Searching the birthplace and/or family member of the following couple. Charles Rigney b. abt. 1768, married Catherine Alsup in Botetourt Co.Va. on January 31,. 1785, with surety Smithen Poulson. I cannot connect Catherine to parents or siblings in Botetourt, and am desperately hoping someone out there can help me. I do find that There is a Sarah Alsup daugther of John Alsup who married Jeremiah Lambert Jan 29, 1788. Can John be the father of Catherine, too. Can anyone help with this Alsup family? Also Found a Charles Rigney in "Census Index Colonial America 1607-1789" in Botetourt County year 1785 and tax list, Wattersons Dist. - Botetourt Co. Personal property taxes; 1785 Charles Rigney - 2 white male tithables age 16 and above. This must be the same Charles who weds Catherine, along with perhaps a brother. By 1789 A Charles Rigney shows up in taxes of Franklin Co. Va. , and simultaneously disappears from the Botetourt Taxes. If anyone has any information on this couple, their children, or ANY family connection, please let me hear from you. They are my brick wall, until I can find the origins of Charles and Catherine. Many many thanks in advance. Dusty Smith

Another naming pattern that my great uncle told me for a p olish name: Mother would be called Wieliczkowa childrens name would be polish velitzee so the name originated when the first child went to school, and what is your name asked the teacher, not wieliczko that is your fathers name. So they translated in english Valetskie, valitsky, valetsky, valet, so take your choice! talk about confusing I have uncles and aunts that are sister and brothers with different last names! Kathy

I just took a look at the Library of VA digital collections site and came across the Gordon Aronhime Papers-SW VA Card file. In this was a Thomas CRAWFORD (1765-1799) buried at "Gumming's Cemetery". I'm not sure of the exact spelling of the cemetery but that's what it looks like on the handwritten card I downloaded from the site. Dies anyone know where this cemetery is? I don't see it in the BOTETOURT COUNTY HISTORY BEFORE 1900 THROUGH COUNTY CEMETERY RECORDS, though I could have missed it. It is possibly in a neighboring county? Any help here appreciated. Joanne Joanne A. Smith Mello jomello@innercite.com

My apologies for my recent post about volunteering to help your local Genealogy Societies. I did not realize that I had sent the message with "Listowner" typed under my name. I had originally typed this letter to send to the 2 surname mailing lists that I own and when I decided to send the letter, I also decided to CC the other others lists that I subscribe to. So, I hope I did not cause too much confusion for anyone. Your listowners remain the same. It was just an oversight on my part. SORRY Brenda Marble Subscriber

I'm the host of the QueryPage at URL: http://people.delphi.com/fspradlin/bote-qry.htm Queries posted this past week mentioned the following surnames: GILL, VAN_METER I'm not a researcher of these names, so PLEASE don't write me with questions about them ... ;) Regards, Freddie S. fspradlin@delphi.com 3448 W. 170th St., Torrance, CA 90504-2402

I'm the host of the QueryPage at URL: http://people.delphi.com/fspradlin/bote-qry.htm Queries posted this past week mentioned the following surnames: GILL, VAN_METER I'm not a researcher of these names, so PLEASE don't write me with questions about them ... ;) Regards, Freddie S. fspradlin@delphi.com 3448 W. 170th St., Torrance, CA 90504-2402

These websites are for the Balls of Virginia, including George Washington. http://www.everton.com/usa/GENEALOG/GENEALOG.BALLGEN http://www.surnames.com/gedcom/washington_george/washgton.htm Jan Demastus@aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 12/3/98 5:52:18 PM Central Standard Time, > jdboyce@foryou.net writes: > > << Julie, Somewhere in my boxes of records, I have a large color chart of Washington's genealogy. I'll try to find it and see if I can provide you with whatever info. you need. If you want to let me know your e-mail address, I'll contact you directly when I find the chart. Jerry Dempsey > jdboyce@foryou.net >> > > Handy site: http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/presidents/ >

In a message dated 12/3/98 5:52:18 PM Central Standard Time, jdboyce@foryou.net writes: << Julie, Somewhere in my boxes of records, I have a large color chart of Washington's genealogy. I'll try to find it and see if I can provide you with whatever info. you need. If you want to let me know your e-mail address, I'll contact you directly when I find the chart. Jerry Dempsey jdboyce@foryou.net >> Handy site: http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/presidents/

Darryl, I'm glad it helped. It proved very useful to me and I thought it was worth passing on to others. Judy Clark-Wick JWick@compuserve.com

Jean, Thank you for sending the additional information on naming patterns. I'm going to send it on to the other web-pages too. I've received quite a few responses from people saying it answered some questions they had about family names. And I received one that said it never worked for them. So there you go. It may work, it may not. My family is Scot-Irish and I've found the naming pattern held true for many generations and my friend who was Swedish found it fit in her family. But of course, this may not be true for everyone. Some families may have tossed the whole idea. I simply offered it as a tool that might assist in research. Thanks again for the information Jean. Judy Clark-Wick JWick@compuserve.com Here's the additional Naming Pattern information from Jean Bushnell: From: "Jean Bushnell" <jeanb@wf.quik.com> Old-To: <ILGREENE-L@rootsweb.com> It was a common practice in some German families to name the first born son after the child's paternal grandfather and the second born son after the maternal grandfather. Here are several more detailed naming patterns practiced by some families. Pattern A 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father 4th son after the husband's father's father 5th son after the wife's father's father 6th son after the husband's mother's father 7th son after the wife's mother's father 1st daughter after the wife's mother 2nd daughter after the husband's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the father's father's mother 5th daughter after the mother's father's mother 6th daughter after the father's mother's mother 7th daughter after the mother's mother's mother Pattern B The pattern B for the sons is the same as the above but this pattern for daughters was different 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the mother's father's mother 5th daughter after the father's father's mother Pattern C 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father's oldest brother 4th son after the father 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother's oldest sister 4th daughter after the mother Whenever a duplicate name occurred in these patterns, the next name in the series was used. If a child died in infancy the name was often reused for the next child of the same gender. A rare twist occurred sometimes. A child's name would be reused when a spouse died and the surviving spouse remarried and had more children with the next spouse. I found this happened when a spouse had children in Germany and then his spouse died. He left his children behind in Germany, possibly with the grandparents, and then emigrated to Pennsylvania. Sometime after arrival he remarried and named his eldest son born in Pennsylvania by his new spouse with the same name as the son still living in Germany. This results in two adult children with the same name. If you are lucky enough to find a family with a lot of children, who strictly followed one of these naming patterns, then it may give you useful clues to determining the possible names of family members in earlier generations. 5. An "in" or "en", added to the end of a name, such as Anna Maria Kerchnerin, is a Germanic language name ending suffix denoting that the person is female. Thus the correct spelling of the last name in the example would be Kerchner, not Kerchnerin. 6. An "er" or "ner", added to a surname based on the name of something, denoted that the person worked with that object or at that occupation, if the main portion of the name was an object or an occupation, or that the person was from that geographic location or city, if the main portion of the name was a geographic location. Examples: Forst is German for a forest, thus Forster is one who worked in a forest or with woodlands or was from a forest. Berlin is a city in Germany, thus Berliner is one who is from Berlin. Since English is a Germanic rooted language we do the same thing in English, i.e., Paint(er), Garden(er), New York(er). The suffixes mentioned in 5. and 6. above are compounded in many cases. The nouns Kirche and Kerche are German words for church. Thus for the surname Kerchnerin, i.e., Kerch(ner)(in) we thus have a person who worked in or near a church who is female. 7. Frequently the secular name given to the child was also the same as the secular given name of one of the baptismal sponsors for the child. Said baptismal sponsors frequently were close relatives but also could be close and trusted friends and neighbors. I hope that the above information will be of assistance to individuals researching 18th Century Pennsylvania-German names and records. Sorry, but I cannot give you specific advice or answer questions about individual German names. For information on specific names consult one of the following excellent books. For additional information on "German-American Names" consult the book by that name written by Professor George F. Jones published by the Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD. For additional information on German names, consult the 1967 book written by Hans Bahlow. The English version titled "Dictionary of German Names" was translated by Edda Gentry. It was published in 1993 by the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI.

With the rapid growth of interest in genealogy due to the convenience of computers, the demands on Genealogy Societies to provide us with accessible records has sky-rocketed. Since winter is coming, and many of us will choose to spend more time indoors, I thought I might make the suggestion to check with your local Genealogy Society about doing some volunteer work. Most of you who are subscribers to mailing lists, have personal computers at home. Genealogy Societies are in desperate need for volunteers to help type records into books, databases, etc. The more people who volunteer for these tasks, the more information we will have available to us in book or disc form. Being a researcher, you are more attune to what kind of information a researcher is interested in. For example, Cass Co MO is compiling all their cemetery records into one book and one database. These records will not only contain information obtained from tombstones, but also the information contained in the obituaries, if they are available. Anyway, I think it is important as researchers to not only contribute to our own family trees, but to aid others searching in our own counties. If active researchers become involved with their local Genealogy Societies, then the kind of information we need will become available for us. Even though typing may seem like an undesirable task, it's a great feeling to be a part of something that will make the journey for other's easier. You don't need to type 60 wpm to be of help. "Peckers" are welcome and can take on smaller tasks freeing up the time for the "flash fingers" to do the big jobs. Most Genealogy Societies will allow you to take files home to work on them in your free time. If you can't find that book you desperately need, it's probably because there aren't enough volunteers to make it available. We all want the books and disc's to research from but often times we forget that someone has to take the time to create them. You don't have to be retired to get involved. Every little bit helps. Just a little food for thought. Brenda Marble Listowner

Judy, thank you very much for posting these name patterns. I have already answered a long standing mystery of a family member switching to his middle name later in his life. Darryl Winger

I thought I would pass on some information recently given to me from friends on the Internet that may prove useful when researching your ancestors. It has proved very helpful to me, although it is not always a guarantee that your ancestor followed the patterns, it does give you a possible clue to a name. This is why you may find two people with the same names living in the same time period but with different birthdates---they may be cousins and not the same person afterall. If anyone has some additional naming patterns, please pass them on to us. Judy Clark-Wick JWick@compuserve.com OLD NAMING PATTERNS The first son was named after the father's father. The second son was named after the mother's father. The third son was named after the father. The fourth son was named after the fathers eldest brother. The first daughter was named after the mother's mother. The second daughter was named after the father's mother. The third daughter was named after the mother. The fourth daughter was named after the mothers eldest sister. SWEDISH NAMING PATTERNS If Olaf had a daughter that he named Inga. Inga would be named: Inga Olafsdaur (or Olaf's daughter) If Olaf had a son that he named Sven, his son would be called: Sven Olafson. When Sven has a daughter that he names Olga, Olga's name would be Olga Svensdaur. Her brother Lars would be: Lars Svenson. SCOTS PATTERN OF NAMING Our Dunn family was really stuck in the pattern. William begot James, James Begot William, William begot James etc., etc., etc., down through the generations. It was the traditional Scots way of naming. This was also apparent in the women of our family. You will also find that middle names are quite significant if your ancestors are from Scotland. Often the middle name reflects a previous generation Sur-name. For instance, William Abercromie Dunn, was the son of James Dunn and Mary Birnie. James parents were William Dun (notice spelling change in descendants) and Margaret Abercrombie. William Abercrombie Dunn and his wife, Annie Young, named their children, in my grandfather's generation, with the same pattern as described first. His children were: James Dunn no middle name (named for William's father) Robert Young Dunn (named for wife's father: First and middle name) William Birnie Dunn (named for father and middle name is that of William's mother.) Lillie Haddow Young Dunn (named for Annie's mother: Lillias Haddow and her father's surname: Young) My Grandfather: Andrew Carnegie Dunn, was a broken part of the pattern. William didn't have an older brother. The name, Andrew Carnegie, came from his employer and friend. The Andrew Carnegie, Steel Magnate. Mary Birnie Dunn, named for William's mother, Mary Birnie. This continues through the remaining 12 children. Sylvia was the first to discover the naming pattern when she did the initial research. She found alternating William and James and found it more than a coincidence. It didn't take long to discover that it was a common practice amongst the Scots. 19th CENTURY GERMAN NAMING PATTERNS: At baptism, if two given names were given to the child, the first given name was a spiritual, saint's name, originally developed from Roman Catholic tradition and continued by the Protestants in their baptismal naming customs. The second given name as the secular or call name, which is the name the person was known by, both within the family and to this rest of the world. The spiritual name, usually to honor a favorite saint, was usually repeatedly given to all the children of that family of the same sex. thus the boys would be Johan Adam Kerchner, Johan George Kerchner, etc., or Philip Peter Kerchner, Philip Jacob Kerchner, etc. Girls would be named Anna Barbara Kerchner, Anna Margaret Kerchner, etc., or Maria Elizabeth Kerchner, Maria Katherine Kerchner, etc. But after baptism, these people would not be known as John, Philip, Anna, or Maria, respectively. they would instead be known by what we would think of now as their middle name, which was their secular name. Thus these people would be known respectively as Adam, George, Peter, Jacob, Barbara, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Catherine in legal and secular records. For males, the saint's name Johan or John was particularly heavily used by many German families. The child's secular name was really John, if and only if, at baptism he was named only John, usually Johannes, with no second given name. Many researchers, new to German names, who find a baptism of an individual with a name such as Johan Adam Kerchner, thus mistakenly spend a lot of time looking for a John Kerchner, in legal and census records, when he was known after baptism, to the secular world, as Adam Kerchner. Also when reading county histories, etc., especially those written by individuals in the 20th century, and the author is referring to someone as John Kerchner, and you are not looking for a John Kerchner, but the history sounds otherwise familiar, further research may turn up that this person was really not a John Kerchner, but instead was someone else such as a Johan George Kerchner. You would thus find all his 18th century records recorded under the name George Kerchner and not John Kerchner and therefore after checking the data and correlating the facts you may find this is really a story about your missing George Kerchner.

Julie, Somewhere in my boxes of records, I have a large color chart of Washington's genealogy. I'll try to find it and see if I can provide you with whatever info. you need. If you want to let me know your e-mail address, I'll contact you directly when I find the chart. Jerry Dempsey jdboyce@foryou.net ---------- > Julie > > Re your post on Geo. Washington's lineage, there's a huge genealogy chart on > one of the walls at Kenmore (the home of his sister) in Fredericksburg. His > mother is buried right across the road. Someone at Kenmore would probably > know or be able to direct you to someone who does know. The phone number at > Kenmore is 540-373-3381, address 1201 Washington Ave., Fredericksburg, VA > 22401. > > Another place to try might be Washington's birthplace Wakefield in > Westmoreland Co. Their phone number is 804-224-7895. > > Dee > > > ==== VABOTETO Mailing List ==== > You may search the archived postings to this list at URL: > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?surname=VABOTETO > >

Julie Re your post on Geo. Washington's lineage, there's a huge genealogy chart on one of the walls at Kenmore (the home of his sister) in Fredericksburg. His mother is buried right across the road. Someone at Kenmore would probably know or be able to direct you to someone who does know. The phone number at Kenmore is 540-373-3381, address 1201 Washington Ave., Fredericksburg, VA 22401. Another place to try might be Washington's birthplace Wakefield in Westmoreland Co. Their phone number is 804-224-7895. Dee

The largest genus of parakeets in the tropical Americas contains 19 species, known in the cage-bird trade as conures. Closely related to these was the Carolina parakeet, which was once abundant in the southern United States but is now extinct, the last individual having died in captivity in 1918. It was about 30 cm (about 12 in) long, with a long, pointed tail, a green body, and a yellow head and orange face. Its extinction had several causes, but, primarily, it was shot as a severe pest in fruit-growing areas. "Parakeet," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. -----Original Message----- From: Aarah@aol.com [mailto:Aarah@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 1998 7:10 PM To: VABOTETO-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re:Parakeets in North Mississippi about 1845 Ron, Without a trip to the garage packing boxes for my parrot book, I can't be specific - but from memory - There was one parakeet native to this country and was called (I think) the North Carolina parakeet. It was as stated in the letter, a flock bird but it was hunted to extinction because of the popularity of brightly colored feathers for women's hats. It didn't take long and they were gone. Gail Mynatt Zeigler Ron's post read, in part: <<.............." Now for the most interesting part of a very interesting letter, he continues "WE HAD THOUSANDS OF PARAKEETS HERE FOR A FEW YEARS, BUT THEY SOON LEFT AFTER THE COUNTRY BEGAN TO SETTLE UP. The parakeet was a peculiar bird, going in droves. They belonged probably to the parrot family, having a gay plumage. The had crooked bills, and they would hook their bills over a limb to roost. The could be tamed, and when caught and petted, at roosting time, they would hook their bills over the back of a chair and hang there all night. Pigeons were here by the millions. Indian houses were all over the country. The Indians traveled like geese, one behind the other, and their trails were about two feet deep and were all over the country." Quite a story eh! Hope you enjoyed it. I'm still numb to the allegation of "parakeets" in north Mississippi in the 1740s. Do any of our readers know anything about the presence of tropical birds in an area where there are regular freezes and snow fall? This has me puzzled!!! Ron (Rowland, Garrett, Bobo, Ragsdale, Burleson et al) Hughes on the Mississippi Gulf coast >> ==== VABOTETO Mailing List ==== When replying to a posted message, make a conscious decision whether the reply should go to the list, or privately to the originator.

: Without a trip to the garage packing boxes for my parrot book, I can't be : specific - but from memory - Pretty good memory job! I pulled a book off my shelf just now, "The Birder's Handbook," by Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye. Here is a summary: Carolina Parakeet (sometimes called Illinois Parakeet by Europeans). Only member of the parakeet family native to the US. Yellow head, orange mask, green body, bluish wings and tail. Abundant agricultural pests. A trait that helped seal their doom was that the flocks would return to fallen comrades, perhaps to mob the predator (others have suggested curiosity, or attempts to "waken" the comrade and get it back in the flock). This made them easy targets... the flock might scatter when a shot was fired, but no matter how many were killed, the others would come back to check them out. Also hunted for sport and sale as caged birds. Habitat degradation and destruction also probably factors in their decline and extinction, and perhaps in part also that imported honeybees nested in the same holes favored by the 'keets ---- farmers would often cut down a "bee tree" and move it closer to their own home. Preferred habitat was large stretches of riverine forest. A large social group may have been critical to survival, as with passenger pigeons, so that when a critical limit was reached, they just "faded away." Hope this has been of some interest...... Bryce BStevens@netstarcomm.net Proud Sponsor of RootsWeb and a dedicated Birder!

Ron, Without a trip to the garage packing boxes for my parrot book, I can't be specific - but from memory - There was one parakeet native to this country and was called (I think) the North Carolina parakeet. It was as stated in the letter, a flock bird but it was hunted to extinction because of the popularity of brightly colored feathers for women's hats. It didn't take long and they were gone. Gail Mynatt Zeigler Ron's post read, in part: <<.............." Now for the most interesting part of a very interesting letter, he continues "WE HAD THOUSANDS OF PARAKEETS HERE FOR A FEW YEARS, BUT THEY SOON LEFT AFTER THE COUNTRY BEGAN TO SETTLE UP. The parakeet was a peculiar bird, going in droves. They belonged probably to the parrot family, having a gay plumage. The had crooked bills, and they would hook their bills over a limb to roost. The could be tamed, and when caught and petted, at roosting time, they would hook their bills over the back of a chair and hang there all night. Pigeons were here by the millions. Indian houses were all over the country. The Indians traveled like geese, one behind the other, and their trails were about two feet deep and were all over the country." Quite a story eh! Hope you enjoyed it. I'm still numb to the allegation of "parakeets" in north Mississippi in the 1740s. Do any of our readers know anything about the presence of tropical birds in an area where there are regular freezes and snow fall? This has me puzzled!!! Ron (Rowland, Garrett, Bobo, Ragsdale, Burleson et al) Hughes on the Mississippi Gulf coast >>

This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_912493345_boundary Content-ID: <0_912493345@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII --part0_912493345_boundary Content-ID: <0_912493345@inet_out.mail.aol.com.2> Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline Return-Path: <> Received: from rly-za05.mx.aol.com (rly-za05.mail.aol.com [172.31.36.101]) by air-za05.mail.aol.com (v51.29) with SMTP; Tue, 01 Dec 1998 01:16:57 1900 Received: from imo27.mx.aol.com (imo27.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.71]) by rly-za05.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id BAA03875 for <OpusLola@aol.com>; Tue, 1 Dec 1998 01:16:57 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost (localhost) by imo27.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) with internal id BAA03067; Tue, 1 Dec 1998 01:16:57 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 01:16:57 -0500 (EST) From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON@aol.com> Subject: Returned mail: User unknown Message-Id: <199812010616.BAA03067@imo27.mx.aol.com> To: OpusLola@aol.com Auto-Submitted: auto-generated (failure) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit The original message was received at Mon, 30 Nov 1998 23:53:27 -0500 (EST) from root@localhost *** ATTENTION *** An e-mail you sent to an Internet destination could not be delivered. The Internet address is listed in the section labeled: "----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----". The reason your e-mail could not be delivered is listed in the section labeled: "----- Transcript of Session Follows -----". The line beginning with "<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a general translation for other e-mail servers. Please direct further questions regarding this message to the e-mail administrator or Postmaster at that destination. ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <VABOTETOUR-L@ROOTSWEB.COM> ----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to bl-3.rootsweb.com.: >>> RCPT To:<VABOTETOUR-L@ROOTSWEB.COM> <<< 550 <VABOTETOUR-L@ROOTSWEB.COM>... User unknown 550 <VABOTETOUR-L@ROOTSWEB.COM>... User unknown ----- Original message follows ----- Received: from OpusLola@aol.com by imo27.mx.aol.com (IMOv16.10) id QBCJa02195 for <VABOTETOUR-L@ROOTSWEB.COM>; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 23:53:35 +1900 (EST) From: OpusLola@aol.com Return-path: <OpusLola@aol.com> Message-ID: <bb23c7db.3663764f@aol.com> Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 23:53:35 EST To: VABOTETOUR-L@ROOTSWEB.COM Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Fwd: [MISSISSIPPI-L] Re:Parakeets in North Mississippi about 1845 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="part0_912488007_boundary" X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 224 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_912488007_boundary Content-ID: <0_912488007@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII I'm passing on to you this story about an area many Botetourt citizens ended up at in the early 1830s. Ron Hughes --part0_912488007_boundary Content-ID: <0_912488007@inet_out.mail.aol.com.2> Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline Return-Path: <MISSISSIPPI-L-request@rootsweb.com> Received: from rly-zd03.mx.aol.com (rly-zd03.mail.aol.com [172.31.33.227]) by air-zd02.mail.aol.com (v51.29) with SMTP; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 22:02:07 1900 Received: from bl-30.rootsweb.com (bl-30.rootsweb.com [207.113.245.30]) by rly-zd03.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id WAA16367; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 22:01:45 -0500 (EST) Received: (from slist@localhost) by bl-30.rootsweb.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA17583; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 18:58:06 -0800 (PST) Resent-Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 18:58:06 -0800 (PST) From: OpusLola@aol.com Message-ID: <20f6c929.366358d8@aol.com> Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 21:47:52 EST Old-To: Mississippi-L@rootsweb.com X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 224 Subject: [MISSISSIPPI-L] Re:Parakeets in North Mississippi about 1845 Resent-Message-ID: <"-sk_iB.A.0RE.8s1Y2"@bl-30.rootsweb.com> To: MISSISSIPPI-L@rootsweb.com Resent-From: MISSISSIPPI-L@rootsweb.com X-Mailing-List: <MISSISSIPPI-L@rootsweb.com> archive/latest/1884 X-Loop: MISSISSIPPI-L@rootsweb.com Precedence: list Resent-Sender: MISSISSIPPI-L-request@rootsweb.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I am reading a Tippah Co. Heritage book, published in 1981. In the book is a copy of a letter from John W. Hodges recalling his younger years around 1842, near Ripley. In his own words he said "The whole country was fresh then and Mississippi was a veritable paradise for the sportsman. Then all creek and branch bottoms were covered with cane, the hills and valleys with wild nuts and berries and the woods were full of deer and turkeys. I have often seen as many as eight and ten deer in a drove. There were also wolves, bear and a few panther: and squirrels were everywhere. The creeks were never muddy, even after rains they remained clear as a spring. The streams were filled with fish......There was very little cotton raised. All that was made was carried to Memphis on wagons and sold for four and five cents a pound. Memphis was then a small town, and it required ten to twenty days to make the trip..............." Now for the most interesting part of a very interesting letter, he continues "WE HAD THOUSANDS OF PARAKEETS HERE FOR A FEW YEARS, BUT THEY SOON LEFT AFTER THE COUNTRY BEGAN TO SETTLE UP. The parakeet was a peculiar bird, going in droves. They belonged probably to the parrot family, having a gay plumage. The had crooked bills, and they would hook their bills over a limb to roost. The could be tamed, and when caught and petted, at roosting time, they would hook their bills over the back of a chair and hang there all night. Pigeons were here by the millions. Indian houses were all over the country. The Indians traveled like geese, one behind the other, and their trails were about two feet deep and were all over the country." Quite a story eh! Hope you enjoyed it. I'm still numb to the allegation of "parakeets" in north Mississippi in the 1740s. Do any of our readers know anything about the presence of tropical birds in an area where there are regular freezes and snow fall? This has me puzzled!!! Ron (Rowland, Garrett, Bobo, Ragsdale, Burleson et al) Hughes on the Mississippi Gulf coast --part0_912488007_boundary-- --part0_912493345_boundary--

Dear Mike, I noticed on your posting about the Markhams that you have a BALL line in your group--SARAH BALL. Do you know much about the Ball family? I recently found out I have a gggg grandmother by the name of Kezziah Ball, who was from Lee County, VA also. I found one source that said that this Ball line was related to George Washington, through his mother, Mary Ball. I have been looking for sources to verify this. Can you, or anyone, suggest a place to verify George Washington's lineage? Julie