Holmes County, Florida

Five Steps to Successful Internet Genealogy Searches
by Nancy Hendrickson, Family Tree Magazine

Internet genealogy is as popular as a frontier boomtown.

Thousands of genealogists pour onto the Web, hoping to find gold in the form of a lost family line or a fully-sourced ten generation pedigree chart. The best-known genealogy sites are visited by the hundreds of thousands, surnames are typed into search engines and the computer whirrs away, churning out potential sites by the dozens. Sometimes we strike it rich, more often we do not.

Why does it seem so difficulty to find genealogical information on the Internet?

Sometimes the data we want just isn't online. But more often, failure stems from randomly surfing from one site to another instead of using the keen detective instincts we genealogists are known for. In the library we're like Sherlock Holmes, cannily moving from one shred of evidence to another until we crack the case. But when we get online, our research strategies go out the window.

In the more than a decade that I've been online, I've added thousands of names to my family database, discovered cousins I never knew existed, and learned of the fascinating historical events that touched my ancestors' lives. I've accomplished this through the use of creatively using the Internet in conjunction with traditional research, and employing one or more of the following five strategies:

1. Be A Creative Thinker/Searcher

2. Be Aware of Internet Resources

3. Be a Power User of the USGenWeb and WorldGenWeb

4. Use Previously Published Resources

5. Use Non-Genealogy Sites as Peripheral Sources

Conducting A Real Internet Search

I've illustrated these steps with a recent Internet search to find more about my Faulkenberry family line. This is what I already knew:

1. David Faulkenberry (b. South Carolina) was a Revolutionary War veteran, hereafter referred to as David (1).

2. David (1) and his son Jacob, and John Faulkenberry traveled to Clarke Co., Georgia to participate in the 1805 Georgia Land Lottery. Perhaps John was David's (1) other son?

3. John received land in the lottery.

4. David (1) and Jacob traveled to Rutherford County, Tennessee.

5. Jacob had a son, Thomas, in Rutherford County. Thomas is my direct ancestor.

My goal was to discover the connection between John and David (1), and learn more if possible about John's family.

1. Be A Creative Thinker/Searcher

When online, think like Sherlock Holmes. Don't rely solely on traditional surname searches. Search for surnames of all those neighbors you copied off the census records, or search for the places your ancestors lived.

My first stop was an unusual one. I went to the U.S. Geological Survey Name Information System. This site is normally used to find a U.S. place. For example, if you know you ancestor lived in Elm, Missouri, but don't know the county, the USGS site will find it for you.

Instead of entering a place name in the query form, I entered the surname 'Faulkenberry'. The name is so unusual that I thought any place bearing the same name might have a connection. The USGS form returned three results: Faulkenberry Creek, Faulkenberry Cemetery and Rocky Creek (variant name). All three entries are in Limestone, County, Texas.

Although I wasn't aware of any of the family living in Texas, I did remember reading a brief note written in the 1930's by Aunt Mollie Belle Cave about my ancestor, Thomas. After moving from Tennessee to Missouri, Thomas traveled to Texas, but did not like it so he shortly returned to Missouri. I had always wondered what prompted the brief stay. Perhaps I'd find a clue in Texas.

2. Be Aware of Internet Resources

Do you know about The Handbook of Texas Online? This fully searchable encyclopedia of more than 23,000 articles on Texas history, geography and culture is a must for Texas researchers. I entered Faulkenberry in the search engine. One of the four results said Faulkenberry Creek is probably named for David Faulkenberry , who settled in the area in 1835 as part of Sterling C. Robertson's colony. David and Evan Faulkenberry reportedly helped repel the Indian attack on Fort Parker on May 19, 1836, but arrived too late to save Cynthia Ann Parker and four others from being taken captive.

A second entry said David came to Texas with a group from Illinois, including the Parker and Anglin families.

I was pretty sure "Texas" David, hereafter referred to as David (2) couldn't be David (1) because David (1) was probably too old for this adventure. But, could David (2) be related? The family had been in Tennessee but to my knowledge, not in Illinois.

Using the Handbook again, I looked up Robertson's colony. I discovered that Robertson was an empresario, which is a land agent or land contractor used by the Mexican government to colonize Texas. The Handbook said that at one time the colony had been called the Nashville colony. A Tennessee connection!

3. Be a Power User of the USGenWeb and the WorldGenWeb

Next, it was time to follow the clues to the Limestone County, Texas pages of the USGenWeb.

The USGenWeb is probably the single most valuable resource for American genealogists. Although information is available on a State-wide level, the real storehouse of information is in the County pages.

In reading the history of Limestone County, I found an interesting account of David (2) and Evan's role in the Fort Parker massacre-they were handy men to have around.

"As they [the Indians] were about to kill Nixon, David Faulkenberry appeared with his rifle and caused them to fall back, Nixon, after his narrow escape from death, seemed very much excited and immediately left in search of his wife, soon falling in with Dwight, with his own and Frost's family, Dwight and party soon overtook J. W. Parker and went with him to the hiding place in the bottom. Faulkenberry was left with Mrs. Parker and her two children, bade her to follow him with the infant in her arms and leading the other child. She obeyed. Seeing them leave the Fort, the Indians made several attempts to intercept them but were held in check by the brave man's rifle. Several mounted Indians armed with bows and arrows strung and drawn and with terrific yells would charge them, but Faulkenberry would present his gun they would halt, throw up their shields, right about, wheel and retire to a safe distance. This continued for some distance until they had passed through a prairie of some fifty acres. Just as they were entering the woods the Indians made a furious charge when one warrior more daring than the others, dashed up so near that Mrs. Parker's faithful dog seized his horse by the nose whereupon both horse and rider somersaulted, alighting on their backs in the ravine. At this moment Silas Bates, Abram Anglin and Even Faulkenberry armed and Plummer unarmed, came up, causing the Indians to retire"

In the Limestone County history, I also found a brief mention of the marriage of Elisha Anglin to Nancy Faulkenberry, David's (2) widow. There was no mention of David's (2) death.

This Limestone County Web site also has a transcript of the 1850 census. In 1850, Nancy was living with John T. and Elizabeth Faulkenberry. John, aged 26, was born in Tennessee, Elizabeth, age 19, was born in Missouri. Nancy was 54 at the time, and noted as being born in Tennessee. Living next door is another Faulkenberry family with children named David and John T. . Are these children named for David (2) and John, the possible son of David (1)? Neither David (2) or Evan are on the census

4. Use Previously Published Resources

At this point, I was curious if anyone else was researching this branch of the family. Going to the Web site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I found several interesting clues.

1. There is a John T. born abt. 1823 in TN, whose father was David Faulkenberry, mother Nancy. Based on date of birth, this is probably the John T. that Nancy is living with in 1850.

2. There is a David born in 1792 in Lancaster, South Carolina, whose father is Jacob. Is this David (2) or another unrelated David?

3. There is a marriage between David Faulkenberry and Nancy Douthit, 20 July 1814, Winchester, Franklin County, Tennessee. It is likely this is David (2).

4. Elizabeth Ann Faulkenberry: There are two records on this Web site, both show her parents as David and Nancy, and her date of birth as 1831, but one shows her place of birth to be Illinois, another shows it to be Groesbeck (Limestone County). Because David (2) didn't go to Texas until 1835, it is more like Elizabeth was born in Illinois. This same Elizabeth married John Anglin.

5. Thomas J. Faulkenberry was born in 1808 in Georgia, father was Jacob. Thomas is my direct ancestor.

These findings produced even more questions. Now that I knew Elizabeth Ann had married John Anglin, I checked back on the Limestone 1850 census. The records show Elizabeth (noted as E A. Anglin), as being born in Illinois. Perhaps David (2) and Nancy had moved to Illinois from Tennessee, where they hooked up with the Parkers and Anglins for the trek to Texas.

On a hunch, I went to the Tennessee GenWeb Archives I wondered if I could find any instance of a Faulkenberry and a Parker or Anglin or Douthit appearing together in any records.

I did find a record on the Tennessee Pension Roll of 1835 of David's (1) Revolutionary War pension, however none of the other names were on that roll. This also told me that David (1) was in Tennessee, not Texas in 1835. Other searches of the Tennessee GenWeb pages of Franklin and Rutherford counties were fruitless. I did, however, discover that Franklin County (David (2) and Nancy's place of marriage) was formed from Rutherford County (where David (1) and Jacob had traveled after leaving Georgia).

At this point my best guess was that the John who had traveled with David (1) and Jacob to Georgia for the lottery was the son of David (1), and the father of David (2). Perhaps there were other online researchers who had made the connection.

I went to the Surname Web and searched for Faulkenberry. One of the sites listed was a personal Web page. On this page a GEDCOM was posted and it clearly noted that John was David's (1) son, and the father of David (2). It also noted that David (2) had died at Trinity River, Texas on 28 January 1837. It included David's (2) marriage to Nancy Douthit. I wanted to know more about the source material, and e-mailed the Web page owner. He, in turn, gave me the e-mail address of another researcher. I e-mailed her and am waiting a reply.

I still wondered if there was any Faulkenberry-Anglin connection in Tennessee. I went to the GenForum's page and searched all of the Anglin queries. There, I found a query on Susan Anglin of Rutherford County, Tennessee. Although this certainly was not a solid connection, it was another clue.

5. Use Non-Genealogy Sites as Peripheral Sources

Our ancestors did not live in a vacuum. Sometimes, non-genealogical Web sites is where we will find information on a broader scope like the history of the places they lived, the published histories of military or period maps that help explain migrations.

One of my burning questions was, what had happened to David (2) and Evan. I know they were alive at the time of the Fort Parker massacre in 1836 but did not appear on the 1850 census. A personal Web page listed David's (2) date of death as 1838.

I returned to the Limestone USGenWeb pages and e-mailed a county researcher, asking if there was another book with Limestone history. I was referred to the book The Border Wars of Texas by James T. DeShields. I went to the Advanced Book Exchange, my favorite place to find used books (over 14 million titles listed), where I found I could buy a first edition of this book for about $375, or a reprint for $27. I bought the reprint.

Here, finally, I discovered the fate of David (2) and Evan. According to Abraham Anglin, he and David (2) and Evan, James Hunter and Douthit [at last, a reference to Douthit!] went to the Trinity bottom in search of strayed hogs. Mr. Anglin said "to our surprise we found plenty of fresh moccasin tracks along the margin of the river." Thinking they were made by friendly Indians, the party went to sleep but were soon awakened by an attack by about 30 "dastardly redskins". David Faulkenbury and Anderson were both mortally wounded but both "leaped to their feet and plunged into the river-Faulkenbury exclaiming, 'Come on boys its time to go'-and swum across."

David(2) made it across the river but when found the next day by a relief party he was dead, lying on a bed of long grass which he had cut for a bed. Evan's tracks were traced to the river where they disappeared. His body was never found. Later, an Indian tale said that he fought "like a demon", killing two of his assailants, wounded a third and when scalped, jerked away from them and threw himself into the river.

Finally, a question answered.

For now, my Internet search is complete. I still can't prove my theory about the relationship between David (1) and John and David (2). I don't know if my Thomas was visiting cousins in Texas, or just had an itchy foot. I don't have a birth certificate, marriage certificate or documentation of much that I found. Few of these records fall within the scope of the Internet, at least for now. However, I do have several solid clues which will make hammering out the rest of the puzzle a joy.

Would I have approached the problem differently if I hadn't been looking for such an unusual surname? Of course, but I would still use the steps outlined above, and be as creative a researcher as possible.

For the thousands of genealogists pouring onto the Internet, there is gold to be found. By using these strategies, and ones of your own, you'll be one of those who strike it rich.

TIPS FOR BEING A SUCCESSFUL INTERNET GENEALOGIST

Be a Creative Thinker/Searcher: Search for places, not people. Search for neighbors. Use your intuition. Pick every Web site clean to the bone.

Be Aware of Internet Resources: Do you know where to find American migration pattern maps? or major Polish Jewish records? or where to request National Archives forms? Make it a priority to become an expert at finding online reference works.

Be a Power User of the USGenWeb and the WorldGenWeb: Do you know that most states, counties and countries have their own mailing lists, and that you can be notified via e-mail whenever the page is updated? Network with other researchers in your ancestors' home counties."

Use Previously Published Resources: Check for GEDCOM's published by other researchers. Someone else may have already researched one or more of your family lines. However, remember to double check sources.

Use Non-Genealogy Sites as Peripheral Sources: Being a successful Internet genealogist means more than searching for family. Look for sources on migration patterns, property laws, historical events, biographies, county histories. The more you understand your ancestors' world, the more educated guesses you can make in tracing