Lot of new stuff

The documents that are available online continue to amaze.

FamilySearch.org now has transcripts and actual copies of death certificates from a number of locations and are available at no charge. I try not to spend money on my genealogy hobby so this is good news.

I found the death certificate for my wife's great grandfather, John William Glenn. It shows he died as a result of Hodgkin's disease. When he died, 63 years ago today, Hodgkin's disease was almost always fatal. Today most people who come down with it are treated and recover.

Search for Garners

When I tried to locate information about my great great grandmother, Hope Foreman, I ended up searching for the Garner family. I've had mixed results from that search. I have known Garners in Cortez but as far as I can tell they are not related to this Garner family.

Hope's first husband, William Adams died around 1880 and she married Elijah Garner on January 12, 1882 in Carteret County North Carolina. A few years later they moved to Manatee County Florida. Elijah Garner was around 55 years old and had three wives and at least 8 children before he married Hope but he apparently wanted more kids so they had two more. Owen Dewitt Garner was born in October 1882 and his sister Luddie was born in 1885.

Both Elijah and Hope were dead by 1890. Some stories said they came down with consumption but I've never located any documentation of when or how they died or where they were buried. The 1890 US census was destroyed in a fire and the 1895 Florida census does not list them.

I found their children, Owen and Luddie listed as orphans, living with Captain John Fogarty and his wife on the 1895 and 1900 Census for Manatee County.

I was able to trace both Luddie and Owen through the years and even located Owen's grandson living in Oregon but couldn't find anyone who knew anything about what happened to Elijah and Hope.

This picture of Owen holding the reins of a small wagon was taken around 1910. It is the only picture of either of the kids I ever found. The Manatee County library had it in their collection.

A long way from home

We recently visited Southern Maryland for a short vacation. We had a good time and enjoyed the time on Solomon's Island. We also drove south to the next county and found Point Lookout, Maryland.

Point Lookout is now a national park but during the civil war was one of the largest Prisoner of War camps holding Confederate troops. They say over 50,000 men were there for about a year. It was created after the battle of Gettysburg.

At least three of my Fulford cousins from North Carolina were sent there after being captured. Two of them didn't make it home. Point Lookout was just a sandy beach and swamp back in the 1860s and isn't much more today. At least 3300 men died or almost 10 a day.

There is large monument at the Confederate cemetery listing those who died. They were originally buried in a half dozen small cemeteries on the island. Most of the men died of disease, small pox, typhus, etc and they tried to quarantine the sick to stop the spread of the diseases. They created separate cemeteries for each quarantine area and buried the dead according to where they died. After the war the bodies were dug up and buried in one mass grave.

I found the names of several Fulfords from North Carolina. I figured they were probably related so I did some research.

Anson Burgess Fulford died on February 11, 1864. He was captured on November 7, 1863 at the battle of Kelly's Run in Virginia. Anson was the 2nd cousin of my ancestor David Fulford. Burgess is a family name, his mother's maiden name and also the name of my ancestor Margaret Burgess.

In fact one of David Fulford's brothers was named William Burgess Fulford and he was held as a POW at Point Lookout also. He was fortunate to survive.

I also found the name James Fulford on the monument. It showed he served in the 4th North Carolina Cavalry.

I am pretty sure James was the son of Elijah Fulford who was born in Carteret County but moved to Currituck County about 1830. His father was the 2nd cousin of Anson Burgess Fulford. James Fulford died on December 8, 1863. As best as I can tell, he was captured at Gettysburg and held at Point Lookout for five months. By December they probably had snow on the ground and the only shelters for the prisoners were canvas tents.

Coffee time

This is a photograph of the small propane stove on the Anna Dean. It was my Grandpa Tink's fishing boat. The Anna Dean was the large boat he took out in the gulf or if the fishing was away

from Cortez., Florida. It had four bunks and a couple extra mattresses that could be put in the back by the engine cover so we could stay out for days or a week at a time.

The main use of the stove was to cook Grandpa's coffee. I can remember frying fish a couple times but we survived on packaged food. Honey buns, cokes, peanuts and and peanut butter sandwiches packed by Grandma.

Grandpa Tink was the chef. He would put an old coffee pot on the stove, filled with water and a half can of coffee and just let it boil. It was done when it tasted like what you would be spitting out if you took a plug of his chewing tobacco.

Every now and then one of us kids would pour ourselves a cup of coffee but I don't think any of them went anywhere but overboard. We might take a couple sips to show we were able but Grandpa was the only one who drank the stuff.

After the coffee was brewed to a nice syrup he would turn off the stove and let it cool down. After fishing he would just light up the stove and warm up the cold coffee.

I was looking at an old photo and realized the stove was visible. I don't know of any good pictures of the Anna Dean. I spent a lot of time on the boat with him but for the most part, fading memories are all that's left.