Index For William Polite

Introducing...William (Steplight) Polite

Military Records are a Godsend.. Part 1

Just A Quick Update

Just wanted to do a quick update to let everyone know I was still here. I have been doing some serious research the past month and a half and I have been quite successful. I have had a few brick walls that I had to head butt to get down, and some that are still up.

Here is a quick recap. I have traced my CLARK ancestors to the proverbial patriarch of the family, Adam CLARK (Sr.) and his wife Rose (SWEETWINE) BRYAN(T). I will explain the parenthesis in a later post.

On my POLITE line, I am still waiting for the military records for William POLITE. I did find a marriage record for his parents Thomas STEPLIGHT and Elouise "Honey" DRAYTON in Charleston County, South Carolina. I have been focusing all of my effort searching for them in Mckeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, with little success. When I do restart this line of research I will switch locations and see where that gets me.

As you can see, I have been very busy and I have collected a lot of information. Right now I am trying to decide how to present the information, as well as gathering images and photos to go along with it.

Stay tuned for more...

It's Been A While... But I'm Back

I have about a month or so of break before my next set of classes start so I decided to jump back into my family history.

I honestly haven't done anything since the last time I posted, so no updates there.

I did finally get all of my paper organized in a portable file box. It's all color-coded and pretty. It makes me very happy!!!

I even paid for a month subscription to Ancestry.com, so I'm definitely getting my money's worth.

Until next time...

Family Reunion Anyone???

So while in the process of restarting my family history research I decided to talk to my grandmother. She has not been very forthcoming with info on her family which is one of the main reasons I was determined to research her side of the family.

Well I go into her room and lo and behold, there is a program for our family reunion from two years ago.

Press pause. Rewind. Hold the phone...

We had a family reunion? Two years ago? AND NO ONE BOTHERED TO TELL ME????

Needless to say, I'm not a very happy camper right now. So I ask my grandma about it and she says, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that." 

ARE YOU FRIGGIN' SERIOUS??

So I ask her about the people who organized it. Of course she has no contact info for them. (I think she does but she doesn't want to give it to me.) So I go online to find the myself. I Google'd Clark Family Reunion Charleston, SC. The first result... a Facebook page created to plan the 2012 reunion. It seems like they hadn't posted on the page in a while, so I left a comment on the wall explaining who I am and making sure it was the correct family. Hopefully I will hear back from them soon.

In the meantime, I am still upset with Grandma...

It has been a while...

Okay folks, it has been quite a while since I've posted, but it's time to get back into it. I am in the process of getting my records organized and finding ONE good genealogy program to use for everything. Stay tuned for upcoming posts.

By the way, does anyone have any good programs that they would recommend?

Military Records are a Godsend... Part 1

So, in my previous post Introducing... William Steplight Polite, I stated that I was requesting his military records to get some insight into his military life. Well... they found them. They found his military records. I just have to send off the form and payment for them to make a copy.

Hopefully, this record will help me with some holes I have in my research. Stay tuned for part 2.

Introducing...William (STEPLIGHT) POLITE

So... normally a male ancestor doesn't have  a "maiden" name or an additional last name, but this ancestor is a little different.

William STEPLIGHT POLITE is my maternal grandfather. He was born 27 Mar 1925 in Mckeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. According to family members, he was born to Thomas STEPLIGHT and Elouise "Honey" DRAYTON, but I have yet to confirm that information.

At some point in his life, possibly before he joined the United States Navy, he changed his last name from STEPLIGHT to POLITE. No one can tell me why exactly, so that's what I'm trying to figure out now.

I've already requested his military records to gain some insight into his military life. I am in the process of ordering additional vital records and checking the 1930 census to see if I can find him or his relatives.

Wish me luck!!!

National Institute for Genealogical Studies Announces Acquisition of GenealogyWise | GeneaBloggers

National Institute for Genealogical Studies Announces Acquisition of GenealogyWise | GeneaBloggers:

"GenealogyWise is the social network for genealogists. This is the place to network with other researchers, and make discoveries about your family history.You can join or create surname, locality, or topic groups. The Group feature allows you to collaborate, share, and ask questions of other members."

So I've heard of GenealogyWise before and I kind of pushed it to the back burner, but now that the National Institute for Genealogical Studies has acquired the site, I might just have to give it a try.

I'll post about my experiences with it after I've tried for a week or two.

Genealogy- Back to the Beginning

I initially started my genealogy research when I was 12 years old. I was assigned a project in history class where I had to interview one of my elder relatives and see how their life was growing up compared to ours. I chose my grandfather Lymus SIMMONS, Jr.

I continued researching on and off for about 10 years and gathered quite a bit of research. Due to a very tragic accident and some unforeseen circumstances, I lost all of my research. It was very devastating to have to start all over, bur it was also a blessing. Most  of the information I had collected was not properly documented and by the time I learned how to properly cite sources, I had forgotten where I had found the information.

Now that I have no choice but to start over, I know how to properly document my sources and preserve my research for future generations.

Who are we...Really??

For such a simple question "who are you?"  can generate sooo many different responses. If asked, I could answer: I am NiNi, a mother, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a student, a future teacher, an amateur genenalogist, a significant other, a diva, a bit of a loudmouth, etc, etc. This list could go on forever.

So who are you? I would say whoever or whatever you say you are.  I know who I am when it comes to all these titles, but I want to know who I really am. Where I came from. Who all the people in my past are and where they came from. 

For this very reason I am going to be devoting a lot of my blogging time to posting research and information about my ancestors. I really hope to connect with long, lost relatives, or at the very least, find new geneablogging friends.

Wish me luck!!!!

NiNi