Albuquerque II

Albuquerque Balloon Festival 2013

Caprock Canyon

At the end of the summer in 2013, Travel Buddy and I visited the Texas Panhandle.
While I had visited Palo Duro Canyon before, this was my first visit to Caprock Canyon.


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When it was apparent that the last of the American Bison were dying out, Charles Goodnight, of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, kept a small herd of them alive on his ranch, thus preserving an important link in American heritage. These bison live out their lives at Caprock Canyon State Park. They are direct descendants of those few Goodnight was able to save.

Brick Wall of the Month: Charles Cocke

My brick wall for the month of August is Charles Cocke.

Charles Cocke was born 12 November 1750, Halifax County, Virginia.
He married Eleanor Ewing (daughter of George Ewing) and they had at least one child, a daughter: Ellender Cocke.
Ellender was born in 1788, Fincastle, Virginia, and married John Lee Dibrell in Kentucky, 1805.

I do not know what happened to Charles and Eleanor after the birth of their daughter.

I have researched in Virginia, specifically in Fincastle and in Halifax County, and have found no trace of either. One source, another family tree, puts Charles and Eleanor in Arkansas, both evidently dying there in 1838. But I have located neither court records, nor land records, nor any census reflecting either of them or their fate.

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on how I might find information on either of these, but specifically Charles, I welcome them. Thanks.

Road Trip 2014

Every year Travel Buddy and I take a road trip.

We visit family and friends, frequent places of historic significance, and always spend time on genealogy research.

This year we are traveling to Scotland. We will be there for several weeks, visiting folks, checking out the historic sites, and once again, doing some genealogy research. Just in the last few years we have learned a great deal about what areas some of our people came from, and as most were from the 1600s and 1700s, we have a ways to go climbing back through the years.

I am still in the process of working through the hours of research needed before we go, but it will be complete by the time it needs to be. By the time you read this, we will be on our way. Regardless of what we find (and you may expect plenty of posts on the subject) we will wholeheartedly enjoy the experience of simply being where our ancestors were themselves, once upon a time.

And sometimes that is not only enough; it is plenty.

Number 200!

Wordsmithmagic is a blog I started a little over two years ago.

When I began, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about, as I have many, many interests. But I wasn’t writing at the time, despite my many, many attempts to return to my writing projects (still in progress, as of now). So I created a “required” (at least in my mind) schedule, wherein I would post an entry every four days. This has turned out to be a really great exercise for me, as I have kept up that schedule of one post every four days ever since. Oh, I have truly derailed the whole process a few times, but I have always put in the time and the number of posts to catch up again when this happens, and thus, on average at least, I really do have one post every four days.

Over this time I have learned a lot about the outside blog reading world, too. I don’t get a lot of comments, but I get far more people stopping by to “like” my entries than I ever thought I would. And I have really enjoyed checking out their blogs in reciprocal fashion, too. Lots of folks out there writing about a wide variety of stuff.

I still focus on my main faves in my blogs: genealogy, writing, travel. Although I now have more posts with pictures, sometimes even just random stuff I like. Those are the posts that gather the most likes, so evidently many folks enjoy the same things I do, which is comforting in its own way. I rarely post anything about actual writing, however, as I haven’t spent any time on my projects. If I get back to it, though, I feel certain posts relating to that will emerge.

For those of you who are loyal readers, whether you “like” these posts or not, thanks for hanging in there. I can definitely promise you more of the same. As of this morning, I have almost 1000 followers on Facebook, over 500 on Twitter, and 285 following directly. That is really awesome and humbling at the same time. Thanks for the compliment — I don’t take it lightly.

So today, for my 200th post (written anyway, if not 200th posted) I thank all of you blogger posters and readers who help this world exist in the first place. A great big cyber hug for you all!

Albuquerque I

Downtown Albuquerque.

Edmiston Family Genealogy

My Edmiston line is very short. At least, so far. I just have two generations: Robert and Dorothy.

Robert was born about 1700 in Augusta County, Virginia, married Jean Buchanan in 1720, and died 6 August 1749, Augusta County, Virginia. He had at least three children: William, Dorothy, and James Buchanan. These are the three mentioned in his will, so if there were others, they did not live past 1747, when the will was written. The will mentions “the blanket I brought from Ireland,” which indicates he visited Ireland at some point. Could he have been visiting family who gave him the blanket? His wife, Jean Buchanan, was born in Ireland, so maybe they were visiting her family.

Where were the Edmistons originally from? If he married an Irish girl, maybe Robert’s family was from Ireland, too. The name Edmiston is Scottish in origin, but many Scots went to Ireland for a few generations before proceeding on to America. In time, maybe I will find Robert’s parents and grandparents, which will tell me more.

Dorothy, Robert and Jean’s daughter, was born in 1721 in Rockbridge County, Virginia, married Thomas McSpadden, Sr. in Timber Ridge, Augusta County, Virginia, in 1743, and died reportedly in 1786 in Gordon County, Georgia. I say “reportedly” because I have not found evidence as of yet for this information obtained from other researchers. Dorothy’s husband, Thomas, died in 1765 in Lexington, Augusta County, Virginia. So she survived him by more than 20 years. Did she move to Georgia with one of her children and their family? Archibald McSpadden, one of the middle children, died in Redbud, Gordon County, Georgia in 1840. Maybe Dorothy is buried nearby. I still have much research to do!

Random Pics

When I was young, I loved reading westerns. One of my all-time favorites was Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Gray. We had sage growing around where I lived, but it never seemed to bloom. I always wondered what purple sage would look like.

Now I know!