In my post Sorting Saturday: Starting a Narrative Lineage, I stated that my grandfather was the descendant of a Civil War Veteran, specifically, the a member of the Stonewall Brigade. And I left the proof for later. Here are the statements I need to prove:
- Gilbert McClung GILLESPIE was the son of Laura Cecile DONALD. 1
- Laura Cecile DONALD was the daughter of James Calvin DONALD and Elizabeth Jane WALLACE. She was born on February 13, 1877 in Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia. 2
- James Calvin DONALD was born June 30, 1836. He enlisted in enlisted in Company H, 4th Infantry Regiment Virginia on April 20, 1861, three days after Virginia seceded from the Union. He served in Company H, until April 16, 1862 when he transferred to Preston’s Company, 7th Cavalry Regiment Virginia. 3
- Company H was part of the Stonewall Brigade.4
Oh goodness. I can not find a whole bunch of documentation. Ms. Mills tells us to document and summarize as you go. And you know she’s right. And I have stuff everywhere and it is totally unorganized.
I shall take a moment to feel totally sorry for myself. And I vow to spend 30 minutes everyday to start sorting through documents online and in that big pile in my office and get myself organized.
And never again do I pull documents and throw them on my hard drive or on a pile telling myself I will source and organize later. Probably never. 🙂
And I am going to get assertion about my grandfather and his grandfather documented.
I can definitely identify. The worst is when I save stuff to the wrong folder because I forgot that I switched to researching some other ancestor, then can’t find it again.
Sigh…I can relate to the need to get organized.
How wonderful to find a kindred spirit. I even have multiple folders with similar names because I can’t find the original to put the new information in or duplicated in a new location because I am afraid I will lose it. I often resort to using the search option on my computer to find the file I am seeking. Oh my. . . .
Good luck with getting the research organized. And I agree that citing as you go is an admirable goal. Now, to do it myself. BTW I love how you footnote your blog posts. Something I need to be better about doing myself. So, Ms Mills taught you something, just like you inspired and taught me.