Annie O'Neal's Will, Johnston Co., NC 1829

The will of Annie O'Neal

Annie O'Neal was the wife of Zachariah O'Neal who wrote his will in Johnston County, North Carolina in March 1796. Annie wrote her will August 17th, 1829 and it was proved in Johnston County February 1835 court.

I recorded the will of Zachariah O'Neal and his wife Annie because I was looking for the parents of my ancestor Moses O'Neal who wrote his will in Johnston County, North Carolina in 1813. Zachariah O'Neal wrote his will in 1796 which would be an appropriate time for Moses' father to have written his will. Unfortunately, Moses was not mentioned as a child of Zachariah O'Neal.

I have still included Annie's will below with the hopes that it will help another O'Neal researcher. In order to save copying costs, I photographed Annie's will with my iPhone. The transcript is below.

Will of Anna O'Neal, 1835, Johnston Co NC Original Will Records, C.R. 056.801.8, North Carolina State Archives, Photographed by Ginger R. Smith, March 2014; p. 1

Will of Anna O'Neal, 1835, Johnston Co NC Original Will Records, C.R. 056.801.8, North Carolina State Archives, Photographed by Ginger R. Smith, March 2014; p. 2

Will of Anna O'Neal, 1835, Johnston Co NC Original Will Records, C.R. 056.801.8, North Carolina State Archives, Photographed by Ginger R. Smith, March 2014; p. 3

Will of Anna O'Neal, 1835, Johnston Co NC Original Will Records, C.R. 056.801.8, North Carolina State Archives, Photographed by Ginger R. Smith, March 2014; p. 4

The will of Anna O'Neal, written 17 Aug 1829, proved Feb 1835. 

Transcribed by Ginger R Smith, ginger.reney@gmail.com, 28 Sep 2014

In the name of God Amen I Ana Oneal of

the County of Johnston and State of

North Carolina do this 17th day of August

1829 make and ordain this my last 

will and testament in manner and form 

as followith first give and Bequeath to

my son Stephen Oneal fore negros by

the name of Lewis Bransill Charity and Mary

to Him and His Heirs for ever-------

2nd I give and Bequeath to my son Stephen

ONeal all my House hold and kitchen furniture

of every kind and all my stock of every kind

Consisting of Horses Hogs and Cattle and 

all my working tools of every kind. Also two 

Hundred and ninty acres of Land in said

County and adjoining the Lands of Josiah &

Holloman and other for Him and His Heirs

for ever.

3rd I give to my son Micajah Oneal

fifty dollars in money for him and his heirs 

for ever

4th I give to Aley Baley seventy five 

Dollars for she and her heirs for ever

5th I put in the Hands of Stephen ONeal

and Benjamin Haut? my Executors to this

will five negros by the name of Annicka

Gatsey Zilla Terrell and Hennery to be sold 

at _______ of Six Months and when sold

my executors pay the Amount of said bond

into the hands of the guardian of Lurry? 

Haust, Henson Haust, and Willey Haut orphans

of William _ Haust ___ which sum my

daughter Lurry Earp Owes to the above orphans 

to the amount of fore hundred and fifty Dollars

6th my will is that if the said negros over 

pays the sum of fore hundred and fifty 

dollars which my daughter owes to said 

orphan then the residue of said money 

to be equally divided between Lurry

Haust, Hinson Haust, and Willey Haust 

orphan of William _ Haust Est?

7th I appoint my beloved son Stephen

Oneal and Benjamin Haust Executors to 

this my last will and testament in 

witness where I do here unto set

my hand and seal this day and date

above written

              Anna (Her X Mark) ONeal

Attest

Richardson Oneal

A Richardson

State of North Carolina

Johnston County

February Term 1835

Then was the Execution of this deed duly

proven in open court by the oaths of Richardson ONeal one of

the subscribing witness - and Allen Richardson the other ______

witness having been proven to be out of the State his signature 

was duly proven and said will ordered to be recorded. 

          Test Rm Sanders CC

I wasn't sure at first if this Anna was the same Annie, wife of Zachariah O'Neal because Anna only mentioned a couple of the children that Zachariah had mentioned in his will. Did the children die or move away? Or did Anna feel that they had already received their legacies?

Children mentioned in Zachariah's Will (1796):
1. Thomas
2. Winney
3. Creasey
4. Edee
5. Lodowick
6. Stephen
7. Micajah
8. Aley Houst

Children mentioned in Annie's Will (1829):
1. Stephen
2. Micajah
3. Aley Baley (is this the same as Aley Houst above? - the Haust orphans are mentioned)
4. Laurie Earp?

Also, Zachariah willed several negros to his wife Anna named Dick, Peter, and Jinnie. However, in Annie's will, she mentioned negros Lewis, Bransill, Charity, and Mary to go to her son Stephen; and Annicka, Gatsey, Zilla, Ferrell, and Hennery to be sold. What happened to Dick, Peter, and Jinnie? Were they redistributed to Annie's children prior to her writing her will? Did they die? Were they sold or given away to others?

If I were to continue researching this family, these are the steps I would take:

1. Review the Johnston Co Deed records to determine family relationships 
2. Research the 8 children of Zachariah O'Neal to determine why they were not mentioned in their mother Annie's will of 1829 - did they die or did they move away ?
3. Research Aley Houst, Aley Baley, and Laurey Earp and determine their connection to the Houst orphans

Amanuensis Monday: Zachariah O'Neal of Johnston County, North Carolina, 1796

Transylvanian Dutch blog author John Newmark started the Monday blog theme called Amanuensis Monday. According to John, “amanuensis” means:  "A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

For this week's Amanuensis Monday post, I have focused on the will of ZACHARIAH O'NEAL of Johnston County, North Carolina, written 20 March 1796. [1] Zachariah was a farmer, as you will be able to tell from the 400 Acres of Land, stock (animals), and working tools listed in his will below. 

He had a wife named Annie and at least eight children: 

1) Thomas Oneale

2) Winney Oneale

3) Creasey Oneale

4) Edee Oneale

5) Lodowick Oneale

6) Stephen Oneale

7) Micajah Oneale

8) Aley Houst

I like this particular will because it contains information about the land that Zachariah owned and where he got it from and the 3 negros he owned by name - Dick, Jinny, & Peter. Details like this help us to track and prove his children in subsequent generations. 

A little bit more about Zachariah O'Neal: 

He was listed in Captain Houlder's Company in Johnston County, North Carolina in 1787 as having 1 male 21-60 years old, 2 males under 21 and above 60, 5 white females, and 1 black between the age of 12 and 50. [2]

He was also listed on the 1790 Johnston County, North Carolina census with 4 white males under 16 years old, 2 white males over 16 years old, 6 white females, and 1 slave. 

Zachariah wrote his will on March 20th, 1796, giving most everything to his wife, Annie, and then after her death, to his children. 

I do not know when his will was proved. But his wife Annie wrote her will on August 17th, 1829 and it was proved Feb 1835. Annie only mentioned 2 or 3 of her children in her will; I'm guessing that her older children moved away from the area and that is why they were not mentioned in her will. 

Here are the images of Zachariah O'Neal's will. You can click on the image to make it bigger. A transcript of the entire will is below. 

Zachariah O'Neal's will, Johnston Co., NC, 1796, p. 1

Zachariah O'Neal's will, Johnston Co., NC, 1796, p. 2

Zachariah O'Neal's will, Johnston Co., NC, 1796, p. 3

Zachariah O'Neal's will, Johnston Co., NC, 1796, p. 4

The last will and testament of Zacharias O'Neal, Johnston Co., NC [1]

Written 20 Mar 1796

In the name of God Amen the 20th day of March 1796

I Zacharias Oneale of Johnston County in the

State of North Carolina being very sick and weak

in Body but of perfect mind and memory thanks

be given to God for the same and calling to mind

the mortality of my body and knowing that I 

have once to die do make and ordain this my last

will and testament as touching my worldly Estate

wherewith it hath pleased god to bless me with 

in this life I give and demise in the following

manner and form...

Impremis. I give and Bequeath to my loving

son Thomas Oneale four hundred acres of land

in this county being the land I purchased of

Meed Gulley and took a title in my said son 

Thomas Oneals name for the same I give to him

his heirs and assigns for ever he first paying and 

taking up my obligation of one Hundred Dollars

given Meed Gulley for a last payment of said 

land also I give to my said son Thomas Oneal

one Maire of a Sorrel collar and one shot 

gun also the household furniture that I have

given him heretofore in his possession. 

Item, I give and bequeath to my loving friend John 

Ogbon one Sorrel Mair with a saddle and bridle

Item, I give to my loving wife three worke horses

two saddles and bridles also six cows and 

their calves also four head of sheep also one

feather bed and furniture during her life time

Item, I give and bequeath to my loving daughter

Winn Oneale, two cows and calves two head of sheep

also one feather bed and furniture also six heads of 

hogs freely to be by her possessed.

Item, I give and bequeath to my loving daughter

Creasey Oneale two cows and yearlings one

feather bed and furniture six head of 

hogs two sheep freely by her to be possessed

Item, I give and bequeath to my loving daughter 

Edee Oneale two cows and yearlings one feather

bed and furniture six head of hogs two sheep 

freely to be by her to be possessed. 

Item, I give and bequeath to my loving son Lodowick 

Oneale my lower land and plantation on

Little River in this county being the land & 

Plantation I purchased of Stephen Young to

him his heirs and assigns forever also two cows

and yearlings freely by him to be possessed. 

Item, I give to my aforesaid wife, Anne, all the

remainder of my stock of hogs besides that is not

heretofore willed also I give her all my corn and 

meete now laid up for her use to support my 

family on so long as the same will serve her also 

I give to my said wife Anney my negro man

named Dick during the time of her life time

or being my widow and after her death or marriage

I give the said Negro man Dick to my loving son 

Stephen Oneale to him and his heirs and assigns

forever...

Item, I give to my beloved wife Anne the use and 

service of my negro man Peter and negro woman

Jinney during the time of her natural life and 

after my said wifes death I give and bequeath 

to my loving son Micajah Oneale my aforesaid 

negroman Peter to him and his heirs and assigns 

forever. 

Item, I give and bequeath to my loving son Lodowick

Oneale after the death of said wife, my said negro

woman named Jinny to him and his heirs and assigns forever. 

Item, I give to my said wife Anney the use and Privilege

of my lands and plantation whereon we now live

during her natural life time and after the 

death of my said wife I give and bequeath the 

said land and plantation whereon we now live to 

my loving son Micajah Oneal to him his heirs and assigns forever. 

I also give to my said son Micajah Oneale two 

cows and yearlings freely to be by him possessed

I give to my loving wife Anney all the remainder

part of my cattle not before willed also I give 

to my said wife all my dwelling houses and 

kitchen furniture that I have not before 

willed to her during her natural life and 

after her death to be all except one feather bed 

and furniture to be equally to be divided between my 

daughters herenamed that is to say Aley Houst

Winney Oneale, Creasey Oneale, and Edee Oneale

freely to be by them possessed

Item, I give & bequeath to my loving son Stephen

Oneale after the death of my wife on feather bed and furniture

Item, I give and bequeath to my loving son Thomas 

Oneale, one cart and wheeles freeley to be by him possessed. 

Item, I give to my loving wife one cart and wheeles

I also give to my said wife all my working

tooles of every nature with all the residue of

my Estate

I also constitute and appoint my loving wife 

Anney Oneale and my loving son Thomas Oneale 

Execuutrix and Executor of this my last will 

testament revoking and disallowing other and

Former will or wills Executors or Executrixs ratifying

and confirming this and no other to be my 

last will and testament. 

In witness whereof I have herunto set my 

hand and seal the day and year above written

Signed sealed and pronounced to be the last 

will and testament of Zacharius Oneales in the presents of us

T Hollemon

Etheldred Price (his mark)

Sam Oneale (his mark)

                                                    Zacharius Oneale (his mark & seal)

If you descend from this family, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below or email me directly. 

I have not yet determined if there is a connection between this Zachariah O'Neal and my Moses O'Neal who wrote a will in Johnston County in 1813. I would like to know more information about this Zachariah O'Neal. 

Additional Posts: 

Will of Annie O'Neal, Johnston Co., NC 1829, Wife of Zachariah O'Neal

Sources: 

[1] Johnston County, North Carolina, Original Will Records, Zacharias O'Neal, 1796, C.R. 056.801.8; North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina, copied March 2014. 

[2] "State Census of North Carolina, 1784-1787," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Sep 2014), Zachariah O'Neal under Capt Houlder's Company, 1787. 

[3] 1790 US Federal Census, Johnston County, North Carolina, population schedule, Zachariah O'Neal; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Sep 2014); NARA Film M637, Roll 7.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (Week 3) – Lucenda Gentry

This is Week 3 of Amy Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks blogging challenge to write about one ancestor a week for 2014. Amy highlights each weeks’ posts on her blog No Story Too Small every Wednesday.

This week I am writing about my third great-grandmother, Lucenda “Cindie” Gentry. The GENTRY surname is an interesting one to write about. Why? Because it seems like everyone has at least one or two Gentrys in their family. And chances are, they will tell you that their Gentrys all descend from the same immigrant ancestor - Nicholas Gentry.

I have no idea if my third great-grandmother, Lucenda Gentry descends from Nicholas Gentry or not. I’m not even sure what her father’s real name was! Was it William or was it Berry? Well, I’ll come back to that. First, let’s meet Lucenda.

Lucenda Gentry was born April 12th, 1868 in Tennessee [1] and died February 19th, 1905 in Garrett’s Bluff, Lamar Co., Texas [2]. She was the second oldest child born to Manerva Jane O’Neal and William T. Gentry. Well I'm pretty sure it was William T. Gentry. There is some confusion, though, because on the 1880 Scott Co., AR census report, the head of the house hold is listed as "Berry A. Gentry." Berry was actually the name of their first born son. This is the only time I've seen "Berry" mentioned as Manerva's husband or Lucenda's father. I think probably Manerva and William might have been separated at this time and someone in the house just used the oldest son Berry's name as a placeholder for the man of the house.

Manerva and William were married in Roane County, Tennessee on January 5th, 1865 [3]. Manerva was from Blount County and William was from neighboring Knox County. William had just returned home from the war. I am not sure why they went to Roane County to marry; unless it was to evade detection by Manerva’s mother who might have disapproved of the marriage because Manerva was only 14 years old (William was 25). Manerva’s mother had married young as well and was widowed by the time she was 25 years old.

William and Manerva did return to Blount County; however, things might not have gone as well as they had hoped as they were living with Manerva’s mother Lucinda O’Neal and her younger siblings only 5 years into their marriage [4]. By that time, my third great-grandmother Lucinda had been born along with her older brother Allen Berry.

But things got even worse for Lucenda’s family. By the mid 1880’s, Lucenda’s parents had gotten a divorce. Her mother Manerva moved with her brother Allen Berry and her youngest sister Mary Jane to Arkansas. Lucenda and her brothers William and James moved to Paris (Lamar County), Texas with their father who remarried to a woman named Nannie in 1886. Lucenda’s mother remarried as well to a man named George Wagoner in 1889 [5].

While in Texas, Lucenda met and married a farmer named Reuben Dennis in 1886. She was 18 years old. They had four children together: Wallace, Eva, Luther, and Willie. They lived in the small town of Garrett’s Bluff outside of Paris, Texas. According to the 1900 census reports, the children did not go to school, even though there was a school nearby; they were probably too busy tending the farm and working. Lucenda and Reuben were educated though, so they probably gave the children their lessons at home.

Lucenda was a member of the Chicota Baptist Church. Chicota was a small community about 15 miles east of Garrett’s Bluff. The family probably attended church service there every Sunday. Lucenda’s daughter Eva was my 2nd great-grandmother. Since Eva was the only other girl in the house, the two of them were very close. Eva spoke often of how her mother taught her how to cook, iron, and clean the house.

Unfortunately, Eva was left motherless at a young age. Her mother Lucenda died from pneumonia at the age of 36. Eva was 14 years old when her mother died. Her father, devastated, left the farm and moved the children to the “big city” of Paris to be near his brother Liberty. Reuben became a tax collector. Eva married to my 2nd great-grandfather, Barney Benson, who had lived next door to her family prior to their move to Paris.

I chose to write about Lucenda Gentry because very little was known about her. In the course of this writing, I was able to learn some more about her family and to fill in some of the gaps I had in my family tree. I realized that I do have a lot more research to conduct and I’m very much looking forward to it. I also made a connection with a new cousin I found on ancestry.com, but who also happened to be connected to another one of my cousins on Facebook. She is the one who has shared the photo of the Dennis family with me. If you have Gentry ancestors, please contact me so we can share information. I am very interested in learning more about my Gentry ancestors.

Photo of Cindy Gentry, Reuben Dennis and their children: 

Eva Mae Dennis, Wallace, Willie "L. C.," & Luther

Shared by my cousin Allison Hurst

Sources:

[1]  Jim Tipton, Find A Grave, Online database, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 21 January 2014), User Input Bio and Headstone, Luecindie "Cindie" Gentry Dennis, Memorial No. 120766810, created by John and Ruth Clackler, 24 November 2013, citing Garrett's Bluff Cemetery, Garrett's Bluff, Lamar County, Texas, USA: Headstone reads: "Luecindie wife of Rubin Dennis, born 12 Apr 1868, died 19 Feb 1905." Biography includes place of birth as Tennessee and place of death as Garratt’s Bluff, Lamar Co., TX.

[2]  Ibid.

[3]  Ancestry.com, "Tennessee Marriages, 1851-1900," index, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 January 2014), M J O'Neill to W T Gentry; Roane County, Tennessee Marriages, 1851-1900. County court records located at Kingston, Tennessee or Family History Library microfilm #0560087-0560089: "M. J. O'Neal” married “W. T. Gentry," 5 Jan 1865 in Roane Co., TN.

[4]  1870 US Federal Census, Blount County, Tennessee, population schedule, District 4, Friendsville Post Office, Page 112A (stamped), Page 21 (penned), Dwelling 136, Family 137, Lucinda O'Neil; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 20 January 2014); NARA Film M593, Roll 1515, FHL Film 553014.William and Minerva “Gerity” were enumerated in Lucinda O’Neill’s household.

[5]  Ancestry.com, "Arkansas County Marriages Index, 1837-1957," online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 January 2014), Manerva Jane Gentry and G W Wagoner; Citing: "Arkansas County Marriages, 1838–1957." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, from Arkansas Courts of Common Pleas and County Clerks.; FHL film no. 1027124: married 5 Mar 1889, Scott Co., AR.

Follow-up Friday 17 Feb 2012

Here's a list of goals I set two weeks ago in my Motivation Monday post of February 6, 2012:

1.     Process the Thomas Hume papers I photographed from UNC’s Southern Historical Collection.

2.     Process the O’Neal family papers I received from my new O’Neal cousin (determined by DNA test)

3.     Enter information on the William Godwin family of Escambia County, Alabama (whose descendant was determined to be a match to our line of Godwins from NC)

4.     Process the Barton family Find-A-Grave photos from Center Point Cemetery in Howard County, Arkansas that a volunteer uploaded for me

And here is my progress so far:

1.     No progress

2.     No progress

3.     I believe I have all of the information on William’s descendants entered into my RootsMagic database. We got sidetracked by trying to find information about a John Godwin from North Carolina who was found on a Revolutionary War Roll. Evidently he fought with a bunch of people who moved with William Godwin from North Carolina to Georgia and then eventually they all settled in Escambia County, Alabama together. It also seems that Zilla Godwin who married Jesse Baggett (one of the men who was on the Revolutionary War Roll and who moved to GA and then to AL with the others) might have been the same woman who was the daughter of Richard Godwin and Zillah Thomas who moved from Sampson County, North Carolina to Hancock County, Georgia about the same time my Nathan Godwin moved to Indiana. We have always believed this Richard was related to our line of Godwins, but  have been unable to determine how.

4.    Several Find A Grave memorials had already been created for my Barton ancestors in Center Point Cemetery in Howard County, Arkansas back in 2008 by FAG volunteers. I requested that photos be taken of the headstones and was notified this week that my request had been fulfilled and the photos uploaded by a volunteer. I compared the information in the memorial biography to what was on the headstones from the photographs that the FAG volunteer took. However, the resolution on many of the photos rendered them unreadable, even if I downloaded them and tried to zoom. So I emailed the volunteer and asked her to email me copies of the originals. I thought that the ones that were uploaded to FAG somehow lost resolution when they were uploaded. Unfortunately the ones she emailed me were just too low quality of resolution that I could not zoom to read them. They were 50-150kb in size. Maybe if she had set her camera to a little higher setting I would have been able to zoom in better? Oh well. Also, I’ve been struggling with creating a citation for my FAG entries in my RootsMagic database and although I finally settled upon some standard text, there was only one field in my RootsMagic source template that I could squeeze all of this text into. So I created a custom source template in my RM software in which I could enter the deceased person's name, memorial number, memorial creator's name and date, etc as separate fields. This made me much less stressful about creating my FAG source citations!

5.     My Mother’s Family  Finder DNA results came back, so of course I got distracted with those. She had 214 matches! Which for Family Finder is a LOT! Of those 214 matches about 90 of them were matches she and I had in common. She has a lot of 3^rd cousins as well and suprisingly, I have already received emails from 2 of her matches requesting information! (usually you have to beg and plead with people to get them to respond to YOUR emails). Unfortunately I have not been able to find a connection to them yet.

6.     Learned more about my JONES family. My 2^nd great-grandmother was Emily Jones and she married John Riley Lasiter. Jones was a possible common surname with one of my Mother’s DNA matches, so I did some research to see if I could find more information about Emily Jones. I found Emily and John Lasiter living in Madison Co., AR on the 1870 census report and then I found the family of Thomas and Saphronia Jones also living in Madison Co., AR in 1870. Going back to 1860, I found Thomas and Saphronia Jones with a daughter Emily C Jones who matched up to my Emily Lasiter. Based on the places of birth listed for the children of Thomas and Saphronia Jones on the 1860 census, I was able to determine that the family moved from TN to AR about 1851 and that Thomas and Saphronia Jones were probably married between 1840 and 1847 when Sally Ann Jones, the first child listed on the 1860 census, was born. I did a search on Ancestry.com in the Tennessee Marriage records for Thomas J Jones and found it right away: Thomas J Jones to Safrona Phelps, 18 Dec 1844, Davidson Co., TN. I followed it up with an 1850 Davidson Co., TN census record for Thos J Jones, 30 years old, Sophrona Jones, 26 years old, Sarah Jones, 4 years old, and Tennessee Jones, 1 year old. I have now taken my tree back another generation and learned of a new family name and location from which to start searching in!

Motivation Monday - 6 Feb 2012

I am falling really behind in my genealogy and blogging these past couple of weeks. I haven't had much focus either. I think I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. That's normal for February, right?

Ok, so let's get back on track. Here's what I have on my plate these days:

1. Process the 60 pages of genealogy papers I copied from the Thomas Hume papers at UNC's Southern Historical Collection last week. In order to make heads or tails of it, I need to reconstruct Thomas Hume's genealogy and find the connection to the Godwin family of Nansemond Co., VA and then try to understand the connection with Mildred Holliday who wrote a LOT about the Godwin family. Oh yeah and then I have to determine if my line of Godwins descend from this line!!!
2. Process the O'Neal family wills, photos and genealogies that one of my Family Finder matches sent to me. (Yes, a confirmed "cousin!") My match is in her 80s so if I want to learn more information about the O'Neal family I better ask sooner rather than later!
3. Finish entering information on the William Godwin who married Pheriby who moved to Georgia and then settled in Alabama in the 1800s. One of his descendants took the 12-marker Y-DNA test and came back as a 100% match to the group of Godwins that my line descends from. A 12-marker match is not enough to prove we have a common ancestor, however, this tester does not match any other Godwin/Goodwin in the project. We hope a higher marker test will be performed in the near future. I have also been entering data about a similar William who is often confused with this one. He married Winnefred (maiden name thought to be Farabee). You can see why there might be confusion. Although this William lived and died in Johnston Co., NC in 1845, his heirs settled in Dale Co., Alabama. 
4. Process the new Find-A-Grave photos for the Barton Family that someone took and posted for me from Center Point Cemetery in Howard County, Arkansas. 

I really need to stop starting new projects until I finish existing projects. And I need to process items that I obtain from libraries, archives and from other researchers or family members. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this problem though!

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.