Edmund Tidwell 1758-1846 Revolutionary War Soldier

Edmund Tidwell was born 1758 in Virginia. He was the son of Richard J and Rachael Rebecca Helms Tidwell.

Edmund, sometimes shown as Edmond, married Anna Gladden Hollis about 1776. As near as I can determine, their children are:
Rebecca born 1778, Fairfield, South Carolina
Isaiah born 1781, Fairfield, South Carolina, married Rebecca Green Tucker
Richard born 1786 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Katie Jane Gladden
John Benson (or Benton) born 1786 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Rachel Meek, and Jane Gladden
Edmund Jr. born 1787 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married cousin Mary Nancy Tidwell, and Ann Rainey
Josiah born 1789 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Louvenia "Louvice" Roden
Jane born 1792 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Minor Gladden
Kisiah born 1793 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Abraham Davidson
Aquilla born 1795 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Mary Davidson
William born 1798 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Mariam McMurtry
Elizabeth born 1799 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Joseph Hiram Davidson
Silas born 1805 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Rachel Meek(s)
Benjamin Tidwell born 1807 in Fairfield, South Carolina, married Lucinda Meek(s)

Edmund served 120 Days in the SC Militia under Lt John Hollis. He is listed as DAR Patriot A115350. He received a land grant for service in what is now Nails Creek in Dickson County, Tennessee.

Goodspeed's History of Dickson County mentions Edmund as an early settler of Dickson County on Turnbull Creek in the 1790's from South Carolina.

Dec 31 1788 Richard Tidwell of Camden District, Fairfield County, SC sold land on Lick Creek to Edmond Tidwell of Camden District.

1790 Census of Fairfield County, South Carolina shows the name of the Head of each family in the county, with the number of free white people living in each house.

Tidwell, Edmond has eleven people in his household.

3 Mar 1802 (Chester) SC. Jeremiah (x) RODEN to Edmund TIDWELL, both of Chester for 4150, 100 ac. on Long Branch, waters of Sealy Creek, bound by George BROWN. Wit. E. NUNN and Loften NUNN. Bk. I, p. 69.

July 3 1809 Edmund Tidwell & Moses Hollis (his father in law) received a land grant on Wateree Creek in Fairfield County, South Carolina.

The Tidwell Bible, which I have only seen transcribed online, has the following entries:

Edmund Tidwell Sr. departed this life
May 12th 1846 Aged 88 years
Anna Tidwell his wife departed this life

November 11 1839 age 70

There are also entries for his children.

Photo used with permission, taken by Kenneth Greene, Jr.

Marker located in Hogin Cemetery, Burns, Dickson, Tennessee
Inscription:In honor of Revolutionary War Soldier of South Carolina. 120 days under command of Lt. John Hollis. Buried elsewhere in Dickson County.

Learning to Read Italian Records-Part One-Birth Records

Italian records are a treasure trove of information, but where do you start when you can't read Italian?

Luckily, most Italian records are neatly written on forms. With a few handy words, you can make out the basics without knowing the language. I am far from an expert, and all my Italian came from the television. If I can do it, so can you.

The place to begin would be the Italian site Antenati (Ancestors)

Antenati in Italian

Don't get scared off just yet, there is an option to use English on the home page. Just click the little British flag in the top right.

Ancestors in English

You can begin your search using Find Names, although only a small percentage are indexed.

Here are some basic facts:
Italian women keep their maiden names for life, and do not take their husband's last name.
Records often give a baby's first name only, but if the father is listed, the last name is inferred.
Ages, occupations, and places of residence are usually given for all people on the form, and usually in that order.
Records begin with the date at the top, which is the date the info was reported to the town official, and not necessarily the date of the event.
Births had to be reported within three days, and the official had to actually see the child.
There had to be witnesses for all events.

Searching for Fratoddi in Find Names yields 7 results. If you are using an option that automatically translates to English, you may want to turn it off, as the results will come over garbled up. Here's what I got:

Apri by the way means open.

The basic types of records are:
Births...Nascite
Deaths...Morti
Marriages...Matrimoni

Birth Record of the above Pietro Fratoddi. 

Enlargement can be found by clicking here (opens in new tab)

At the top of the record is the date. This is always the date the event was reported. For help with months and days see Italian for Genealogists. (opens in new window)

You don't have to worry about translating the year, as the antenati website will always have the year of the record at the top of the page. In this example, the year is 1896, the day is tredici (13), and the month Agosto (August).

Next is the time reported, followed by the town official's name and titles that the event was reported to, and the commune (town). 

Then comes the good part.

Look for the word comparso or comparsa (appeared) after the name of the town. This will be the name of the person reporting the birth, (usually the father or midwife) in this case Orazio Fratoddi, di anni (of years-age) trentanove (39) followed by his occupation. I can't make out the first word, sorry, but the 2nd I believe is postale (postal) so maybe he's a mailman? His domiciliato (town he resides in) is Taranto. 

He declared the birth was A.M., quattro (5) (so born 5am, minutes are blank). The next field is the day of the month, dieci (10), the next blank is for the month, in this case corrente (current, so August), followed by where born (in this case a street name). 

This is followed by the mother's name, Erminia Sartori of Verona, di (of) Pietro (her father's name). If her father was deceased it would be du, so he is living. The next word is her age trenta (30).  

This should be followed by her occupation which again I can't make out. I don't see any words referring to married, but the last one is convivente (cohabitant).

The next part we see maschile (male) and the child's name Pietro Guilo. The rest of the document are the witnesses, who are usually not relatives.

So, for genealogy purposes, we have Pietro Guilo Fratoddi, born 5am on the 10th of August, 1896, in Tarento. Father is Orazio Fratoddi, 39, of Tarento, and mother Erminia Sartori, 30, of Verona, daughter of Pietro, who is still living.

Here are some Italian words for family to get you started:

bambino...male baby

bambina...female baby

convivente...cohabitant

daughter...figlia

father...padre

female...femina

husband...marito

male...maschio, maschile

midwife...ostericia, levantrice

mother...madre

single...celibe, nubile

son...figlio

spouse...cogiuge

wife...moglie


All birth records follow basically the same format, so once you know what fields to look for, you can get the basic facts.

I highly recommend the Facebook group Italian Genealogy if you get stuck, they are very knowledgeable with both the records and the language.

I would love to hear of any finds you make in the Italian records.

Next time I'll cover Morti, the death records.

Ciao!

Chasing Squirrels Leads to BIG Find

  © Copyright Peter Trimming and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Chasing squirrels: a genealogy term used when you start researching one person, then pick up the scent of another, and start chasing them instead. Frowned upon by many, but sometimes quite productive.

Case in point: I ocassionally Google my Fratoddi surname in Italy, and after filtering out three of my cousins there that regularly rank high on Google's results, I sometimes find little nuggets.

This was how I came across a newspaper article in Germany about my great grandfather which you can read about here.

This weekend I came across Carolina Fratoddi, who had the luck of being included in a Google book in Italian, which translated as Inscriptions of churches and other edifices of Rome from the eleventh century to the present day, published in 1877.

This photo was included:

I reached out to the Italian Genealogy group on Facebook, where I received exactly what I needed. "What you're looking at is a description of a memorial to Carolina Fratoddi from 1866 located in in the "Basilica di Santa Maria in Montesanto" in Rome. Carolina was Roman, the daughter of Angelo and her husband was Alexandro Rinaldini. The memorial is described here as a portrait in marble, in bas-relief (probably at the top, then the inscription in a plaque beneath). It says here this memorial can be found on the left wall of the second chapel on the right (inside the church)."

How awesome is that! Further discussion led to another comment that Rome records were now included in the Italian website Antenati. 

I dropped Carolina like a hot rock and headed over. I bagged my 2x great grandfather and several of his children, which thanks to the incredible detail of Italian records, led to his parents in Montereale.

Stay tuned, details coming soon!

Sarah Jane McNamara Baine 1880-1972

Sarah Jane McNamara Baine about 1900

The elegant lady in the above photo is my 2nd great aunt, Sarah Jane McNamara Baine. She was born January 6, 1880 in Clarksville, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Irish immigrants Daniel McNamara and Jane McKenzie. She was one of at least 11 children.

1880 Census Clarksville, Allegheny, Pennsylvania

Sarah married John William "Dock" Baine January 1, 1903.

Sarah's age was "adjusted" just a bit.

John and Sarah made their home in Universal, Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. They had at least one child, Catherine, born in 1904.

Sarah lived to the age of 92, dying July 23, 1972. She is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

Sarah Baine's signature as informant on her husband's death certificate, 1943

My Colorful Ancestry Birthplace Chart

My friend J Paul Hawthorne had a great idea for visualizing ancestors birthplaces. It's been all over the internet lately. I'm a bit slow posting to my blog, but here's mine.

Carrying it one generation further

These are created from spreadsheets that you can open in Open Office, Excel, Google Sheets, or probably any other spreadsheet program that's out there.

The easiest place to find these templates was provided by Randy Seaver on his blog Genea-Musings. Clicking on the links provided will download the templates to your computer.

I had a lot of fun brushing up on my spreadsheet skills, and enjoyed seeing #MyColorfulAncestory.

Thanks J Paul!.