The old saying goes, “don’t beat a dead horse”, but NOWHERE does it say you can’t give him one strong swift kick before you leave! So it is I intrude on your time and flash into your day without invitation. There is a wonderful button on these machines we use that you can “punch”, Southerners don’t “press” buttons. On my machine it simply reads “Del”. So, if in this busy world you haven’t time to visit, punch the Del, go well and be well. Otherwise, read on. My presence on this board and others used by genealogists is due to a deep and horrid insufferable illness. I am a fervent, vigorous, deep rooted, dyed in the wool, lifetime, part time, all the time “wanna be” Henry County historian!! I’ve had this crippling incurable disease since I was 10 and found my family’s name in the genealogy section of THE HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY, ALABAMA, by Mrs. Marvin Scott nearly 40 years ago—the book still smelt new! Not only that, but in bold type was “HALEBURG” on page 70, my bucolic native hamlet in which I hope my temporal remains will one day rest with my ancestors. I looked not, the page number is ingrained in my gray matter! I am a historian first and a genealogist second, I make no bones about this, but feel comfortable with each. The family tree gives me as a historian the skeleton on which to place the flesh that is the history surrounding those silent names, dates and places. And not just my family tree, but EVERY FAMILY TREE used on this site. ANY and EVERY family to have trod through or plowed a mule over Henry County red clay dirt is IMPORTANT to me. History is not dates and places, lest your history teacher in your junior year thought it so. History is the unique STORY of everyday PEOPLE…PEOPLE like those on YOUR family tree as far as Henry County history is concerned. My consummate interests lie far from the Elliott hearth and home place. I am a COUNTY historian, as it has evolved through the years, as first one thing then another lured me out of the village of Haleburg to other places, people and events all across Henry, then Alabama and all of America, even outside America and plum up North, yonder passed the Mason Dixon Line. So it is I thirst and hunger for EVERY word that YOU as trained, efficient, meticulous genealogists of Henry County write. I save every crumb, nothing goes to waste! Waste not; want not, Granny Vassie told me. Because of you and my life wallering in the mud of down home history, I can go to the U. S. Census of Henry County and almost tell you which road or forest path the enumerator was traveling that hot summer day in July 1860 just by the names of my old friends on the page, how they are gathered together in clumps of dwellings containing children that will one day marry the children of the next. And for me, I know ahead of time who shall marry whom because of YOU! I have just gone through the Green’s Mill Beat in 1870 in the collapsed plantation district, time traveling via the census, and was most brought to tears at the suffering I saw there five years after the most horrid war in America ended as black, white and mulatto lived in broken families, sometimes five families to one house that I just hope was indeed a home. Fortunes feel literally from millionaires in two known cases to living in the same house with former slaves, former plantation mistresses now listed as “keeping house”—the “big house” slaves to be no more. Once grand planters now only “farm laborers”. And the Negro slave a free man, woman or child. The surnames did not change between 1860 and 1870. The names from the slave schedules were just attached to the white family names as I am sure Boots Chambers and Puss Bennett would attest! And, I know from where the mighty fell as well before the South fought for it’s right to be free and sovereign as did our Revolutionary grandfathers. YOU have helped make this happen and I thank EVERYONE on this site for making old Henry County breathe again for me. Our comrade in tree shakin’, Robert C. Johnston, Jr., had no idea his simple request on how to find his great grandpa’s Last Will and Testament would create a firestorm. As a boy, I helped my “Daddy Buck”, Dad and his brothers to “control burn” the woods on our place in Beat 4 every mid winter. The fire destroyed the bad so that the good could come forward. Such it is with lively, spirited discussion, the very foundation of pure democracy. Thanks, Robert, we have all learned much from what was said. I am ashamed that I allowed my Scottish and German ire to come forward and ask Le to forgive me if he can and will. We now have Roberta Whiddon Childs on the case and she will make sure every visitor to the Henry County Courthouse on genealogical business will have clear instructions leaving out not one iota. She has proven herself worthy time and time again, a gatekeeper of OUR heritage. It took me years to discover that Probate Court records in the thousands of vaults and depositories in the United States, including the South, were not kept there for me and other historians like me. The facts? Probate Court vaults are maintained to carry on the day-to-day business of a particular county TODAY, 2007 and beyond. Not from 1900 and below. The records are arranged so that those that use them everyday can reach them with ease and efficiency. So, if the deed I need from 1840 something is on the top shelf, I gotta figure a way up there for it may not have been disturbed in 20 years. For those who HAVE been to Abbeville, the first town in the U. S. alphabetically, you found two rolling high stools and two large slanted topped work tables almost chest high—WORK being the operative word. They are built this way for title searchers, probate office personnel, and attorneys to quickly chunk the books atop the work area, glean their bits of information and move on quickly to the next. I discovered many moons go that there was no table and chair, lamp or reading room for me. Complimentary coffee and pastries would be nice. Microfilm is great. For me, I still like to touch, see and feel the old records. But it stops there. My ancestors haven’t signed or written a record I’ve seen and I doubt they ever signed the same, because most folks I’ve seen in old records sign their name: “His X Mark”. If you are in the Mark family and ol’ man His X. Mark is your grandpappy, you got it made!!! So, as a historian and a genealogist, used very loosely in both accounts, I am like the ol’ channel catfish in the swift Chattahoochee River that flows east of Henry County and the Yatta Abba “Abbie” Creek that flows through her. I am a bottom feeder. I take what has sunk to the bottom as an active modern record and was washed away as time flowed by. Part of who I am is to dig and scratch and unearth those nuggets left buried in that dusty old poll tax record book hidden behind the new stuff. I just worry about where the next generation will store all of the divorce records when that is added to our family group sheets with a space provided just like a marriage date and place. There it will be—for a divorce or two, or three, or four… If you’ve read this far you are a trooper and surely of Henry County blood to have stuck to the task at hand this well! Thanks for sittin’ a spell with me on the front porch of Henry County historical and genealogical research. May all the bones you dig up be “well connected” and “well heeled”. But most especially, I hope you find the heart and soul of the family that belongs to ‘dem ol’ dry bones. Very Henry Countily Yours, Steve Elliott BertChilds@aol.com wrote: Alice, I am so sorry you were not informed of the availability of microfilm or that you could use your camera. Now knowing that this is a problem for out of county researchers I will try to see that a sign is placed in the courthouse vault or on the sign in book with information that would benefit visitors. I will also talk to our Probate Judge about how we can inform people about other resources. Thank you for responding, Roberta ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. 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I always thought that we southerners "mashed" a button...but I guess some do "punch." ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Elliott" <jselliott37@yahoo.com> To: <alhenry@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 6:32 AM Subject: Re: [ALHENRY] Courthouse Records Lookup ...There is a wonderful button on these machines we use that you can "punch", Southerners don't "press" buttons....