Friday, May 23, 2008

My first time to blog!!

Lyn,
I am pleased that you started this site, I have been curious about blogging and was so disappointed when your first invitation came because I tried to respond without success. You have probably figured out that I have a mental block when it comes to using computers so I immediately thought it was me - what a relief to find no one could leave message. Oh, well we are cooking on all burners now. Speaking of burners I console myself when it comes to my inability to use many facets of a computer with the knowledge that at least I am a good cook!
Cousin Carolyn

Samuel Allan/Allen Monroe

Last week my cousin Carolyn discovered a shirt-tail cousin of ours named John who is interested in family history. John descends from a sister of Jennie (Little) Matson who married Samuel A. Monroe. I was delighted to learn this news as I had never had contact with anyone in Sam's Monroe line. Sam is the son of John T. Monroe (s/o Allen Johnson Monroe and Mary Ann Thomas) and Sarah Dorcas Martin. Sam never appears in the census with his parents as he is born after 1880 and in out of the house by 1900 census. Sam has an older brother Charles. I'd surely like to know what happened to Charles. Charles is age 26, single, living with his parents in Morgan Co., IL in 1900 census. He isn't with them in 1920 census. I have a note in my db he married "Pauline". I think this info may be from the Hooper Genealogy?

John has a wonderful photo of Sam and Jennie and Jennie's daughter from her first marriage. He posted this photo to the Johnson_Monroe Yahoo group. John also has a gedcom at http://www.worldconnect.rootsweb.com/. The name of his data base is "jblomax32". He has included lots of notes in this data base that make for interesting reading.

I'm in the process of getting my data base updated on the John T. Monroe and Sarah Dorcas Martin line. I do not yet know Sarah's parents but she has a brother Charles who lives with her and John in the 1880 census. He is born about 1849. Sarah and Charles' father is born in Maryland and mother in Illinois.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Charles Elmore Monroe

Yesterday I got an email from Susan Heath (descendant of Charles Elmore Monroe and Amanda Suddath's daughter Josphine who married William Tandy Sherman Hood). Recently Susan went to Jackson, Madison Co., TN to see if she could locate the death record of Charles Elmore Monroe and other information about him and his family members who lived in Jackson. Well.... it surely looks like she succeeded. She found a stone in Hollywood Cemetery in Jackson. Her reading of this moss covered stone was:

C.E. Monroe
May 18 1886-3 July 1908

Here also lies his daughter
Amelia E. Formby
Jan 24 1871 to June 23 1892

My best guess is that Charles birth year was difficult to read and the year should be 1836. I've invited Susan to this blog and if she accepts perhaps she will tell you more about her other discoveries in Jackson.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Think I did the invitations wrong

I invited some members of the Johnson_Monroe Yahoo group as "Readers". I think in order for you to comment maybe I should have invited you as "authors". I feel like I'm in my usual "don't understand what the documentation says until I do it wrong first"...

So... I'm still not sure what is right or wrong yet. May need to re-invite you folks. My pea brain needs polishing...lyn
This is my first blog post. I'm not totally sure why I'm doing this. My idea is to let my cousins know what I am up to re researching the descendants of Johnson Monroe and Amelia Hooper. I started the Johnson_Monroe@yahoogroups..com group but not very many cousins post and because I don't know everyone's interest I don't feel comfortable posting there what I am up to researching on a day to day basis there. Don't want to bore anyone too much! Anyone who reads this blog and would like to be invited to the Yahoo group just let me know. There is a lot of Monroe family information posted there from reunion pictures, cemetery stones, WW1 draft registration cards, death certificates, old family photos and photos of some of us that are recent. All cousins and that includes shirt-tail and kissing cousins too.

So.. I'll invite all the cousins in the Johnson_Monroe Yahoo group to join (may take me a while to get all the email addys together and do the invites) as well as other cousins who not in the Yahoo group who may be interested. Everyone invited will have "comment privileges" and I want to hear from you so please do comment.

That's it for today. I need to start inviting my cousins. It'll take me at least a week to get all the invites done. Hope to hear from all of you...lyn