Charlie Brooks and Lilly Foster

Ancestry.com always pops up with a surprise for me. I guess thats why'll I'll always renew.

On my wife's side I've been trying to find out the exact name of Charlie Brooks wifes surname. I've had Foster, Forester and Forster. Even from the SS death index of one of the daughters.

Imagine my surprise when I came up with the Marriage certificate on Ancestry.com as well as the license registration.

Laurens trip, SC

Still getting behind on blogging.
Besides lunching with uncles, aunts and cousins, I spent some time in the Laurens County Library. As usual instead of sticking to a plan of attack I used the shot gun approach. Whatever I hit, I copied for later evaluation. On microfilm I have the estate and will of John W Pitts, brother of Edwin Leroy Pitts which I'm transcribing. Not easy interpreting the handwriting. Also William Pitts whom I believed was killed by a slave, George, in 1851 but then the will implies 1848. I can't seem to tie him into a Pitts Family. I'll transcribe this next. I have pictures from various books dealing with Boyds, Parks and McClurkins. I found that my Sony Digital camera works as a copy camera as long as the anti-shake and macro is on and the flash is turned off. The book needs to be flattened though so I will make some kind of glass plate with camera mount.

Laurens SC trip

Here it is the middle of February and I haven't posted anything this month. Jeannie and I will drive to Laurens SC 21 - 23 of February. A few days away from the house and a little research. The Laurens Library is first rate and hopefully I have a reason to go to the court house. I'll probably go after my Coates/Coats obsession but I will research targets that jump up. Part of the fun is unexpected bits of data that open up a new direction.

Thomas Coates of Laurens SC

I have been obsessing about finding the parents of Mary Margaret Coates,wife of Joel Cooper Blackwell. So far I can find circumstantial evidence in the 1830-1880 census placing Thomas and his wife Frances close to various kinfolk and at one time close to 2 households from Joel and Mary. Thomas Coates lived in the Simpson's Mill/ Ekom area or Waterloo District of Laurens County. November 18 1837, He and John Gary donated land to Union Baptist Church but cannot find his burial or other information.

census writing, Blackwell - Coates stuff

Part of the 'fun' of researching census forms is the sloppy handwriting and tendency to abbreviate names. Its hard enough deciphering the Victorian styles of writing. many times the name-surname search of Ancestry.com fails because of this and then you try many various spellings. If this fails then you try to hope they didn't move from the last census. Then you try to narrow down the the district and eventually search page by page with an eagle eye.
Eventually I found Tho's Coats (Thomas Coates) and his wife F's " (Frances ") in the Laurens County 1860 census.
At least this census proved a connection between Thomas Coates and Joel Blackwell. According to a post in ROOTSWEB , Joel Blackwell married Mary Margaret Coates. I could not find anything on her and decided to look for her parents. Eventually I settled on Thomas Coates but needed more.
In the 1860 census I found Thomas Coates and Joel Blackwell only 3 households apart. Very good circumstantial evidence. More research will be done but I feel more comfortable with my research.