Denise's Life in the Past Lane: Spurlock

Showing posts with label Spurlock. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Harold Rudolph Spurlock

Harold Rudolph Spurlock

1928-1982

(my half-first cousin, once removed)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Virginia Faye Spurlock

Virginia Faye Spurlock

1936 - 2001

(my half-first cousin, once removed)

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Many Children/Grandchildren in Your Birth Surname Line?

Randy Seaver of GeneaMusings.com has provided this exercise for this week’s fun:

Consider your Birth Surname families - the ones from your father back through his father all the way back to the first of that surname in your family group sheets or genealogy database. List the father's name, and lifespan years.
Use your paper charts or genealogy software program to create a Descendants chart (dropline or graphical) that provide the children and their children (i.e., up to the grandchildren of each father in the surname list).
Count how many children they had (with all spouses), and the children of those children in your records and/or database. Add those numbers to the list. See my example below! [Note: Do not count the spouses of the children]
What does this list of children and grandchildren tell you about these persons in your birth surname line? Does this task indicate areas that you need to do more research to fill out families and find potential cousins?
Tell us about it in your own blog post, or in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google+.

Here's my Spurlock line!

Ransom Spurlock (1807-1896) had 10 children and 62 grandchildren

Three children had no offspring
One child had 19 children
Remaining six children had an average of just over seven children each

John F. Spurlock (1850-1945)

John Fedrick Spurlock (1850-1945) had 19 children and 63 grandchildren

Two children did not live to adulthood
Remaining children averaged 3.7 children each

Jasper Jackson Spurlock, Sr. (1876-1940) had 4 children and 7 grandchildren

One son had no children
Other three children had an average of 2.3 children
Other two sons had only daughters

Jasper Jackson Spurlock, Jr. (1912-1978) had 3 daughters and 7 grandchildren

Three daughters had an average of 2.3 children

With the exception of my great-grandfather John F. Spurlock, family size seems to be about average for the time periods in which each man lived.

I have researched my Spurlock lines fairly well. Several of Ransom's children died before their children reached adulthood; widows remarried and information is scarce on a couple of the families. I continue to conduct descendancy research on a fairly regular basis, picking up bits and pieces of information about the collateral families.

My father had only daughters, so my own Spurlock line has "daughtered out" with no male children to carry the surname forward.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Jewell Florance Spurlock

Jewell Florance Spurlock

1915-1997

(my grandfather's half-sister)

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Gus Hobson Spurlock

Gus Hobson Spurlock

1899-1968

(my grandfather's half-brother)

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - W. T. Spurlock and Lewis Butler

Digital image. Original photograph held by Cheryl Chaney Beaver, [ADDRESS
WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY], Lone Grove, Oklahoma, 2011.

From Mamie Olive (Martindale) Spurlock's Scrapbook,

her oldest son,

William Taft Spurlock (1908-1974)

with his stepson Lewis Butler (1937-2012)

c1942

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Abie

Digital image. Original photograph held by Cheryl Chaney Beaver, [ADDRESS
WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY], Lone Grove, Oklahoma, 2011.

From Mamie Olive (Martindale) Spurlock's Scrapbook:

her middle son, my uncle,

Arthur Bryant Spurlock (1911-1951)

c1940

Monday, July 15, 2013

Amanuensis Monday - 1880 Deed - M.D.L. Spurlock to S.V. Harrell - Claiborne Parish, Louisiana

On his TransylvanianDutch blog, John Newmark defines an amanuensis as “a person employed to write out what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.” For more information about this daily blogging prompt, see John’s post Amanuensis – Why?.

I have amassed quite a collection of scans of handwritten documents related to my ancestors—primarily marriage records, deeds, and wills. As I have been transcribing these documents, it occurred to me that most of these documents were not actually written by my ancestors, but rather dictated to someone else, and then transcribed by a clerk into official records.

M.D.L. (Marcus D. Lafayette) Spurlock was the oldest son of Ransom and Ellender (Vickers) Spurlock to survive the Civil War. From the records it appears he was a party to numerous land transactions in the years following the war. In this deed, he sells 80 acres to Miss S. V. Harrell. There were several Harrell families in the 1880 census in Bienville and Claiborne parishes, but I have not been able to identify this particular Harrell woman.

Here is my transcription as well as an image of the deed as it appears in the Claiborne Parish record books:

“M. D. Spurlock

DEED TO

S. V. Harrell

Filed Nov. 23/80

State of Louisiana )

(

Parish of Claiborne )

August 12, 1880. Know all men by these presents that I, M.D.L. Spurlock, of the parish and state aforesaid in and for consideration of the sum of three hundred dollars have this the 12 day of August bargained, sold, transfered and delivered and do by these presents bargain, sell, transfer and deliver to Miss S. V. Harrell a certain piece of land known and described as, to wit:

The North half of the North East quarter of Section 25 of Township 19 North of Range 6 West, containing 80 acres more or less

The said S. V. Harrell to have and to hold the same forever.

Attest signed: Signed:

John Vanhooser M. D. L. Spurlock

W. M. Lugner

State of Louisiana )

Parish of Claiborne }

Before me, the undersigned authority came and appeared John VanHooser who on oath deposes that the maker of this deed signed the same on the day it bears date for the purposes there stated.

Signed: John VanHooser

Sworn to and subscribed before me Nov. 23, 1880. J. R. Ramsey, Dy.Clk.D.C.

A true record Nov. 23, 1880 J. R. Ramsey, Dy.Clk.D.C.”

Source: Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, Conveyance Records, M: 125, M.D.L. Spurlock to S. V. Harrell,

23 Nov 1880; FHL microfilm 265,983.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – The Date My Father Was Born

Randy Seaver of GeneaMusings has issued the following mission for this week:

1) What day of the week was your Father born? Tell us how you found out.

2) What has happened in recorded history on your Father's birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events.

3) What famous people have been born on your Father's birth date? Tell us how you found out, and list five of them.

4) Put your responses in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.

My father, Jasper Jackson Spurlock, Jr., was born on 12 March 1912 in Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas.

He was born on a Tuesday. To find out, I used the Genealogy & History Research Assistant app that I have on my phone.

To answer the next question, I googled “March 12 in history” and selected the second result which took me to HistoryOrb.com. The site listed 182 historical events. After perusing the list, I selected the following:

·         1959 – The U.S. Congress approves Hawaii statehood
·         1894 – In Vicksburg, Mississippi, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time
·         1860 – Congress accepts preemption bill – free land in the West for colonists
·         1755 – First steam engine in America installed to pump water from a mine
·         1664 – First naturalization act in American colonies

The same site listed 284 famous birthdays on March 12 including the following individuals who were born in the same year as my father:

·         1912 - James McKay, lord provost of Edinburgh
·         1912 - Kylie Tennant, novelist (Battlers, Lost Haven)
·         1912 - Paul Weston, Springfield Mass, orchestra leader (Jim Nabors Hour)
·         1912 - Irving Layton, Canadian poet (d. 2006)

To round out the list of birthdays, I would include the Girl Scouts who were founded on March 12, 1912. Because they shared the same “birthday,” Daddy always thought he should be named an honorary Girl Scout!

[Source: “This Day in History for 12^th March,” HistoryOrb.com (http://www.historyorb.com/day/march/12 : accessed 13 July 2013)]