I took a class on Genealogy in Libraries this summer. It focused largely on how to provide reference services to patrons interested in genealogy, such as formalizing the research process, knowing the sources available, and evaluating sources.

As I mentioned in this post, we had to write a research report on an ancestor, and I ended up doing research on my father’s family. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to learn much about the Devine surname, but I did learn a lot about my paternal grandfather’s mother, Margaret Ann Platte. I was able to trace her mother back to Wales, which is pretty neat. I requested the birth registry information for Maggie’s mother, Sarah, and that came in last week, so that means I’ve found out Sarah’s mother’s maiden name (it’s Hicks, apparently). This is the first research that I’ve conducted outside of the United States, so it’s pretty exciting. The best part? It was done for class credit!

I believe that these may be the last of the documents that we found about H. H. Hampton’s family while we were in Grove. I have already posted about H. H.’s and his daughter Laura’s obituaries, but we have a few other documents as well. I have scanned them in as PDF files.

The first is H. H. Hampton’s Eastern Cherokee Application. If there is interest, I may be able to scan it in as high resolution JPG, but this was much faster. Other than that, I also scanned in two articles that had to do with his family. The first describes their trip to Indian Territory, “Wagon Carried Fields’ Ancestors to Territory“, and includes photos of four of the Hampton daughters. It was published in the Fall 1981 Heritage of the Hills, which is the magazine of the Delaware County Historical Society. The other article is about Ruth C. Fields, daughter of Laura and Tim Fields, and was published in the Fall 1982 Heritage of the Hills.

[Originally written November 18, 2004. Brought to new site Memorial Day, 2007.]

I haven’t done nearly as much research on my dad’s side of the family (Devine) as I have on my mom’s. However, I do have some documents and information related to that side. My dad’s father was James Devine and his mother was Hazel Watts Devine.

Most of the information I have found through death certificates and obituaries. I have posted two obituaries: James Devine and Hazel Watts Devine.

Other documents that I have include death certificates for James and Hazel, as well as for Maggie Devine (James’ mother), Delia Kilgore (Hazel’s mother) and Anderson Kilgore (Delia’s father). I do not have those posted, but if you are interested in seeing them, please contact me by email.

[Originally written November 18, 2004. Brought to new site Memorial Day, 2007.]

This is another of the documents that we copied while visiting Grove in September. Laura Jane Hampton Fields was the daughter of H. H. Hampton. Her obituary was published in the Grove Sun in Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma on Sunday, April 12, 1951.

A scan of the obituary has been placed here.

PIONEER MOTHER PASSES

Laura Jane Hampton was born in Cherokee County, North Carolina, June 4th, 1858, passed away at her home 3 1/2 miles east of Grove, April 5th, 1951, at the age of 92 years, 10 months and one day.
At the age of thirteen years she moved with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey H. Hampton from North Carolina to the Indian Territory, where she lived until her death.
She was united in marriage to Timothy Richard Fields, Sept. 14th 1879. To this union were born ten children. Her husband and five children proceeding her in death.
At an early age she accepted Christ as her personal Savior, and became a member of the Methodist Church. She lived a devoted, active Christian life until her death.
Although bedfast for seven years, she was always cheerful and never complained of her condition.
In her younger life, in the Territorial days, she was always willing and happy to help those who were less fortunate than she, often going day or night to help her neighbors in time of sickness.
Laura Jane was the eldest of thirteen children, all having preceded her in death.
She leaves to mourn her passing, five children: Mrs. S. E. Nix, Hollywood, Calif; Lee Fields, Grove; Mrs. George W. Hoggatt, Tulsa; Virgil Fields, Jay; Marshall Fields, Grove; 20 grandchildren, many relatives and friends, we can say: “Our loss is heaven’s gain. One day we shall meet her in the Father’s House.”

[Originally written November 17, 2004. Brought to new site Memorial Day, 2007.]

One of the documents we copied while we were in Grove in September was the obituary of H. H. Hampton. I have typed it in below, but will eventually scan it and place a pdf of the file here. It was published in the Grove Sun in Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma on Friday, March 26, 1915.

A scan of the obituary can be found here.

PASSING OF AN OLD CITIZEN

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H.H. Hampton, Who Came To This Country Forty Years Ago, Died At Age of 88

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H. H. Hampton, more familiarly known as “Uncle Harve,” died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Tim Fields, Saturday, March 20th, 1915.
Uncle Harve had not been in good health for some time being afflicted principally with old age, and has gradually been growing weaker each hour the past year.
Deceased was born in Cherokee county, North Carolina in 1827, and had he lived only 24 days longer, would have reached his 88th anniversary. He was married to Elizabeth Loudermilk in an early day, who died some twenty six years ago.
The deceased arrived in this immediate section of the Indian country forty years ago, with his family, from North Carolina, where they made their home, lived and died as it were, until now when only four daughters survive the once large family of fifteen members. Those surviving being as follows: Mesdames W. H. Doherty, Tim Fields, Dick Fields, and Miss Addie Hampton, all of whom reside in Grove or near here.
Deceased joined the Baptist church when 15 years of age. His last wish was that he be buried the old time way, vis; in a large home made coffin, a winding sheet, and remains conveyed to final resting place in a wagon, which wish or request was carried out to the letter by the relatives.
Internment taken place in Olympus cemetery, Monday afternoon, Rev. Calhoun delivering a very impressive and appropriate sermon at the Fields home.
Uncle Harve was a good man, well liked and loved and highly respected by multitudes of people in this country.
The Grove Sun extends heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved relatives, and may there be peace in his ashes.

[Originally written November 17, 2004. Brought to new site Memorial Day, 2007.]

The Calamus Pond Cemetery is located less than a mile from the Eastern Shawnee tribal grounds and is actually on land that was part of the Eastern Shawnee allotments. In particular, the cemetery is close to land that belonged to my great-great grandmother, Cora Jackson Hampton (wife of Corn Hampton), and members of my family from three generations are buried there. Unfortunately, the cemetery is not in good shape, but we will hopefully be able to take care of it and make some improvements. See the pictures from our visit in September 2004.

[Originally written November 16, 2004. Brought to new site Memorial Day, 2007.]

My great-great-grandfather is Corn Hampton. We have a scattered number of documents that refer to him, but we haven’t been able to definitively pin down who his parents are or even when he was born or died. The first reference we have to him is in a set of papers from the Quapaw Agency, in particular a document entitled “Examination of Allottee” that is in regards to my great-great-grandmother’s allotment. My gg-grandmother is Cora Jackson Hampton (Hollingsworth, Van Sant). On her papers, it lists that her first husband was Corn Hampton, and just above it lists the name Alfred in parenthesis. This is how we came to know that my gg-grandfather was Alfred Corn Hampton or, more commonly, Corn Hampton.

We also know that he is from North Carolina. In census records that list their family, Cora’s Hampton children all list that their father was born in North Carolina. Corn is not listed on the 1900 Shawnee Census with Cora and his last child was born in September 1897. This means that he had to be alive at least through January 1897, but likely died before 1900.

We also have some papers that are listed as being from the bible of Henry Harvey Hampton (also born in North Carolina, but moved to Grove, OK area later). It lists an Alfred Corn Hampton born May 22, 1855. Those papers list other members of HH Hampton’s family. Our primary reason for visiting Grove was to determine if the Corn listed in these papers is that same as our Corn Hampton. We were unable to draw a concrete conclusion there, however.
Read the rest of this entry »

I finally got around to editing and posting some of the pictures that we took in Grove. My Aunt Lola and I visited there the third week of September. In particular, we were researching the Hampton line of our family. Here is the page I made about it: Visit to Grove. It includes information about why we were there, edited pictures, and a directory of the original pictures as well. I’ll try to improve it, but for now I just wanted to make it available so that I could share it.

We also found a lot of documents that mentioned H. Harvey’s family (Laura, Addie, others), so I’ll try to scan some of those when I have a chance.

[Originally written November 11, 2004. Brought to new site Memorial Day, 2007.]

A few years ago I started a genealogy blog, but I didn’t give it the care and attention it deserved. This summer, I’m taking a genealogy class for my MLIS program, so I am digging this stuff out again and making another try at it. The next few posts are old ones brought over from my previous genealogy blog.

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Original first entry:

Most people aren’t particularly interested in my genealogy babblings, but I thought I would start a blog for those who are actually interested. I’ll try to have pictures, updates, thoughts on things that are going on, etc. For each post I’ll also try to clearly indicate what family this is for - Mom’s side I generally research Captain and Hamptons for Dad’s side I generally research Devine and Kilgore.

In any case… let us begin.

[Originally written October 7, 2004. Brought to new site Memorial Day, 2007.]