Quite unexpectedly it has become handy that I have family members that have spent some time living in the great state of Texas. I have been updating the Austin History Center's Biographical Sources finding aid with useful Internet sites and I need to test to make sure that the web sites are, in fact, useful. Who better to test genealogy web sites with than your very own family? Especially when your very own family has a fairly unique surname. Your own family does not make for a very good test case if your last name is Smith.
When looking up my cousin's Texas birth record I learned that my aunt's middle name is Shepard? I also learned that my grandmother's middle name was De Kalb. Amazing the things you don't know about your own family. I wonder where these names came from? Chances are that I will only remember this newly discovered information for about the next 3 days but I know where to find the information if I ever need it again. You never know....
And if anyone is wondering if I have had any additional weird Whitman coincidences - never fear. I am currently processing the family papers a of multi-generational farm family from Richland, Texas that doesn't seem to care about anything other than family, the weather and church. This collection is one of the last places I would expect to see Whitman's name but it turns out that one of the family members was an Austin police officer. Guess where he was on August 1, 1966? You guessed it - being shot at from the UT Tower by Charles Whitman.
2 comments:
I wonder why my middle name on JJ's birth certificate is wrong? My name is actually Jennet Shepherd - I am named for my great-great grandmother - I have a copy of her marriage certificate. As for the De Kalb - it was Althea's maiden name. Do you think she was related to the Baron De Kalb who fought in the revolutionary war?
The birth certificate isn't wrong- I just can't type apparently :-)
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