Family History

Everyone has a story to tell and has collected bits and pieces of information that can become a family history. The majority of people are ordinary, but when their stories are put together with others from family members, they become more interesting. Barbara Ellis Taylor, who grew up in Forkland and went on to become a professor at University of Florida, talks about a family history she and her family put together last year. “When we started the book on the Ellis family, I was at the level of beginners in genealogy research,” she said a recent family history workshop.

Kim Whitehouse Milburn of Danville is happy her mother left family history, including a family tree, deeds, newspaper clipping and photographs. She'd be happier if someone had written the identities of people on the back of the pictures. As she looked through a small suitcase of papers and pictures, she found numerous photos without names, but she knows they are kinfolks because they look familiar. She grew up in Forkland, where many of her ancestors had lived before, but she knows little about them.

A book that took more than 40 years of research has been presented to the Clark County Public Library by members of the Vivion family. The book, "Vivian, Vivien, Viviani, Viviano, Vyvyan, Biven, Bivens, Vivion, et al From Land's End to the Tip of Texas," was compiled by Naomi Vivian Ridge of Pleasanton, Texas, and traces the Vivion family history back to 1174 A.D. Attending the presentation were from left, Donnie Woosley, Irene Vivion Woosley, James...

If tracing your family history sounds appealing, a good way to start is by interviewing family members, especially the older folks, then checking court and other records to document the facts. "Stories are important, but sometimes they aren't exactly right," says Carolyn Crabtree, president of the Boyle County Genealogical Association. "Always use a tape recorder or write information down. Don't depend on your memory. " Other valuable sources of information can be found in county court, Bible, church, census, wills, marriage and even divorce records.

FRANKFORT - A family history workshop is planned for May 9 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. Researchers will learn the benefits of planning in advance of a research trip and how to navigate the nation's premier document repository. The Kentucky Historical Society and Kentucky Genealogical Society will host a free workshop, "How to Plan a Research Trip," and "Researching at the National Archives," from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Betty Darnell will offer advice during the morning session on preparatory tactics and strategies that will greatly increase a researcher's chances of success.

FORKLAND - A Forkland Community Center committee is looking for family history for a museum to honor former President Abraham Lincoln, whose grandmother, Lucey Shipley Hanks Sparrow, lived in the Mitchellsburg and Forkland communities. The museum officially will open during the annual Forkland Festival and Heritage Revue on Friday and Saturday and also will be open various times of the year. Henry Sparrow, a Revolutionary War veteran, migrated in 1789 to Mercer County, Ky., with his parents.

FRANKFORT - Records in courthouses, churches, tax lists and county histories are some of the best ways to get past "brick walls" when researching family history, according to a panel of genealogists who spoke at a recent seminar of the Kentucky Genealogical Society in Frankfort. The panel included Mary Clay, Betty Darnell, Roger Futrell and Deborah Lord Campisano, members of the Louisville Genealogical Society. On-line research also provides a look into all kinds of records researched by others.

Crab Orchard Elementary School students learned about the city's Civil War history with a visit to the local cemetery May 3. Lincoln County Property Valuation Administrator David Gambrel gave a Crab Orchard Cemetery Civil War tour to the fourth and fifth graders to complement their history studies. Numerous people buried at the cemetery fought in the Civil War - some for the Confederates and others for the Union. Some student weren't even aware that the cemetery existed and teacher Emily Manier said the experience allowed the children to learn about the town's history.

HARRODSBURG - The idea of an oral history project to document the African-American experience in Harrodsburg and Mercer County from the 1930s to the present came about in 2010 when the James Harrod Trust sponsored a ground census of the Maple Grove Cemetery. The census was taken to generate a database for burials in the cemetery that the city could use and also put on the Internet, said Kandie Adkinson, project director. “As we did research in the cemetery with representatives of the African-American churches and the James Harrod Trust, we realized that research was needed in African-American history,” she said.

LIBERTY - Rolls of microfilm that contain all available death records filed in Kentucky through 1954 arrived Monday at the Casey County Public Library. The shipment is a portion of the 480 rolls transferred to CDs that were purchased by a $5,900 grant plus $100 donation that will be housed in the genealogical section of the library. "An individual from Indiana donated the $100 to make the money an even $6,000," said Brenda Sanders, who does research for the woman. The records indexed on CDs were purchased through a Community Development Block Grant from the Southern and Eastern Tourism Development Association that covers Casey, Boyle, Garrard, Lincoln and Jessamine counties.

A genealogy workshop featuring five speakers on various topics will be held 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. May 25 at Forkland Community Center on Ky. 37 in western Boyle County. This will be the fourth time the workshop has been sponsored by Forkland's Lincoln Museum committee and is for beginning and experienced family history researchers. “We have a variety of programs to give participants a choice of what they want to hear ahead of time,” said Wayne Thurman, museum chairman. When registering they can pick a topic from three speakers.

Appreciating what you learn at the knees of your parents isn't always evident until years later. One of the things we - my sister and brothers - were told about as we were growing up was our ancestry. Mother and Daddy tried to instill in us a proper love and appreciation for our ancestors. This didn't seem to work on anybody but my sister. Certainly, it didn't work on me. I haven't always been interested in family history. As a matter of fact, now I quite frequently lament I didn't pay enough attention when aunts, uncles, grandparents and such visited.

Well, I had my visit with my second cousin, Della Oaks, on Monday. I couldn't have chosen someone from my family history to have visited to get my history juices rolling more than her.  It turns out she is as hungry to learn more about my family as I was, so another meeting with other cousins is taking place. Della's father, Nelson Willoughby, was injured in the war, but it was a heart attack that took his life. Della was only 7 years old at the time, and her brother, Nelson, was born a month or two after his death.

HARRODSBURG - The idea of an oral history project to document the African-American experience in Harrodsburg and Mercer County from the 1930s to the present came about in 2010 when the James Harrod Trust sponsored a ground census of the Maple Grove Cemetery. The census was taken to generate a database for burials in the cemetery that the city could use and also put on the Internet, said Kandie Adkinson, project director. “As we did research in the cemetery with representatives of the African-American churches and the James Harrod Trust, we realized that research was needed in African-American history,” she said.

Crab Orchard Elementary School students learned about the city's Civil War history with a visit to the local cemetery May 3. Lincoln County Property Valuation Administrator David Gambrel gave a Crab Orchard Cemetery Civil War tour to the fourth and fifth graders to complement their history studies. Numerous people buried at the cemetery fought in the Civil War - some for the Confederates and others for the Union. Some student weren't even aware that the cemetery existed and teacher Emily Manier said the experience allowed the children to learn about the town's history.

FORKLAND - The New Austria Settlement in Western Boyle County will be one of the topics May 26 at Forkland Community Center's Genealogy Workshop. Carolyn Crabtree, a local genealogist, will  give a program on “Boyle County's New Austria Settlement, 1883 to Present.” She has been researching the settlement for several months and will talk about the people who lived there and in nearby Lincoln and Casey counties. She is a retired administrative assistant for the Boyle County tourism office, and former mathematics and English teacher.

Kim Whitehouse Milburn of Danville is happy her mother left family history, including a family tree, deeds, newspaper clipping and photographs. She'd be happier if someone had written the identities of people on the back of the pictures. As she looked through a small suitcase of papers and pictures, she found numerous photos without names, but she knows they are kinfolks because they look familiar. She grew up in Forkland, where many of her ancestors had lived before, but she knows little about them.

Two senior Stanford women have been victimized by an elaborate phone scam that has been perpetrated in adjoining counties as well. Together, the two victims lost over $6,000. In the first case, a woman was contacted last Thursday by a young man who claimed to be her grandson. She told him his voice sounded funny and he said he’d been in a car wreck and his nose was banged up, which was all part of the story. The scammer claimed to be attending a friend’s wedding in Mexico, got a little drunk and hit another car. If he could get hold of $3,222 to fix the car he’d hit, the Mexican police wouldn’t press charges.

Early pioneers like John Sudduth, Achillies Eubank and John Martin are remembered today for their enterprise and fortitude in settling Clark County. Now, a preservation group is hoping their descendants can muster the same bold spirit in service to local history. The Clark County-Winchester Heritage Commission launched First Families of Clark County in April, encouraging locals with the deepest lineal roots to promote historical resources, honor the community’s ancestors and fund repairs to Holly Rood, the mansion of Kentucky’s 12th governor, James Clark.

Everyone has a story to tell and has collected bits and pieces of information that can become a family history. The majority of people are ordinary, but when their stories are put together with others from family members, they become more interesting. Barbara Ellis Taylor, who grew up in Forkland and went on to become a professor at University of Florida, talks about a family history she and her family put together last year. “When we started the book on the Ellis family, I was at the level of beginners in genealogy research,” she said a recent family history workshop.