Posted in Research

Great Research Site for “Old” Books

The site — ForgottenBooks.com — has tons of books of ALL kinds.

  • Are there books that are JUST about genealogy?  Yes. Type genealogy in the search field.
  • You can search for free? Yes. In fact the site has a variety of searches available.
  • If I find a book I need, can I read the whole thing? For Free? Yes and then no. You can read a huge amount of the book for free.
  • Are there any “family” books? Yes. And between you and me I was surprised that were some I had never seen before.e?
  • Can I download books? Yes. Read online? Yes.

Best approach since the site has a cost.

Spend enough time on the site to see what kind of books are available. This site displays a lot of them (journals, etc.) so do search for REAL data. Personally I never really learn anything but a “sample” search unless I’m looking for real people in real places.

I would have utilized this site 5 years ago but not the way I can now. Five years ago I had no idea I had ancestors in the United States in the 1600s. Today I do and I found some great resources for my family in the 1600 & 1700s. I’m sure I’ll find other things as well. For me personally, I was excited to find some data on those really old folks. 🙂

I have not paid for access yet. Why?

I will pay for a month at a time. So first I want to have a month that is not stuffed with things-to-do. April of this year is absolutely NOT a good time.

I want my database that I’ve imported from Family Tree Maker into RootsMagic 7 in better shape than it is now.

I will focus on my direct ancestors for the first use.  I will focus on verifying facts found & fill in holes.

My first time to copy the text and paste it into a WordPress site (like this one) did not go well. Did I do something wrong? I don’t think so but I need to know. I can test that without having to pay.

Register. It’s free and registered users can “bookmark” anything they find.

Investigate site. Use the search. Find something. Bookmark it. Mark the surnames (or places, etc.) data in your research log.

Develop your plan. If you don’t, you will waste a LOT of time hopping from one piece of data to another. The site is full of BSOs (bright shiny objects).

AND this site might help your kids on homework assignments too!

“STOREY – McILWAIN” by June Curry Maddox

by June Curry Maddox (date unknown)

   The  first article from the June Curry Maddox Collection.

My mother, Grace Storey Curry told me my great-great grandfather John S. Storey left Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1825 and came to Coweta County Georgia. With that information, I began my search for John S. Storey and his ancestors in the Spartanburg County South Carolina Court House in 1963. Lists of recorded wills and land records were what I poured over for six weeks. On the week-ends my husband and I along with my notes began to comb the area. We found land George Storey, the grandfather of John S., received in a grant from King George III. The first house George built burned, the second one was still standing. Remains of Storey’s Fort built during the Revolutionary War were still on the property. The Fairforest Presbyterian Church which was organized by George Storey and other early settlers was not standing, but the cemetery was there with many marked Storey graves. We went to the home of Mrs. Mae Ward who had George Storey’s bible and the land grants from King George III.

The Family Storey published in 1955 gave the information from the George Storey bible. John Storey, the fourth child of George married Nancy McIlwain. The names of the children were unknown but were reared in Georgia.

The first Storey will listed in the Spartanburg County South Carolina Courthouse was John Storey, Nancy Storey, administrator, September 9, 1799. Nancy (Agnes) Storey and James Storey came to the courthouse to settle the estate of John Storey November 23, 1799.

Mr.s Bryan Storey, Rome, GA, sent me a copy of the heirs and distributies [stet] of Nancy Storey from The Georgia Land Lottery Papers 1805-1914. I finally knew that John and Nancy McIlwain Storey were the parents of John S. Storey.

The Newman, Georgia Presbyterian Church gave me the names of early Storey members. John S. and Belinda Storey and five of their children were listed along with Anthony Storey, W. H. Storey and others.

JOHN S. STOREY b. 15 Sept 1797 Spartanburg County, S.C. d. 15 April 1875 Summerville, GA m.Melinda (Belinda) Herston d. 1898 Lindale, GA. Children: Martha Lucinda, Harriett Marie, Pinkney Means, Rhoda Ann, Melinda Henderson and twins Jasper Lafayette and Newton.

JASPER LAFAYETTE STOREY b. 20 Nov. 1841 Carroll Co. GA d. 14 Mar 1920 Rome, GA m. Coweta Co. GA 11 Jan 1866 Nancy Susan Gentry b. 29 Jun 1841 d. 4 Apr 1924 Rome, GA. Children: Carrie, Newton A., John William, Irene and Susan.

JOHN WILLIAM STOREY b. 10 May 1874 Dirt Town, GA d. 3 Aug 1937 Tuscaloosa, AL m 2 Dec 1894 Rome, GA Eula Levada Warren b. 2 Sept 1876 Rome, GA d. 30 Oct 1943 Attalla, AL. Children: Grace Elizabeth, William Ivey, Robert Clifton and Lollie Juanita.

GRACE ELIZABETH STOREY b. 9 Oct 1895 Rome, GA d. 31 Mar 1985 Gadsden, AL m 27 Jan 1917 Alabama City, AL Clyde Almuth Curry b. 28 Jun 1892 Gadsden, AL d. 8 May 1972 Gadsden, AL. Children: Clyde Lalio, William Thomas and June Elizabeth.

JAMES McILWAIN d. 25 May 1807 (age 94 years) m. Jean d. 29 Oct 1803 (age 71 years). Children: James, Jane and Nancy. James and Jean McIlwain and daughter Jane are buried in the Fairforest Presbyterian Cemetery in Union County, S.C.

There are several unmarked graves or graves with badly worn markers in the area of the marked Storey graves in the Fairforest Presbyterian Cemetery. I feel sure John Storey was buried there. I read the early Session Books from the Fairforest Presbyterian Church which are housed in Montreat, N.C. He was a witness Jan 18, 1793. He was recorded as Captain John Storey, his rank in the Revolutionary War.

Transcribed 12-Oct-2015 by Lynda Peach from June Maddox’s handwritten three page document.

What You Are Missing in Unindexed Records on FamilySearch

Why is this important to you? Let me ask you another question first.

How do you search on FamilySearch.org?

Most of us are looking for a person via a surname or as much of the name as you know.

And THOSE searches never look
in UNINDEXED records.

So what you say?

Then your searches have missed looking in the Alabama Census of 1856 (and there is one for 1857 too). Those searches didn’t look in Alabama County Marriages 1809-1950.

What *ARE* unindexed records? These are records that have not been “indexed” by volunteers. Remember volunteering for “transcribing” or “indexing” the 1940 census. That’s indexing records. Unindexed records are those which have not been transcribed.

NOW I’ve got your attention!

Even if you just stumbled on this post and could care less about Alabama records. Don’t have an ancestor that was ever in that state — The same thing applies to ALL the states!

So for Alabama, check out this link. Note that the Alabama link is now added to the Alabama Research Links page.
Or to see all unindexed records for the United states, go here.

A great article, Finding Info in Unindexed Records on FamilySearch.org (written 10-Jul-2014), will help you actually FIND info.