Hi all! (Long, long message, but important questions - please read all
the way through this!!)
Busy month behind & ahead for me with the holidays & all - I apologise
for belated e-mails from me! 3 quick things - 1 is a new GA researcher
online, 2 is my proposed trip to Ark. to see my "Ma Baker" who is in the
very last stages of Altzheimers (sp?) & is the last CATO left in my
direct line & do research on her family (or yours if they're there!). 3
is that we need to organize a little better on the research!
First of all, any Georgia researchers, please see forwarded query
below. (And to CHANancy(a)aol.com, could you please forward any
coorespondence you send back on your family line to the list - just cc a
copy to: CATO-L(a)rootsweb.com ??? Please! There are a whole lot of
Georgia researchers on this list & we have yet to determine where to put
Francis! I, and many others, KNOW he's of the John/Sterling CATO line
SOMEHOW, we just don't know WHERE yet - we've dug & dug & still can't
find anything to prove or disprove several well thought out theories.
I'd go so far as to say that he's definately from the VA line, but
that's as far as I'm willing to commit so far since there's no proof of
anything! Too many "burn" counties in the way!) (We'd also love to see
you on the list, BTW!)
Secondly, I'm going to Ark. this upcoming weekend & will be hitting the
Conway & Faulkner, as well as White Co. courthouses, digging for CATOs.
I'll also be making a run by the Ark. Historical Commission for the same
thing.
****If anyone has a "wish list" from these counties or the
Historical Commission, speak up now***!!! (Or if your line is
somewhere in between, I'll try to make it there.)
Considering I'm going over the weekend, I'll only have Friday, Mon. & a
small part of Tues. to do research before I have to head home so if
you've seen ANY references to the CATO family from those counties that
you need, chances are that I don't have them already & will be tickled
to have more of a "need to get copies of" list. I'll, of course, be
posting ANYTHING new I find on this list. Anyone on this list who lives
in the areas around where I'm going, please let me know & we'll get
together & say hi!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I was very lucky & had a lot
of my family here for over a week.... I got lots of great family
information - unfortunately no new CATO!!!
I also just looked at the list of people subscribed to this list & it
looks like there are about 70 or more of us out there! Where are you
guys hiding? <grin>
How many of you order in film from the FHC? I think we need to set up
more of a coordinated network here, where we *list on this list at the
very least* where we're ordering in film for the CATO family & hence
will know what's being done & what needs to be done... Does anyone want
to voluteer to keep tabs on it all??? I just don't have the time at
this moment!
For me, in the last month, I have the Ark. census for 1870 on order
(these listed SHOULD have already been here, but aren't yet!) for Conway
Co. (& other counties that are included in that film); White Co. (1870
census & other counties on that film); the "C" pension records for Ark.,
the "C" pensions for Texas (I think I have them all on the pages - just
wanted to check alternate spellings for someone who "should have been
here"), the Prince George Co., Va. 1st & 2nd county court records -
don't remember the dates, but I started at the beginning of the "county
court" listed films; other White Co. info (don't worry about anything in
White Co., Ark. - I've been & am ordering all of it available). I'll
tell you also what I've looked at when I'm at the above listed
courthouses when I get back. I've also recently checked many records in
Van Buren Co., Ark. - check with me if you want to order any of them!
Many, many others in other states & counties have already been looked at
either by me or by other Cato researchers... Please, if you're able to
remember, check with the list before you order in film. When I get
back, I'll make a more comprehensive list of what I've done so far.
Most of mine involveds Greensville Co., Va., various SC, especially
Lancaster area, many, many 'duds' in NC, a lot of 'other duds' in
Christian Co., Ky & St. Giradeau Co. & several other MO counties, many
Ark. counties (again most duds) - all in all, I've personally spent
hundreds & hundreds of dollars financing our latest FHCs newest film
reader <grin>!!!
Think of this! If we could all just spend $3.25 a month & order in at
least 1 film per month, we could get a lot done! That's approximately
70 rolls of film per month!!!! If there's only a few people a month
doing research, nothings going to be done!! Think about what we can
accomplish if we all work together as a team!!! Let's all try to get as
many full records as possible up for everyone to see!
If anyone is able to do a web page, would you be willing to keep up with
what has been done & what will be done on research - ie: list who's
researching where & what film or courthouse records have been done? I'd
love to be able to just link to a page like that so we could all have it
up & out for everyone to see. Ever since I took over the Ark. Archives
for the USGenWeb, many of you know, I've been swamped. I'm really
excited that Ark. is #1 in info <OK, tee, hee, hee!!>, but it's really
made a difference in my personal research time!
I also am now trying (yes, I know a year late!) to now get everything
into a gedcom... There will be a lot of question marks, but for now,
it's all we've got. From the beginning, I've known this would be a real
"touchy" thing to do - mainly because of all the "iffy" info we have.
I'm going to put the info in as the majority of people on the list have
agreed to... NOW, THIS MAY NOT ALWAYS BE RIGHT! What I'm going to do is
with anyone who we don't know FOR SURE by some substantiated record, is
to put a "?" IN FRONT of their names. For example, I'm going to put our
infamous Francis Cato in GA under Sterling for lack of another place to
put him because all sentiment on the list says they think he should go
there, although in my heart of hearts, I feel he had another daddy (hee
hee), but I'll put him as ?Francis Cato on the Gedcom, as opposed to
Francis? Cato, which will mean there's a question with the spelling of
his name... This will take a few months to get together, because I'm
having to go off of everything EVER written to the CATO list, in
addition to what is on the CATO HOMEPAGE & any other info I've recieved
so far. PLEASE keep in mind that although I'm listing everything I know
on your line as I put it up, I am in no way an expert in any line!!!
I'm doing what I can with what I have, but on lines without a question
mark, you can see the documentation & why have to say what I say. If
you think I'm wrong, please say so!!! I in no way am attempting to say
what I say goes!!! All I'm saying is that "with what I have so far"
this is what I see! I'll also post each part of the gedcom to the list,
before I put it up on the internet, to be "discussed" before I post it
to the page.
Like I said, we need a LOT more documentation on a LOT of lines, & I
want to see that happen. I don't want people in the future saying,
"what made her think she was an expert & could say this or that..."
I'm
not & do NOT want to be thought of as such! All I do is provide a place
for every CATO researcher to post their info via the CATO list & had
started as a CATO researcher putting my own research on the family
(which is very extensive, but by no means complete!) on the internet.
My files need a lot of help!!!! At one time I meant to write a book on
the CATO family & still probably will eventually. As any of you who
have done this in the past, this isn't a money-making proposition...
It's just a "hope you get your money back out of it" type of
situation.... If anyone else chooses to ever use the info off the list
or off the CATO page, you're very welcome to use the info, providing you
ask the people who've provided the info, & let us know (I WANT A COPY &
will pay for it!!). I figure, the more the merrier! The copywrite on
the page DOES apply to large companies who have been known to come in at
times & "salvage" uncopywritten pages, but I got a question about it in
the mail this last week from someone who wanted to use some of the info
(unspecified) for a page... I VERY STRONGLY suggest however that anyone
who does this, for whatever reason, do check the originals first!!! The
page is *not* a final reference!!! For example, Dr. Henry just found
problems with the SC census that I could have "sworn to", but my copies
apparently had the wrong year listed on them - I just got copies back to
verify... This isn't listed on the page yet & I probably will not get a
chance to do so with traveling & all until at least Christmas!
As you all probably know, I'm not stingy with my info, but I want to be
careful!!! It's too easy, as many of you have probaly seen in the
published info on the CATO info, to be wrong about one little thing, &
if we're capable of doing it, together we can work the problems out.
Let's just get organized! Only one film per month per person to look
through...
As most of you know, if you have to read most that haven't been indexed,
and many that have, one on one to find a small reference tp the CATO
family in the most unexpected places... My question to you all is CAN
WE DO IT??? Sometimes what we need may be referenced to in someone
else's deed or will or whatnot... It requires reading through all the
info that hasn't already been made into books with indexes to see... I
HAVE TO find the few hours it takes a week to do it - can you???
BTW, to the person who wrote back that had the mac & would be willing to
help with the CATO page, please write back!!! That was the same month I
started with all the 'projects' on the Ark. USGenWeb Archives & I
*thought* I had saved your message, but at that point, I was getting
over 100 messages a day that I had to respond to & it's now died down to
about 20 MUST ANSWER's per day - thank God!. I apologise, but I still
need help! I've back-tracked over & over & STILL can't find where I
filed your message!!
Best wishes to you all!
Bonnie