The Citizen Online - Genealogy

Finding Your Folks: Oh noooo! Another Jesse Cole?

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:55:00 -0400

Just as I thought it was safe to move on … I received first some information from Frances Hanson Arnold on her Jesse Cole and second a letter from Ken Arnold which gave further information on this same Jesse. Because of the area they lived in, I would bet dollars to doughnuts these Coles are related to our other Jesse (son of Robert Cole and Elizabeth Fambrough) and even maybe to Marcus Cole of Butts County from last week's column. That is what really drove me to include this Jesse of Frances and Ken's. This Jesse, like Marcus, had a daughter named "Aletha" or "Eletha" Cole. Now, that is not your usual, run-of-the-mill female name and I thought it was worth mentioning.

Finding Your Folks: A question about Emily Cole Singley

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:30:57 -0400

We're going to pick up where we left off last week with information from documents generously contributed by Tex Dix of Spalding County, a descendant of Emily Jane Cole and John Singley. The problem we had in the beginning was identifying the names of all the children of Jesse Cole (son of Robert Cole and Elizabeth Fambrough) and his first wife, Elizabeth Crawford. Elizabeth died before 1836, Jesse remarried, and all the "first" children were grown by the time the 1850 census was taken naming all his "new" children. We knew of only two sons for sure, Robert S. and William Thomas Cole, and that was only because someone had written stories about them in "Memoirs of Georgia" in 1895 and in "Coweta Chronicles" in 1928.

Finding Your Folks: Children of Jesse and Elizabeth Crawford Cole

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:15:24 -0400

We're going to jump back to another Cole family this week because I sort of left them hanging out there in left field a few weeks ago. If you will go back to the "Chasing Jesse Cole …" story you will see that I had only two children from his first family with Elizabeth Crawford - Robert S. and William Thomas Cole - when the census indicated more.

Finding Your Folks: John Newton Cole

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:32:46 -0400

Well, I sure found out who the heck Richard Cole was, didn't I? I heard from many of you about Richard and his family, did some checking on the Internet, and did a lot of research at the Coweta Courthouse(s) and have pretty much exhausted my local resources on this family.

Finding Your Folks: Errors in some Cole records

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:25:47 -0400

I have come across some errors in the official records that I feel need to be addressed before we go any farther on the Cole family we've been researching for the past few weeks. I had given you some deed information on Richard Cole, the earliest ancestor we have found so far for one Cole family, who purchased land in Coweta in 1829 and 1832. The first record was accurate except possibly for the county of residence of the seller, Lazarus Tilman. The second deed contained a serious error in location.

Finding Your Folks: Stewart, McDearmond to be honored in Tyrone

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:38:55 -0400

We're going to temporarily suspend our study of the Cole families in Coweta and Meriwether to announce an upcoming event in Fayette some of you may wish to attend.

Finding Your Folks: Coles, Malcolms in the mailbag

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:24:13 -0400

Last week's column on Richard Cole brought a response all the way from California. Bob Johnston, who has contributed many interesting tidbits of information to the column over the years, did not have anything on Richard's parents but did have information on his children.

Finding Your Folks: Who the heck was Richard Cole?

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:16:44 -0400

This column is going to have both questions and miscellaneous facts since I'm curious, myself, about this Richard Cole. He appears in Coweta very early (1829) and I am trying to find out whether he is connected to the other Coles who were here … descendants of Robert Cole and Elizabeth Fambrough, or perhaps related to that Robert Cole somehow. Frankly, I have no idea at this point and I'm hoping someone out there can fill in the blanks. From Coweta court records, I know he was married to Susan Vance but I don't know where the marriage took place.

Finding Your Folks: Cole, Fambrough, Parks, Ward and Barnett tidbits

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:53:06 -0400

The story about Jesse Cole last week brought several responses I'd like to share with you on the Fambrough and Parks families. The Barnett tidbits came from an unexpected find in the estate records.

Finding Your Folks: Chasing Jesse Cole through Georgia and Alabama

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:50:35 -0500

You never know where the path will lead when you start out on one of these research adventures. Last week after I posted my queries on the Internet and people started responding, not to the Owen side, but to the Cole side of my questions, I stood at the fork in the path, wondering whether I should really take off on this new family or politely thank them and state that I was only interested in the Cole-Owen part of the family.

Finding Your Folks: William T. and Mary Ann Owen Cole

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:25:38 -0500

This started out to be one of those difficult stories where the wife dies, the husband remarries, and the census records give a different variation of the surname each year. When that happens and you are totally confused, you go to the Internet message boards and mailing lists for help.

Finding Your Folks: Coleman Owen's estate sale

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:13:53 -0500

About five years ago when a bunch of us were desperately searching for any scrap of evidence which showed our Robert Boyd's ancestry, a fellow researcher and cousin, Dick Stewart, sent me a sheet of paper which popped my eyes wide open. It was the results of an estate sale in Newberry Co., S.C., for one John Boyd, known to most of us as John Boyd of Ballymena, great-grandfather of the Boyds buried at Bethany UMC in Fayette County.

Finding Your Folks: The two Bethel churches at Rocky Mount

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:27:20 -0500

I need to apologize to the good folks in Rocky Mount for an error I made last week in naming one of their cemeteries. I was unaware, as I'm sure some of you were, that there are two Bethel Baptist churches in Rocky Mount: one is Bethel Baptist Church (in Rocky Mount), a white church, established in 1829, and the other is Rocky Mount Bethel Baptist Church, a black church, established in 1867.

Finding Your Folks: The Coleman P. Owen family

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:16:30 -0500

It took me the better part of the day, but last Friday I was able to copy all the will and estate information pertaining to Coleman P. Owen, the only provable child of Brice and Sarah Law/Lane Owen of Rocky Mount, Meriwether County. Research has indicated that Coleman may have had a sister, Martha, who married John Moncrief, and I have put out "feelers" on Internet lists to see if anyone has proof. There are several references to Moncriefs in Owen family documents, but nothing that would tell us without a doubt that Martha was the daughter of Brice and Sarah. Early census records indicate that Coleman had a brother and two sisters, but I have not been able to find any information on them at all.

Finding Your Folks: More about the Owens of Rocky Mount

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:42:18 -0500

Whenever I do an in-depth study on a family, I try to get as much of a "feel" for them as I can, and try to visit the area where they lived, if it is not too far. In the case of the Brice Owen (senior) family, this wasn't hard to do. Last week I went back to Greenville to gather some more Owen/Owens land records. My route takes me from my home near Thomas Crossroads through Sharpsburg, then through Luthersville, then on to Greenville.