documenting my very southern genealogy from the plantation to the frontier
My 4th great grandfather, William "Honest Billy" Shaw, by his own account, grew up in Wythe County in southwest Virginia, "on the waters of the New River." Virginia origins I am virtually certain that William's father was another William Shaw who is found in local records from that time. By digging into that William Shaw's … Continue reading William Shaw from Virginia to Tennessee
In my first post profiling William Shaw, I annotated his testimony from his Revolutionary pension application. Now I'll move on to the second part of his application, which contains testimonials from witnesses as to his character and the veracity of his claims to service. William's friend Robert Weakley offered the first of several testimonials. On … Continue reading “Honest Billy” Shaw
I've recently rolled back around to researching my 4th great-grandfather, William Shaw. He applied for a Revolutionary War pension in 1832. and testified in court to the details of his service. Transcribing his testimony has revealed a wealth of information! In this first of two posts, I will focus primarily on his military career. After … Continue reading Unpacking William Shaw’s Military Service
A few months ago, I learned that Thomas Taylor was my 5th great grandfather. I recently returned to researching that line. It was a bit of a brick wall at first, because I could not find primary sources for multiple online claims that he was the "Colonel Thomas Taylor" who was a Revolutionary soldier in … Continue reading The Curious Case of Colonel Thomas Taylor
Earlier this year, while researching William Shaw, I discovered that Thomas Taylor was my 5th great grandfather. That whole line was kind of giving me a headache after having to lop off an entire line of the wrong Shaws, so I set it aside for a while. Recently I've been researching Thomas's family, and found … Continue reading Will of Thomas Taylor, 7 August 1815, Davidson County, Tennessee
While cleaning up my tree on my maternal Kelly line, I managed to create a whole new pandemic project for myself. Le sigh. Yet another case of multiple guys with the same name I realized while tidying the family of my 3g grandfather, James Logan Shaw, that I had no actual proof that he was … Continue reading Lesson Learned: Finding the Correct William Shaw
Thinking about all the women who came before us on international women's day.
It is very common for white genealogists not to know about, or not to know the full extent of, slave holding in their own families. Until a few years ago, I was one of them! One reason is that genealogy websites do not put this kind of information front and center. In fact, it is … Continue reading Hiding in Plain Sight: Slave Records on Ancestry.com
Please note that since this post was published, I have discovered that these Robert Shaw is not, in fact, my ancestor. However, I have left the post online for anyone else who may find it to be useful to their research. I've recently taken a deep dive into the Revolutionary War pension file of Robert … Continue reading Chunky Bob Shaw and the Old Lady
Please note that since this post was published, I have discovered that these Shaws are not, in fact, my ancestors. However, I have left the post online for anyone else who may find it to be useful to their research. Whenever I find a slave holder in the family, I try to post as much … Continue reading Slaves Held by the Shaw Family of Sumner County, Tennessee
A Long Way to Tennessee 