Books on the Shelf

I was reading about Lilburne and Isham Lewis on a website the other day. It was my usual, looking for a needle in a haystack search for the day. I had heard of these brothers and the scandal that had been associated with them. Both Lilburne and Isham Lewis were charged with murder in December of 1811 in Livingston, Kentucky.

I of course had purchased a copy of the book Jefferson's Nephew's: A Frontier Tragedy by Boynton Merrill, Jr. (Clicking on the title will take you to an online preview of the book.) I knew the book was on my shelf waiting for me to read it. It had been my intention to read it over the winter; of course one thing led to another and I did not get the book read. I did however, get my reading done on the Tudor's as well as some other research on King Henry VIII. So my interest was peaked about these Lewis brothers and I decided to pull the book off of the shelf.

I began the book knowing I would get some background on the Lewis family related to Thomas Jefferson. I know a little bit about Thomas Jefferson's genealogy and I know a little bit about the Lewis family related to Thomas Jefferson. I am surprised at the detail of the actual book and the dealings with the two families. So far the book seems to be well researched.

I must also say that I have contacted several libraries in Virginia recently; to see what books on the Lewis families of Virginia they might have on their shelves. I was surprised at the few number of books on library shelves; well the ones I called anyway. I called one library and they had a grand total of three books on their shelves. I already own all of those books, so I crossed that library off of my list of places to visit. This was a book that most of the libraries have on their shelf.

As I sat reading my book late the other night, I noticed something odd about it. I knew it was a used book. I can say I never really paid attention to the stamps on the book, until I was actually reading it. Well it is stamped as "discarded" but it also stamped from Staunton Public Library. Hey, I have been there! They have a fabulous genealogy room, with lots of resources for Virginia and some surrounding areas. I was slightly amused at the coincidence of purchasing a book online from a random seller, and knowing this was one of my favorite places I visited last year to do research. I was thinking I should go back there a few weeks ago, maybe I missed something I was supposed to find. Only problem is my traveling companions get bored faster than I do.

What's in a Name? Part 2

So, if I had mentioned cities like St. Louis, St. Joseph, Kansas City, Hannibal, or even Independence... Most people could have guessed I was referring to the "Show Me State" or Missouri. What would the fun of that been? I was a little disappointed that I did not even get a single comment, but what can I do? All of the cities I listed in my last post are in fact in the state of Missouri. This map does not show them all, but I sort of liked it anyway.

As I was reading family histories and of course a few county history books for Missouri; I was amazed to see references to people from Texas or Mexico. These are common references for a lot of people, I would have thought they were referring to maybe Texas the state or even Mexico the country. NO! They were referring to some small towns in Missouri! That sure does get confusing.

I found this to be amazing that Missouri has so many towns with names from other places, especially foreign places. I guess that means if I want to visit Paris- I had better be real specific and say the one in France. Otherwise I may find myself sitting in Missouri. My guys would love to think they could get away with that one!

Have you found any unusual city names? It does not have to be in Missouri, it can be anywhere. I have read many family histories over the last few years, I am always amazed at what people will take for granted. Some of the older family histories even have abbreviations that are no longer in use. About 3 years ago I decided that all of my place names should be the full name; whether that was city, county, state, or even country.