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May is Mental Health Month

While looking for Wilburn Turner (1845-1916) using Full Text search at FamilySearch, I noticed he was listed several times for jury duty.  So far these cases have all been to determine if a fellow citizen of the county should be declared a lunatic.  There appears to be a standard process to these cases.  The poor soul's affliction was described briefly, determination of personal assets available, the family's ability to financially care for him or her, and whether they were a true citizen of the state or if there was any evidence they had been brought into Kentucky to be made a charge of the state. The following are my  abstracted summary notes of Laurel County Court orders  Aug 25, 1873 John Martin that he lost his mind some 2 month since, cause not Known.  He born in Clay County Ky, was not brought in to this State to become a charge.  He has a small farm worth about $ 200, his parent have lived in Clay county but not able to labor in whole or part f...
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Wilburn Turner 1845-1916

    Wilburn was my g-g grandpa. He served in the Civil War, was captured twice, and suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder.  Today I utilized the FamilySearch Full Text search and the My Heritage Scribe AI to sniff out this story.   Summary from Scribe AI    You can see it provides a vivid snapshot of local justice, law enforcement practices of the era (such as a constable deputizing local citizens like an ex-judge to assist in a search), and community conflicts. ----Quite a serious difficulty occurred down in the country at the residence of Mr. James Sweeney last Wednesday evening, between Wilburn Turner and James Sweeney. The origin of the difficulty is one of very unpleasant reflections. Mr. Turner had lost some meat which he supposed had been stolen, came to town Wednesday evening, took out a search warrant, and put it into the hands of constable Drummond who summoned ex-Judge J. L. Weaver and Mr. Mack Barnett to assist in the search. They all we...
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Discoveries Abound at Family Search. Today's subject is Paupers.

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    In the last few months, I became aware of the improvements made on Family Search .  They have a search feature called " Full Text " that is being used on selected records.  It is an AI that reads handwritten pages and does a fairly decent job of transcribing it. I have spent many learning new things about my family. For instance, the Meeks family .  When I questioned my aunts and uncles they all had one response, "I don't know much except they were as poor as a church mouse."  Full Text verified this Wayne county Sept 1845 is evidently where Martha "Patsy" was living and it seems Andrew was in Russell county. January Term 1846    Ordered that Andrew Meeks infant son of Patsy Meeks aged about 5 years be bound out to Michael Huffaker until he arrives at the age 21 years of Whereupon the clerk of this Court together with said Huffaker executed and acknowledged in open Court the proper Indenture, which is ordered to be recorded.  I found pa...
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A Scary In- Law John Greenarch of Clinton County, Kentucky

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                                           John Greenarch of Clinton County, Kentucky     John Alvis Smith (1873- 1941) married Mary E. "Molly" Tarter in 1893 in Pulaski Co., Kentucky.  I was cleaning up my data on this half great uncle of my mine when I stumbled on a rather incredible story.                                                                            Molly had a sister named Margaret.  In October 1891, Margaret married a man named John Greenarch.  I was surprised to see on the marriage bond that a 23 year old young man was embarking on his third marriage. It was worth looking into.   J ohn Greenarch Appears in Clinton Co., KY 1860 as a 1 month...
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Every Family Has Stories - Have You Shared Yours?

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                            Every Family Has Stories       Yesterday Mom and I were discussing sharing family history before it is lost. I get focused on names, dates, and hundred years old court records. She reminisces about childhood adventures on her parents' farm in Kentucky. While we talked it came up that even within our nuclear family, not all stories have been shared even with the siblings that had not participated in events.          In 1962, when I was only 5 yrs old, we had just moved into a new home. In fact, the telephone company had not connected our phone yet. One evening, there was a knock on the door and naturally, against all rules, I immediately opened the door. A man stood there asking for my father. My dad was there pushing me behind him then, recognizing this man, the conversation went something like "well hello, what's up?  Grady, they need you t...
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Thomas Day -was he a murderer or victim?

        Thomas was the father of  Elizabeth Mary Angelica Day. She would marry George Shepherd abt 1725.  This union will eventually lead to our Morning Eveline McQueary, the wife of James Harris Meeks. Thomas was born abt  1651.  His first wife was Dorothy (Young) Hudson.  Some years later he married a woman named Elizabeth. It appears they had only the one daughter.  Here now is our story A n Inquisition An Inquisition….taken at ye house of Thomas Dayes in Ffarnham Parish in Essex County ye 10 day of February in ye yeare 1699 before me. Rich’d Covington one of his Majesties Justices of ye Peace for ye County of Essex upon view of the body of Elizabeth day ye wife of Thomas Day….then and there lying dead and ye Jurors being good and lawfull men and Sworne to trye and inquire in ye behalfe of our Sovereigne Lord & King how and in what manner ye Eliza Day came by her death and they upon their oath say that ye Elizabeth Day was much b...
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Maddness of Folly , Margaret White

  Thursday, February 2, 2012 Maddness of Folly , Margaret White Margaret was not a blood relative of mine, but I find her story very interesting.  She was hot tempered adultress, and apparently more than a little intimidating.   Margaret married Robert Colewell in 1660 they had two children Robert, Jr., b. 1662, and Elizabeth, b 1664.  Robert (Colwel, Coleway, Caldwell)  took the  freemans oath 1658 in Providence , took oath of allegiance. May 1666- October 1666, Thomas Walling was found guilty of assault on Robert Colwell and paid a bond of 20 pounds, but he failed to appear in court and forfeited his bond. October 1666 Margaret was convicted of  fornication with Thomas Wallin ordered to be publicly whipped 15 stripes in Boston and was fined £5   July 21, 1667 Colwell was granted a divorce from Margaret. Margaret married Thomas in 1669; he died in 1674. In just five short years she gave birth to four boys,    On Decmber 25,167...
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