Thanks Melissa, you're not a stranger to me because I used your service lots of times. You have always been very helpful. Once again, are you the one we get in contact with for these documents? Doris Melissa Barker <[email protected]> wrote: Dear Doris, Hello, I believe, but could be correct, that the deeds listed in the Stewart County site are abstracted and not the entire deed as it is originally. I say that because it does not include all the mundane descriptions of the property. As for marriage records, yes there are actual, original marriage records available. However, at the present time only the marriages from 1848 to the present are on microfilm. We used to have the marriages from 1838, but the originals were stolen from the courthouse and then the microfilm was stolen from the library. The State Archives does not have them on microfilm because the original were stolen and could not be microfilmed again. Hope this helps. Sincerely, Melissa Barker Genealogist for Tennessee and Kentucky ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doris Pulley" To: Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 5:26 AM Subject: [TNSTEWAR] sorry about more > QUESTION ....When Jim puts things on the genealogy site like a sale of > property or will and it gives the book and page number is that all the > information or are we suppose to send for more on the subject? If there > isn't much more on the subject it wouldn't be worth it. But if it is worth > it how and who would you contact for the rest of the article? When a > Stewart Co. marriage is listed are there real marriage license? Sorry, but > if I can't ask you then there's no hope for me. Thanks Doris > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.18/1255 - Release Date: 2/1/2008 > 9:59 AM > > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Doris, For the information I've contributed to the web site like the will abstracts and deed abstracts, they are indeed only an abstract of the original records, not a transcription of the original records. Transcribing the originals is a very time-consuming task - but thankfully, Stewart County's records are almost entirely intact (except for those early marriages, and a few minor gaps in the will books), so we can all dream of a day when all the records are online for all to access easily. Folks like Melissa provide a great service to those who can't run to the courthouse and see those originals. For the wills/settlements/bonds abstracts I've contributed to the site, I've done my best to extract all of the genealogical information from them, but I didn't extract every name from every record - for example, estate sales might have pages and pages of buyers listed, and I extracted just a sampling of them. My hope is that those abstracts can give someone all of the genealogical information available from the records, plus the book-and-page reference for those wanting to then get a copy of specific originals. For the deed abstracts on the site, I did not extract the mundane land descriptions (called 'metes and bounds'). I will tell you, however, that those metes-and-bounds descriptions can be very helpful in proving family relationships in the absence of other proof. Those metes-and-bounds descriptions let you plat a piece of land, which you can then think of as a puzzle piece to be fitted together with adjacent puzzle pieces of land, showing the history of an area of land. Landowners often referred to their neighbors in those deeds, and sometimes divulged genealogical information about those neighbors. In one case, I used an old land description, in conjunction with a modern topographical map, to figure out exactly where an ancestor lived, then went to that piece of land and discovered a long-lost family cemetery. Another powerful use of land records is to prove a marriage. The deed records for Stewart County are 100% intact, all the way back into the 1780's - if your male ancestor owned a piece of land, and you cannot find a deed record showing how he got the land, then there's a high likelihood that he got it by inheritance from his own family, or by gift from his wife's family. Figuring out who owned that land before your ancestor can often 'prove' what family your ancestor married into. Land records can be very powerful sources of information, but it takes a lot of digging (no pun intended!). Hope this helps, Jim -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Doris Pulley Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 4:32 PM To: Melissa Barker; [email protected] Subject: Re: [TNSTEWAR] sorry about more Thanks Melissa, you're not a stranger to me because I used your service lots of times. You have always been very helpful. Once again, are you the one we get in contact with for these documents? Doris Melissa Barker <[email protected]> wrote: Dear Doris, Hello, I believe, but could be correct, that the deeds listed in the Stewart County site are abstracted and not the entire deed as it is originally. I say that because it does not include all the mundane descriptions of the property. As for marriage records, yes there are actual, original marriage records available. However, at the present time only the marriages from 1848 to the present are on microfilm. We used to have the marriages from 1838, but the originals were stolen from the courthouse and then the microfilm was stolen from the library. The State Archives does not have them on microfilm because the original were stolen and could not be microfilmed again. Hope this helps. Sincerely, Melissa Barker Genealogist for Tennessee and Kentucky ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doris Pulley" To: Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 5:26 AM Subject: [TNSTEWAR] sorry about more > QUESTION ....When Jim puts things on the genealogy site like a sale of > property or will and it gives the book and page number is that all the > information or are we suppose to send for more on the subject? If there > isn't much more on the subject it wouldn't be worth it. But if it is worth > it how and who would you contact for the rest of the article? When a > Stewart Co. marriage is listed are there real marriage license? Sorry, but > if I can't ask you then there's no hope for me. Thanks Doris > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.18/1255 - Release Date: 2/1/2008 > 9:59 AM > > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message