A milestone and the book that got me there

 Since I arrived in Augusta, I have had more time to do genealogy research.  I have several projects going at once and a list of many more I want to do.  One of the projects I have finally started is entering Drake relatives from this book into my family tree:

Descendants of Exum Drake

Volume III

Descendants of

Francis Bryant Drake

and

Selina King

by

Robert Eldon Drake, M.D.

1977

As you can see, the book is ancient now.  I have owned this copy for probably 25-30 years or more myself.  Yet I have never gone through it and added the research to my own tree.  So I started a couple of weeks ago and with mixing it up with another  project I have going, I haven't gotten bored.  I have probably entered 300+ names at this point and am only on page 216 of 646 pages.  

Now I know some people don't put distant cousins on their tree, but I do.  I have 8th cousins in my Family Tree Maker software.  This book, being from 1977, only goes up to my 4th cousins, 1x removed, so it is really valuable information and worth it to me.

Dr. Drake (who is my 3rd cousin, 1x removed) has passed on now.  I got this copy by contacting his wife and probably received one of the last printed copies.  I now wish I had gotten other volumes.  I will have to try to find them in a library one day.  

Anyway, I was busy adding descendants into my software, and I hit a milestone.  I added the 33,000th person into my tree!  That's a lot of relatives!  I know some genealogists (Randy Seaver comes to mind.) who have 3 times or more of that number in their trees.  Mine is a work in progress.  

The lucky #33,000 was Nina Maxine Scott (1923-2008).  She was the wife of my 4th cousin, Allen Dwight Thigpen (1922-1976).  

Allen Dwight Thigpen

1942

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of Nina, but I will share what I learned about her today.

Nina Maxine Scott was born  March 5, 1923 in Colleton County, South Carolina.  Her parents were William Harrison Scott and Jennie May Wilson Scott.  At some point, the family moved south, and Nina graduated from Chapman High School in Apalachicola, Franklin County, Florida.  I would guess that is where she met her future husband, Allen, since he lived in Apalachicola and graduated from the same high school.  Nina would have graduated about 1941, and she attended the Jones Business College in Jacksonville, Florida.  Allen would have graduated about a year before Nina, attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, and joined the military in 1942.  

Meanwhile, Nina's family headed west to Louisiana and Missouri.  I am not clear if she joined them or just went there to have her wedding, but on May 6, 1944, Nina and Allen got married in Neosho, Missouri.  They were married in the home of the pastor of the local First Methodist Church.  The ceremony took place on a Saturday afternoon.  The bride wore "navy blue crepe and her accessories were of white.  She wore a corsage of white orchids."  This sounds like a war time, quickly executed wedding, perhaps because the groom must ship out soon.  Allen was stationed at Camp Crowder, Missouri at the time, where he was attending radio school.  The bride and groomed settled at home at 116 Jasper Street in Joplin, Missouri after the wedding.  

Their first child, Laura, was born June 11, 1947.  Then were was a gap of time where I could not locate where they lived or if Allen was still in the military.  In 1957, they arrived in Crestview, Florida.  It was there that their second child, Scott, was born on May 1, 1958.  Scott's birth announcement does mention that the couple was "formerly of Chattahoochee" (Florida) so evidently they lived there before arriving in Crestview.  On December 15, 1959, Allen and Nina welcomed twin boys, Michael and Mark.  This completed their family.  

Both Nina and Allen operated an insurance agency (ies).  Nina's obituary states she owned the Thigpen Insurance Agency, whereas Allen's obituary said he owned Steele Insurance Agency.  Surely they didn't compete with each other.  

Allen died in Crestview in 1976.  Nina lived there until 1983.  I know she lived in Sandy Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, in an assisted living facility at the end of her life.  Her son, Scott, lived in Atlanta, so she must have moved there to be near him.  

Nina passed away November 7, 2008 and was laid to rest next to Allen at Live Oak Memorial Park in Crestview.  

Here is our relationship chart that shows exactly how and through whom we are related:

It never fails to excite me to learn about a "new" relative!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do You Have a John Smith?

From Randy over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

 Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

 1)  How many persons named John Smith do you have in your genealogy management program or online family tree?  How many persons named John Smith are ancestors?

2)  Pick out one of those persons named John Smith and do some online research for them in Ancestry, FamilySearch, or another set of record collections.  Your goal is to add something to your database.

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook or Google+.

Here's mine:

1)  Believe it or not, I only have one John Smith in my Family Tree Maker 2012 database!  And he is not even a direct relative!  However, I never turn down a reason to research so here goes.

2)  John G. Smith was born 07 Aug 1824 and died 28 May 1894.  He was married to Mary Tyson, born 27 Feb 1817 and died 07 Feb 1894.  Their daughter, Margaret F. Tyson Smith (17 Nov 1856 - 02 Aug 1935) was married to my first cousin, John Solomon P. Lampp (13 Aug 1854 - 16 Dec 1922).  Other than presuming they were born and lived in Georgia, I know nothing about this family.

Upon checking the public member trees on Ancestry.com, I found a listing for John Gordon Smith with (almost) matching birth and date dates who was born in Emanuel County, Georgia.  His wife is listed as Mary Tyson.  Bingo!  His parents are listed as William Daniel Smith (1801-1860) and Nancy Ann Stewart (1802-1884).   

Also on Ancestry.com, in the database "Georgia Marriages to 1850," I found a listing for John G. Smith and Mary Tison.  They were married on February 6, 1845 in Emanuel County, Georgia. The same information is listed in "Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944."

I also found a J. G. Smith and Mary Smith in the 1880 United States Federal Census (Ancestry.com).  They were living in Johnson County, Georgia at that time, along with their 19-year-old son, John, which matches information I found elsewhere.

Also in the public member trees on Ancestry.com, I found a picture of John Smith's headstone.  This lead me to FindAGrave.com.  There I found the memorial for John Gordon Smith who is buried in Smith Cemetery in Scott, Johnson County, Georgia.  The inscription reads:

 "But Man Dieth
& Wayesth A
Way Ya Man
Giveth Up
The Ghost &
Whare Is He"

So I found quite a bit of "new" information in a very short period of time.  A successful evening, I would say!

3)  Done!

Sunday's Obituary: Roberta McAfee Foskey

"Beloved Lady Dies Suddenly At Her Home

 The Scott community was deeply saddened early last Friday morning by the

announcement from the home of Mr. Lott Foskey, prominent farmer of that

section, that his wife had suddenly passed away at the family home about 5

o'clock. She had been up previously and had carried her daily work on Thursday

but Thursday night she made a few complaints of not feeling well and did not

rest so good during the night. Early Friday morning, she told the family she

was feeling worse and in a few minutes she had died. She was a fine christian

woman, loved by everyone, and devoted her life to the home, school, church,

her friends and to her family. She was 58 and before her marriage she was a

Miss McAfee. Her husband and five children survive. Funeral services were

conducted at Bay Springs at eleven o'clock Saturday by the Rev. W. P. Cox, her

pastor, and the burial was in the Bay Springs church cemetery." 

Johnson County GaArchives Obituaries.....Foskey, Roberta "Berta" McAfee March 16, 1934

The Wrightsville Headlight 3-22-1934 Front Page

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/johnson/obits/f/foskey12565ob.txt

Berta Foskey's brother-in-law, Nathan Tucker Foskey (the brother of her husband), was married to my grand aunt, Nancy Jane Harrell Foskey.