Genealogy Field Trip!!
James Hayes Marshall Home
You know how we read we should be getting out from behind our computer now and again as we do our genealogy research? Well I did this past week and it was so much fun!
Do you remember my post a couple weeks back about meeting distant cousins at a family reunion? We swapped emails with the promise of trading info and recently received some photos and an obit. One of those photos stood out. A pic of a house, taken years ago, with the label “Home of James Hayes Marshall”.
Possible Marshall home
My “new” cousin and I share James Hayes Marshall as a great-great-grandfather. I’d love, love, love to think his house was still standing but I was a bit skeptical. So my genea-buddy sister came up with an 1880 plat map of the area and comparing it to a modern map we were able to drive right to the property once owned by James Hayes Marshall.
**Let me just insert here I know how lucky I am that I live within 20 – 25 minutes of where most of my ancestors lived. Giving my research the added bounce of seeing what they saw and walking where they walked.**
Side view of house
So this first picture is the photo sent by my “new” cousin which she says is the Marshall home. The next two photos are a home sitting on the property right where the plat map says the home sat and this property, as labeled by the map, belonged to James Hayes Marshall.
What do you think? There is a garage now so it’s harder to see the side of the house completely but the structure is the same. Only the second floor door and window on the front of the house are gone now. The third floor attic window on the side has been replaced by a vent.
I think it’s the same house! Yippee! I’m thrilled beyond imagination. Next week we’ll go to the courthouse to research the history of the property but today I’m feeling pretty good that we found the home of my great-great-grandfather!
Cindy, your genealogy field trip photos are BEAUTIFUL! I took a genealogy field trip last year, so I can definitely relate to your excitement. This is my first visit to your website — It’s lovely! I will certainly make a point to stop by again to see what ownership history you uncover at the courthouse.
Liv,
Thanks for stopping by and Thank you so much for your kind words!
Too much of the time I’m glued to my seat in front of a computer when I have so many research opportunities that would take me out and about! With fun results Im sure, if not always profitable genealogy ones!
Please do stop again! I look forward to it!
Cindy, I know how wonderful it is to take a field trip. Several years ago we went with my husbands father to where he was born. But the house that he lived in had been torn down the week before we got there. But when we went to a cemetery looking for the graves of the missing twins I did find the graves of some other family members and 2 I did not know about. I also enjoy your posts about the civil war, especially the one about who belongs to who.
Trisha,
Thanks for stopping by and your really nice comment!
Field Trips are the best aren’t they? Especially if you turn up some unknown info like you did at the cemetery you visited.
Sorry to hear about the house. I have the tendency to be a day late and dollar short myself!
Good luck with your research and please stop back!
Great photos! What an exciting genealogy field trip for you! And yes, you are lucky you live so close to where most of your ancestors lived.
Thanks Jana! I appreciate you stopping by! Family research is such fun! I’ll never get everything researched! Please stop back again!
Cindy,
Where is the house located? It looks familiar but I can’t place where it is.