Twisted Roots Research

11/11/2025

Yay! A new blog post! (Finally...)

Francis “Frank” Robinson (a.k.a. Roberson) was born to unknown parents about 1776, probably in Frederick County, Virginia. His mother, clearly, was enslaved because he was born into slavery. His last enslaver was James Wood, an immigrant from Wi******er, England, who obtained a large grant of la...

06/06/2025

So many people that were involved somehow in Robert Jefferson's life, and others who weren't, but can be connected, died at fairly young ages. This person I am featuring today lived in Mississippi just around the end of Reconstruction, but met O.R. Singleton to talk about a business opportunity his dad had asked him to find out more about.
There is so little out there that I've been able to find on Singleton, even though he was a heavy hitter in Mississippi and both the U.S. and Confederate Congresses, and an officer in the Confederate Army. I have heard from at least one scholar who knows something about him that he was a hateful person and she couldn't believe that he would have signed manumission papers for any enslaved person of color. Of course, if you are a son of the third POTUS, people who don't usually pay attention to your race do pay attention to you.
Anyway, it's not a lot, but it was fun hearing a contemporary talk about his take on this elusive character of Southern history.

A recent Perplexity.ai search led me to find letters written by one Samuel Bradley Wiggin, who had mentioed in one or more of the letters O.R. Singleton, the Mississippi lawyer, politician, plantation owner and slaveholder who signed Robert Jefferson’s freedom papers. A man who, despite serving in...

05/15/2025

Delia Webster should be considered a National Treasure. There. I said it.

Several years ago, I read a biography of Miss Delia Ann Webster, an amazingly strong woman who was born and raised in Vermont, but moved south to become involved in anti-slavery activities from the 1840s through Emancipation. Recently, I read the only other biography about Webster that I could find.

05/01/2025

Technology will likely be the death of us all. So, in the meantime, enjoy the GREAT things it can do for us!

Dear Readers, I apologize deeply for my lack of communication over the past weeks. But I was unwittingly sucked deep down into one of the biggest genealogy rabbit hole ever to exist.While drinking coffee on morning, weeks ago, I was lured away from watching the morning news by a shiny object in the....

04/21/2025

What's the most interesting thing you've found in the past year about your family history?

04/06/2025

With Rocky Kanaka – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

You must watch his channel!

Rocky Kanaka sits with dogs to give them love and comfort and assure them they are loved. The goal of sitting with dogs is to show dogs love and help get the...

04/06/2025

I have to apologize for having not posted for awhile. Last week, I watched a genealogy video on YouTube that has sent me into a RABBIT HOLE OF UNUSUAL SIZE (think RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE, Princess Bride) and the same kind of dangerous landscape those rascals lived in.
The good news is that on Tuesday, I will drop a new blog post about this fascinating shiny object and tell you all about how you need it in your life as a researcher!

03/27/2025

On my website I have a post about the 23andMe situation here: https://www.twistedrootsresearch.com/news/to-delete-or-not-to-delete

Here is a recent post from a Facebook post from DNA for Genealogy:

03/25/2025

CALL TO ACTION!
Hoping it's not too late. Please contact Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana and ask him not to sign HB 1148. Read about that here:

https://www.twistedrootsresearch.com/news/hoosier-historians-need-you!

03/22/2025

I LOVE vintage photos!

03/19/2025

A new tip!

"Global" searches generally are a great way to find information you are looking for in digitized databases, and in search engines such as Google or DuckDuckGo. But I have found an easier-to-sift-through lists of search results when I elect to "browse" specific newspapers. Selecting that option will....

03/14/2025

52 Ancestors Challenge continues today. Meet my paternal grandfather, Charles Cicero Codling.

My paternal grandfather, Charles Cicero Codling, was born in Blenheim Township, Oxford, Ontario, Canada on Christmas Day, 1875.