Members of the Charles Sanford household seemed to have everything going for them on August 10, 1860, as the federal census taker arrived at their home in Centreville, Alabama. Wealthy white-collar town dwellers with an average age of 22.5, the mortality statistics were in their favor.[1] But death claimed them, every one, long before the census taker returned.[2]
Centreville (AL—Bibb County)
The Supreme Court Shopping Binge: Unlayering a Court Document
Not long ago, a historian friend surprised me with an email referring to “the high-rollin’ kids” of my ancestor, Jacob Mayberry. He included a link to a summary report of the Alabama Supreme Court case of Sanford v. Howard.[1] In the eleven-page summary, I learned that Jacob’s kids had created a Supreme Court–caliber stir by shopping. They had racked up a huge tab at a local store, buying luxuries in 1852, the year after their father died. Their uncle, executor of Jacob’s estate, had refused to pay the tab.
Degrees of Connection: What the Neighbors Meant to Your Ancestors
My mid-nineteenth-century small-town ancestors would be utterly baffled at how little I know about my neighbors. Neighbors were their family, in-laws, society, colleagues, entertainment, education, support system, and source of marriage partners, gossip, trade, and annoyance. They were the cast and crew of our ancestors’ life dramas.
Getting Rid of Riley: Answers in Community-wide Research
The real magic of genealogy manifests outside the traditional box—beyond the standard family tree data. Let me tell you about a man named Riley and the odd place I found the next piece of his story.