August Again

Yes, it's August again! Unlike the past four years in Northern Virginia, we're actually looking forward to August in Northern California. We've just made it through one of the hottest Julys on record in Northern California, and August promises to be relatively cool.

Now that we're more than halfway through the year, it's worthwhile to look back at our goals for the year set in January and see where we are. The answer is not all that far.

For the Gines family, we set the goal of discovering the parents of Richard Gines who was born in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, in about 1860. I know nothing more about this than I did eight months ago. But I have a research strategy that is evolving in my head that concerns looking at a number of plantations in Louisiana. Another Gines family goal was to link the Gines, LeJay, and Brayboy families of Louisiana those in South Carolina. No progress here either. On the other hand, however, I have learned quite a bit more about the Gines family in Nacogdoches, Texas.

For the Manson family, the idea was to learn the parents of Charlotte Manson. We made one small step forward on that goal. But we're still several steps away from achieving that goal.

For the Birdsong family, we are still looking for evidence related to George Birdsong's trip to Texas in 1884 and subsequent return to Georgia in about 1905. No progress there.

For the Gilberts, we were seeking to verify the rumors that Sarah Gilbert was an Indian. We may be close on this one, as we have narrowed down to three possible death certificates from Kansas City, Missouri, which may identify Sarah Gilbert.

For the Long family, we wanted to discover the origins of James "Old Man" Long, who was reportedly born in about 1831. We didn't do that but we did learn a lot about the Long family, some of which we'll be posting here shortly.

We did learn about the connection of the Johnson family to that of Dan Carpenter, an important figure in the development of Clay County, Missouri and the greater Kansas City area.

on the overall goal of "Learn, Share, Enjoy, Appreciate," we're doing pretty well.