I was finally able to get down to the Coweta Superior Court to check out land records and was quite surprised at the number of transactions by Herndons. Although there were no very early transactions as there were in Meriwether, I found an impressive number of them in the mid 1800s and early 1900s. I also found two Herndons unknown to me in very early land transactions - Jeremiah Herndon (land in the 2nd District filed 1828) and John P. Herndon (land in the 6th District filed 1864). Don't have a clue as to who those guys might be.

I keep driving back and forth between Newnan and Greenville, trying to gather as many court records as possible on the family of Edward and Nancy Brown Herndon. They lived predominantly in one area but that area straddled two counties. Later, Preston branched out on his own and moved way out towards Powers Crossroads near the Heard County line. But, for the most part, the Herndons spread out in an area roughly between Senoia and Haralson in Coweta and Alvaton in Meriwether.

We are very fortunate to have many records to document the births and, in some cases, deaths, of members of this family. Since Edward's great-great granddaughter, Nell O'Shields, persevered and tracked down her great-grandfather's Bible (Preston Herndon) and put it together with handwritten notes left behind by her grandmother, Ethel Ona Herndon Gullatt, we can be reasonably certain that these dates are correct.

I hate to start off with corrections but I made some mistakes in last week's column which need attending to. Given the speed with which today's information is disseminated, those errors could be repeated hundreds of times in just one day. If you don't correct mistakes as soon as they happen the errors will spiral out of control. Genealogical errors are nearly impossible to correct once they get rolling. So, here we go ...

We're sort of sliding out of one family into another, going from the Boyds to the Herndons, which connect through McDuffie Boyd and his wife, Amanda Herndon Brooks Boyd. Amanda was the daughter of Edward Herndon and Nancy Brown whose descendants scattered throughout the south metro area and lived in Fayette, Coweta, Spalding, Meriwether, Troup and Campbell (now South Fulton) counties. The early history of this family as it arrived in Virginia appears to be strongly disputed by Herndon researchers and I will leave it to them to settle their differences. We will concern ourselves only with the Herndons in Georgia. Amanda's obituary tells quite a bit of Georgia Herndon history.

I'm going to close out this family series with the story of McDuffie C. Boyd who was called "Mack." I've saved McDuffie 'til last because it gives me a nice transition into the next series I want to do, that of the Herndon family (McDuffie's wife). Later, we'll feature the Kempson family and their relationship with several other families in Coweta's first district. We'll even touch again on that old rascal, Wilkins Stone. You will find these families spilling over into south Fayette, western Spalding, and northern Pike and Meriwether counties. How they intermingle is fascinating.

Continuing our series on the family of Robert H. and Chloeretta Gray Boyd, from Bible records, we find that their third child was William H.B. Boyd. I have no idea what the "H.B." stands for. William's grandfather was named Hugh Boyd but I don't think they'd name a child William Hugh Boyd Boyd. William's younger brother had a child named William Henry and that may be another possibility.

I've had an awful time trying to track these children, even though there were only four living after 1850. The only two I could really do anything with were Julia and McDuffie, but even they were hard to find. I'm going to take one at a time, based on the Bible records, and tell you everything I know in detail. I have been hoping that sooner or later a descendant would see this information and step forward to share so my stories could be completed. However, it appears that either all the children have died out, or no one from this line is doing genealogy. With the exception of the one descendant of McDuffie Boyd who sent me the Bible records, no one has said a word.

We all know that when your story doesn't quite fit right there's usually a flaw in your research. I had struggled over this part of Robert Boyd's story for at least five years, juggling, moving the pieces, going over the records again and again until I had almost memorized parts of them, and Robert's story still wouldn't fit together right. His marriage to Martha Wagner, the two children she brought with her to the marriage, their marriage contract, her death and estate with no mention of Robert ... none of it jelled. Well, earlier this week I found out what was missing - the Wagners, Emfingers and Webbs. And I found them right under my nose.

Recapping our story, Robert H. Boyd, son of Hugh and Jennett Boyd, grew up in Newberry County, S.C. and married Chloeretta D. Gray, probably in Abbeville, in 1815, as that's where Chloeretta's father moved his family after his second marriage. Robert and Chloeretta are found in the 1820 and 1830 Abbeville Dist., S.C., census in the same neighborhood as Chloeretta's father, Fredrick Gray, and some of her brothers.

I debated a long time before I came up with this topic and it may take more than one column to do it justice. It has many facets and it is tied into the two previous topics. The research involves stumbling over a marriage contract hidden within a deed. It also involves a dispute in probate and changing the reporting of annual returns from one county (Meriwether) to another (Pike) simply because the administrator lived in Pike and it was easier for her to settle the estate there. There are missing children, mystery wives, and an unknown burial site - all kinds of questions surrounding this family. Perhaps that is why it is so fascinating and why I can't let it go.

I can hardly believe I’m starting my eighth year as religion editor and, in May, will go into my 15th year with The Citizen. Some of you may know that I spent the years 1993 to 1999 as a graphic artist here designing ads. Before that, dating back to 1982, I worked for three other newspapers in Fayette County — the now defunct Fayette Sun and the old Fayette County News and This Week in Peachtree City. This religion editor position was supposed to be temporary as I “phased” into retirement in the fall of 1999. But plans do change and I’m still here. I’ve even added the weekly genealogy column to my duties. Retirement seems to have faded into the sunset.

A few months ago, someone asked me to do a column about estates and appraisals since she " ... just didn't understand it at all." No problem. No one really understands it until they have experienced it first hand. Since this sort of ties in with last week's column on treasures in the court books, I thought it appropriate to continue on the same subject.

It’s a good thing this happened last week and I’m writing about it this week. I was so mad then I could hardly utter a word about it without using unladylike language. I’m still mad but a little more rational. And not as mad about “what” was done as “how” it was done.

I can't praise strongly enough the benefits of researching directly in the old books in the courthouse. The first time I touched a book whose writings were done in the very early 1800s I was awestruck. I thought about the clerk who had sat for hours carefully penning what would later become history books for the counties and the courts. I ran my fingers gently over the now-faded-to-brown words, almost afraid they would fade more and disappear before my very eyes. Even the phrasing and grammar tended to make you feel you were in another place and time.

There haven't been any outstanding new developments on the situation with possibly bringing Haywood Thornton, a Confederate soldier, home to Georgia from Illinois, but I have received two e-mails representing opinions from three people.

I wanted to follow up on the situation of bringing Haywood Thornton home from the Rock Island Cemetery in Illinois and give you another contact in case you are a descendant and want to get involved. The wheels are definitely turning on this project but they are turning very slowly. It may be a year or more before it is completed.

We’re going to leave the Byrams and Tidwells temporarily and move southeast from Fairburn into northern Fayette County. Heading toward Fayetteville on what is now Ga. Highway 92, we find the Hopeful Community and the home of the Thornton family of the early 1800s.

This little gal has really had me stumped for a long time. With John Byram’s book, “Byrams in America” open beside my computer night and day, I have been sitting here looking at her name at the top of his list of children for weeks and weeks, wondering where in the world she fit in and if, indeed, she was a child of James and Hannah Byram. After all, John also listed Turner Byram as a child of James and Hannah and I’m certain he was not. I have some interesting observations about Turner Byram and his Coweta connections which I will save for another day.

The Westmoreland ancestry question last week drew a response from one of my main contributors on that family — Robert E. (Bob) Johnston of California.

I received an interesting e-mail last week from David Hancock (davidbhancock@yahoo.co.uk), a Westmoreland researcher who questioned some of the information included in Ettie Tidwell McCall’s book, “McCall, Tidwell and Allied Families,” written in 1931. Mrs. McCall’s book has been the basis for many of my columns published during the last year on the Westmorelands, Tidwells and Moodys (and many other allied families) who settled in our area of Fayette, Coweta, Campbell, Spalding, Pike, and Meriwether counties.

Except for tying up a loose end on a Tidwell family member, I’m going to forego a specific family story this time and tell you about two upcoming events in our area which some may be interested in attending (including me).

When I first got into genealogy, it took me a while before I was able to get excited over land records but when it hit me — boy! I learned very quickly that you can really get a lot of information from them.

I had such great plans for this Byram family. Since many of them stayed in Coweta County and I have access to all kinds of records just a few miles from my home, I was going to get the final disposition of all who stayed here and their children — wills, estates, etc. — but, alas, my plans were thwarted. I drove to the courthouse last week and discovered that it is being remodeled. The clerks in the probate office have been moved to a teeny room in another area and the vault where the records are kept is off limits. I was told this may go on until after the first of the year, so if you are planning to do probate research in Newnan, hold off for a while.

Once again we can thank Jackie Lambert of Palmetto for bringing us out of the darkness and shedding some light on this Robinson situation. This family happens to be her line.

I’m still trying to juggle these Byram kids around and figure out when they were born so I can get them in some semblance of birth order. It’s very difficult when you’re working that far back in time (James and Hannah were married in 1808) and there are no census records to give you specific ages. All you get before 1850 is a “range” of years when the children might have been born.

This will probably turn into another series since there is much on this family to be learned. I was disappointed to find that although many people have this family in their tree, few have any documentation or sources. The family is fairly well documented in Coweta County and I thought I’d dig into some of that documentation.

I received sort of an odd lot of responses from last week’s column, as you can see by the title above. And, since I have already started on the Byrams, I would like to continue their story in future columns. Many of them remained and are buried in Coweta County. Others headed for Carroll County and points west ... very west!

When I am lucky enough to be able to get away and do some hands-on research in the courthouses around here, I always try to share what I find. Original court records are scarce on the Internet and you never know when someone from California or Texas might be able to use the court documents you have.

As I struggled and plowed my way through these many Tidwell families over the past months, I took some comfort in a message Phil Tidwell left on one of the Internet message boards. Phil is probably one of the best and most thorough Tidwell researchers I know. He has been doing this for many, many years and said something to the effect that these south Atlanta area Tidwells had such large families, named their children similar names and lived so close together, that it was difficult even for their descendants to get them straight.