Monday, February 15, 2010

Raby: The Team Zeroes in on Lincoln Co.


J.C., retired civil engineer living close to the Raleigh-Durham Triangle but connected by his youth to western NC, is tapped into the LDS files and convinces us to focus on Lincoln Co. It's something of a leap. The 1830 census shows ROBY boys living near a George who's immigrated from Maryland and the ages and the names are a reasonable match. We really don't have any other viable choices.

Doris: She keeps the pulse of all the free message boards and builds relationships with other researchers like J.C. and James and Norma (who seems to divine where the action is headed).  Doris addresses these gentlemen as Mr. and taps into me with updates and calming, no-nonsense reassurances we're on the right track with J.C.'s ideas. 

Mr. Miller: He lives in the target zone. He has published an article on the sons of GWR and Lydia Bentley based on the tombstone inscription that's now been torn down and replaced with a "modern" little rectangle, too small to include the previous descendant data. He drives to these cemeteries and photographs and inquires and knows the difference between a Will and a Settlement record. 

Me. I tell stories. I think I'm the teenager on the team. And lose it when I discover that the USGenWeb census archive has disappeared and probably been sold to whom, Ancestry? I run a website database and try to keep it current and find the right buttons for sorting the finds. I reread the bible of my great aunt's published records, and wish I'd taken that trip to Columbus to rifle through her boxes of donated information before the college destroyed them. I file the request online for a copy of a birth certificate. 

And we're off ! Four loosely-related descendants of the long lost George Washington Raby b. 1810 somewhere. 

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