I hardly had time to read all the records in the state library last weekend, but the ones I did see, including a census record and a death certificate, did a highly remarkable job of not saying where in Bastrop County the people I'm researching lived. It was a Black family from Tennesse and Alabama, they came sometime around the 1860's, had children born reportedly in Bastrop then if the children didn't later know the date or year of their birth, and show up in Bastrop County records from the 1870's. Possibly noone on this list recognizes the family themselves - but it occurs to me that people might recognize the names of the people they rented and bought land from. Does anybody recognize the following names, and could anyone possibly tell me where their land was located? They rented from W B Billingsley, and bought from Samuel Fowler and wife, G B Speed and wife, and George andNancy Hodge, and F A Orgain. Yours, Dora __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/

Hello, Dora -- You might try doing a search for those names in both the Bastrop Newspapers abstracts and the newspaper "business" abstracts -- which are on the Bastrop USGENWEB webpage. From preparing the abstracts (many years ago) I recognize most of the names. I think W. B. Billingsley operated a store in McDade -- but both F. A. Orgain and B. D. Orgain were attorneys in Bastrop. One of the Fowlers was Mayor of Bastrop (but I don't think his name started with an S -- J. P., if my old memory is still working -- but the abstracts will clear that up). In fact, I ran into a B. D. Orgain, attorney in Beaumont,about 6 years ago when he was in his 90s and asked if he were related to F. A. and B. D. Orgain. They were his father and grandfather, but I suspect that the man that I met has now died. Don't happen to remember the name Speed or Hodge -- but check the abstracts. Even if some of these people lived in Bastrop proper, they could have owned land in various places around the county and rented it out periodically. Good luck with your search, Sara Bettencourt Houston, TX

Sara, You seem so knowledgable about the families of Bastrop. Do you know much about the Bishop's, Lymans's and Bryce's or Brices's? I am descended from Thomas P. Bishop. His father Stephen Bishop married Susan Bryce and her sister Charlotte was married to Benkamin Lyman. Melba Bishop "Sara M. Bettencourt" wrote: > Hello, Dora -- > > You might try doing a search for those names in both the Bastrop Newspapers > abstracts and the newspaper "business" abstracts -- which are on the Bastrop > USGENWEB webpage. From preparing the abstracts (many years ago) I recognize > most of the names. I think W. B. Billingsley operated a store in McDade -- > but both F. A. Orgain and B. D. Orgain were attorneys in Bastrop. One of > the Fowlers was Mayor of Bastrop (but I don't think his name started with an > S -- J. P., if my old memory is still working -- but the abstracts will > clear that up). In fact, I ran into a B. D. Orgain, attorney in > Beaumont,about 6 years ago when he was in his 90s and asked if he were > related to F. A. and B. D. Orgain. They were his father and grandfather, > but I suspect that the man that I met has now died. Don't happen to > remember the name Speed or Hodge -- but check the abstracts. > > Even if some of these people lived in Bastrop proper, they could have owned > land in various places around the county and rented it out periodically. > > Good luck with your search, > Sara Bettencourt > Houston, TX > > ==== TXBASTRO Mailing List ==== > Search the TXBASTRO-L archives for previously posted messages, > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=TXBASTRO > > ============================== > Search ALL of RootsWeb's mailing lists in real time. > RootsWeb's Personalized Mailing Lists: > http://pml.rootsweb.com/