More exciting details about this historic African American neighborhood in this article!

Reblogged from Bayside Research Services:

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I not going to be hard on myself, I decided. I'm simply not keeping up with my goal to journal each and every day -- it's been really difficult to fit that into my life. But I still go back and try to fill in the blanks when I do get the chance. I know that I'll enjoy reading through this album years from now and that's why I keep going.

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One of my 4th great grandfathers was Obediah Basham, who was born on April 7 in 1760 (or 1758, according to some records) in Cumberland County, Virginia. He was a Revolutionary War soldier and there is a lengthy pension file about him (I still need to transcribe it). Numerous folks have used him as entree into the DAR. He has a FindaGrave page, but no photo of his gravestone in Kentucky (his wife’s is available and it is crudely engraved). Obediah’s daughter Delilah married into the Corley family.

I didn’t really come close. Here are my monthly goals (only one of which I met):

• Processing one document/source per week (if not more) into my RootsMagic database.
• Writing at least one blog post per week.
• Reading one genealogy book per month.
• Exploring one new technology per month. 
• And taking one genealogy-related trip every two months.

I did get in enough blog posts to average out to one per week, but that’s about it. I only got in a few hours of personal genealogy time last week — the rest of my genealogy research time went to a client project.

Here is the main reason why I didn’t accomplish anything else:

Maggie came into my life 3 weeks ago and has been occupying a lot of my time (not that I’m complaining). She’s a 1.5-year-old Lab-mix rescue and she is the best dog on the planet.

I spent yesterday staying out of the way of carpenters doing work in my house while I enjoyed a day off from work. I also took a break from my client projects for a personal genealogy day. I was excited to track down several more distant cousins on my Tennessee side of the family and discovered a branch with multiple connections.

My 3rd great-grandfather Alfred T. Gourley had a granddaughter, Ann Gourley. She married into the McKeehan clan and had a son, Walter, who was my 2nd cousin, 2x removed. He married Sina Hayes, my great grand aunt (her brother, Willam Edmond, was my great-grandfather). This then made Walter McKeehan not only a distant cousin, but my great grand uncle, by marriage!

Alfred Gourley’s daughter was Mary L. Gourley, who married Daniel B. Crow. Their daughter, Della, married William Edmond Hayes.

Reblogged from Bayside Research Services:

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While I did manage to get something down on paper for every day in February, I didn't actually journal each and every day. In fact, there were a couple strings of five days or more during which I completely forgot this project! Luckily, I had some tools (my calendar and Facebook timeline) to help me remember what the highlights of each day were so I could go back and add something in.

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Reblogged from Bayside Research Services:

First, let’s grade my progress. Here are the goals I set for myself for each month:

• Processing one document/source per week (if not more) into my RootsMagic database. I didn’t touch RM this month — need to get back to it.
• Writing at least one blog post per week. If you include my January recap post, my journaling post and a local history post, I only missed this mark by one. Phew!
• Reading one genealogy book per month. I’m not reading much in the form of books lately and that needs to change. I blame House of Cards on Netflix and the availability of some of my favorite History Channel shows on Amazon Prime. And myself.
• Exploring one new technology per month. Not genealogy-related, but I re-learned pivot tables in Excel at work this month. Does that count?
• And taking one genealogy-related trip every two months. No February trips, but I did register for the Washington Family History Conference coming up in May!

Will I fare better in March? I’m going to be realistic and say no. I still have active client projects on-going and more work coming my way. My personal genealogy research is usually what feeds my blog, so if I don’t have time to research, I’m not going to blog. I am going to try and do better on the reading front.

The Asbury AME church dominates the view down South Lane in The Hill neighborhood in Easton.

There’s beginning to be a lot of buzz about The Hill, perhaps the oldest established African-American neighborhood in the country. Read three recent articles in the Star Democrat at the links below:

More details from ‘The Hill’ come to light

History on ‘The Hill’

More digs planned for ‘The Hill’

What’s more, the neighborhood’s two historic African-American churches, both of which hosted speeches by Frederick Douglass

when he visited Easton, are slated to receive preservation funds in Governor Martin O’Malley’s budget this year.

If you are interested in learning more about The Hill, donating towards the preservation and archaeological work, or getting involved as a volunteer, please visit the Historic Easton web site or send us an email!