One of my goals this year is to confirm the parents of my 4th great grandfather, James Blackston. According to family, James was a widower with a large family when he came to Westmoreland County PA from either Maryland or Delaware. After his arrival, James married Elizabeth West. A bill of sale in that county in December 1819 revealed James sold a mare, a horse and a cow harness. Continue reading
Blackston
Stories on people with surnames of Blackston, Blackstone, Blackson, Blackiston, Blaxton and other various spellings.
Misc. Tax Rolls — Westmoreland County PA
Personal income taxes are usually due on April 15th, although for 2017 the deadline was moved to April 18th. When the 15th falls on the weekend, the deadline is moved to Monday. However, Washington D.C., observes a work holiday for Emancipation Day on April 16, so when this falls on a Sunday, the observation is moved to Monday the 17th. This in turn bumps the tax deadline back one more day to April 18th giving citizens several more days to file—or in some cases procrastinate. Continue reading
No Deed Unturned—Searching Westmoreland County Deeds
When early records are scarce for a family, land records, especially deeds, can sometimes provide clues. A deed can establish residency and provide information about immediate neighbors who were sometimes relatives. When a married man sold property, his wife was named and interviewed, apart from her husband, to determine that she was in agreement with selling the land—perhaps as a way for her to protect her dowry. Family members often sold property to their children or siblings, keeping it in the family. If an owner died, a deed might list the heirs who inherited the land—quite useful if no will was made. It was my hope that deeds might help with my search of the Blackston family. Continue reading
Maryland Mission: The Blackstone File
“I’m looking for information in a vertical file that might be here,” I explained to the librarian. We were recently in Baltimore on our way to D.C. and I was trying to find documents that would fill in some gaps for my 4th great grandfather James Blackston—also spelled Blackson, Blackstone, Blacksen, and Blackiston. Earlier last year I stumbled upon a post on Genforum.com by a distant cousin mentioning a vertical file in a Baltimore library containing something that seemed to substantiate James’ parents–although it didn’t indicate what the actual information was. I have lost touch with that cousin, and I hadn’t printed out the query. So I went back to the site before our trip only to find it had been archived by another company; searching was greatly inhibited and the particular query I needed could not be found to identify the library. A quick online search of Baltimore libraries with vertical files had 2 possible candidates, so we stopped at the first one I found, where I tried to explain, without sounding like a complete novice, my quest. Unfortunately, the vertical files there didn’t contain any Blackistons, but the librarian, from a quick card catalogue search, indicated some Blackiston material was at the Maryland Historical Society Library (MHSL), which we decided to visit on our way back home. Continue reading
Relatively Speaking Blog 