Ah Sweet Success!

Remember yesterday's post on my deciding to pick up my Ansley research again? If not take a second and scroll down and read yesterday's blog first.

Anyway, after running errands etc., yesterday I came home & started to look for Joseph Ansley in the census. Joseph was born ca1858 or so the records show where I have found him. No one that I know has an exact birthdate for him and no one that I have ever encountered has any idea when he died exactly or where. Rumors abound but none have been proven.

I quickly found Joseph with his mom & dad, Raiford & Abigail Pressley Ansley on the 1860 census so that was a no brainer. The 1870 however was a totally different story.

Joseph's dad had remarried and had moved since I found them in 1860. The write up on Joseph's marriage to Marietta reads:

We omitted, last week, to state who the parties were so quickly united in the bonds of matrimony in the office of the ordinary. The happy groom was Mr. Joseph Ansley, formerly of Towns County, and the blushing bride was Miss Marietta Waddell, of Jackson County.*

So I began my search by looking in Towns County, Georgia. A standard run of the Ansley surname search on the 1870 over at Ancestry came up with nothing even close. So I did a line by line thru thinking maybe I could also find his blushing bride with her mom (that's another long story, which I'll save for another blog), alas it was not meant to be. They weren't found!

Thinking I might have better luck over in Jackson County I then went and did a line by line there as well. Almost 300 pages of line by line and not an Ansley or Waddel to be found. Oh well. I was talking to my Cuz and fellow blogger Carol, from Reflections From The Fence, and she said why not try a wild card search? Wild card searching using the first three letters of the surname with ***** after it can bring some suprises when searching. Sometimes successful sometimes not.

Finally I asked the search engine for all white males born in 1858 (give or take a year), born in Georgia, residence in Georgia. Scrolling thru the listings on the second page I come across Jos Ainsley age 12 enumerated in Habersham County, Georgia. At one time Joseph's family lived in Habersham County but that was long before Joseph came along! Oh, did I mention that he was indexed as Jas (James) rather than Jos (Joseph)?

Needless to say I am a happy camper. The family he is living with is a mystery to me, I need to do some research to see what the relationships are if any. As for the blushing bride, I think that's going to require some South Carolina work to figure that one out. Another day, another blog.

Happy Researching!
Karen

*Atlanta Constitution, Wednesday, Dec 1, 1875, Pg. 3, Column 2

**Interesting isn't it that the wedding notice appeared exactly 134 years ago today! And I had no idea when I began this blog that was going to happen! Does anyone but me hear funny music in the background??