James Alexander Reaves was born on May 4, 1861, just before his father Daniel Asbury Reaves joined the 3rd Florida Infantry. As a young boy, James arrived in Winter Garden with his parents, younger sister and brother along with his baby brother that was not yet a year old. James himself was only eight. On […]
Company H of the Third Florida Infantry consisted of one hundred and thirty two (132) volunteers from Jefferson County, Florida. The “H” company was called “The Jefferson Rifles” and would include three (3) Reaves brothers under the command of Captain William Girardeau. Samuel J. Reaves, the third son of Rev. and Mrs. Rawlins Reaves would be the […]
Like many other pioneering families in Florida, the Reaves family migrated south from the Carolinas. Prior to the Revolutionary War the Reaves clan owned and operated Reaves Ferry in Horry County, South Carolina. Mark Reaves and Spicy Ann Smith Reaves are both buried in the Reaves Family Cemetery in Horry County, South Carolina. They had eleven […]
Christmas Customs An article from The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter, vol. 16, no. 4, winter of 1995-96 written by Emma L. Powers, a historian in the department of Historical Research at Colonial Williamsburg. Christmas in colonial Virginia was very different from our twentieth-century celebration. Eighteenth-century customs don’t take long to recount: church, dinner, dancing, some evergreens, […]
Could you pass the 6th Grade Final Exam given in 1890? It was a handwritten essay test using no notes or reference material. Everything must come out of your head in one sit down session in front of the teacher. There is a time limit of four hours. Many parents took education very seriously as […]
As a student in America’s public school system you are taught “Thanksgiving” began on the shores of Plymouth, in present-day Massachusetts, in the year of 1621. However, historical documents describe an earlier record of a “Day of Thanksgiving” celebrated on the shores of the James River, in 1619 when a group of 38 English settlers […]
The realization of my husband’s unknown ancestry becomes my quest, ‘To find the stories of his Ancestors past’. He has very little information about who they were or where they came from, so I dig in hard to see what I can find. It becomes like a hidden treasure map to me, soon finding one then the next […]
DNA results can even surprise a family historian and professional Genealogist. DNA is a must if you want to discover your TRUE identity. When the Kinfolk Detective receives unexpected DNA results a new search took flight. Surnames which were believed to be English, Irish, and Scottish, are ultimately only Partially European with the balance being Jewish, African, […]
When you hit a brick wall, chances are you are not the first one to hit the same bricks. Check out the message boards at http://ancestry.com they can be quite useful. Many family historians and genealogist use these message boards as a means of HELP, and we can all use a little help now and then. Read, Read, Read! Each […]
If your searching for a male ancestor born 16-30 years prior to any war, check out http://FOLD3.com. This is a military website that can provide immense information. Looking for my husbands great-grandfather’s military records I made a HUGE discovery. His name was Daniel Burnett Knight, born in 1833 and the oldest son of nine siblings. From […]