rex, Ethel, Mary Theo, and Bertha lived with them.

1920 – The family still lived in Rogers County in 1920.  Dewey Rex, Theo, and Bertha were still at home with their parents.

1920 – However, on April 6, William’s wife, Mary died in Tulsa County.  She is buried at Wards Grove Cemetery in Foyil, Rogers, Oklahoma.

1930 – By 1930, William had moved back to Georgia.  He was 74 and living with his son William Adolphus.

1937 – William died in Murray County, Georgia at the age of 81.

William started and ended his life in the North Georgia mountains, with about twenty years 800 miles away in Oklahoma.