Little Egypt Heritage Articles eduda tsunogisdi © Bill Oliver 11 March 2007 Vol 6 Issue: #10 ISBN: Pending O’siyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, “Brick Walls” I’m not talking about those walls which divide my yard from my neighbor’s. No, I’m talking about those annoyances that prevent us from discovering who Great Grandpa’s Mother is. It is certainly a miracle that every time I find an ancestor I find that I now have two new ‘brick walls’. It is ‘never ending’; discover a new link and inherit two new brick walls. Backing up and then racing toward the new brick wall causes one to crash into the wall, possibly scattering brick every direction. The other result really messes up a good ‘bike’, car, truck or plane. Brick walls need to be disassembled one brick at a time – slowly and carefully. The farther back in time searching goes, the greater the potential error. Everyone has a great grandparent who arrived on earth from outer space – right? Certainly your great great grandmother was identified – as wife! Or, great grandpa had no parents, or great grandma, according to all the records, didn’t have children. You’ve all heard about the man [immigrant] without a country [of origin]. About this time you are convinced that this ancestral brick wall for all their migration left absolutely no ‘paper trail’. You have exhausted the traditional avenues of research and don’t know where to go next. Abandoned your search? Maybe – temporarily, maybe, but you’ll get the curiosity bug again and pick up one of those scattered bricks and scrutinize it carefully. This brick wall is not necessarily the dead end of all dead ends. Careful analyzing each brick in this wall may show a way to dismantle the wall and proceed on to the next ‘brick wall’. Where do you start? Write down what you know. Answer, are these facts or assumptions? What is it that you want to find? Where can the answer(s) be found? How well informed are you as a researcher? Locations have ancestors also. These steps not yet yielding answers? Try collateral lines or neighbors. There might be some surprises lurking there. Still can’t find them? Look at all the neighboring surnames. Pronounce each one a couple of times or more. Any of them ‘sound’ familiar? Surnames have always been spelled as the writer/recorder hears them. Our traveling ancestors did put down roots somewhere – follow the land. In other words, look to the land [records]. And, shucks, you still can’t find them? Well there is always professional help and that is just a clickity-click away. It’s not that I don’t talk these things over with others searching the same lines. However, I’m stubborn and I like the challenge. So – I start over. My current brick wall is a set of second great grandparents, James HARPER and his wife, Rhoda . A county history book says that they arrived in that county in 1833. This history book further says that James married Rhoda (Jackson) Perkins. [Most other researchers of this family list Rhoda’s maiden name as CROSS. So, what is her maiden name?] In reading, researching and making notes it seems that Rhoda HARPER is not an uncommon name. Census records would indicate that they might be born in Tennessee and at least some of their children were born in Tennessee. Since James migrated with a brother named William a search of Tennessee census and tax records revealed that there were two counties that had those two names listed near each other. They were Franklin and Sumner. Well, locating these two counties, one was on the southern boundary of the state and the other was just a bit west but on the northern border of the state. A few letters from distant cousins seemed to echo these things as facts, but documentation eluded proof for nearly thirty years. The Personal Computer began to be utilized and pioneers began to correspond with each other in ‘groups’. ‘Lists’ and ‘bulletin-boards’ came to the fore and new knowledge and clues came to users. Still not much more information was added beyond Grandma Oliver’s wonderful accurate memory until another ten years passed. New cousins were located. One of those cousins wrote a book about the family and in it new clues surfaced. One particular piece of information altered the arrival date into the county by about five years. Thus, in a survey of the new speculated year new questions emerged. Since these were brothers families moving together, were there other families moving with them. A comparison of the 1830 and 1840 census’ showing the appearance of the HARPERs, it was noted that there were other families who might have been neighbors in Tennessee were and also neighbors in Illinois, particularly a SANDERS family. A survey of marriages in this Illinois county showed a Sanders male marrying a Harper female. File that information as potential value. SANDERS researchers said that their ancestors didn’t arrive in the county until 1838 or early 1839. That, of course, was the time frame of a large migration from and through Tennessee, Kentucky, and southern Illinois – the infamous “Trail Where They Cried”. Going back over the many notes once again, two items struck forward almost in neon-flashing-lights. One, a distant cousin of Dad’s gave a one liner; about the ‘red hair’ being ‘knocked out’ of us Irishmen for three generations, explaining the results of our ancestor marrying a Cherokee. The other ‘stand out’ was a small note from a Sanders descendant stating that Nancy HARPER traveled with the Sanders family to Illinois in 1838. Those asked about how the Harpers and the Sanders traveled to Illinois evoked the answer, ‘by wagon’. If possible, normal travel was by river and the Cherokee migration of 1838 was scheduled to be by river on the Tennessee to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the spring and summer. However, there was a drought that year and the rivers were not high enough, so wagons were utilized. If the Sanders and the Harpers migrated from middle Tennessee, did they travel with the Indian Migration? The timing is right. The route is right. The mode of transportation is right. However, three rights do not yet make the fact. So, ‘back to the drawing board’ and review all the notes to find the clue which will finally lead to the ‘fact’. Now, aren’t genealogical ‘brick walls’ fun? e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-WI NV-WA-do-hi-ya NV-WA-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- 1046 PostScript: "Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives ..." Alexander McCall Smith, Dream Angus Archived articles: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=ilmassac

I know there is a a transcript of Walker Hill Cemetery as I have one but I'm wondering if there are records somewhere that might show folks that are buried there that did not get headstones. I am trying to find the burial location for James W. EVANS and his wife, Eliza Whitson Evans. James was a fairly wealthy merchant and land owner in Grand Tower and I can't imagine he is buried someone other than Walker Hill. One of the children of James from his first marriage is buried there and Eliza's first husband is also buried there. I also checked the Pomona Township Transcripts for the cemeteries that were at one time considered a part of Grand Tower Township but they didn't help either. Any help appreciated. Mary Riseling Springfield, IL