19 February 2008
More on Searching the Family Histories at BYU
Full text searches of all the family histories at the Family History Archive at Brigham Young University can also be conducted (in addition to the searches on names included in the subject headings). A nice feature and one that can be easily missed if one does not scroll down the page far enough (grin). A search for "Rampley" resulted in a few hits, one of which was this biography from a Bedford County History. While I already had located the biography, this full text search would have made it easy to find in seconds--much easier than the first time I located it.
Of course, tracking your research is important. Part of the post here 
also includes part of the title page from the 1884 publication. And don't forget the page number.
Thomas Chaney is my ancestor--I descend through his daughter Elizabeth Chaney Rampley.
31 October 2007
Taking Notes When Photographing Stones
I wish I had taken better notes when I was taking photographs of tombstones a few years ago at the Buckeye Cemetery in southern Hancock County, Illinois.
I can read most of the inscription just fine:
Elizabeth
daughter of
J. & E.
Rampley
Died
Aug 24 1855
Aged
16 Yrs ?? ds.
Can't read the number of days and think it might be a "9." I probably could have read it at the cemetery when I was there.
Labels: rampley, tombstones
30 October 2007
Picture of Nancy Newman Rampley (1846-1923)
I don't really have a favorite ancestor, but one has to admire Nancy. Her Civil War widow's pension application was rejected at least four times after her husband's death and she kept reapplying--until they sent a special examiner to take special testimony in her case. She eventually got her pension in the early 1900s.
She even wrote her congressman when her raise in her pension was slow in coming after it had been voted in by Congress.
Nancy was born near Milroy, Rush County, Indiana 8 July 1846, the daughter of William and Rebecca (Tinsley) Newman. She married Riley Rampley in 1867 at her parent's home near Breckenridge, Hancock County, Illinois. She died in West Point, Illinois in 1923 and is buried with Riley in the Buckeye Cemetery in Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
Nancy is my great-great-grandmother.
05 February 2007
Write Your Congressman
I never thought my family was the kind to write letters to their Congressman.
Apparently my great-great-grandmother was just that kind of person--especially when it involved her pension. One has to admire her gumption, she didn't even wait to get home to Illinois to write her complaint (she likely was visiting her daughter in Minnesota).
Nancy was denied a pension several times, but was finally approved.
We're a stubborn bunch (and apparently a little outspoken too).
Civil War Pensions are WONDERFUL documents. Treat yourself to your ancestor's Civil War pension file---it'll be a great history lesson. Mine certainly have been.
Labels: Civil War, pensions, rampley
