It's time for another Genealogy Happy Dance! Thanks to one of our bonus members-only webinars last week, I was able to crack one of my personal brick walls.
Prior to this discovery, I had recorded that Nathan R. Brown was born in Pennsylvania, Missouri, or New York in either 1815, 1817, 1818, or 1822. See the Individual's Information screen from my Legacy file below:
In her webinar, "Women Homesteaders and Genealogy," Gail Blankenau mentioned that the complete Homestead Files for Nebraska, where Nathan later lived and died, were now available on the subscription site, Fold3.com. Boy am I glad I asked her to present this webinar! Fold3 did indeed have the complete files. Nathan's file included the 20 pages of original documents, including the letter of discharge from his service in the Civil War:
Zooming in on page 6 revealed an exact place of birth for Nathan:
According to this document, Nathan was born in Alleghany, Pennsylvania and was 44 years of age when the document was signed on July 11, 1865. If everything is accurate (wouldn't that be nice!), he would have been born about 1821 – another possible year of birth. Regardless, I now have more evidence that can be evaluated, and am closer to the truth of when and where he was born!
Honestly, I didn't really think a webinar about Women Homesteaders would be valuable for my personal research right now. My conclusion – never miss a Legacy Family Tree webinar! You never know what you will learn.
Now to add the digital image, citation, new events and analysis to my Legacy family file….
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