Civil War

Maryland, Antietam, and a Possible Ancestor's Fate

I've been to Maryland several times — some trips purely for pleasure and sightseeing, others for genealogy research. One of the places we visited that has stayed with me is the site of the Civil War Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg. Many of the young men who woke up that morning were also in Maryland for the first time. But they were not there for pleasure — they were there for war, and for many, for death. At this point, I have not confirmed any ancestors who fought i

Did the Georgia Wilkinson County Courthouse Have a Curse on it?

The bane of genealogists and historians is courthouse burnings, especially those in the South. I wanted to stop by the little town of Irwinton to follow up with some possible genealogical research at the local library and historical society. I already knew about the Wilkinson County courthouse fire in 1924, but I had not realized just how many there had been. How could this county be so unlucky! But there might be a chance that there were some remnants of my McCullar and Pace families who had se

Traveling the South: A Genealogist's Road Trip

For me, as a long-time genealogist, the American South is one big treasure map. But the South has been largely overlooked by mainstream historians. While history books have long celebrated the Northeast — even the great patriot societies — the South's rich and diverse heritage, shaped by Spanish, French, Native American, and African American cultures, has received far less scholarly attention. The burning of countless Southern towns during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War destroyed record