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Herbert,
This is #2309 Donald Everett Christmas
Dick Tevault,
Thank you for this information. We knew he had been in ill health. We had
lunch one day with his son Don Christmas and wife Mary Leah in Seymore, IN
one evening. A very pleasant evening.
Condolances to the Christmas family.
Mary Jean Christmas Wooten
The following obituary appeared today in the Evansville Courier and Press:
Donald Christmas
Donald E. Christmas, 70, of Evansville, died Sunday, April 29, 2001, at Parkview Care Center of complications of cancer.
He was a tool-and-die maker for Whirlpool Corp. for 44 years and a member of Local 808.
He was a member of the Grace Church of the Nazarene.
Surviving are his wife of 49 years, Alice (Kuhlenschmidt); three daughters, Cheryl Soper of Evansville, Dawn Ferguson of Redondo Beach, Calif., and Stephanie Beck of Huntingburg, Ind.; two sons, Donald W. of Dover, Del., and Larry S. of Indianapolis; four brothers, Paul T. of Newburgh, Orion C. of Arvada, Colo., Delbert B. of Evansville and Kenneth B. of Brentwood, Mo.; and eight grandchildren, Shannon Brenner, Justin Christmas, Katharine, Edward, Ian and Jeremy Soper and Michael and Matthew Ferguson.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Pierre Funeral Home, the Rev. J.D. Pullum officiating.
Friends may call from 2 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herb--
I found this in an old letter (from1970's) from Chloe F. Todd-- She writes--
"We have a very faded letter, with a return address of Carthage, Moore Co., NC dated 20 Dec 1884 addressed to "Dear Cousin." (Cousin later identified as Susan Craige Vess, dau of Frances Moore Christmas and husband Lewis Wilhite (listed on page 34 of your works, Herb.) The writers' name was Mrs. Louise Frye and in the letter she identifies herself as "the former Lou Christmas, formerly residing at Hillsboro, Orange Co, NC. " -- then she continues to mention some Wilhites.
-- Donna Christmas Sutton
Hi Herbert:
I think you're right that we're missing some Virginia and North Carolina
families. But in checking on relative frequency of surnames (based on
modern phone directories), Christmas is rare in VA, highest frequency in
SC. Fancy that. I speculate there are missing NC lines down to the
present day, and probably early VA too.
The courthouse is at Staunton, Virginia. (Other county offices are in a
new facility in Verona VA.) The Circuit Court's mailing address is PO Box
689, Staunton VA 24402. The courthouse building is located at 1 East
Johnson Street, at the corner of Augusta Street. I have the clerk's office
telephone number as 540-245-5321. The county has a web page at
"www.co.augusta.va.us". I don't think it links to the circuit court, though.
The circuit court staff is very friendly and helpful (I love small towns!),
and they'll entertain limited genealogical inquiries by mail, at no
cost. The key word is "limited." I sent a list of several, and then had
to shorten it. Their probate records go back to 1745, although there are
some gaps.
My priority at the time was my father's GGGGgf Jacob Sheets (actually,
Schitz -- thankfully they anglicized the spelling), who settled in Augusta
County VA in the 1760s. His father Ludwig Schitz had emigated to
Pennsylvania from the Rhineland Palatinate in 1733. Jacob's son moved on
to Ohio in 1834, and that son's granddaughter married my GGgf Benedict. My
only Benedict relative is my dad's second cousin (my grandfather's first
cousin), and he still has Ludwig Schitz's German bible, printed in
1729. How about that.
At any rate, a letter identifying John Christmas or his kids, together with
a discrete date range, should yield a copy of a will. A telephone call
also may be sufficient, for a narrow request.
After contacting the courthouse, and learning how good their old records
were, I retained a marvelous genealogist in Augusta County to research for
me. She did a superb job. Unfortunately she passed away shortly after she
began helping me. With her help, I even located the old Schitz homestead
and the old Lutheran cemetery where some family members were buried.
Augusta County is absolutely beautiful country, by the way.
Incidentally, there's a book by Clayton Torrence, Virginia Wills and
Administrations, 1632-1800 (Balto.: Genealogical Publishing Co 1965) that
indexes wills by county. I've never seen the book, but I've used a
Maryland reference he published about the same time, and it was well
researched. How about I try to borrow it by ILL? Va State Library likely
has a copy, and they're generous about letting books out by ILL.
Jeb
At 10:33 AM 4/18/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi Jeb,
>
>Thanks for your reply. Do you know what town/city the Augusta Co.
>courthouse is located? Tried to find it on the web, but no luck; Annette
>generally finds this stuff for me, but she is at the beach with my sister.
>
>It appears we are missing some VA/NC families, there are just too many
>people in TN, LA and other places whereby we cannot connect the families,
>and this John "might" be the brother of Thomas.
>
>Anyway, I would like to call/write and see if there is a will, and if I
>can get a copy.
>
>Herbert
Hi Jeb,
Thanks for your reply. Do you know what town/city the Augusta Co.
courthouse is located? Tried to find it on the web, but no luck; Annette
generally finds this stuff for me, but she is at the beach with my sister.
It appears we are missing some VA/NC families, there are just too many
people in TN, LA and other places whereby we cannot connect the families,
and this John "might" be the brother of Thomas.
Anyway, I would like to call/write and see if there is a will, and if I can
get a copy.
Herbert
At 11:28 AM 4/17/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>August county at that time still covered a vast area, including many
>surrounding present-day Virginia counties and large portions of West
>Virginia and Kentucky.
I was researching an unrelated family line in Augusta County Virginia
several years ago. While doing so, I also looked for signs of the John
Christmas mentioned by Howard Christmas in his workbook.
I did not, however, secure a copy of his will, because the courthouse in
Staunton was closed while I was there and I didn't find him in the
materials I reviewed from their historical society. (Early Augusta County
probate files are also available on microfilm at the Virginia State Library
in Richmond and are likely available through the Family History Library.)
I looked through early Virginia tax lists for Augusta County hunting for
John Christmas's descendants. I found no Christmas surnames
listed. However, few pre-1782 tax lists from Virginia have survived at
all. There are several tax lists from the mid-1780s that are widely used
as substitutes for the missing 1790 and 1800 censuses, but they are
fragmentary and some counties' records are largely missing. Augusta
County's tax lists are among those that are missing.
These Virginia tax lists are explained and the data compiled in a
multi-volume set edited by Schriner-Yantis and Love, entitled "The 1787
Census of Virginia: An Accounting of the Names of Every White Male Tithable
over 21 Years."
Since the tax lists are mostly missing for Augusta County, the fact that I
found no Christmas entries in enumerated during the 1780s doesn't mean they
weren't resident there at the time. It just shows that researching western
Virginia in that period is difficult.
Herbert, your possible reference to Abraham in Tennessee looks plausible to
me. August county at that time still covered a vast area, including many
surrounding present-day Virginia counties and large portions of West
Virginia and Kentucky.
Welcome new members!
Jeb Benedict
At 10:01 AM 4/17/01 -0400, you wrote:
>In going through some old files of Howard Christmas, reference is made to
>a John Christmas that died 1772 in Augusta Co., VA. His notes mention the
>will names 5 sons, but he only listed 3, Abraham, Thomas & Issac. His
>notes go own to say this is the Thomas that died 1816 (we have 1818) in
>St. Helena Parish, LA. I've seen the name Abraham in some TN records.
>
>If anyone has a copy or transcript of this will, or any information on
>this family, it would be most helpful in trying to connect some of these
>families.
In going through some old files of Howard Christmas, reference is made to a
John Christmas that died 1772 in Augusta Co., VA. His notes mention the
will names 5 sons, but he only listed 3, Abraham, Thomas & Issac. His notes
go own to say this is the Thomas that died 1816 (we have 1818) in St.
Helena Parish, LA. I've seen the name Abraham in some TN records.
If anyone has a copy or transcript of this will, or any information on this
family, it would be most helpful in trying to connect some of these families.
Please welcome the following new members:
Jane descends through the Arthur McQuade Christmas and Martha Jane Butler.
Arthur is the older brother of my grandmother.
Nickie, a former member has rejoined; she descends from Elizabeth T.
Christmas.
marr: 28 JAN 1836 to Thomas Buchanan Morrison birt: 12 FEB 1820 deat: 15
JAN 1870
I think Elizabeth T. is related to the LA Thomas Christmas, but have not
found the connection.
Rod descends from Olen and Orah Mae Christmas of Collins, Arkansas. Olen's
father is Merry Franklin Christmas, and we have at least two other members
that descends from this line.
Herbert