Heartland Genealogy

Have you ever found a genealogy source that pointed you toward another source—and discovered that the second source told you much more of the story? In my previous post, When an AI Search Leads to a New Genealogy Source , I discussed how a Google Gemini search led me to references to my great-great-grandmother, Sarah J. Briles , in congressional records. The link I initially found, however, led to a transcription and image on Wikisource rather than to the original government publications. That made me wonder: Could I find the original records? The answer was yes. I turned to GovInfo , the U.S. Government Publishing Office's site for official publications. Not only does the site contain digitized copies of the Congressional Record and other government documents, but those collections are searchable. A search for "Sarah Briles" helped me piece together a much more complete timeline of Sarah's efforts to have her Civil War widow's pension restored. The Appea...

  The Mentzer Family Bible Do you have family Bibles tucked away among your family treasures? If so, have you taken the time to photograph or scan the family register pages? I'm fortunate to have several family Bibles that were part of my grandmother's collection. One of those Bibles belonged to the family of my grandmother, Pauline Edith Mentzer Briles . Like many family Bibles, its handwritten pages preserve information about births and a marriage that might otherwise have been lost. For this week's Monday's Diggings , I'm sharing two pages from that Bible. Parents' Names The first page identifies Pauline's parents and records their birth dates and marriage date. Transcription Family Register — Parents' Names Husband: Charles E. Mentzer Born: 1869, July 1 Wife: Nettie F. Wells Born: 1873, Feb. 5 Married: 1893, Oct. 3 This page is particularly valuable because it connects the children recorded elsewhere in the Bible directly to Charles E. Mentzer a...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It’s Saturday Night again — time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) Do you have any records of your ancestors' schooling, such as report cards, yearbooks, or photos? Both of my grandmothers were "keepers." They saved a wonderful variety of family items, including photographs, military papers, letters and, yes, even school records. Among those treasured items are two school souvenirs that document the childhood of my grandfather, Edward Osmond Briles , and his siblings. The first is a 1906 school souvenir from Rock Creek School, District No. 69 , which lists four Briles children: Ethel, Osmond, Lulu and Glen . Rock Creek School was located in Pleasant Township, Coffey County, Kansas. Although the school had a Burlington, Kansas, mailing address, it was not actually located in the city of Burlington. This little souvenir does more than tell me where...

  Following Richard Foster’s Property Through an Abstract of Title Sometimes a genealogy record contains far more of a story than can be absorbed in a single reading. That was certainly the case with an abstract of title for land originally purchased by Richard Foster in Warren County, Indiana . After transcribing the abstract, I decided to experiment with another way of exploring—and sharing—the information it contained. I uploaded the transcription to Google NotebookLM , where I created both an infographic and an audio overview . I then combined those two pieces in Canva to create a video, which I uploaded to YouTube. The finished video provides a different way to follow more than a century of history associated with one piece of land. It Started with Richard Foster The abstract begins on July 12, 1828 , when Richard Foster entered 240 acres from the United States. The property consisted of the northeast quarter and the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 10, Township ...

 A Dower for Jane Crawford Have you ever discovered that a record you copied years ago has become much easier to access? That's the case with this week's Friday Find. Among my files is a photocopy of a Jefferson County, Indiana, probate record concerning the estate of Thomas D. Crawford. I don't have a notation telling me where I obtained the copy, but I suspect it came from one of my research trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Today, I don't have to travel to Salt Lake City to look at the record. I recently located the original probate volume in the digitized images on FamilySearch and was able to obtain a much better copy. More importantly, this record provides an interesting look at what happened to Thomas Crawford's land after his death. Thomas and Jane Crawford I believe the Thomas D. Crawford named in this probate proceeding is the Thomas Crawford found on FamilySearch as GVRH-QF4 , husband of Jane Todd. Other sources support the identifica...

Early July 1879, Coffey County, Kansas The following narrative is based on information documented in Noah W. Briles' Civil War pension file, combined with the historical context of rural Coffey County, Kansas, in 1879. While conversations and specific daily activities are imagined, the family circumstances, illnesses, relationships, and setting are grounded in the documentary evidence. The July sun is already climbing above the prairie as Sarah Jane Briles steps quietly from the small farmhouse near Le Roy, Kansas. The morning air is still cool, but she knows the heat will settle over Coffey County before long. She pauses on the porch, looking toward the barn before beginning another day that has become all too familiar. Inside the house, Noah is awake. He hasn't slept much. For years he has battled the stomach disease that began while serving with the 1st Iowa Cavalry during the Civil War. Friends later tell the Pension Bureau that he was never truly well after becoming sick w...

Through a Civil War Pension File When we think about Civil War pension files, we often focus on the veteran. Yet many of these records tell an equally compelling story about the widow who spent years—sometimes decades—proving her husband's service and sacrifice. The pension file of Sarah Jane (Thompson) Briles is one of those stories. While Noah W. Briles' military service fills part of the file, Sarah's determination, resilience, and perseverance become its central theme. Through dozens of affidavits, certified records, and personal statements, we can follow her life from a young bride in Iowa to an elderly widow fighting for the pension she believed her husband had earned. A New Beginning Sarah Jane Thompson was born on 7 August 1843 in Warren County, Indiana. Years later, when she needed proof of her age, she turned to one of the most treasured genealogical records a family can possess—her father's Bible. The entry recording her birth became part of her pension appli...

Instead of Chasing It For years, my primary focus with Heartland Genealogy has been the blog itself. I research, write a post, publish it, and then try to remember to share it somewhere on social media. As I've been working on moving Heartland Genealogy to Blogger, I've also been looking more closely at how I share those posts. Moving away from WordPress meant giving up some of the automatic sharing features I'd become accustomed to. At first, that seemed like another disadvantage of making the move. However, it has also forced me to rethink how I'm using social media. Discovering Meta Business Suite One of the tools I'm learning to use is Meta Business Suite . Since Facebook and Instagram are both Meta platforms, Business Suite allows me to manage my Heartland Genealogy Facebook page and Instagram account from the same place. More importantly for me, I can schedule posts . Instead of publishing a blog post and then immediately trying to share it everywhere, I can p...

Have you used family Bibles in your genealogy research? I'm fortunate that my grandmothers and cousins helped me gain a  to several family Bibles over the years. However, I didn't even know a THOMPSON family Bible existed until I transcribed my great-great-grandfather's Civil War pension file. Among the documents was a statement dated 2 October 1916 that reads: Sarah Jane Briles exhibited tome what she claims to be her father's family Bible. That said book bears date on the initial page as follows: "American Bible Society, 1849. That on the page of said book under title of "Family Records" I copied these words: "Sarah Jane Thompson was burned August the 7 in the year of our Lord 1843" While the pension file preserves Sarah's birth entry from the Bible, it contains no information about the rest of the family's Bible record. That raises an intriguing question: What became of the William Thompson family Bible that was in Sarah Jane Briles...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It’s Saturday Night again — time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors? If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from it. Provide a source citation too! In 2023, I found a fascinating newspaper item connected to my great-great-grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford . It wasn’t a typical newspaper article, but a poem he had written about his experiences during the Civil War. Titled “My Capture and Imprisonment” the poem was published in the Williamsport Warren Republican on 13 April 1865. In my 27 February 2023 blog post, also titled My Capture and Imprisonment , I transcribed the poem and provided a complete citation for the newspaper item. The poem is particularly meaningful because Washington Marion Crawford had experienced exact...