My mother sent a copy of the funeral card of her uncle, Arthur Eugene Brown. Of course that got me to thinking about him. I don’t recall meeting him, although I may have when I was young. I have a photo of Arthur and his second wife Gertrude with my mother and my sister Glennis from the same year he died.
Funeral Card Arthur E Brown
Arthur was the 10th child of Arthur Durrwood and Mary Elizabeth (Manning) Brown. He was born 2 April 1909 (although the 1920 census says he was 8) in Williston, North Dakota. His death records and most other records indicate he was born in 1909.
Gertie & Arthur E Brown.
He moved to Sylvan Township, Cass County, Minnesota about 1917. His father died in 1928, when he was 19 years-old. He lived on a farm near Brainerd, Minnesota in 1935 and married Gladys Grace Hoggarth at Zion Evangelical, in Brainerd, on 24 Sep 1938.
In 1939, the first of six boys was born; Art, Gladys, and the boys appear to have lived in Baxter, MN, which is a small town adjacent to Brainerd.
On 7 Mar 1944, Art enlisted in the Army.
Tragedy struck in 1968 when Gladys died.
In 1980, Art married Gertrude Lillian Wilson and moved to Clearwater, Wright County, Minnesota. His mother died in 1983.
Art died 20 Dec 1996. He was buried with his first wife at Evergreen Memorial Gardens in Brainerd, Minnesota.
After my success with the Y-DNA test and close match, I thought I’d try out the autosomal DNA (atDNA), test and see what it brings. I was in one of the first Ancestry Beta test groups and was really excited to take the test and see what I might find out. I received the test in the mail, swabbed my cheek and sent it in. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. Oh did I mention that I waited. After and inexorable amount of time, I received a notification that my sample was inconsistent and needed to be taken later. I had to reapply for a test (no charge) and they sent me a salvia vial. I’ve since learned that they only use the vial any longer for the atDNA test.
After several weeks I received notification that the test was complete. Sadly nothing of interest. No surprises in my genetic ethnicity.
Well, maybe. There has been a family story that my third great-grandmother was Cherokee Indian. If true that would amount to about 3.1% which could make up some of that uncertainty amount. They mention that as time goes on some of the uncertain identifications may become identifiable. So maybe, someday I’ll learn if the legend is true. Better yet, maybe I’ll find someone with a matrilineal ancestry that includes her and can do a Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test.
There were no individuals identifies as first, second, or third cousins. Currently there are 61 people with whom I have a 95% or higher likelihood of being a fourth to sixth cousin with. Although I have had a few close matches, one with the same surname (Fannin) in the Carter County, Kentucky I am yet to find any one with a common ancestor. That means we aren’t fourth cousins, maybe fifth or sixth. I only have my lineage back four generations on that line. None of the other “matches” are even close — disappointing. Of course, I get excited when I have a match that has a common surname of Roberts. None of them have an ancestor which has a common match to my Roberts Notional work. That is not to say that none of the other testers don’t have a match. I’ve emailed several folks that matched but have a private tree who haven’t responded. I’ll probably try again soon and see if I can nudge a few responses.
Generally, I’ve been unimpressed with the Ancestry Autosomal Test results. The test is a lot of money to learn what I already knew or would have supposed. My ancestors are mostly from the “British Isles” (I disagree with calling Ireland “British Isles” as would most Irish) and Central European (although I’ve always thought of France and Germany as Western Europe).
Today I am reminded about the importance of doing it right the first time.
When I first seriously began doing genealogy, I was so excited by what I was finding. I didn’t document things very well. I imported GED files from others without concern. I seldom connected the sources I did have with the data entered into my software meaningfully.
When starting, there is often a key, pivotal person in your ancestry that provides the foundation for many other searches. For me, it was Enoch Mannin, my 3rd great-grandfather. Many other people were researching his line, and they were willing to share GED files. Also, he was readily findable in the censuses and many other places, so he was a great person to research, find information, and put it in my tree without properly documenting it. Well, that laxness finally caught up to me, and I’ve spent the last several days cleaning up the sources and the links to facts for Enoch. Not a small task. I have 26 sources for Enoch and many different kinds of information. Census records, Civil War records, Pension Application Records, Land Patents, Death Registration, and even the image of his entry into the family bible regarding his birth. It was a lot of effort to sort out everything, remove relationships between source and data that don’t exist, and create new data elements that fit the source information. For example, most census records only provide a birth year estimate, plus & minus a year. Also, the census records only give the birth state, so associating the county and specific date information is inappropriate. Consequently, I created a lot of different alternate information entries.
I cleaned his records up and promised myself never to take shortcuts in documentation again.
Biography – Enoch Mannin
Enoch Mannin
Enoch Mannin/Manning was probably born on 3 Jan 1823 in Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky. I say probably because his enlistment papers indicate that he was 44 when he enlisted in 1863, making his birth year 1819. In various documents, his birth year ranges from 1819 to 1824, but the bible record indicates 1823.
It appears his father and mother, Meredith and Rachel Fugate Mannin, were married about two years after his birth. Enoch was the oldest of twelve children and grew up in Bath County, Kentucky. In 1843 he married Minerva Ann Tolliver and remained married to her for nearly 60 years until her death in 1902. They had nine children, four of which died before 1900.
During the Civil War, he volunteered for a year with Company E, 40th Kentucky Mounted Infantry Volunteers (Union), and served from September 1863 until December 1864. He lived in Carter County, Kentucky, when he enlisted. On the day he volunteered, 29 Aug 1863, he also gave his permission for his son, John W. Manning, my 2nd great grandfather, to volunteer when John W was only 17. Also enlisting on the same day was John N. Mannin, the son of his brother Tarleton Mannin.
He served primarily in Eastern Kentucky. Morgan captured him in May or June of 1864. His regiment of over 1000 lost about 1% to wounds and another 9% to disease for 102 total deaths. He spent much of his time on scout duty. Later, he cited actions in December 1863 as the start of hearing loss and dizziness. His regiment had action on December 2nd and 3rd, which were the probable cause of his medical issues later in life. In May and June of 1864, he was involved in action against Morgan and was captured by Morgan during those actions.
In 1883 or 1884, Enoch moved to Holding, Stearns County, Minnesota. In the spring of 1888, Enoch and Minerva moved to Cass County, Minnesota. In 1890, Enoch applied for an Invalid pension and a disability pension, and in 1894, Enoch received a land grant for 160 acres in northern Minnesota. Today, the land does not have a home on it, and looks like it is mostly swamp with some woods and a little grassland. It is the Northeast quarter of the section shown in https://goo.gl/maps/zkjT7.
I am sure life was harsh in May Township (north of Motley), Minnesota, at the turn of the century.
Minerva died in 1902, and Enoch passed five years later, on 7 Apr 1907. He is buried in Bridgeman Cemetery, about 2 miles south of his Minnesota homestead.
Peter M. Howell – Caroline M. A. Pankey Marriage Bond – The Library of Virginia
by Don Taylor
I have long known of the marriage of Peter M. Howell to Caroline M. A. Pankey. Ancestry.Com Virginia Marriages has a reference to it. I also recently encountered a book, Marriage Records 1749-1840 Cumberland County Virginia compiled by Katherine B Elliott, at the Georgia Room at the Cobb County Public Library. It too is an index but had more information than the Ancestry.Com index. So, I wondered what else might be in the actual records. Besides this, it would be wonderful to upgrade the quality of my sources from two and three stars to four stars with copies of actual documents.
I called the Cumberland County, Virginia, Clerk of Court’s office. A lovely woman there informed me that they no longer had the records. They had been sent to the Library of Virginia. I should be able to get a copy through them. I contacted them via their website and indicated:
The Cumberland County Courthouse indicated that I should contact you. I am looking for any documents regarding the marriage of Peter M. Howell and Caroline M.A. Pankey, 11 June 1829 in Cumberland County.
They replied back in just a day that copies of a specific record may be ordered by using the Archives Record Request Form. The link to this printable form is found below. Prepayment of the appropriate nonrefundable service fee for each request is required.
I looked at the form and thought holy-moly, $25.00 for them to search and they don’t guarantee that they will find it. Then I saw, “or, microfilm copies may be borrowed from the Library of Virginia through the interlibrary loan service of local public libraries. You will need to request the following reels:
Cumberland County
Microfilm Reel 42
ILL
Marriage Bonds, 1822-1830, No index.
Cumberland County
Microfilm Reel 69
ILL
Abstracts of Marriage Bonds, 1749-1853 – Females (D-V), unpaged.
Cumberland County
Microfilm Reel 68
ILL
Abstracts of Marriage Bonds, 1749-1853 – Males (P-Z), unpaged.
Well, the Abstract of marriage bonds for Males is the wrong microfilm for Peter M. Howell and I had an abstract already. But the Marriage Bonds, Reel 42 looked fantastic; just what I want to see.
I printed out the information, headed to my local library, and submitted an interlibrary loan request. The folks there didn’t think it would be accepted as they hadn’t ordered reference microfilm via interlibrary loan before but they would try. A couple of weeks later the library called, they had finally contacted the Library of Virginia and learned how to order it. Another week or so later the microfilm arrived.
I tried looking at it on my local library’s reader, however, the image adjustment wasn’t working. I was extremely pleased that they allowed me to take the microfilm out to the Family History Center. I went there. The wonderful folks there helped me get set up view the film and to be able to print to JPG. I started looking; no index meant slow going, then I found a date marker, 1823. I zoomed ahead to the 1829 marker and began reading. About 50 pages into 1829 I found the information I was looking for. First permission to marry note, both sides of an envelope that probably held the money for the bond, and the marriage bond.
The Finding:
Image of letter to Mr. Woodson, Clerk of Cumberland County.
To Mr. Woodson, Clerk of Cumberland County Sir this is to authorize you to issue license to Peter M. Howell to intermarry with my daughter Caroline,, M,, A,, Pankey Thomas Pankey Elizabeth Ann Lyall [or Loyall] Alexander Langhorne [or Langhorse] Pleasant F Agee
Peter M Howell. To ?? M. S. Bond The Governor 1829 June 11th
Sworn to before and in due form by Pleasant F Agee the 11th day of June 1829 L S Tunnally [????]
Know all men by these presents, that we Peter M. Howell and Pleasant F. Agee are held and firmly bound unto Wm. B. Giles Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the just and full sum of One Hundred and Fifty dollars, current money, to be paid to the said Governor for the time being, and his successors in office: to which payment, well and truly to be made, we do bind ourselves, and each of us, our heirs, executors and administrators, jointly and severally, firmly by these presents. Sealed with our seals, and dated this 11th day of June 18 29.
The Condition of the Above Obligation is such, That whereas there is a Marriage shortly intended to be had and solemnized between the above bound Peter M Howell and Caroline M. A. Pankey daughter of Thomas Pankey of this county:
Now, if there be no lawful cause to obstruct the said Marriage, then the above obligation to be void, else to remain in forceCaroline M. A. Pankey
Sealed and delivered in the presence of L S Vunnally [?????] Peter M Howel Pleasant F Agee
Thanks to The Library of Virginia; they are an awesome resource and are on my list of preferred sources.
Today’s lesson is to remember to check the same record in different places.
In my line, I have several Tarlton/Tarleton/Tarlelon Mannin’s. I had been seeing a number of records on other people’s tree that associate one particular Tarlton to a civil war record. Nothing I had in my records would definitively associate the civil war record with one of two Tarleton Mannins.
Tarlton Mannin Pension Record Index Via Ancestry.Com
Tarleton Mannin, b 1844 in Carter County, Kentucky, is my third great uncle. I have a lot of information about him. There is another Tarleton Mannin, born 1841 in Greenup County which is only one county away. The other family tree records I saw online ascribed the civil war record to the 1844 Tarlton, however, other than proximity of enlistment I really didn’t see anything that was a definitive link between that record and that person. The compiled Service Record (on Fold3) didn’t help. I had a copy of his entry from the Civil War Pension Index. (From Ancestry) I figured someone had to have seen something there that definitively associated that civil war record to him. Maybe someone ordered a copy of his pension application. Ancestry.Com had his index card which gives his application and certificate numbers 873304 & 947409 and that he filed it on 14 July 1890. Those are the numbers needed to order a copy of his application from the National Archives. It costs $80 to order a copy so it isn’t something I’d do for an uncle unless there might be some clear information on a direct ancestor.
Image of Tarleton Mannin Pension Record Index Card from Fold 3
Fold 3 is a great site for military records, so I thought I check it out and see if there was anything new there (they add material constantly). On a whim, I thought I’d see what other pension applications were there. His brother Enoch was there, but he wasn’t. There was a Farleton Mannin. Could this be my Tarlton? Sure enough is was. The Application and Certificate numbers matched with the other document I had. So did the date of filing. But the Fold3 version indicated that Farleton died Mar 10, 1916 at Sherburne, Kentucky. Right death date, right company and regiment, odd indexing, but clearly my Tarleton. A solid link between my Tarleton and the Civil War Record through his pension application. I feel comfortable that the Compiled Service Record we have is for Tarleton Mannin, b1844.
I am reminded to check the same record in multiple places if possible. They just might be a bit different.
After my success with the Y-DNA test and close match, I thought I’d try out the autosomal DNA (atDNA), test and see what it brings. I was in one of the first Ancestry Beta test groups and was really excited to take the test and see what I might find out. I received the test in the mail, swabbed my cheek and sent it in. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. Oh did I mention that I waited. After and inexorable amount of time, I received a notification that my sample was inconsistent and needed to be taken later. I had to reapply for a test (no charge) and they sent me a salvia vial. I’ve since learned that they only use the vial any longer for the atDNA test. 
