denotes a personal letter, newsletter or something written by a family member.
denotes a newspaper clipping such as an obit, birth announcement or article.
denotes a photograph.
denotes a book excerpt.
Welcome to In Small Things Forgotten (ISTF), my webpage dedicated to my genealogical work. This site is not going to become an exhaustive catalog of all my findings, nor will you be able to access my entire GEDCOM file from here. (Email me if you want to talk about details of my family
tree.) Instead, ISTF is just a small collection of interesting things that have come to light in my research. I have a collection of interesting photos, letters, articles and more which I thought some people would appreciate seeing on-line. Few people are actually descended from anyone famous but the point of genealogy is to make the less famous people and small forgotten incidents of the past come alive again. Here at ISTF you can learn individual stories
about people that most of us had never heard of before. The main family of this web page is the Carter family who descend from John Carter of KY and the main area of this page is a small part of central IL, centered around Colfax, where John's son Matthias worked as a carpenter. Other names you might
see here are Bradford, Wagoner, Johnson, Metheny, Anderson, Batterton, Henline, Spawr and more. The Carter family which came out of Colfax, IL has ties to all of these names and more, although many of the well known local families are only linked to the Carters by a long chain of marriages.
What the icons mean:
denotes a personal letter, newsletter or something written by a family member. denotes a newspaper clipping such as an obit, birth announcement or article. denotes a photograph. denotes a book excerpt.
Family Photo Album: Here's my collection of photos including myself, family members from several family lines and some unidentified photos. Try your hand at identifying the unknowns.
History Of Clarksville & Money Creek Township: This is an excerpt from the Lexington Centennial book dealing with the early history of Clarksville and Money Creek Township. Some of the names mentioned in this excerpt are George Wallace, Jonathan McAfferty, Joseph Bartholomew, Lindsey Scot, Isaac Messer, Valentine Spawr and more.
Click here to read a letter from Nancy Tidd to Gerry Carter.
OBITUARIES: I have collected obits for family members (regardless of their location) and obits for people who may eventually tie into my family tree. There are also some obits of other well known people of the central IL area just for their historic value. This section is rather small right now because my page is new. If you have an obit of someone mentioned on this page or of someone related to anyone on this page, please Email me.
Click here to read an incomplete newspaper clipping about Earl Tidd's moose hunting adventure. This clipping was found among Gerry Carter's photograph collection upon her death. The article has a photo as well.
Click here to see a newspaper clipping regrding the wedding of Rahn Beeson and his wife Elfriede Meissner.
The Carters In 2000: Lionel Carter's letter that went out with his Christmas cards for 2000. He mentions the 64th Reunion of the Colfax High School Class of 1936 and gives names of who attended. He also mentions the Carter Reunion in Colfax and notes that Rahn and Elfie Beeson came from New Jersey to attend. Lastly, he covers the 112th Cavalry Regiment Midwest Reunion in Joliet, Illinois.
Click here to read Lionel's Jan. 17, 1999 letter to me. This is the first letter he sent me after I spoke to him at the Carter Reunion of 1998 and told him I was interested in Carter history. We had talked a little then and I had shown him what little Carter information I had and how disorganized it was. In this letter he tries to set the record right. This letter also came with several pages of charts which helped me compile the current Carter family tree.
Traveling With The Carters, 1977: This is Lionel Carter's annual Christmas letter for the year 1977. In it he discusses Rahn and Elfie Beeson's return from 5 years in Germany. He also mentions the weddings of Paula Carter to Thomas Laub and Mona Carter to Gary Cole. He covers the Carter Reunion in Kennel Lake, IL and gives a partial run down of who showed up. There is also mention of the 112th Cavalry Reunion and several names of ex-G Troopers are mentioned. Lastly, he gives a list of friends who died in the past year including some Carter relatives and other residents of Colfax.
The Bi-Centennial Book: Much of my genealogical material is drawn from a book called History Of Lawndale, Martin, And Anchor Townships And The Villages Of Colfax And Anchor. (I simply call it "The Colfax Bi-Centennial Book" for short.) Over time, I am slowly placing many of the biographies in this book on my web page. From this page you can see just how far I've gotten. I must warn the reader however, that I've been told this book does contain historical errors which I myself have not had time to investigate. I must also say that it has an annoying habit of not listing it's sources, making it hard to follow up on any biographical information given here. Still, I think it's a great book and deserves to be on-line where it can be appreciated.
