Genealogy Jottings

For the past three years I have focused my genealogical research on my mother’s family from Finland and Norway. This year, because I am planning a summer trip to Virginia, I plan to study my dad’s American lines. Some of these ancestors lived in colonial Virginia. First up, the Carters.

My Carter line begins with my great-great grandmother, Jane Carter Reed. I have not done any research on her or her family, but I have inherited some things that pertain to them. Thus, I have this information on Jane for a start:

• Born 15 December 1824 in Wayne County, Kentucky to John Carter and Mary Templeton.
• Married Caleb Reed on 22 February 1844 in Coles County, Illinois.
• Had 11 children (Samuel, Mary, Martha, George, Thomas B., Emma, John, Thomas L., James, Ida, and Albert).
• Died 30 April 1907 at the home of her daughter Martha in Ashmore, Illinois.
• Buried 2 May 1907 at Ashmore Cemetery.

I do not have evidence to support all this information. I do have a pile of papers pertaining to the Carters, though, that I have gathered over the years. Last night I began poking through it and putting it in chronological order.

In there I found a photocopy of Jane’s funeral card. It confirmed the birth and death dates I had received from other family members. It also gave me an additional piece of information. Jane’s funeral service was held at the “family residence”.

Where was that? Daughter Martha’s house in Ashmore? Or the big white house where Jane raised her family on the Reed farm in rural Coles County? I wish I knew, but I probably have no way of finding out. Fleshing out Jane’s story will provide a challenge.

As I begin this research on Jane and her family, the journey promises to be quite different from my Bentsen and Mattila research over the past three years. Instead of spending most of my time with Lutheran church records, I am eager to do family history the American way again.