Cemetery Transcription Using GPS Camera

Bernie Gracy gives tips in part one of this video on doing cemetery transcriptions using a GPS camera. I look forward to warmer weather at which time I can get back to cemetery transcription projects and research.

Online Maps

Nutbush and Middleburg townships are now combined in present day Vance County, NC. Somewhere in the water lies the lands of my ancestors and many others of this region who were affected by the 1950s Kerr Lake/Buggs Island Dam Project.

Early this morning I was doing some research on the Kerr Lake area in Vance County, NC where some of my ancestors lived. During the 1950s, the United States Government took either all or portions of lands of residents of this region to build the Kerr Lake Dam. This region included counties in Virginia like Mecklenberg and others in North Carolina like Vance, Warren, Granville counties. In Virginia, this Dam is called "Buggs Island" rather than "Kerr Lake." All of the land of my great-great grandmother Luvenia Jeffress Bullock (1864-1951) was taken during this land confiscation by eminent domain by the United States Government. Grandma Ven had inherited 80 acres of land in the Nutbush township (Bullocksville Park) area of Vance County after the death of her husband Andrew Bullock (1862-1915). There are records in the Register of Deeds Office in Vance County which describe the properties that were taken by the government for the Kerr Lake Dam. I’ve had copies of these documents for numerous years, but only recently began analyzing the data using Microsoft Access, a database software.


Along with my data analysis, I am also studying various maps of the Kerr Lake area, both online and paper-based. Through an Internet search this morning, I discovered a great website called

Meeting Bernie Gracy

I was thrilled to meet Mr. Bernie Gracy at the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos. I learned so much from the three sessions he conducted on Location Based Genealogy. Prior to the conference, I had begun applying some of the concepts I learned from him though his YouTube videos that I discovered this past summer. (Read more about this discovery.) I also had an opportunity to let him know on Friday of the conference that I had blogged about his work earlier that month.

On Saturday, I saw Mr. Gracy again and he informed me that he had read my posting and even sent it out to his Facebook friends.

Breaking Down Brick Walls with Location Based Genealogy

I was fortunate to attend three workshops on Location Based Genealogy conducted by Mr. Bernie Gracy during the recent 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos. Now Mr. Gracy has placed some of his talk on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Breaking Down Brick Walls with Location Based Genealogy (Part 1 of 3)


Breaking Down Brick Walls with Location Based Genealogy (Part 2 of 3)


Breaking Down Brick Walls with Location Based Genealogy (Part 3 of 3)

Bernie Gracy and Location Based Genealogy

A few months ago, I became interested in geography and geographic information science (GIS) so I enrolled in a GIS class at a local community college. Later I wanted to learn more about how geography and GIS could be used with genealogy so I typed in the keywords "geography and genealogy" in YouTube. Through this search, I discovered the work of Mr. Bernie Gracy who specializes in located-based genealogy.

Location is a huge part of a genealogists' quest; afterall we spend numerous hours trying to locate an ancestor's whereabouts and movements. Sometimes if we examine an ancestor's surroundings and location, we may discover numerous bits of new information. For example, I took Mr. Gracy's advice about focusing on location from his interview with Lisa Louise Cooke (see below) and scanned through an 1870 census in the Matoca townshop of Chesterfield County, VA focusing on the occupations of residents of that county. This census was used only because that was my research focus at the time I discovered the videos by Bernie Gracy. I was researching Charles Lundy, the alleged second husband of my slave ancestor Ellen Moore of Greensville County, VA when I discovered the videos below. During my scanning, I noticed a large number of people in Charles Lundy's community with the occupation labeled "works in cotton factory." Charles' occupations, however, was listed as Farm Laborer on this census. Further research validated my assumption that there a cotton factory in the community where Charles Lundy was living in 1870. I also learned through my research that there were several cotton factories in Chesterfield County, VA during this time.

I was thrilled to learn recently that Mr. Gracy will be presenting three workshops at the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos. I look forward to attending these workshops as well as meeting him. The three workshops are:

• An Introduction to AncestralHunt.com


• Breaking Down Brick Walls with Location Based Genealogy


• Technology and Techniques for Conducting Location
  Based Field Research
  

Below are several videos of Mr. Bernie Gracy in which he explains location based genealogy.

The First Law of Geography




Interview of Bernie Gracy by Lisa Louise Cooke, Part 1



Interview of Bernie Gracy by Lisa Louise Cooke, Part 2