Family Surnames

  • *Dukes*
  • *Fultz*
  • *Haynes/Haines*
  • *Lynes*
  • *Mills*
  • *Parker*
  • *Shank*
  • *Thornley*

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The Stories That Bind Us



I feel a strong connection to my ancestors and our land because someone in my family showed me these places, told me who lived there and showed me pictures if possible. They told the stories of the people's lives. These were my ancestors before me and I felt a connection and have memories that I want to hold on to. That's what I want to pass down. Not everyone feels that connection, but I read an article recently that made a lot of sense to me and I think it explains how important knowing your history means.

The article was printed in the New York Times on March 15, 2013 and titled “The Stories That Bind Us” by Bruce Feiler. A study had been done showing that children who know more about their family’s history tend to do better when faced with challenges, have a stronger sense of control over the lives and higher self-esteem.  Why does knowing where your grandmother went to school help a child overcome something as minor as a skinned knee or as major as a traumatic event? The answers have to do with a child’s sense of being a part of a larger family. The bottom line: if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the story of your family’s positive moments and your ability to bounce back from difficult ones.

Yes, as children growing up we all yawned a lot during the “back when” stories of our elders, but believe me, those stories stay in your memory and are appreciated so much as you grow older.

If you would like to read the article in its entirety the link is:

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Surprising Discoveries Part 1

Over the past few years the internet has connected me with family that I didn't know about as it has with many others doing their family history research.
The most surprising came about 7 years ago when I was contacted by someone who saw my inquiry on a website regarding my Haynes family. My great-grandmother was Annie Haynes Fultz who passed away when I was 12 years old and I already knew quite a bit about her and her siblings, but not much about her parents and nothing at all about her grandfather (still trying to find out more about him!). Well, this person said we were related because her grandfather was Annie's brother. I said I'm sorry you must have the wrong Willis Haynes because Annie only had one brother and that was not your grandfather. I even have Annie's handwritten paper which lists her parents and siblings with their birth dates and he is not on there, and I have never heard his name before. He was not in the obituary or will, either. She was surprised that I didn't know of him and even provided me with his death certificate listing Willis and Margaret Haynes as his parents! I immediately called my dad (Annie's grandson) who also had no idea this person existed! Unfortunately, Annie's son (my grandfather) had died three years earlier and I really wish I had known about this when he was still alive so I could ask him.  The person (the granddaughter) told me that Willis had an illegitimate child and brought him home to raise as his son. Willis died the following year and all of his children other than this son were already grown, so the son and Willis' wife moved in with their daughter and her husband. I have learned from other family members that there was a rumor that the child was actually the "out of wedlock" child of one of Willis' daughters, but it was 1906 and it was kept secret and he took the child in as his and his wife's. The child and Willis' wife did move in with that daughter after Willis' death. Perhaps I'll never learn the truth, but that was the BIGGEST surprise I've learned so far!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Picture History!

I know I'm slow finding things sometimes, but just ran across two web sites that are really interesting. You can take an image and pin it to a mapping site to see what the current address used to look like. Don't laugh; I'm sure they've been there for ages and I'm just finding out!  www.whatwasthere.com is a really neat site for this. There are tons and tons of images already there and I love pulling up an address (say Historic Downtown Charleston) and seeing an image from the past overlayed on the current street view of Google Maps! You can slide a bar that fades the image in and out to make is easier to view.

Another similar site is www.historypin.com

I'm a visual type of person so being able to see old images overlayed on current images makes it so much more easier for me.  Try it....I'll bet you will be addicted!


Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Contributing your time to Ancestry.com

If you are a member of Ancestry.com, consider volunteering to key records. All those records we search for are keyed in by thousands of contributors...you could be one of them!  Ancestry.com has just reached is 100,000,000 mark of records keyed. That's a lot of records!!

Friday, May 10, 2013

May 10- Confederate Memorial Day

We bow our heads in solemn prayer
For those who wore the gray,
And clasp again their unseen hands
On our Memorial Day.

In memory of my known Confederate ancestors:
Robert Haines
Samuel Thornley
Nelson Funchess (killed at Fort Fisher, NC)
John Fultz
Thomas Fultz
John Ballentine
Andrew Ballentine
Lewis Ballentine
George Lynes
 
I will never forget your sacrifice or the sacrifice of your wives and families for the Confederate States.
"Sleep sweetly in your humble graves."
 
 

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Those Places Thursday - Bonneau Beach

Growing up near Bonneau Beach on Lake Moutrie meant lots of fun times! I miss the old pavilion with the game room and grill. Lots of memories.....it's also where my parents met for the first time :-)

Friday, May 3, 2013

Hitting a brick wall on Robert Haines

I, as well as several other descendents, have tried so hard to find out who Robert Haines' parents were for several years. It's driving me crazy! He is my 3rd great-grandfather and the first record I can find of him was in the 1850 Census. He was a Cadet at the Arsenal Academy in Columbia, South Carolina aged 16. The Arsenal Academy was an extension of the Citadel in Charleston where cadets were trained then sent to the Citadel. I was able to locate a copy of the enrollment of cadets in 1850 and it states he is from Charleston. Good; close to where my family has always lived and where I knew he lived after the war and died (Foxbank Plantation, St. John's Berkeley Parish, South Carolina). I just knew if I could get his enrollment papers it would have his parent's names. So I contacted the Historian at the Citadel. Very nice man, but advised me that all papers were moved from the Citadel in Charleston to the Academy in Columbia during the War Between the States for safeguarding. They thought the Yankees were going to burn Charleston. Fortunately they didn't, but unfortunately they did burn Columbia, and the Arsenal Academy as well and most of the records in the process :-(

I have gone through all the 1840 Census records for any Haines/Hains/Haynes family in SC who may have had a son around the age of 6 or 7. I have a few leads, and they are from the same area where he was living in 1860 - St. Paul's Parish, Colleton District, South Carolina. Now it gets tough again...the 1840 Census records are so vague..there are no names except for head of household. So now I have to find another direction to begin searching.

Maybe one day I will find it!

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Annie Eliza Haynes Fultz

I am ending Women's History Month with my great-grandmother Annie Eliza Haynes Fultz. Annie was born 14 March 1885, the daughter of Willis and Margaret Mellard Haynes. She was a teacher for Berkeley County School District.  Annie first taught school in 1901 at the Oliver School, and old fashioned one room school near the Carnes Cross Roads which had grades one through seven. She taught grades 1-5 and her salary was $25 a month.  After two years there, she attended Winthrop College between 1903-1905. Due to illness in the family (probably her father), Annie had to leave college, however later she completed her hours through extension courses offered by Carolina, summer sessions at Winthrop, the Citadel, College of Charleston and Carolina and earned her degree. After completing college, she was employed by her father Willis Haynes in his law office.  She married Lewis Fultz, an attorney in Moncks Corner, in 1907, and after raising her family, she returned to teaching in 1920 at Ebenezer School in Whitesville where she taught grades 1-7.  This school has been moved to the Berkeley County Museum and restored. Annie taught at Ebenezer from 1920-1922. After Ebenezer, Annie taught grades 1-4 at Appii school near Cooper’s Store in the Longridge area between 1922 and 1923. At the close of that school year, the school consolidated with the Moncks Corner School System and Annie transferred to Berkeley Elementary School in the fall of 1923 where she remained for 40 years teaching the 4th grade. In 1961 Annie was named Teacher of the Year. A former student, Dr. Pete Myers, stated “….Mrs. Fultz was a ‘stickler’  for proper manners, respect for elders, and discipline in her classroom, without making the classroom a drudge…..Her neat, attractive, yet dignified appearance through the years has only been an outward manifestation of her inward nature, and all of these she has attempted to pass on to her pupils….I consider it an honor to recommend this Christian lady to you as teacher of the year”.   On 30 May 1963 Annie retired from teaching after 45 years of service and continued to live in Moncks Corner where she died 15 January 1977. 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month. My first female ancestor I am posting on is my 3rd great-grandmother, Emily Rebecca Lynes. Emily was born to George and Lizzie Lynes on 12 December 1840. Her father George was an overseer at several different plantations, and she and her siblings were born at these plantations. Her father eventually inherited Foxbank Plantation in St. James' Goose Creek Parish. She married Robert Haines and they had two children. Willis was born in 1858 at Foxbank and Emma was born in 1864. Robert served in the War Between the States. I assume Emily lived with her family at Foxbank during his service since Willis would have been a toddler and Emma a newborn. At one point during the war she, her mother and her sisters were sent to Georgetown to stay with one of her sisters. Emily died 15 April 1890, 14 years after her husband Robert. They are both buried at Bethlehem Baptist Church/St. James' Goose Creek Chapel of Ease near Foxbank Plantation.

The Chosen


We are the chosen.  In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors.  To put flesh on their bones and make them live again....  It goes beyond just documenting facts.  It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do?  It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen.... It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish.  How they contributed to what we are today.  It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.  It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation.  It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.  It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach.  That we might be born who we are.  That we might remember them.  So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. 
So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family.  It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.
That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.
Author Unknown

Friday, March 1, 2013

Robert Haines


My 3rd great-grandfather Robert R. Haines was born 12 December 1838. I don't know anything about his life prior to him being listed on the 1850 Census as a cadet at the Arsenal Academy in Columbia, SC at the age of 16. The one record of the academy that I was able to locate stated he was from Charleston. He married Emily Rebecca Lynes of Foxbank Plantation, St. James Goose Creek Parish. They had two children, Robert Willis and Emily (Emma). In the 1860 Census he and Emily were living in Rantowles, SC.  In June of 1862 Robert enlisted in the Civil War at Fort Sumter. He was an overseer at Castle Pinckney in Charleston Harbor. After the war he and the family lived at Foxbank Plantation. He died 7 December 1876 and is buried at St. James, Goose Creek Chapel of Ease.



Friday, February 22, 2013

Biased History

History has been a bit biased at times. Take for instance The War Between The States. Less than 100 years before that, the American colonies wanted to be independent of England, were known as traitors and started a war to get their independence. We still celebrate that today. When the Southern states wanted to do the exact same thing and be independent of the Northern states and the controlling Federal Government (peacefully I might add and for mostly the same reasons) they were also known as traitors; however, they were condemned for it and still are. What’s the difference?

What Hitler did was genocide. But what the early Americans did is called Western expansion. Go figure.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Local history

One of the beautiful chapels of ease here in Berkeley County.  This is Strawberry Chapel in Cordesville, just outside of Moncks Corner, SC. Strawberry Chapel is now the only visible remains of the Colonial town of Childsbury. Chapels of Ease were built to serve the people who lived far from the regular parish church. A small cemetery with graves dating back to 1759 is adjacent to this beautiful chapel.  It was listed in the National Register on April 26, 1972.