The Emory Family Genealogy Gold Mine
The Emory family of Centreville, Maryland must be in shock to find that their packrat ancestors kept 400 years of documents. Everything from slave records to more mundane receipts. It makes my paltry collection pale by comparison, but I think our records and documents have stood up pretty well considering.
I’m trying to estimate just what is my oldest original document, and it might be a land record for Jim Yates from 1907 in Howell County, Missouri. Notice, I said original record. I have copies of many records, including the pay voucher for Richard Osgathorpe for his Revolutionary War service.


My most prized record though, is a hand-written 1872 original letter by my 5th Great Grandfather, John Holmes. John must have been a genealogist at heart because his letter, a reply to a nephew in Mississippi who had informed him of his (John’s) older brother Thomas’ death the year before in that state is filled with names, dates, locations of his children living and dead.
What is your oldest record of original documentation? 1600′s, 1700′s, or earlier?
- Remembering Bremerton During World War II Victory Gardens and Barrage Balloons...
- W. G. Yates - CCC Honorable Discharge Alaska Recently, when going through some...
Filed under: Family, Genealogy, History






















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