Aunt Sarah

Since i changed the theme of this blog, I've been using the same background picture.  I'm reluctant to change it as I believe that the visual consistency is important.  But then I say to myself, "If people are paying attention to the content rather then the design, it shouldn't make a difference."  I never have good answers for myself when I start these inner conversations late at night....when Karen is asleep!

The point of all this is the background picture.  I thought I'd share a little about its origin and why i think it's a great photo.   If you've read my blogs, and I mean ALL of my blogs (just kidding....who'd do that!?)...you may remember me talking about aunt Sarah.  She was the genealogist in the family of whom I knew nothing.  A quick recap: I wrote to the historical society in my father's hometown of Evergreen Alabama.  I was referred to a woman who turned out to be my Great Grand Aunt, Sarah Robison Coker.  She'd been researching our family for years and without the benefit of a computer!

When I met her in 2001, she had bookshelves full of family!  I had flown to Alabama on business and tacked on a couple of days to make this meeting happen.  And I'm glad I did.

Alright, back to the photo.  Here's the full shot.  It includes my Grandfather and his siblings.  I have the original thanks to Aunt Sarah.  My Grandfather, Cecil Lee Robison, is the one in the upper right hand corner.  He was the eldest of the 8 and died of throat cancer in 1963.  Seated second from the right is Sarah Elizabeth Robison Coker, the one and only Aunt Sarah.  This studio photo was taken in 1942 on the rare occasion of all the siblings being together in the same place at the same time!  Unfortunately, they were there to be with their father who was literally on his death bed.  Erskin Coleman Robison died a few days after.

[caption id="attachment_1207" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 1942 - Robison Siblings[/caption]

Twenty years later, they were together again for a family reunion of sorts and they all sat or stood in the same positions as they did in '42.  A unique pair of pictures capturing two rare meetings of 8 adult siblings.  Simple, but that's the real reason I want to keep the background just the way it is!  Well, for now anyway!

[caption id="attachment_1211" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 1962 - Robison Siblings[/caption]

The Southern Connection

Sometimes it's right in your own backyard.  And many times it's not!  I've driven, ridden even flown to places to research or just dig around for tidbits of family history.  I met my great grand aunt for the first time in 2002 in her home in Evergreen, Alabama.  It's a long story for another time but I didn't even know she existed until I found her through the Canebrake Genealogical & Historical Society in Evergreen.  OK, I'll tell you how I met her.

I called Canbrake back in 2001 to ask if they could help me with my family history.  I knew that my father was born in Evergreen and I thought there might be some news articles about the family or any other thing that I might be interested in.  They suggested I write to Mrs. Sarah R Coker and explain what I was looking for.  Apparently, Mrs. Coker had been working on the genealogies of many Evergreen families for many years...without the aid of a computer!  How did they do it???

So I wrote a letter and asked in my most hospitable way if she could find the time to help me.  I explained that my father, his mother and her parents had lived in Evergreen for many years but I had virtually no records.  My parent each help to the philosophy that "What you don't know won't hurt you!"

About a week later, I received a hand written letter, itself a relic of days gone by, from Mrs. Coker.  But it wasn't just "Mrs. Coker" as she introduced herself as my great grand aunt!  She was my paternal grandfather's youngest sister!  You could' have knocked me over with a feather.  We exchanged many letters for a while until I was able to go to Alabama and meet her.  She had pictures of my sister and i that had been taken each year at grade school!  "Where did you find these?" I asked.  "Well, your Daddy sent 'em to me." The reply was delivered to me a thick southern Alabama drawl that I had to tune my ear to so that i wasn't saying "What was that" every 5 minutes...

What I didn't know didn't hurt me until know.  My deceased father had actually "hidden" nearly all of his family from my sister and me until this very point.  The upshot is that not only did Aunt Sarah share hundreds of pages of documents, photos and stories with me, I met with her a few more times, brought my sister down with me once and attended a family reunion in 2003 to meet about 300 more members of my extended family!

[caption id="attachment_2597" align="alignnone" width="300"] William G Robinson Descendants[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2591" align="alignnone" width="300"] Hezekiah Calvin Tarp Robinson (Early)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2592" align="alignnone" width="300"] Hezekiah Calvin Tarp Robinson (Later)[/caption]

The color top photo at the top was only one of the family groups that attended the reunion.  The bottom two are of the same family, but in the same style as the newer group shot. And all of them are my relatives!

Aunt Sarah died in 2009 at age 90.  I credit her with helping me with nearly every person I met while in Alabama.  And I've kept in touch with many of them through this blog, a ROBINSON Facebook page ("ROBINSON" is the prefered spelling in Alabama) and my web site at Old Bones Genealogy of New England.

Hezekiah Robertson? Robinson? Robison? Robrson? Chapter One

There's a lot to this story and I'm trying to get this up on the blog quickly...I should never rush a post...but I've got some family members I've met only of Facebook who would like to see some of the data I've compiled on the past 15 years or so.

I'll begin this post with a quick story on my 4th great grandfather.  Hezekiah was born, probably in Virginia.  Exactly where is a mystery but it might even be that part of Virginia that is now West Virginia.  His year of birth was sometime between 1777 and 1784, the discrepancy due to what he reported on various records and what is inscribed on his gravestone.  His gravestone....more on that later!

Hezekiah joined Andrew Jackson's East Tennessee Volunteers and served in the War of 1812.  He left his you wife at home with their 2 sons.   Anne Grantham took sick and died shortly after Hezekiah returned home.  He then soon married his sister-in-law, Tabitha.  This was a common practice which was clearly beneficial to the children and also freed Hezekiah to farm what became about 660 acres of land just over the Tennessee line from Giles County to Limestone County, Alabama.

The area is known as Robinson Hollow, where Robinson Road runs right through it.   It's also where you can find Hezekiah's resting place in the Robinson Cemetery.   According to the gravestone, he died in 1852 at age 75 and here's where the odd spelling "ROBRSON" comes from: That's what's inscribed on the stone in the Robinson Cemetery!

The vagaries of how to spell "ROBINSON" continued for generations.   When the widow Tabitha applied for her War of 1812 Widow's pension, she was denied many times.  The correspondence clearly shows that even Hezekiah wasn't consistent.  Various records use at least three spellings of the name: "Robinson", "Robertson" and "Robison".  And of course, there's the gravestone! Tabitha's efforts to collect her pension as a widow of a veteran of the War of 1812 was thwarted for a number of years.  I have copies of the correspondence form the National Archives showing how many times her claim was rejected. She outlived the denials and managed to collect for a couple of years before she died in 1884 on their farm in Robinson Hollow, Limestone County, Alabama.

[caption id="attachment_1296" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ...or is it Robertson. Or maybe Robison?

English: The signature of Andrew Jackson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Eight Siblings -- Children of Erskin Coleman and Linnie Otto (Peace) Robison

So I asked my sister to critique the "new look." I can always count on her for her honesty and opinions. She said what a few others have said; that this is far superior to the old, drab, hard to read, non-capitalized style. But she also was disappointed that she couldn't see everyone in the picture. She has a copy of it, but I see her point. I know the names of everyone in the picture, but several of my relatives who may have been able to tell me with any certainty aren't sure who is who! Except for the man standing in the back row on the right. That's Erskin and Linnie's first born, Cecil Lee Robison, my grandfather. I never met him or even spoke to him for that matter. He died in 1964. Although I was around in '64 (about age 12) and my father called him (grudgingly) every Christmas, I know I never spoke with him or have a memory of such a conversation. Same for Diane, I think. Maybe she'll post a comment about that. Why there was so little contact is another story for another day. It had nothing to do with our family living in Massachusetts and all of my father's family living in Alabama...even in "those days" we had phones AND long-distance calling!

At any rate, the purpose of this post is to satisfy my sister and anyone else who is curious to see the other folks in the background picture, here it is!

[caption id="attachment_1207" align="aligncenter" width="300"] This photo was taken in 1942 just prior to the death of their father, Erskin. It was the first time they had all been together in many years. Another photo of the same people in the same poses was taken 20 years later at a family picnic.[/caption]

Here is the shot of them 20 years later at a family picnic---Same people, same poses, same town---Evergreen, Alabama!

Quick Tip - Look Around the Neighborhood

This came up in a class I was leading the other day. It's just one of those things that you might do automatically, you just never think to share as a research strategy. I'm not talking about drinking too much coffee or falling asleep at the keyboard!

Here's the tip: If you've found a relative on a census record and especially if that relative lived in a relatively small town, take the time to look at 2 or 3 pages before and 2 or 3 pages after the page where you've found your research subject. You'll be surprised how many people you'll find who are either definitely or at least probably related to your family. I can't tell you how many times I found the families of the "Head of Household" or families carrying the maiden name of the "Wife"! It could give you a number of leads to put on your "To-Do" list, your Research Plan.

I'm NOT recommending what we refer to as "Pin Ball Genealogy". I want you to stay focused on the reason you came to that page in the first place! Don't stray! But it won't hurt to make some research notes to follow AFTER you've found what you were looking for in the first place.

Step ONE: Have a specific reason to be researching today
Step TWO: If it's a relevant census record you've found, take a look around the neighborhood
Step THREE: STAY FOCUSED! If you find something interesting, interesting enough to tempt you to stray, create some research notes/plans to come back to AFTER you've solve the purpose at hand.

[caption id="attachment_1146" align="alignnone" width="216"] My 4th GGrandmother is here, Tabitha Robertson (pick a spelling!) in her daughter's household. Rochelle, Holt and Cantrell are all related. And this is just one page![/caption]

Hezekiah Robertson/Robison (1784-1852)

Hezekiah Robison was my 4th great grandfather, a well documented pedigree.  He was probably born in either Virginia or in what is now West Virginia.  I have never been able to locate anything other than references to "Virginia" as his place of birth on census records. His father was probably John or Jonathan, an immigrant from Colerain, County Londonderry, Ireland (now Northern Ireland).

But tonight, I found a reference to the military service that I had previously known only through the widow's pension application of Tabitha who survived him by 32 years. It took her nearly that long to collect it! That was for two main reasons: 1) She was illiterate and 2) Hezekiah had spelled his name at least 3 different ways, Robinson, Robertson and Robison. His pension file has him listed as all three at various times.

At any rate, I just saved "AMERICAN STATE PAPERS, CLASS V, MILITARY AFFAIRS, VOLUME III" to Google Play.  In it, Hezekiah is shown to be a private earning $8 a month as an infantryman in the Tennessee Militia under Capt. Henry M Newlin commanded by Col Philip Pipkin.  In 7 months and 7 days, he earned $57.80 from June 20, 1814 to January 27, 1815. He's on page 737 line 86.