Surname Saturday: Dyer

According to Irish Ancestors' Surname History, the surname Dyer is an anglicized version of Ó Duibhir (grandson of the dark brown [man]) or Mac Duibhir (son of the dark brown [man]). This variant is found in counties Sligo and Roscommon.

Irish Ancestors also includes information from the surname dictionary Sloinnte na hÉireann. According to this dictionary, the surname Dyer is found in county Mayo, Belfast, and scattered other areas. Dyer is an English occupational name. It is also a form of the Irish name Mac Duibhir, and is also found as MacDyer.

My known Dyer ancestors are:

2nd-great-grandmother: Sarah Claire "Sadie" Dyer
born 8 October 1863, Nashville, Davidson Co., Tennesssee
married John William Morton Gatlin 26 June 1881, Nashville, Davidson Co., Tennessee
died 20 January 1945, Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois

3rd-great-grandfather: Michael Dyer
born about 1829, Co. Roscommon, Ireland
married Mary
died 3 June 1870, Nashville, Davidson Co., Tennessee

Follow Friday: Unknown No Longer

Unknown No Longer (http://unknownnolonger.vahistorical.org/) contains the names of slaves mentioned in the unpublished documents of the Virginia Historical Society. Digital images of the documents are included. As of September 2011, more than 1,500 names had been entered into the database. This number will grow larger over time; the database is a work in progress. The Virginia Historical Society has more than 8 million unpublished documents; it will take a long time to look through them all.

It is possible to search by first name, last name, owner's last name, gender, date range, location, occupation, and record type. Record types include account, account book, advertisement, affidavit, agreement, appraisal, autobiography, Bible record, bill of lading, bill of sale, bond, broadside, certificate, church records, commission, commonplace book, contract, court records, deed, deed of emancipation, deed of manumission, deed of trust, diary, indenture, insurance policy, inventory, lease, letter, letterbook, list, manumission certificate, memoir, mortgage, newspaper clipping, notice, pardon, pass, patent, petition, receipt, recollections, record book,  register, report, resolution, sales book, scrapbook, summons, voucher, will, and writ of execution. There is also an "other" category. It is also possible to browse by record type and by location.

The site also includes a message board and a list of related resources (online projects and primary and secondary sources.)

Those Places Thursday: Gunpowder River

Oblique air photo of Gunpowder River traveling through Loch Raven Reservoir, Maryland. August 2010. Photo by Jstuby [Public domain]. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

The Gunpowder River is a tidal inlet on the western side of Chesapeake Bay. It is formed by the joining of the Gunpowder Falls (also known as Big Gunpowder Falls) and the Little Gunpowder Falls. It is 6.8 miles long. The Gunpowder River and the Little Gunpowder Falls form the boundary between Baltimore and Harford Counties, Maryland.

My 8th-great-grandparents John Greer and Sarah Day lived by the Great Falls of the Gunpowder River. Their land was surveyed in 1718.

The town of Joppa was located on the Gunpowder River and was an important colonial seaport. Tobacco was the main export.

In 1959, the Gunpowder Falls State Park was established to protect the Gunpowder River and the Big and Little Gunpowder valleys. The park includes trails, a beach, a marina, and areas for fishing, canoeing, and kayaking.

References
Gunpowder Falls State Park
Gunpowder River
Joppatowne, Maryland

Wednesday's Child: Travis Russell

Commonwealth of Kentucky, Bureau of Vital Statistics. Certificate of death, Travis Russell. Ancestry.com. Kentucky, Death Records, 1852-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.Original data: Kentucky. Vital Statistics Original Death Certificates – Microfilm (1911-1955). Microfilm rolls #7016130-7041803. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, Kentucky.

Travis Russell was born in November 1911 in Livingston County, Kentucky. He was the son of  John Gordon Russell and Alice Isabel Schroder. He died on 10 January 1912 in Livingston County, Kentucky.

Travis was my second cousin four times removed. His father John Gordon Russell was the son of John D. Russell and Elizabeth Wilson. John was the son of Archibald Mills Russell and Margaret Harding. Mills was the son of my 5th-great-grandparents Andrew Russell and Hannah Hardgrave.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day has been observed in the United States since 1886. In ancient Europe, the weather on Candlemas Day (also observed on February 2) was supposed to predict the upcoming weather. According to German tradition, if a hedgehog cast a shadow on Candlemas Day, there would be six more weeks of bad weather, the "Second Winter." German settlers in Pennsylvania brought this tradition with them and substituted the groundhog for the hedgehog. (Source: Groundhog Day History)

In 1909, John J. Coughlin, alderman of the First Ward of Chicago, introduced a resolution into the city council to make Groundhog Day a legal holiday.

Chicago Tribune, 30 January 1909, page 1

Mappy Monday: Map of Sillejord (Seljord), Norway, 1786

Sillejord Præstegield i Øvre Tellemarken, beliggende imellem den 59 og 60 Grad Nord Brede. Wille, Hans Jacob. Beskrivelse over Sillejords Præstegield i Øvre-Tellemarken i Norge. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1786. Available from http://da2.uib.no/cgi-win/WebBok.exe?slag=lesbok&bokid=silgjord.

The map Sillejord Præstegield i Øvre Tellemarken, beliggende imellem den 59 og 60 Grad Nord Brede ("Sillejord in Upper Telemark, Situated Between 59 and 60 Degrees North Latitude") was published in 1786 in the book Beskrivelse over Sillejords Præstegield i Øvre-Tellemarken i Norge (Description of Sillejord Parish) by Hans Jacob Wille. Until 1889, the Norwegian municipality Seljord was known as Sillejord or Silgjord. Seljord is located in the fylke (county) of Telemark. Some of my Norwegian ancestors were from Seljord.

Close-ups are provided of the top and bottom halves of the map.

Sillejord Præstegield i Øvre Tellemarken, beliggende imellem den 59 og 60 Grad Nord Brede. Wille, Hans Jacob. Beskrivelse over Sillejords Præstegield i Øvre-Tellemarken i Norge. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1786. Available from http://da2.uib.no/cgi-win/WebBok.exe?slag=lesbok&bokid=silgjord.

Sillejord Præstegield i Øvre Tellemarken, beliggende imellem den 59 og 60 Grad Nord Brede. Wille, Hans Jacob. Beskrivelse over Sillejords Præstegield i Øvre-Tellemarken i Norge. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1786. Available from http://da2.uib.no/cgi-win/WebBok.exe?slag=lesbok&bokid=silgjord.

Sunday's Obituary: Lena (Alley) Davis

Nashville Tennesseean, 28 September 1956, page 52

Mrs. Larned Davis

Rites Incomplete

    Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Larned Davis, 76, of 3853 Saunders Ave., will be at 10:30 a.m. (CDT) tomorrow at Phillips-Robinson funeral home, 2707 Gallatin road.
    Mrs. Davis died yesterday morning at her home after a year's illness. The body is at the funeral home.
    A native of Nashville, Mrs. Davis was the former Lena Alley, daughter of the late Walter P. Alley and Idella Young Alley. She was educated in Nashville public schools and lived here all her life.
    In 1895 she was married to Larned Davis, a Nashville millwright. He died in 1935.
    Mrs. Davis was a member of the Church of Christ.
    She is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Charles Jacobs and Miss Frances Davis, both of Nashville, and Mrs. I. G. Harris, Gallatin; two sons, John R. Davis, Nashville, and Walter E. Davis, Brewerton, N.Y.; two sisters, Mrs. John Hudson, Nashville and Mrs. E. B. Howell, Skokie, Ill.; three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Nashville Tennesseean, 28 September 1956, page 52

DAVIS––Thursday morning, Sept. 27, 1956 at 11 o'clock at her home, 3853 Saunders Ave., Mrs. Lena Davis, survived by three daughters, Mrs. Charles Jacobs and Mrs. I. G. Harris of Gallatin, Miss Frances Davis of this city; two sons, John R. Davis of this city and Walter E. Davis, Brewerton, N.Y.; two sisters, Mrs. John Hudson of this city and Mrs. E. B. Howell of Skokee, Ill., three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Remains rest at the funeral home of Phillips-Robinson Co. where services will be conducted by Paul Yucker at 10:30 a.m. (CDT) tomorrow. Pallbearers will be J. Webb Wherry, Casey Hutson, Hugh Hutson, Buford Hutson, Austin Hutson and Raymond Alley.

Lena (Alley) Davis was the mother of Walter Enloe Davis, the second husband of my great-grandmother Anna Gertrude Tarkington.