The Monroe Bean's Newsletter

For all of the Monroe Bean's Newsletter readers, you can read the newsletter by clicking HERE.

Be watching for the February newsletter in a couple of weeks!

Happy New Year to ALL!

(There has been a lot of email addresses that have not gone through, so please pass on to everyone to come here to get the newsletter monthly if they are not receiving it in their email in box. Thanks for everyone's assistance in this matter!)

Tuesday Tips

Just starting out in your genealogy quest? Well come on in, cause the water is fine!

I will let you know that there are several forms you can use that will make your research go much smoother. Especially when you start looking back at what you did, and trying to make sense of it all. Because, if you're like me, you probably make these little chicken scratch notes, and then try to put them together. There is simply going to be way too much information to keep all of those notes straight and sensical.

My favorite place to find forms that help has been on the BYU site, which can be found here. This is a wonderful site to get you started. Lots of free forms, and instruction and videos. Even a free genealogy study.

An example of a very good research log.

I still have forms that I downloaded from Ancestry.com in 2001, and those I use most of the time. If they still have the forms, I wasn't able to locate them. However don't overlook their video series to assist you in locating information!

And let's not forget FamilySearch.org . It's one of the oldest, and most comprehensive sites out there for research. It was there before the others even thought about it! They also have a lot of very good information to help you get started!

And finally, don't count entirely on the world wide web to locate the information you are seeking.  Most of the records you search for have yet to be digitized. That means hoofing it to libraries, court houses, churches, cemeteries, and more to locate the best of the records yet.

The main thing is to simply get out there and get started! Start finding that family history you've been wanting to find! If not you, then who?

Mystery Monday

William Bean's ancestry, is for the most part, a mystery.

Somewhere a Bible was seen with the inscription of his parents marriage, and their names, along with his birth. No one knows where the Bible is now, so we have only someone's say-so that this was true.

In Morton's History of Monroe County, Morton reflects that William's son stated his father was from Ireland, and had stolen on board a ship to come to America (which would totally through out the Bible theory). And he was then put into servitude as an indentured servant at the age of 12 (actually on his 12th birthday) until the age of 21 to repay his passage and education.

The possible scenario of William's parents went around like crazy, and while not proven, many claim it as cold hard fact. But the recounting of William stowing away on board ship to get to America makes more sense. It explains the DNA testing we have had done so far.

The latest DNA study indicates that William was most likely from England or Ireland, which would explain the story as recounted in Morton's.

Monroe County, West Virginia court records shows that a John Bean was placed in indenture in February 1804. While William was placed on September 18, 1804. William also told his family he had a younger brother named Roy who ran away from indenture and was never heard from again. Court records have not revealed a Roy, however.

Family insist that William told that his father, also named William, fought in the American Revolution on the British side, along with Cornwallis. No record has been found of this however.

There is a record of a William McBean taking the American Oath and receiving local land grants. These would place the younger William right where we expect he should have been.

I did see his exact birthdate listed in a parish record in Baltimore, with William McBean and his wife, Sarah as his parents, which would then throw out the English/Irish theory. But would, in fact, cement the Bible record.

Our DNA tests have matched no one, except for expected cousins from William's line. Which causes one to pause, and wonder if McBean/Bean was his actual name. Unless we are of the last of that line. Even so, we should at least partially match someone else. But nothing to date to tie us to another Bean line, or even another family.

This is my brick wall.

William was born September 18, 1792, in Baltimore, Maryland to the best of our knowledge. He was placed under indenture on September 18. 1804 until the age of 21, where he was to be taught to be a blacksmith (that is fact, we have copies of this indenture).

The rest we know.

It's the past that keeps me awake at night. That mystery of simply not knowing for certain! It's what keeps the research going. It's what keeps it incomplete.

Perhaps I may never know the answers in my lifetime, but by golly, I've made my stamp trying to figure it all out! And that's going to keep me going for a long, long, time.

Sentimental Sunday

My baby girl, 32, has left the nest. Again. She has moved out several times, but has needed her Dad and I to help out, and come back home for love and support. But this time, I think she's moved out for good.

A beautiful young lady, Crystal was born in 1984, in the post hospital at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The youngest of my five children.

She may have been spoiled a bit more than the others (I think Mother's tend to do that with either their eldest or their youngest for some reason). But she is generous to a fault. If needed, she would give you her very last dime.

Smart, witty, and fun to be around, we have an especially close relationship. And I am feeling the empty nest harshly for the first time. I wonder just how many quick selfies like the one above we will have from now on.

I miss her already.

Sympathy Saturday

Last week, my cousin, Pam, lost her husband. I never did find out what happened. Just that was fine one moment, and gone the next. Jim will be missed. I only saw him at family reunions, but he never failed to make me laugh!

James R. Young

1960-2017

James R. “Wetback” Young, 56, of Madams Creek passed away Friday, January 13, 2017 at his home following a sudden illness.

    Born November 25, 1960 at Presque Isle, Maine he was a son of Ople H. “Sarge” Young Jr. of Madams Creek and the late E. Marilyn Young.

    James was an U.S. Air Force Veteran and a former utility worker for Asplundh and Weatherby Guns. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, his dog, sports - Dallas Cowboys and NC Tarheels and NASCAR- Jeff Gordon.

    Besides his father those left to cherish his memory include his wife, Pamela A. Young at home; beloved dog, Bear; three siblings, Liz Young Huffman and husband Greg of Jumping Branch, Opie Young III and companion Kami Sisson of Pipestem and Robin Young Jeffries and husband Eric of Jumping Branch; two nephews, Justin Young and Austin Dunn; three nieces, Emy Young, Kara Via and Makaylah Jeffries; one great nephew, Carson Young; one great niece, Hadley Dunn and father and mother in law, Jack and Vivian Ashley of Hinton.

    Funeral services will be 11:00 A.M. Monday, January 23, 2017 at Ronald Meadows Funeral Parlors Chapel with Pastor Robbie Merritt officiating. Burial will follow in the Lilly-Crews Cemetery at Nimitz. Friends may call from 6:00 – 8:00 P.M. on Sunday at the funeral parlors.

    Pallbearers will be Bo Jeffries, Billy Kleintop, Pat Noble, Alan Harvey, Jackie Ratliff and Chip Johnson. Honorary pallbearers will be Justin Young, Austin Dunn and Lot Williams.


Arrangements are by the Ronald Meadows Funeral Parlors of Hinton.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.ronaldmeadowsfp.com

"Go rest high on that mountain,

    Son your work on earth is done,

  Go to Heaven a shoutin',

    Love for the Father, and the Son"

Friday Funny

I thought this was super cute!

I don't know to whom this should be credited. The name says simply HAGEN©2006.
I found it while looking through genealogy cartoons, so I'm not sure where it was published. If anyone knows, please pass the information on to me so that I can give them credit for this funny cartoon!

Thrifty Thursday

My grandmother had three babies at the end of the depression. She also had a husband who was 32 years older than she was. He had a stroke. And she had to make do with whatever she could find to make do with.

As a child, our home had an abundance of everything, from food, to clothing, to furnishings and automobiles. And I used to laugh at the things that my grandmother did.

She saved bread bags. I couldn't imagine why, but she felt it was something we should keep. She stored everything from children's wet swim suits in them, to homemade biscuits.

She would even, (gasp! horror!) send my sandwich to school in them if we ran out of sandwich bags. (No children, this Grandma did not have Ziploc sandwich bags back then! Take a look at the following.)

She also saved the tie wraps for the bread bags.

She used these for everything from tying up loose hair to make a ponytail, to securing the bread bag she'd cut short to make a sandwich bag out of.

She saved old jelly jars.

These she would use to put left over soups in. Or can more jelly if she was in the mood. Or even drink lemonade from in the summer time.

She always wore white sneakers.

I once tried to get her to pick out a pair of colored shoes rather than the plain Jane white ones. She told me they were too hard to keep clean. I will admit, Grandma's white sneakers were always a beautiful white! How could she keep them so clean?

Baby powder! Every morning when she was dressing, she took a powder puff and dusted the outside of her sneakers with it. Since her sneakers were canvas, they absorbed the powder and kept the shoes brilliantly white!

Grandma also saved aluminum foil.

Grandma would say just because it was used once (or twice!) didn't mean it couldn't be used again! As long as it was cleaned, the wrinkles were smoothed out, and the foil folded neatly and placed in the kitchen drawer for future use.

I look back now, and realize that Grandma taught me a lot more than I ever dreamed of. She taught me to value every penny in a dollar. To this day, even if it's only a penny and I spy it on the ground, I pick it up and add it to my piggy bank. (More than once those pennies have pulled me financially from the fire!)

She taught me to appreciate what I have. From the extravagant diamond my husband gave me when we were engaged, to one of those silly little bread ties. They all have a purpose and a use.

She taught me to use it up. Wear it out. Then you buy more.

So, I am happy living in a humble mobile home, and am considering downsizing even! I don't need all this space! I once had a huge closet full of clothes and shoes. Not any more. They went the way of the Goodwill. I only need enough to see me through for three or four days, and then they all get washed. When I buy something new, it's because I've worn out what I already have. Literally.

Yes, Grandma taught me a lot. You don't need vitamins, if you know what foods to eat to start with! Dandelion greens, turnips, spinach, poke (only you country folk will know what that is!) crabapple jelly, mulberries. Eat only what you've canned or frozen yourself from fresh. Never over eat. Eat only until you are comfortable.

Waste not. Want not.

Boy, do I ever wish I'd paid more attention to my Grandma! What a woman she was!

Here's to you, Grandma!