Tombstone Tuesday - Joseph Hill - Newberry Co., South Carolina

Headstone of Joseph Hill in Lower Duncan Creek Cemetery in Whitmore, Newberry Co., SC. [1]

Transcription:

HERE

Lies the Body of

JOSEPH HILL

Husband of Ruth Hill

who died 

Oct 5th 1839

in the 68th year

of his age.

According to his headstone, Joseph Hill would have been born about 1771. He was my 5th great-grandfather. He was married to Ruth Fowler, daughter of Richard and Ruth Fowler. Ruth is also buried in this cemetery. 

• His son Elijah Hill [2] married Rachel Watson, daughter of Nancy Jeans and John Watson. 
• Their son Joseph Watson Hill married Josephine F Cox [3], daughter of Robert Cox and Basheba McCoy [4].
• Their son Nathaniel "Gus" Hill [5] married Jessie Inez Barton, daughter of James Silas Barton and Sarah Alice Tinsley. 
• Their daughter Blanche Kathryne Hill was my great-grandmother. She married John Brooks Binns, son of John Milton Binns and Perthinia Eula Brooks. I was fortunate to have grown up with most of my great-grandparents. 
• Their daughter Barbara Binns is my grandmother. She has taken the Family Finder autosomal DNA test. 

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SOURCES: 

   [1] Photograph taken by Donna Brummett and added to Joseph Hill's Find-A-Grave memorial on 4 December 2008. Photo used with permission by owner. 

   [2] Newberry County, South Carolina, Wills Book, 1825-1840, Vol N, p. 170-171, Joseph Hill, 9 October 1939 (probated); Office of Probate Judge, Newberry; digital images, "South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes 1671-1977," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 3 December 2013).  Mentioned as Elijah Hill in his father Joseph Hill's will (w. 30 Sept 1839, Newberry District, SC); and also named as Executor and granted letters testamentary.

   [3] Sharon J Doliante, Maryland and Virginia Colonials: Genealogies of Some Colonial Families, Volume I (1991; reprint, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, 1998), p. 560, Odell Family; digial images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=48206 : downloaded 26 November 2013).

   [4] Greenville County, South Carolina, Wills Book, 1840-1852, Vol. C, p. 429-430, Bersheba Cox, 15 July 1852 (proved);  digital images, "South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes 1671-1977," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 28 July 2011).

   [5] I have not found the will of Gus' father, John Watson Hill. I do intend to order the death certificate of Gus Hill, though, which should have the name of his parents listed. 

Distribution of Property of David McCoy of Greenville, SC

My great-grandmother, Blanche Kathryne Hill, was the granddaughter of Josephine F Cox and Joseph Watson Hill of Greenville, South Carolina. Josephine and Joseph Hill moved from Greenville, South Carolina to Center Point, Howard County, Arkansas in 1869.

Josephine had been left an orphan at a young age. Her father, Robert Cox, died when she was just 8 years old and her mother, Basheba McCoy Cox, followed a couple of years later in 1852.  Josephine's mother, Basheba McCoy, had also been left without a father at a young age. Her father, David McCoy, had died when Basheba was only 16 years of age. However Basheba and her sisters were already married off with husbands by the time their father passed away.

The following distribution of property from David McCoy's estate file provides a list of names of his 4 daughters - Louisa, Teeley, Shaloma and Basheba in addition to their husbands' names:


Amount of Property Advanced in the lifetime of David McCoy late deceased:

Ezekial Spriggs Husband of his 1st Daughter Louisa
4 Negros $975
and other property to the amount of $55 -- total $1030

Benjamin McKenzie Husband of his 2nd Daughter Teeley
2 Negroes & other property $553 - 2 = $551
deduct $2 for bedsted

Robert Cox Husband of his 3 Daughter Barsheba
2 Negroes & other property to the amt $774

Asa May Husband of his 4 Daughter Shaloma
2 Negroes and other property to the amount $755

Estimated by us this 29th of November 1822

Geo Salmon
Joseph Cobbs
Thos Blyth

David McCoy died around 1822 in Greenville County, South Carolina. No will was found for him in Greenville County. He preceded his wife Susan McCoy in Death (last name unknown). 

His estate was managed by his administrator, Robert Cox (husband of his daughter, Basheba McCoy Cox). David McCoy's estate files were downloaded from the FamilySearch.org website, "South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964." These records were microfilmed by FamilySearch at the Greenville County Probate Court. David McCoy's estate papers were contained in File no. 339. 

From this page, we learned the following: 

Basheba McCoy married Robert Cox

Louisa McCoy married Ezekial Spriggs

Teeley McCoy married Benjamin McKenzie

Shaloma McCoy married Asa May

I have several Family Finder DNA matches to people with the Cox surname in their family trees. I also am a match to a couple of McKenzies. This might be the connection to them.

Here is my line to my Great-Grandmother Blanche (father's side):
Me
Dad (Tim Smith)
Grandmother (Barbara Binns)
Great-Grandmother (Blanche Hill)

Tombstone Tuesday: Jesse and Nathan “Gus” Hill

MOTHER FATHER

JESSIE N GUS

1875-1950 1873-1944

HILL

N Gus or Nathaniel Gustaves Hill and Jessie Inez Barton were my 2^nd great-grandparents. They were the parents of my great-grandmother, Blanche Kathryn Hill. You can see photos of my Hill family here.

Their headstone was placed in a family plot in Center Point Cemetery (Center Point, Howard County, Arkansas). Nathan Gus and Jessie Hill’s headstone is the short one on the left. The middle stone belongs to Nathan’s mother, Josie Hill pictured below and the one on the right belongs to Nathan’s son-in-law, Barnard Maggard, also pictured below.

Hill Family Plot, Center Point Cemetery, Center Point, AR

JOSIE

________

J W HILL

Born

In Greenville Dist SC

July 11, 1841

Died

Jan 12, 1887

Josie Hill was Josephine F Cox who married Joseph Watson Hill, 16 January 1861 in Newberry, South Carolina. She predeceased her husband by about 26 years.  Joseph Hill died in 1913 in Annona, Texas, so he is not buried in the Hill family plot. Josie and Joseph Hill were the parents of Nathaniel Gustaves Hill and were my 3rd great-grandparents.  

BARNUM MAGGARD

SEPT. 16, 1894

APRIL 5, 1937

AT REST

Barnum Maggard married Doris Hill, my great-grandmother’s oldest sister. Barnard predeceased Doris by about 31 years. They did not have any children. Doris moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon and married her 2^nd husband, Roscoe Hines. She is buried in Klamath Falls.

Here is a picture of the Centerpoint Cemetery in Centerpoint, Howard County, Arkansas:

Photos taken courtesy of Doyle Wester, Nov 2010. Centerpoint Cemetery, Centerpoint, Howard Co., Arkansas.

Photo of Centerpoint Cemetery Sign was copied from FindAGrave.com website and was originally uploaded by D. Ann on 30 July 2006. 

My Genealogy Goals for 2012

My class load this year will really start to wind down, so I will need to start to focus more and have some goals if I'm going to get any major genealogy research done. So I have set quite a few goals for myself for the upcoming year based on what I've been thinking about these past few weeks and hoping that I could start working on one of these days. I have organized my goals in to categories to hopefully help me keep even more focus. One thing I do not have on this list is a goal towards increasing my genealogy expertise. I think this will occur naturally and can be incorporated once I get a feel for how the ebb and flow of my life will start to take shape. So without further ado, here is my list:

Think outside the box:

1. Extend my research to University collections, for example, the Thomas Hume papers at UNC (and evaluate Mildred Holladay's papers from UVA which Lori ordered)
2. Search for brick walls on Google and in Google Books - maybe do one surname per week
3. Search for brick walls in newspaper archives online

Organization:

1. Organize my paper files and file cabinet
2. Scan, transcribe, abstract, and analyze all of the documents I have retrieved in the past 7 years of research (they are in a pile), file them in respective family folder(s); add the relevant information to my genealogy database and submit transcripts to respective USGenWeb sites

DNA:

1. Connect with 5 more Family Finder matches - I connected with 5 from July to Dec of 2011, so this shouldn't be a problem
2. Sort through my Family Finder matches by maternal and paternal - my mother took the test in Dec so this should help me sort through them
3. Work more closely with existing Family Finder matches from July-Dec to exchange historical data and recent data; my goal is not just establish a connection then never speak to them again, but to build a relationship with them; ask them for photos, documents, etc...share, share, share!
4. Try to connect some American Godwins to English or Irish Godwins via Y-DNA
5. Update my Goodwin-Godwin Y-DNA surname project website with goals, success stories and summaries of existing lines

Brick Wall Research:

1. Find the parents of Jess Dunlap from Stokes County, North Carolina
2. Find the parents of William Peters, b. 1873 in Thomasville, Missouri
3. Find the parents of James Silas Barton from South Carolina

Research:

1. Do research on my O'Neal family from North Carolina - other researchers, including my grandfather, have a pedigree already drafted which I can use as a guide to find the documents
2. Use more research reports to tract resources searched and analyzed
3. Use  more matrix reports to better display disparaging or corroborating information
4. Build on my collateral lines to help me collaborate with my Family Finder matches in order to see where different branches of each family migrated to (ex. the Cox family)
5. Add the South Carolina wills and probate records on FamilySearch.org to my Cox, McCoy, Cheek, (my SC) family files
6. Work on my Steed and Lewis families of North Carolina. I have lots of documents. I need to scan, transcribe, abstract, and analyze them and add to my genealogy database 
7. Obtain copies of the deeds mentioned in Ann Jobe Brown's genealogy files to validate parentage from Ephraim Thomas and his migration
8. Start building a genealogy profile for the parents of James Franklin Lasiter: John Riley Laister and Emily Jones (per his death certificate, obtained July 2011)

Blogging:

1. Write more blog posts
2. Write about my Family Finder DNA experience
3. Make my blog look more snazzier
4. Turn my header into an image so that I can post a blog link to Facebook and Google+ and the "description" will be of the blog post and not of the blog itself

Graduate School:

1. Graduate in 2012...but in order to do that, I have to complete a few more things...
2. Take 1 more class this spring
3. Write a Master's Paper
4. Take Comprehensive Exams
5. Test out of 1 class
6. Do a Field Experience (Internship)

Addition - I would like to add the creation of Annotated Bibliographies for the geographic locations of my Brick Walls to my list. 

Looking for *Estates* in all the Right Places...

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how the North and South Carolina wills and probate record images have been scanned and placed online for users to browse on the FamilySearch.org website.

Today I was trying to find the probate record for Susan McCoy in Greenville County, SC (1847-1850) and grew increasingly frustrated when I realized that the index (if one existed) was not posted to the FamilySearch.org site. Without an index, I could not figure out what "apartment," "file," or "no." her probate records were filed in. I looked through a bunch of the images to see if I could determine if they were filed by date or by surname, but they were not. I simply needed an index.

On a whim, I went to the Greenville Co., SC USGenWeb site thinking they MUST have an index posted somewhere. Although I didn't find an index I did find a link to the Greenville County Governement Online - with a page dedicated to historical records and there I found an Index to Estate Papers, 1787-1976. I clicked on the "M" link for "McCoy" and it brought up the browsable image index for all the "Ms." This is what I found:

McCoy, David - Apartment No. 5, File No. 339, Year filed 1822, Robert Cox, Admr.
McCoy, Susan - Apartment No. 11, File No. 74, Year filed 1847, Robert Cox, Exor.

Here's what the scanned image looks like:

This is exactly what I was looking for!

Now I have TWO - actually THREE Options: 1) I can go back to FamilySearch.org and look for these probate records in the browsable images 2) I can stay on this site and look for these records or 3) I can do BOTH!

Option #1: 
Searching for Estate Records at FamilySearch.org:

Now I can go back to the browsable images posted on the FamilySearch.org website:

South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964

Click on the link for Greenville, click the "Probate Court, Probate Records" link, the "1787-1868" date range.

A list of file numbers come up. Since I am looking for file no. 5, I click the link for "Files 04-06, Nos. 215-420."  (Although the link has been included here, I cannot guarantee it will continue to work longterm, so please follow my description of how I found the files.) 


This is the hard part. This set of images only contains file nos. 4, 5, and 6. I have to find file no. 5 in there somehow. I know no. 5 is in the middle somewhere. At the top, it says I am on image 1 of 730. So there are 730 images in this set. That means the middle is probably about image no. 375. I can type in 375 into the Image No. box and press enter to go directly to that image.  This gives me the estate record for Jesse Moody. Going back one page brings up the first page of his estate record which says it is file no. 338. So all I need to do is fast forward until the end and that should take me to David McCoy's file no. 339.

I only had to go 2 more pages to get to David McCoy's file. The first page was missing, however, so I might want to order the entire record from the South Carolina State Archives if I feel as if it is not complete.

**OR**

Option #2: 

Stay on the Greenville County Government Site and Searching for Estate Records:

Click on the Estate Records link. 

Click on the Apt 0004 File 265 - Apt 0006 File 366 Link

Start going through images as above. This is system is much slower and the images are of poorer quality. 

HOWEVER, I retrieved only 9 images from the FamilySearch.org site and I retrieved 22 images from the Greenville County Government site!!! 

So my recommendation is... 

Option #3:

DO BOTH!!! - This just goes to show you that even in the realm of genealogy, things really are changing relatively quickly. Sometimes we have to check several places before we give up and then check them again because new things are being added all the time. 

A word of caution: **If** you do pull records from both, please make sure you cite them properly. If you found one loose piece of paper listing all of the children of the deceased off of one site, but that same piece of paper is NOT uploaded to the other site, then it is YOUR responsibility to note that. 

Now if you have ancestors from Greenville, South Carolina, be sure to check out the Greenville County, SC Government Online Historical Records page !!!