Genealogy Time Machine

If you're like myself, you're constantly wishing you could speak to a long-deceased ancestor. Even just for a minute or two. This happened to me tonight and it got me to thinking.. why not blog about it? So here are my absolute top three choices of who, when, where and why I would go back in time.

#1

Who: My 2nd-great-grandmother, Eszter Tóth Gombás

When: October 1909

Where: Ellis Island

Why: According to family stories, she brought along with her while immigrating from Hungary to America, documents on her noble heritage and family tree. Within these documents was information detailing a family connection to a king from about 600 years ago. I know much of her ancestry, but I would do anything to know what details she knew on her noble Hungarian heritage.

#2

Who: Hiram Howell

When: 1853

Where: Tippah County, Mississippi

Why: I want to know all the details of his murder! Why did his son-in-law, Lindsey Slaughter, shoot and kill him? And why wasn't he convicted of murder?

#3

Who: My 3rd-great-grandmother, Ellen Hovis Martin

When: Late 1830's

Where: Lincoln County, North Carolina

Why: She was an illegitimate daughter of first cousins. She lived in a house with her mother and two other illegitimate children, on land that her paternal grandfather had specifically given to her mother.. to provide for her. Ellen's biological father died when she was only 5 years old. It would be amazing to peak into the life of Ellen in her pre-teen years, to see what kind of hardships she was going through and what life was like for her, her mother and her siblings.

I would love to hear your top three choices! Share them in the comments or post the link from the blog post!

If I Could Speak To My Ancestors...

Earlier today, I was analyzing all the information in my family tree (no surprise there!). I was looking at my dead-ends and trying to figure out which records I needed to persue to crack the brick-walls. I then, again, began to dream and wish that I had some way to communicate with my ancestors and ask them questions. Thinking about it all more and more, I thought if it WERE a possibility, what three questions would I ask to any of my ancestors?

Rules:
1. You may ask any three questions to any ancestors from any period in time.
2. Not all questions have to be directed to one specific ancestor, you can have a single question for three different ancestors.
3. You can't repeat a question, they have to be three unique questions. Asking three different ancestors what their mother's surname was is far too easy!
4. Before each question, you must identify which ancestor you're asking the question to.
5. After identifying the answer and the question, give a little information about this ancestor that's related to your question. You never know who will stumble upon this information and contact you!

My Three Questions:
#1 Ancestor: Hiram Howell (b. about 1790, SC; d. 1853, Tippah Co, MS)
#1 Question: What complications lead to your murder?
Fact: Hiram Howell was murdered in 1853 (exact date unknown) by Lindsey Slaughter, his probable son-in-law. I believe that Lindsey Slaughter's wife, Bathsheba, is the daughter of Hiram Howell. Lindsey and Bathsheba Slaughter had a daughter named Temperance, a name extremely unique to the Howell family (the name of Hiram's daughter whom I descend from, and the name of Hiram's sister-in-law).

#2 Ancestor: Eszter Tóth (b. 1874, Tiszadob, Hungary; d. 1950, Lore City, OH)
#2 Question: What was the family information in the paperwork that you brought with you, when you immigrated to America?
Fact: Family stories from cousins all recollect that my great-great-grandmother had brought with her when she immigrated, papers about her family tree and ancestors. My cousin in Arizona (whom inherited the papers, yet won't share a single piece of information) has stated she DOES have these papers and it has a full family tree and also includes information about a King that we supposedly descend from. Hearing of this claim years ago, I knew it was at least more plausible than family stories of others.. Eszter was of nobility! A noblewoman is more likely to descend from a King than a peasant. Just in the past two years, I have researched enough to the point that I have proven that we DO descend from a King of Hungary. To be precise, we descend from the early "true" Magyar Kings of Hungary from the Árpád Dynasty. I just want those documents my great-great-grandma brought over from Hungary!!

#3 Ancestor: Martha A. Miller (b. 1836, AL?; d. 1877, Holmes or Yazoo Co, MS)
#3 Question: Who are your parents?!
Fact: According to a family bible (that no one seems to know where it is, or who had it), Martha A. Miller was born on 18 Nov 1836, married to James Andrew J. Costilow on 25 Jul 1855 and died 19 Dec 1877. No places for any of these dates were provided in this supposed family bible. There have also been claims that Martha has Native American roots. Martha truly is a brick-wall. I haven't been able to locate her in the 1850 census anywhere. Any possible matches have been disproven, so I always end up right at the brick-wall again.

What are your questions? :)

How To Locate Your Ancestor's Land

After researching my family tree for ten years, I've encountered my fair share of land deeds and records. One of my biggest problems was actually locating where that land lies on present-day maps. It can be quite challenging using old surveyor maps and even present day plat maps, and then matching them up to the maps of today.. like Google Maps. One reason I'm particularly interested in finding where their land actually was, is because this land most likely holds buried family members. Down in the southern states, many family members were buried in family cemeteries on the land the family owned before the time of modern public cemeteries. To even have a chance of finding them, if any markers of any kind still exist at all anymore, you'd need to figure out where the land was that they were living on.

In the past two weeks, I've been able to find some land deeds that pertain to my Howell family from Tippah County, Mississippi (thanks to the new database on FamilySearch!). The person I am most interested in, is Hiram Howell, my 5th-great-grandfather. He was known to have been murdered in 1853 by his son-in-law, Lindsey Slaughter.

Hiram Howell (mistakenly written as Wren Howell) had actually bought his land on 10 Oct 1846 (record on the left) from Lindsey Slaughter, who himself had received the land as part of the homesteading acts. The specific details of the land are the North-East quarter of Section 9, Township 5 South, Range 2 East (NE1/4 of S9 T5S R2E). Just the other day, I stumbled upon a website that would map the exact location of Section 9 for me, using Google Earth. Google Earth is a program that you install on your computer that is much similar to Google Maps, but with much more features and way more powerful. The website is called Earth Point, and it's specifically used as a tool for Google Earth.

Once you get to the page, navigate to the section called "Convert Township, Range, and Section to Latitude and Longitude", as seen on the right. Enter your your data into the drop-down boxes and then click on "Fly To On Google Earth". Open the file once it's finished downloading.

After opening the file, Google Earth will automatically open and bring you to the exact location of Section 9, Township 5 South, Range 2 East, in Tippah County, Mississippi. From there, I can easily find the North-East quarter of Section 9. Pretty cool, huh? To the left is a snapshot of what you'll see. What kind of tools do you use to locate the land of your ancestors?

Black Sheep Sunday - Hiram Howell

Not much is known about my 5th-great-grandfather's early life and family.. or his immediate family, for that matter.

I do know this: His name was Hiram Howell. He was born about 1790 in South Carolina and died in 1853 in Tippah County, Mississippi, from very curious circumstances. He was shot and killed, by his probable son-in-law, Lindsey Slaughter. How ironic is Lindsey's surname?!

Anyway, Hiram was married to a woman named Rachel. Her surname and past is unknown, but I do know she was born about 1794 in Georgia. She died sometime between 1853 and 1860 in Mississippi. According to various state and federal census records, they may have had a total of up to eight children. Three are definite: a daughter who's name is unknown (that married Lindsey Slaughter), a daughter Temperance Howell (who married George Vance) and a son Joel Howell (that married a woman named Rebecca).

As I said, Hiram was listed in several various state and federal census records. Here's a list of the records:

• 1820 Federal Census: Lincoln Co, TN; Also listed are a David, Joel, Jonathan, Reas (Reece), and Samuel
• 1840 Federal Census: Fayette Co, TN
  
• 1845 State Census: Tippah Co, MS
• 1850 Federal Census: Tippah Co, MS

Hiram also served in the War of 1812. He was a Corporal in Cocke's 2nd Regiment, Western Tennessee Militia.

Now for the interesting tid-bits. Hiram Howell, along with his two sons-in-law George Vance and Lindsey Slaughter, are found numerous times in the Tippah County, MS court records. One of the three was usually posting bond to get one of the others out of jail. Certain unknown circumstances lead to the death of Hiram Howell, by Lindsey Slaughter. Did Lindsey shoot him accidentally? Was it intentional? Did the men have a quarrel about money or about other no-good men in the area?

In hopes that further research will help settle these questions, I have a feeling I will never know the truth about what happened to my ancestor.

Was he flat-out murdered.....?!