Research Log

The following are notes from my ongoing research. Current updates to the genealogy can be found here:

• May 12, 2009 - Been a while since I updated.  Mainly do to a new computer and the need to remap most of the exhibits related to my Second Site files. 

• December 23, 2008 - Over the last 18 months, I have been picking away at a few things here and there.  I frankly have accomplished a lot since I started my research.  However, I got tired of hitting my head against several brick walls and had to take some time off.  I have recently picked back up my research on the Truman and Douglas lines.  I continue to benefit from the research and sharing of Annette Truman Sheets and want to express my appreciation for the information she has shared from her trips to Kentucky and Texas.  For some random reason I pickup research on my Douglas line that took me to Girard, Crawford County Kansas, and have been able to develop many of the interrelationships between the Douglas families that moved in and out of there.  I am also planning a research trip to Joplin to research at the library and to visit several cemeteries and look for obituaries for my Johnson, Branstetter, and Purcell lines that lived in Jasper County.  I hope to have the trip arranged in the spring.

• December 20, 2008 - Although I have know for some time that I am distantly related to the infamous Johnny Cash,  I have not included the Cash line that demonstrates that linkage until now.  See "Notable People" for a quick link.

• March 15, 2007 - The kindness and generosity of people can sometimes be amazing.  I was contacted by Susan White who in her words "A friend and I began trying to find the families of any older photos with a subject’s name and city that we found in antique stores because it seemed like such a shame for the families to not have them. Often my friend has found that the photos have ended up far from their original location and the family has had no idea where to look for them."  Susan found a photo of Seth Nolan Fate and his sister Grace Elizabeth in an antique store in California.  She apparently "Googled" the name and came across this website.  She then sent me an email and mailed the photo to me.  Thank you Susan for going over and above to reunite old photos with families.  I have posted the photo prominently on the front page in hopes that the decedents of the Red Oak Iowa Fates will find it.

• December 16, 2006 - Over the last month I have corresponded with Nita Combs and Claudette Filiputti. Nita has provided much insight into the relationship between the England and Fate families, and Claudette the relationship between the Johnsons and Fates.  Thanks to both for sharing their information.

• September 20, 2006 - Amazingly this is the first time this year to update my log.  Perhaps it is because I have not had any significant breakthroughs until recently.   For some reason I picked up on research of my paternal grand-aunt Gladys Fate.  I found her listed in the 1910 census in Girard Kansas as a boarder with the J.D. Webb family.  By 1920 she was listed with the same family, but as a daughter.  This was consistent with stories my father told.  I wrote to Crawford County Genealogy society and found her adoption and marriage records.  I've have ordered a copy of them as well as her probate records.

• December 19, 2005 - After getting re-energized on my Truman research I set out in earnest to try to better document the William Murphy Truman and John B. Truman.  I had several breakthroughs when I found William Murphy and his sister buried in Hazelwood Cemetery in Springfield and receive Louisa's Obit from the Greene County Library.  I then found John B. had moved from Hardin County Kentucky to Boonsville Cooper County MO circa 1856 with his second wife Susan Hopkins.  I found a reference to John B. in several Cooper county history books and have ordered the books through inter-library loan to peruse then for additional information. 

• November 27, 2005 - I had the pleasure of meeting Carol Short Truman and her daughters in her house in Bartlesville, OK.  We compared Truman family notes and photos.  I learned a great deal of information about Grant, and his siblings.  A special thanks to Annette Truman Sheets for setting up the occasion.  Annette and I will continue to collaborate on the research of our Truman line in search of the elusive connection with Harry S.

• November 13, 2005 - Many thanks to Charles Gilreath for sharing many grave markers of our Harp family in Whitley and McCreary county Kentucky.  Charles also shared his genealogy which I've posted.

• September 9, 2005 - I found another piece of the puzzle to the family tradition that our Truman side of the family is related to Harry S. Truman.  I may have mentioned before that my Dad always told us that the family oral tradition is that we were related.  In my grandmother's belongings we found a newspaper article reciting a story from Sherman, TX wherein is describes a trip to Bartlesville, OK and to Independence, MO to visit the new President.  With help from a researcher in Grayson County, TX I was able to track down the obituary of Edward Truman, my great-granduncle who visited Harry S.  Although, this connection does not get my any closer to primary evidence of a familial connection, it does validate the oral history handed down to us by my father.  Interestingly, my 2nd cousin once removed, Don Truman, has the same oral history passed down to him.  I've put a request out that I will pay to DNA testing for anyone with a documented link to Harry S. Truman that we can check our Truman line against. 

• May 8, 2005 - I have been corresponding with Susan P. Fate who's husband is John R. Fate descendent of James Richard, Vernon Raleigh, and Martin James Fate who lived in Dodge county, Minnesota.  Thanks to Susan for providing the clues to fill out this branch of our family.  I'm continuing to work with her and posting the updated information.  I've also been working with a volunteer through Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) named Kathleen Kelley.  Kathleen has graciously agreed to research some of the Red Oak Iowa Fate family and has even located our relative Lyra Peterson who is still around in the Red Oak area.  In addition to looking up obituaries, Kathleen is going to try and interview Lyra and see if she has old family photos.  Many thanks to Kathleen and to all who volunteer their time and resources in assistance to people whose only commonality is to learn more about those who have gone before us.

• April 11, 2005 - After many attempts to find a copy of the book written by William Henry Harrison Fate about the early settlement of Union County South Dakota, I received a copy through the interlibrary loan system from Brigham Young University.  I've enjoyed reading the book and the many accounts of the Fate family that moved west to Iowa and Dakota Territory.  I've incorporated some of the new information I've gained from this book as well as published some of the photos.  I also scanned in the entire book and have images of the whole thing.  I'm considering making it available on CD-ROM for a nominal fee.

• March 12, 2005 - I have been going through my Fate family and logging all of their census appearances.  Soon I will run a report and post it under the surnames.

• January 29, 2005 - Many thanks to Betty Roose for information related to Delilah Fate's descendants and the Minnick family information.  With her permission, I have posted most of the information she has provided.

• January 22, 2005 - I began posting photos from my grandmother Francis Mae Harp's photo album.

• January 15, 2005 - I have been working feverishly cleaning up my database to take advantage of some of the new features of TMG version 6 and Second Site 1.8.  The master location list provides a cross-tabulation of all locations in my database and provide an interesting look at ancestors and their common locals.  I've also been working on adding Dennis Fait's ancestry.  I'm posting today what I've accomplished so far in regards to both activities..

• October 28, 2004 - As I mentioned back in my July 30, 2004 entry, Dennis Fait and I had out DNA check to see if we are related.  The results of our 12 point tests came back with a 11 of 12 match.  That means that there is a strong likelihood that Dennis' line of Faits and mine are related.  Dennis can track his ancestry back to Daniel Fait born circa 1792 and has a theory that he is related to John Fait a Hessian soldier that live near Martin Luther Fate Sr. near Chestnut Ridge in Derry Township, Westmoreland County Pennsylvania. If you have a variant of the Fate surname and want to participate in the DNA project please let me know. 

• October 16, 2004 - Thanks to Jean Tanner I was able to add approximately 60 people to the descendants of the earliest Fate family including the families of CROOK, ENGLAND, PERSHALL, STRAIT, HOLCOMB, SILLERY, LITLE.

• October 1, 2004 - I have been corresponding with several folks concerning the Shay family.  Sarah Loretta Shay, Moses Shay, and Blanche Fairrie Shay all descedents of Timothy Shay, married descendents of John Fait b. 1804 Pennsylvania.  Thanks to Diane Erhart and Robert Thrift for the Shay family information.  I was also contact by Larry Baker who is a Strait family researcher.  He has provided great information about Leonard Strait and Mary Fate Strait.

• September 20, 2004 - I received an interesting post from Jean Tanner in response to a post I made regarding George Fate b. 1808.  According to Jean's theory the name Fate might have been originally Dutch Fiet.  In the fifteenth century the Dutch traveled to Eastern Germany (what is now Poland) in search of religious freedom. She hypothesizes thay the Fates were resettled with the Palatines in England under the protection of William and Mary which accounts for the English wife and children names of Martin's family.  I find this an interesting theory because the oral tradition in my branch of Fates was that we were part Dutch.  I have never found any other connecting lines with the Dutch and wonder if there may be some truth to Jean's theory.  I will pursue this further and see what I can come up with.  Thanks Jean!!

• July 30, 2004 - I've started getting sloppy on keeping my log up to date.  Since last post my hard drive crashed and I spent the best part of three weeks trying to get every thing back up.  I retrieved all my data except the emails and address.  If you've sent me email before, I've lost them all, argh!  Dennis Fait and me are getting DNA tests to determine if our ancestors back in Westmoreland County PA in the 1790's were related.  Dennis can track his ancestry to a John Fait a Hessian soldier that lived only a couple of mountain ranges away from my Martin Fate.  Will post the results when they arrive in 4 - 6 weeks.

• May 23, 2004  - Received a copy of the History and Families of Whitley County, Kentucky 1818 - 1993 Turner Publishing Company.  I contains some interesting materials on my Harps and related families such as the Bennetts, Steeles, and Wilsons. Updates are posted.

• May 15, 2004 - Posted excerpts from the book titled "Sketches of the Life and Labors of James Quinn, who was nearly half a century a minister of the gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church", published 1851.  In his recounting of his early itinerant years, Rev. Quinn takes us on a 150 mile tour through the Redstone Circuit where the "venerable Martin Fate." is a member of a class lead by Thomas Wakefield, father of the famous Methodist musician.

• April 10, 2004 - A lot has been going on over the last month.  In the midst of it all I got a new computer, switching everything over and getting it to work just right has been a challenge.  I think everything is now right so I'm making this update.  Since March, I've made a trip to the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake, been contacted by another Harp cousin, and received another correspondence from Audrey Fate Whitcomb.  My continued work on the early Fate family has been slightly fruitful.  Although I still have not found primary evidence of Martin Fate's whereabouts before 1790, his strong ties to the Methodist Episcopal church, James Quinn circuit rider has led to some interesting possibilities.  In an 1803 letter from James Quinn to Daniel Hitt, James mentions the baptism of Martin, his wife, and son Luther.  Given James' references in later writings about Martin Fate, I believe this 1803 reference is to Martin Fate although the last name is not mentioned.  Following this lead, I'm going to try and find the baptism records and have written to Fells Church (where James Quinn was an early preacher) in Westmoreland county to check their records.  Furthermore, since they were not M.E. until 1803, there may be records of them in the Lutheran or Reformed German church.  Following the early circuit riders of Quinn and others is providing interesting insight as to where Martin might have been prior to 1790, East PA?, Maryland?

• March 7, 2004 - I have contacted several professional genealogists in the hope that they can shed some new light on our efforts to find the origins of Martin Fate the Immigrant.  I sent some information to a certified genealogist in Germany, and she said that based on the fact that Martin married an English woman, and that all of their children had English names, and that she couldn't imagine a German with the middle name Luther, that I should continue to pursue research in the US and look towards the possibility of him being English.  I contacted another researcher that works out of the FHL and she believes that Martin probably didn't settle in Westmoreland county "right off the boat" because that area was known for Indian attacks and they would of had to been squatters.  Furthermore he didn't show up on any early tax rolls.  I hopeful will be pursuing additional research with her.  I'm going to the FHL later this month and will meet with her then.  I was contacted by email yesterday by the niece of Audrey Fate Whitcomb.  Stay tuned for more from this.  Audrey was a contributor to the Fait-Feight-Fate magazine I referred to earlier. 

• February 14, 2004 - Added pictures of the Johnson and Branstetter lines that I received thanks to Colleen Johnson Hargrove.

• February 1, 2004 - Received information from my cousin Margaret Miller Thayer that contained the "Descendents of Tobias and Delilah Harp With Related Petrees and Gregorys" dated July 1995, authored by Kenneth Harp and Jean Harp Morford.  This contained over fifty pages of ancestry including primary documents and photos.  What a joy it has been to go through.  Margaret also sent family group sheets for the Elbert Miller and Juliane Evaline Harp (my great aunt) family branch. 

• January 17, 2004 - Finally received my research package from Baltzer Meyer.  Unfortunately, they did not find any direct evidence of Martin Fate.  But they did open my eyes to some of the Germanic phonetics.  They've suggested that the surname might have originated with Veit (sound with a long E, rhymes with feat.)  Since the F and V have the same sound in German, and since we've found a Martin Feat in the 1790 census this makes some sense.

• January 13, 2004 - After what seems a little bit of a dry spell, the information is starting to come in again.  This time I receive about 30 pages of the Our Heritage publication of the Corbin Genealogical Society.  The focus of this research is on Whitley county and the numerous Harps, Underwoods, Bennetts that are on the Fate side.  There is some good information on the Harps that augment what Tom Harp previously provided me and I've been able to make additional connections between the inter-marrying families.  New info has been posted in the ancestry section.

• January 12, 2004 - Received the long awaited copies of "Fait-Feight-Fate A Genealogical Magazine."  For those of you that are unfamiliar with this publication, in 1972 it's editor Dennis C. Fait began what is the only publication I know of, for the purpose of sharing and memorializing the Fait/Fate family history.  I've just begun to read through the three editions that Dennis so kindly provided me.  It's wonderful information.  The only unfortunate thing is that it only ran for three years.  Stay tuned.

• January 5, 2004 - Received probate files of Johnson Fate et al and Mary Jane Fate et al wards of George Fate s/o Thomas s/o Martin the Immigrant. Identifies several new children of George Fate and have posted the info.  Also started using Second Site software to generate ancestral HTML files.

• December 22, 2003 - Found copies of Isaac Harp my great-granduncle and William Henry Harp my 2nd great-grandfathers Miller role applications at the local library.  I've gleaned some additional information related to their migration path from Whitley County Kentucky, to Bentonville Arkansas.

• December 03, 2003 - Talked with researcher in Derry Township, Westmoreland County PA.  Doesn't look like they have anything that goes back to the 1770's when Martin Fate settle there.  She suggested checking the church records at the Baltzer Historical Society (I've sent a research request to them 3 months ago and haven't heard anything yet. Update as of December 22, I received an email from Baltzer and their preparing my research package.  They only found a few bits of information.  Don't know what they are yet)

• November 29, 2003 - Contacted by email from a previously unknown 5th cousin Thomas Paul Harp. Tom has done extensive research on much of our common Harp ancestry and we've agreed to exchange information.  Tom was kind enough to share a photo and his family history.  I'll be incorporate much of Tom's research as it significantly expands and clarifies affiliated branches that I previously had little information.

• November 15, 2003 -  I met with my recently found cousin Margaret Miller Thayer and she graciously gave me a copy of my Great-great Grandfather Grant Harp's application for getting on the Cherokee rolls.  According to his application his grandfather Benjamin McFarland was 1/4 Cherokee and lived with the Cherokee in Whitley County Kentucky until they were forced west.

• November 4, 2003 - Have you ever had the obvious staring you in the face and you just can't see it?  That's the way its been with my great-great grandmother Mary Crossland Purcell.  I had hit a brick wall with her since almost the beginning of my research.  After talking with my Aunt Colleen, I found out that she was buried in the GAR cemetery in Miami Oklahoma.  So I begin thinking that maybe she died in Oklahoma and decided to send off for a copy of her death certificate.  Well sure enough, she died in 1924 in Miami and her son-in-law Murray Branstetter had filled out her death certificate.  Now I have a link to her parents John Crossland of Tennessee and Catherine Strickland of Alabama.  I'll be updating my dataset with new references in the near future.

• Oct 30, 2003 - My business took me to Columbus Ohio.  During the evening I walked across downtown to the Columbus Metropolitan Library to research the Fates in Fairfield and Perry County.  Although I did find some helpful material to support my data on the Fates, I was pleasantly surprised to find references to my 5th great-grandparent, the parent of Jane Watson, wife of Martin Luther Fate.  This was a complete breakthrough because Jane had been a brick wall.  Her parents were both born in Ireland in 1756.  Thomas Watson was a revolutionary war soldier in the 3rd Maryland Regiment.  I will be continuing to follow up on this new information.  In the mean time I've posted what I know.

• Oct 14, 2003 - Received a copy of Martin Fate the Immigrant's will from Fairfield County Ohio.  Filed in January 1815 it sets forth all of his children (several of which I did not have any prior evidence of.)  Also provided evidence of several marriages.  My records have been updated accordingly. 

• Sept 13, 2003 - Gary and I traveled to Fulton County Illinois for research and to meet our 2nd cousin Russell Rector Jr. and his wife Rhea who live in Smithfield.  We also met Mary Ruth Ault Wright and her husband Clayton also of Smithfield.  We had a wonderful weekend researching at the Lewistown Courthouse on Friday and meeting with the Rectors and Wrights on Saturday.  We shared information and visited the three cemeteries around town. Many of the photos we took can be seen on the pages related to Smithfield and on the internment page.  Mary Ruth is a local historian and has a wealth of information concerning Smithfield, Cass Township, the Underground Railroad and many of the local family histories.

• Sept 2, 2003 - Received the book Fait Family: A Remembrance from the LDS Library.  Approximately 400 names were added to the ancestry (most of them Fate or Fait's).  It also affirmed much of the ancestry previously documented by W.H.H. Fate's book on the Early Settlement of Union County S.D. provided to me by Karen Fate.