"First TV Episode to Feature the Civil War"

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"Who Do you Think You Are?"
is in its 2nd. season on NBC TV starting this Friday 04 Feb 2011. The first episode will feature Vanessa Williams researching her ancestor, David Carll, a Civil War soldier. She will find his grave near her father's that will look very similar to my Great Grandfather's marker below. James Tobias Long (Jr.) has a typical Civil War marker. Usually without dates... he was born 17 Oct 1846 (Hart Co., KY) & died 12 Mar 1930 (Owensboro, KY).

[Click on images to enlarge]

Below is a photo of JT long taken about 1900.
I am very pleased to have a copy of James T. Long' honorable discharge!

I am excited to see the show on Friday night to learn more about this African-American Union soldier of the Civil War.

- Compiled by JGWest

Great Artist, Great Person

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Calvin Maglinger

05 Dec 1924 - 20 Jan 2010

The above photo of Calvin is a perfect capture of how he looked, but also his personality. He had a wonderful sly, witty sense of humor that he shared freely with everyone! Becky & I enjoyed visiting with Ruth & Calvin to hear Ruth set him up for a story or joke. He was a great local artist with one of his paintings "Water Street" of the Evansville downtown warf of the past used for the cover of the book "Around the Bend" by Donald Baker, former Director of Willard Library. We have a copy of this print along with "Doe Run" and "Foggy Morn" for three great works of art. Two are proudly hung in our living room along with Evelyn Steinkuhl's print of Willard Library. Calvin's parents were Fred Maglinger & Bertha Long. One of Bertha's brothers was Byron Long, my grandfather, which made my mother Bernadine Long and Calvin first cousins. Byron & Bertha along with Melvin, John Logan, Dave, Froni Hodge, Alice Woodward, Ellen Dickens & Nora Abrams were the children of James Tobias Long, Jr. & Nancy Francis Gardner. They had come from Horse Cave, Hart Co., KY to Owensboro, KY where most called home. Calvin & Ruth with sons Paul & Stan made their Evansville home in the area near Sunset Memorial Cemetery just north of St. George Road. Coincidently, when my younger brother, Don, was born, we lived on St. George Rd. near Atlas Van Lines to the west of the same cemetery and further east of the cemetery on St. George Rd. lived a distant cousin of Mom's maternal line (not related to the Long's), Joseph Fabian Mattingly.

Here is Calvin's Obituary from the Evansville Courier & Press:

Calvin C. Maglinger, 85, of Evansville passed away on January 20, 2010. He was born on December 5, 1924, in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Fred and Bertha Maglinger. Calvin was a U.S. Army veteran. In 1947, he married Ruth Lionberger and together they enjoyed 62 years of marriage. After WWII, under the GI Bill, Calvin entered the Kansas City Art Institute. He received a diploma in Graphic Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He also received a diploma in Commercial Art from the Famous Artist's School in Westport, Connecticut. Calvin worked for 12 years as manager of creative services for Texas Gas Transmission Corporation. He retired from The Evansville Courier & Press, a E.W. Scripps Co. newspaper, after 21 years as art director. More than twenty of Calvin's paintings have had prints sold nationally. His Regional Art Series, popularized in the 1980s, has been well received and has won wide acclaim. A recipient of numerous awards, the artist has been honored with one-man shows and his originals are in the collections of a number of Midwest art patrons. Calvin was given a special medallion from the Indiana State Museum for the painting, Foggy Morn. His painting, Quiet Time, appeared on the Artists of America calendar in 1995 and he completed historical paintings of the Ohio River for the Casino Aztar Evansville riverboat in 1999. He was also admired by and inspired many local Indiana artists, including Evelyn Steinkuhl.

Calvin was preceded in death by his infant son, Phillip Irwin Maglinger; and by siblings, J.W., Woodrow, Hoover, Homer, William and Odelia.

Survivors include his wife, Ruth; sons, Stan (Cathy) Maglinger and Paul (Jenny) Maglinger; grandchildren, Brad (Meredith) Maglinger, Jennifer (Kevin) Banning, Jessica Maglinger and Andrea Maglinger; great-grandchildren, Alexis, Isaac and Isabella; and by siblings, Fred Maglinger Jr., Ozzie Maglinger and Hazel Miller.

Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, January 23, 2010, at Sunset Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Sunset Memorial Park. Visitation 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. until service time on Saturday. Memorial contributions may be made on behalf of Calvin Maglinger to the Alzheimer's Association .

Published in Courier Press on January 21, 2010

- Compiled by JGWest

"Using Family Names For Computers!"

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The backyard Garage is finally torn down!

With all of the rain this year (plus not feeling well & a sundry of other excuses), it has taken me almost the whole year to finally tear it down. But, yesterday, a friend & his boys helped me. Busy from 6AM until the friend got here, I was tired, cold and really out of the mood to go through with it. But, with others to motivate me, we were done in about three hours. I still need to haul the debris to the dump, but the garage is down.

This is why I did not have time to post anything yesterday, nor for today. However, I was reading Facebook posts and one of my friends is Bill West (no known relation to me) who puts out a very nice genealogy related blog of his own... had an interesting topic about naming computers. Bill named his computers after TV show characters. One of the comments came from a Diane who said she named her computers for family members citing her two aunts. I got the idea that it would be cool to name my computers after my ancestors. So, I added the following comment to Bill's Facebook entry: "Diane, that is a neat idea... naming computers after family! Ignatius West was born in 1750 in Granville Co., NC and is the brother of my direct ancestor Thomas West, Jr. Thus, Iggy (my nickname for him) is an Uncle many "greats" back. So, I, hereby name my computer "Iggy"!"

We all have some cool names in our ancestry that are interesting, neat, special or highly unusual like my direct ancestor Littleberry Woodis. I could name a computer "Littleberry" or even "Woodis"! I could name one "Cincinnati" after my Great, Great Grandmother Cincinnati O. [Williams] West (I still do not know what the "O" stands for and it was used many times in records). My father, brother & nephew were all named "Gaither Glennis West" with either of the given names would make great names for a computer. Mom's name was Bernadine... not a bad computer name. Powerful names like James Tobias Long or Mary Bright Rogers. Another one John Barton Haynes. My favorite is Arthur Sylvester Mays husband of Susan Apalone Lewis. The name Ap(p)olone was used a lot in my Mattingly family.

We could name all sorts of items for our ancestors. Since we travel a lot to Ohio to see the grandkids in the Cincinnati area... I think I will name the car in honor of my GGGrandmother "Cincinnati!" My cell phone "Littleberry!" (Well, they have "Blackberry" phones, don't they?) Davy Crockett named his long rifle "Old Bess" - so, why not name important items we use? I wonder what is showing on "Tobias" today?

Oh, if I still had a garage, I could have named it "Woodis!"

- Written by JGWest

Tombstone Thursday - James Tobias Long, Jr.

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James Tobias Long, Jr.
Union Civil War Veteran
My Great Grandfather

Died & buried in Owensboro, KY 12 Mar 1930

Above is a copy of his Military Honorable Discharge!

- Submitted by JGWest

[Tombstone Thursday is dedicated in memory of Donald G. West 1952-2000]

NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

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I just sent out an email to a distant cousin pointing out some things about researching that might help in the search of the proof we need from one generation to the next.

I pointed out several reasons why records do not get discovered.
1. Not looking in the right locations or in the right files.
2. Not looking for the right surname (how it is indexed).
3. Not recognizing all of the various spellings or even mis-spellings.
4. Some records may be recorded many years after an event under the names of grandchildren or even great-grandchildren.
5. I would suggest that there are many more reasons!

Perhaps this will give someone a tip that might help them knock down a brick wall... it has worked for me several times (but not every time, of course). Here was my message (modified to fit here):

I descend from David Ferguson (born 1785 Halifax Co., VA) and Elizabeth Bomar of Hart & Larue County area of Kentucky. We believe that Sarah Francis Ferguson wife of Prosser Cruse was their daughter. So, far there is no solid proof of that. According to an article in the Hart County Historical Society's newsletter, a list of those with a will was published. This list even had the volume & page number... great index. However, the records were destroyed by a fire.

I would suggest that any 10 people could go through a lot of boxes of records and 9 could miss one little record that the 10th. person found that contains the info everyone was looking for. I have accidentally found information that some excellent, experienced genealogists did not connect to our history. I have been researching for about 50 years, now; and, I will say that until you find what you are looking for... you have not looked hard enough or in the right places.

The Clan Ferguson Society would not accept that Elizabeth Cruse (who married Anderson H. Gardner) as the daughter of Prosser Cruse & Sarah Francis Ferguson. I used records filed in Larue County for the estate settlement of the Prosser Cruse Estate in Hart County. It seemed that every genealogist that had worked on this family did not even know about Prosser's oldest daughter Elizabeth. But, there were many records of her in the estate records including several generations down the line. So, who knows there may be some estate records that may exist in deeds or other files that will show David Ferguson's will, especially in Larue County (or other surrounding counties). Another reason why these records are not found is that researchers are looking mostly for David Ferguson (or just Ferguson with its various spellings - another problem), but do not look for records filed under the surnames of the descendants or other heirs. For example a search for William W. Brooks could turn up information on his wife's grandfather David Ferguson or grandmother Elizabeth [Bomar] Ferguson. Brooks was married to Martha Cruse - a daughter of Prosser Cruse & Sarah Francis Ferguson. You could search under James Tobias Long, Jr. and find records that could go back as far as John Bomar the father of Elizabeth Ferguson - this could be as much as 20, 50 or even longer after the original event. Long married Nancy Francis Gardner the grand daughter of Sarah Francis Ferguson.

-Submitted by JGWest

“So, It Is Really True!”

IT WAS THE SPRING OF 1958...
...when I was in the fifth grade and was made aware for the first time that many, many generations of ancestors came before I was even born. I realized, that year, that the stories of long ago were based upon real times and real people, in spite of the fact that the actual story was fiction. It was truly a difficult thing for me to just accept – although Mom and Dad, my teacher and others were trying to convince me that things actually happened before my time or even my parents' time. So, my parents took me to several areas in Kentucky to visit the graves of some of my more recent ancestors (my great grandparents). They must have existed because they no longer existed. Now, that was hard for Dad to explain, but he said he knew these people and they were his grandparents. I saw no reason for Dad to lie about this. My West great grandparents were John William West & Hettie (Hester) Martin. Whoa! On their tombstone was a picture of them!!! They must have lived because there was their photo and Dad made a positive ID of them... he claimed that was exactly how they looked. Also, I was named after my great grandfather. This was proof that they existed and my father verified that it was true! [Us genealogists call that "documentation," something I needed to have then and still insist upon today!] Dad said boldly and with pride, “These are my grandparents!” I thought that if I had grandparents and Dad had grandparents, did my grandparents have grandparents and did these people (my great grandparents) also have grandparents. Dad said that, indeed, that was true. Well, who were these people; and, sadly Dad said “I do not know!” Well, I have been searching ever since for who these people are. That was over 50 years ago!

By the way, we went to see my great grandfather's grave in Owensboro, Kentucky. It was a Civil War Marker for James Tobias Long. I looked at Mom and Dad and stated with my newfound wisdom and experience - “So, the Civil War really happened!”

- Written & submitted by John G. West