Monday, April 28, 2008

...and the verdict is...

Yesterday, after having church service at Progressive MBC, which is a church that several of my family members helped to start, we went grave hunting again. We took some pictures of a few plots that may have relatives and also drove to Eudora, AR just to see what it looks like.

Today, we spent the day at the East Carroll Parish Clerk of Court. Praise God that I was able to find a legible copy of the William L. Balfour's will and was able to transcribe it. I was also able to locate the inventory of slaves for William L. Balfour as well as for his other property in East Carroll Parish, but nothing mentioned the names of Atlas family members. I did, however, make some connections with King Atlas, Jr.'s wife Rachael Day. It was a huge disappointment for me not to find what I was looking for, but it does indicate that there was more going on than just what is on the surface. I documented a few members of the Day family living at Longwood Plantation after the slaves were freed.

We're not real sure how to proceed in locating the last slaveholder from here. We've exhausted just about every avenue we can think of to tie the Balfour's with our family.

Jean spent the day looking at and documenting marriage records that we did not have previously. We'll be back at the clerk of court tomorrow in Lake Providence to look for other information. Any fellow researchers: Please let us know while we are here of something that we can look for to help us! Thanks!

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