ZDUTTON – Tonight's post

Cousins,

Not a whole lot going on. I've been a little bit behind on e-mail the past
few days, and I'm just trying to catch up. 

Margaret, thanks for your data of the 21st. Gerrard Dutton on the 1790
Charles County census is the one I believe to be Zachariah's father.
William in 1840 of Morgan County, Ala. is my ancestor. Jarrard on 1820
Limestone Co. is your ancestor. It seems that the whole bunch lived in
Limestone Co. for several years back around 1820, or perhaps travelled back
and forth. Jarrard was married in 1820 in Lawrence Co., where his possible
uncle Stephen Penn was living (Stephen Penn performed Jarrard's marriage),
but then moved back to Limestone Co.  Edmund Dutton was married in 1821 in
Limestone Co., and appeared on court records in that county during that
time period. By 1830, all of them had moved to Lawrence County. Don't be
afraid to share your brick walls--perhaps we can help. By the way, speaking
of your comment about your age, don't feel bad--I am no doubt the youngest
one here.

Eula, thanks for your wonderful introduction. One of the most interesting
and informative that I've seen. It's so great to meet and learn about each
of our cousins and their lives.

I don't know anything about Thomas Dutton and Mary Catherine Bates other
than what I've been told. According to the census, I don't think there were
any Duttons in Tuscaloosa Co. in the time frame that he was born--I had
been told he was born in Lawrence County. Sonya told me that her Duttons
were at one time wealthy--this could only be the family of Samuel Dutton of
Lawrence County. Samuel had a son Thomas who had a son Thomas--who I
believe married Mary Catherine Bates.

Judy, thanks for the great poem. Think I'll print it up and put it on my wall.

Got a request from Sue on the 21st to add a new member to the list, named
Martha (MarthaT466@aol.com) but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I
suppose I'll address that officially in just a moment.

On the way home from my trip to Abbeville, S.C., I passed within ten miles
of Covington, Georgia. We were on a big genealogy kick that day, and went
out of our way to get to several places of genealogical interest. It
occurred to me to stop there and see if I could find the grave of Jarrard's
Zachariah Dutton, but having done no preliminary research, I didn't think
I'd have much luck. Maybe someday we'll find his grave. Thanks, Eula, for
the great lore.

Several of you requested the pictures that I scanned in; I haven't gotten
to mailing them out yet. I'll try to do that tonight.

Oh! They're so much to address and so much to talk about! What am I going
to do when I no longer have time?

Thanks, Artie, for all the GA census records. I've been meaning for months
to go look all of them up.

Dale, I am sorry to hear of your mother's death. Glenn Dutton told me a few
months ago--must have been May, in fact--that she was still living, and the
last member of her generation of the Duttons. My sympathies to you and your
family. I am glad that she lived to such a good, ripe old age, and was able
to share her knowledge of the past.

Good-ness! Your grandpa Sol sure moved around a lot! He was on the census
in Decatur in 1900, 1910, and 1920, but it looks he moved back and forth to
Birmingham several times between then. When did he move down there to stay?
I assume that he outlived his wife Florence--when did she die, and where is
she buried? Also, I noticed the conflict between the Bible date for Sarah
Norwood's birth and the tombstone date--it's possible that I copied the
stone date wrong, but in either case, I suppose the Bible date is more
reliable. I could send you a picture of the tombstone if you like, or when
you come up here, I could even take you to the cemetery. The cemetery has
fallen into bad shape in past years--it's only recently that somebody had
it cleared off, as it was very much overgrown. The last time I was out
there, Sallie Dutton's stone had fallen, and was leaning on a stump. I was
afraid that it would break in the position that it was in, so I did my best
to stand it up, but a good job would require a shovel and burying it the
ground again. I would love to see this taken care of. I was last there
about a year ago.

James and all, about the "Penn connection"--when it first occurred to me,
the idea was so radical that I was convinced none of the Penn researchers
in my area would believe me. There was no proof, just a lot of
evidence--but now it looks like my guess may have been true. It seems a
miracle to me that your grandfather would have mentioned this very fact to
you. By the way, I was corresponding with Barbara Bonham, who runs the
Charles County ROOTS-L list, about the Duttons and Penns, and she said she
had some data on Stephen Penn's ancestors. She mentioned to me--now I may
be wrong--that Stephen Penn was the son of William Penn and Ann Chandler.
The Penns in Charles County are fairly well documented, but I don't think
there's any documented evidence that ties either Stephen Penn and his
sister or Zachariah Dutton into the big picture.

Well, I got to run for now. I'll try to take care of the pictures of list
maintenance and other such in just a minute. Whew! Things are so busy, and
I'm glad. I looking forward to hearing from each of you,

Love,
Cousin Joe