Found a Booth connection

[DixieRifles]

I rather doubt it as Garrett is a fairly common name but you never know. Would be a very distant relation if so. Do you know anything about him ? Did he come from Virginia Garretts ?

I had a family member marry a GARRETT but I think it was after they moved from Virginia into South Carolina. And he followed my HILL family into Mississippi. Hmm. I wonder.

 

[John Winn]

I had a family member marry a GARRETT but I think it was after they moved from Virginia into South Carolina. And he followed my HILL family into Mississippi. Hmm. I wonder.

Well, PM me with what you have and I'll check my stuff and see if we cross paths. I only traced my direct male line pretty much - back to my gggg grandfather Garrett - and only siblings I located were those of my gg grandmother (she was my Garrett link). I didn't get into the children of siblings. My line is from Albemarle County, VA. Have a look and see if any of your folk were from Albemarle Co.

 

[jnframpton]

Well, sort of. It turns out that my ggg grandfather was a first cousin of Richard Henry Garrett who owned the farm where Booth was killed. That would make me a first cousin five times removed of Richard.

I rather doubt my ggg grandpa actually knew Richard as they lived on opposite sides of the state and were only related by uncles but it's still a cool find for me.

Just wanted to tell somebody (nobody I know or am related to cares a whit). "What Garrett farm ?" "John Wilkes who ?"

"John Wilkes who?" Oh that makes me cringe... I have found my friends are more intrigued by my family findings than my own family at times, my sister said " I was gonna throw out all the old letters and stuff of Grandma's, (a shoebox size) or do you want it?"

 

[John Winn]

"John Wilkes who?" Oh that makes me cringe... I have found my friends are more intrigued by my family findings than my own family at times, my sister said " I was gonna throw out all the old letters and stuff of Grandma's, (a shoebox size) or do you want it?"

I've heard similar stories many times and that makes me cringe ! I think maybe a number of people in my family (on both sides) had the same feelings as your sister as hardly anything in the way of letters, photos, diaries and the like survived. My parents had perhaps four photos between them and none of their siblings had anything either and none seemed to care. When my mother finally died I realized I didn't know anything about the family so I started to do some research and discovered that there were some really interesting people and stories (like two ggg grandfathers who were friends of Thomas Jefferson and helped start the U. of VA). I also found out I had great aunts who lived well into my lifetime and not too far away from us who I'd never heard even mentioned and that both parents had siblings who had died young (also never mentioned). When my dad died I discovered that he had been married before my mother and had two daughters. He'd never mentioned that either.

So, I do hope you took that shoebox and are preserving the contents. I wish somebody in my line had kept a shoebox or two.