I was finally able to scan in the Civil War pension records that I bought for Lewis Winnie and his son James Newton Winnie:

Well, I finally decided to pull out my genealogy again. Not so much by desire to immerse myself in non-stop addictive research, but because I’ll probably be heading to Salt Lake City in May, and I’d like to have an inkling of what I will be searching. A trip without preparation is worse than no trip at all. Two months prep? Too much you may say, but I disagree. Besides, with tours, it’s more like one month.

Gosh, if figuring out placements from tax lists isn’t a finicky past time.

I finally got settled into a place that I’m comfortable in, and unpacked my genealogy stack from the trunk of my car for the first time since mid-August. Examining the photos from the Bledsoe County Courthouse, I started trying to piece together where the Winnie’s lived in Bledsoe County in relation to their neighbors, since I haven’t been able to find a satisfactory map that would show me this easily. I don’t know if it’s possible.

My purpose today as I head off to NC not on I-40 as would be normal, is to stop in Spring City, and see if I can track down where Louis and Eunice lived. According to the 1900 census, they lived in Ward 2, 215B on Jackson Ave. Other close locations via census information are Rhea Ave and East 2nd St. From the tax lists in Rhea County for Spring City Ward 2, their neighbors on the North, South, East and West sides are as follows:

Exhaustion. Invigoration. … and 175 miles later. I speak of my genealogy trip to Cumberland/Bledsoe/Rhea County Tennessee yesterday (Monday) and today. One hundred seventy five miles of driving between libraries, a cemetery, and county courthouses, not including the 500 or so that it took to get here. I’m staying at Mountain Top Retreat, just south of Lowe’s Gap Rd on Rt. 127 near Melvine, TN. What an awesome place to stay at during a genealogy trip! For just $65 a night you get your own frickin’ house, though some or most would call it a cottage.