First Cousins? Second Cousins? Once Removed? Always Removed!!

In my class on genealogy research, I try to spend some time on relationships.  Truthfully, I have family tree software that calculates how I'm related to the 39,700 people in my data base.  Really?  39,700???  Yes, really.  Many of my maternal lines go as far as Plymouth Colony (Yes, there's a Mayflower or two in the mix) And you know those folks from way back before TV and the internet....they had kids, lots of kids!  So those fecund families spread their names far and wide across this country.  That also holds true for my paternal lines.  My direct great grandfathers were mostly in Alabama and Tennessee but their progenitor, I believe, was an early 1700's Scotch-Irish immigrant who may have settled first in New England and then gradually migrated south.  (Oh...."fecund"...it's not a bad word but I challenge you to look it up...I just never get a chance to use it!!)

But I digress.  Archives.com has published an excellent article that describes in simple terms what those simple terms mean: First cousin, once removed, third cousin 4 times removed and so forth.  I won't get into "Mother-In-Law of the 7th cousin twice removed of the grandson of the 3rd cousin three times removed" but they're out there.

Anyway, click the "Archives" link above and see if that's a  description you can live with.   I also have a chart  by Alice J Ramsey that you might like to look at.  I can e-mail that to you by you requesting it at dave@oldbones.info.

Have fun!

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]

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.