Thorn bushes and Golden Ceilings

I have not been posting lately. That does not mean I have not been researching. I try to concentrate on one family at a time....or that family and it's related branches, find as much information as possible, and hopefully be able to put enough of the pieces of the puzzle together to get a picture. You can make sense over a collection of scant information. At other times, one little piece of information is the key to opening a great many doors.

For the past small 'era', I've been chasing ancestors akin to chasing a cat through a thorn bush. You can see it go in, but it's just beyond your reach. Some of these ancestors have led me back into Mecklenburg County. Although it is only an hour away, Mecklenburg is one county I've not gone to the library or R. O. D. or physically any archives of, however. But it looks like that trip is in order.

Mecklenburg does have an outstanding genealogical society that bulletins can be ordered from. It's possible to look up individual ancestors, subjects, or surnames and find the Volume that information is in and order it. It's called The Olde Mecklenburg Genealogical Society. 

I've perused their selection before and recently went back again, and found a wealth of information to order. Now I am in waiting mode again. I do not want to "complete" posts until I've found all I can and await the arrival of the journals. And a trip to Charlotte.

While looking this time, I discovered that there is a wealth of information on some lines in my father's family tree. My paternal grandmother's line is a house of movers and shakers. They did not stay in one place, but they also left deep footprints wherever they went. In other words, they were not the 'sit down and shut up' kind. No thorn bushes here, they left solid and formidable paths and houses with golden ceilings.

On this side, Harriett Catherine Means Lemmonds, born August 20, 1826, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, was one of my third great-grandmothers.

She was the daughter of John Works Means and Margaret Macamie Wilson.  John Works Means was the son of William Means and Isabella C Works. Margaret M. Wilson was the daughter of  the Rev. John Macamie Wilson and Mary Erwin. You would think, that with a name like Mary Erwin, this fifth great-grandmother of mine would be rather anonymous. But No.

Mary Erwin was the daughter of a Revolutionary War Colonel, Alexander Erwin and his wife Sarah Ann Robinson.

He was born in Pennsylvania and migrated south to settle north of Morganton in Burke County. I hope to go soon to visit his grave.

This is a link to his find-a-grave memorial.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19427788