Friday, January 5, 2018

Genealogy: Where I am January 2018

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow and her  "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge!," I am trying to start keeping this blog up to date again.
  1. Project 1 -- Find out with proof the names of the parents of Thomas Hunt Sr. and wife Lucy.
  2. Project 1.5 -- Trace backwards our McFarland ancestry. (With the direction, energy, and help of cousins Bill and Susan Kromer Hunt and researchers to whom they introduced me in recent years, there is a DNA confirmation of the Thomas Hunt ancestral tale that we were once McFarlands (McFarlins, MacFarlanes, etc) linking us to other researchers and 1700-1800's Orange County, North Carolina McFarland families.)
  3. Project 2 -- Over the years since publishing my Hunt (2002), Moody (2007), and Wingate (2005) family histories, I have accumulated data additions, corrections, and knowledge of  cousins and research unknown to me before. I will share as much of that as I can on Researching Roots.
  4. Project 3 -- Write as much as I can of the families of Joseph and Annie Fears Hunt and Deason and Ozie Mae Hunt using quotations, narrative, and photos.
  5. Project 4 -- Write as much as I can of my own recollections of my life with Martha, family, career, and friends.
Note: Check the blog post of January 2016 of the same name as this. You will see that I have yet to make much progress on some of these (now slightly altered) goals from that year. I hope to keep my nose to the grindstone a bit better in 2018.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

The Marvin Hunt Jr. Mystery Solved

The 1930 census listing of Joe L.  and Annie Hunt, 303 East VanSickle, Henderson, Texas, listed son Deason Hunt and a mystery, Marvin Hunt Jr., adopted son. Since I never knew my Dad, Deason Hunt, had a younger brother and he, my grandmother Annie Hunt, and aunt Gladys Hunt Stewart never mentioned a youngster Marvin Hunt, I was puzzled. When I found the record, all those named above were deceased. My mother, Ozie Mae Moody Hunt, had no memory of an adopted son, Marvin Hunt, in the Hunt family.
After a prolonged research period this winter, I have solved the puzzle.
Marvin Hunt Jr. was the son of Marvin "Boss" Hunt of Henderson, Texas and his wife Lavinia. Lavinia died in 1927 the same year that Marvin Jr. was born. Marvin Hunt, the father, was in the 1930 census was listed in the household of his brother Clyde, age 41, and widowed. Marvin "Boss" Hunt and brother Clyde were first cousins of Joe L. Hunt, my grandfather.
I have not searched to see if an actual legal adoption took place or if it was informal arrangement. Grandfather Joe died before the 1940 census, but little Marvin Jr. who would have been about 13 years old was not listed in the household of Annie Hunt, 303 East VanSickle Streeet, Henderson, Texas.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Two Male Line Surnames

We had a family legend (story) that at one time, a McFarland boy was orphaned(?) (indentured?????) to a Hunt family in Wales and took the Hunt name out of gratitude. What proved to be true when cousin Bill Hunt did a Y-DNA (male line DNA) study was that we share no Y-DNA with any other Hunts than cousins from my 1787-1856 Thomas Hunt.

What we share is Y-DNA with McFarlins (McFarland, MacFarlane, etc) particularly a family out of Orange County, NC in the mid to late 1700s. It is possible that the common male ancestor might have occurred in that same time period, or it could have been earlier. Cousin Bill Hunt with the guidance of his wife Susan Kromer Hunt and other researchers have narrowed down the possible switch from the McFarland name to the Hunt surname. Now we are all looking for proof by traditional record methods or DNA to help document what is now believed to be true.

In Orange County, NC in the 1780s a William McFarland and an Elizabeth Hunt were charged with adultery (both being married to others not mentioned here) but fled NC so the case was left open and not further prosecuted as far as records tell us? Also, the Veasey, Duke. and Hunt, and McFarland families had numerous relationships of record in Orange County in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The other part of the puzzle is that our Thomas Hunt in Rutherford County, NC in the early 1800s lived among three brothers, William "Wat" Hunt, Absalom Hunt, and William "Kinch" Hunt. Like Thomas, descendants of all three "brothers" have DNA tested male line and none are descended from Hunts. Wat descends from a Veasey line, Ab from  a Veasey line, and Kinch from a Duke line. There is a possible link to Brackett and Devinney with Wat and Ab. Did I mention that one generation before my 1787 Thomas Hunt, another Thomas Hunt (relationship unknown) and a Duke (both in Orange Co, NC) were pardoned from hanging in the same proclamation "provided they joined the Continental Army" (ca 1780) which they did and lived on?

This is what is keeping me and other Thomas Hunt descendants, McFarlands, and those of the other Hunts named going in circles right now.   I owe a lot of thanks to cousin Bill and Susan Hunt and other Hunt and McFarland researchers for parts of the information here. As always, if there are errors, it is in my retelling and not their research.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Genealogy: Where I Am January 2016



  1. With the direction, energy, and help of cousins Bill and Susan Kromer Hunt and researchers to whom they introduced me in recent years, there is a DNA confirmation of the Thomas Hunt ancestral tale that we were once McFarlands (McFarlins, MacFarlanes, etc) linking us to other researchers and 1700-1800's Orange County, North Carolina McFarland families. With that same DNA finding, we have determined that we are a branch of MacFarlanes known as Hidden MacGregors whose DNA link is to the Ianh Cam MacGregor ancestry. Either by historical era records or DNA we have a legitimate claim to three male line family names. ("Most modern historians have agreed that the first chief of Clan Gregor was Gregor of the golden bridles.His son was Iain Camm One eye, who succeeded as the second chief sometime before 1390." -- From Wikipedia subject Clan Gregor   sourced to Way, George and Squire, Romily. Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, TheStanding Council of Scottish Chiefs). Published in 1994. Pages 220 – 221.)
  2. Over the years since publishing my Hunt (2002), Moody (2007), and Wingate (2005) family histories, I have accumulated data additions, corrections, and knowledge of  cousins and research unknown to me before. I will share as much of that as I can on Researching Roots. Stay tuned.
  3. Other Project 1 -- Write as much as I can of the families of Joseph and Annie Fears Hunt and Deason and Ozie Mae Hunt using quotations, narrative, and photos.
  4. Project 2 -- Write as much as I can of my own recollections of my life with Martha, family, career, and friends.
  5. Project 3 -- Prepare print and digital representations of of projects 1 and 2.
  6. Project 4 -- Find out with proof the names of  the parents of Thomas Hunt Sr. and wife Lucy.
  7. Project 5 -- Trace backwards our McFarland ancestry.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A bio of My Thoughts

Just today, I once again gave thought to the exercise I have been involved with for a couple of years, the posting of a thought for the day (TFTD) on my blog Thought For The Day by Deason Hunt.

It was after seeing a tweet from a genealogist I follow on Twitter which said "You know what Facebook needs? More people posting inspirational quotes." He's certainly entitled to his opinion, but upon seeing his remark, I recalled what I discovered about my tftds.

They are a bio of sorts revealing not my birth, marriage, employments, etc. facts, but an insight into what I think about life and all sorts of events and situations. Separately they look like one-shot comments, but collectively, they can communicate that thing we wish so often we could know about our long-dead ancestors: how they felt and thought.

I certainly would give a lot to know that about Thomas Hunt who was born in North Carolina the same year the U. S. Constitution was adopted, who moved over the mountains to Tennessee with his large family about 1820. He lived there until the early 1850's when he moved to his last home in East Texas. I don't know his feelings, of course,  or those of almost all of my ancestors. How I wish they had left me some indication.

You can gather all my tftds and find about my attitude toward life in general, human relations, patriotism, tolerance, racism, etc. They are a part of the life story of Deason Hunt. So I think I'll keep on blogging a thought for the day and posting it also on Facebook.  You never know who might be listening ... or when.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween, Ancestors, and Genealogy

On my soap box: I was kind of put off today by a story in the Dallas Morning News that they are preparing for the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. Somehow commemorating his assassination is unseemly to me. His birth, okay. His WWII exploit, okay. His election, okay. His role in civil rights, okay. His murder, nope.
That coincides with my idea that we need to stop commemorating the death of people we love, honor, or miss and commemorate something else in their lives: birth, some achievement, some remarkable good life event.
The link is Halloween. I have gone from seeing Halloween as a child as a dress-up, make believe, candy getting time to a time to remember those ancestors and friends who past on before that particular Halloween date.
I remember in my family my sister, LaNell, my Dad, Deason Sr., and my mother, Ozie Mae or Koko to her grandkids, who lived until age 96 and died last November. And, should I add the two grandparents I knew, the two who died before I was born, and generations of their ancestors known to me by names, places, and a few life events.
It seems that we in genealogy are missing something on this the scariest night of the year which I think we could make into one of the most poignant nights of the year.

You'll find this on my genealogy society blog, my Google+ stream, Facebook wall, and a Twitter post. I thought it might just be the right thing for my first post of substance on my newly pointed "talking roots" blog. -- dh