Saturday, January 2, 2010

Genealogy in the Most Unexpected Place!


The wonderful story that goes with the Wordless Wednesday picture really began in the Fall of 2008. My husband was working with a man who was from the area that my Great Great Grandparents, Jacob and Annabella Ziegler, lived. He asked if he knew where the Ziegler house and Mill were. He said yes and gave directions. We were so excited and spent the day looking. Well we found the house but it was not the right Ziegler house and mill. I should say that I went to this house once back in the 1970's when I was a teenager. The house we found was not the house I remembered. My Mom had told me that Jacob had a brother who also had a mill. We took a picture of the house we found in 2008 and Mom said this was the brother's house.

On this same day we found the Buttram Methodist Cemetery (which I found directions to on the internet). This is the cemetery where Jacob and Annabella are buried. My Mom had said that the Ziegler house was not far from the Buttram Cemetery but in which direction??? We looked and looked and found nothing. I knew the house was still there in the early 1990's when my parents made a trip up with some of the family. It had been a plan to go back and search again when we found the time.

In December 2009 my husband was again working with some men from the area and asked the question. Well one man said I drive by it everyday. My husband said I'll buy your lunch if you will take me out to see the house. He was pretty sure that this was the house we looked for since he had seen pictures made in the 1990's. He made some pictures.

When he came home that evening, he said to wait on fixing his food. He went down to the computer and then called me down a couple of minutes later. There on the screen was the picture of the Ziegler house. He said do you recognize this place? YES!! This made my day! This was a cold, gray December day that had been really stressful for me. Really it made my week.
I had done no genealogy for about a month so this was a treat.

My husband had some time off during Christmas and I told him one thing I really wanted was to go and see the house myself. I know he saw it and took some great pictures but there is just something special about seeing it for yourself.

We spent one day going up to see the house. I'm sure my kids could think of lots of things they would rather do but they went and seemed to enjoy. In the Fall of 2008 we were less than 1/2 a mile from the house when we turned around. Wow!

My husband is so sweet to think about asking these men and then finding the house. We also found the directions to the Edgemon Cemetery on the internet and got lots of pictures of tombstones of my Edgemon ancestors. I'll have more on that part of the trip.

I'll post again on some of the things I know about this house.

3 comments:

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Such a neat, neat story, Harriet... Glad you finally got to see the house again. I want to do the same thing with the Banks side of my family. It's going to take alot of research --but I'm going to try SOMETIME (when I get a chance to go back to Lee County, VA)...

Thanks for sharing this great story.
Hugs,
Betsy

Harriet said...

Thanks for stopping by. This is such a neat house and the story is special. When I went as a teen we got to go inside!
Harriet

Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith said...

This is the kind of things that keep both my wife and I going on our genealogy... finds like this are always just around the next corner!
Thanks for sharing!!

Bill ;-)

http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/
Author of "13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories"