Pvt. James M. Bishop, Co. D, 1st Florida Cavalry(US)

bdtex

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Today was a fun day. Last night I was scrolling through my bookmarks and saw something I had forgotten about. 5 years ago,when I was still new to this, I posted on my Facebook page about what I had found in my Civil War research on my ancestor on my mother's side in the 6th Florida Infantry. For some reason I bookmarked that and I think it's because of a reply I got. One of my mother's cousins who lives in Pensacola has done quite bit of genealogical research on our common family. One of his replies had some information that I must have overlooked or just didn't know what I didn't know. At that time everything I knew came from Ancestry and the National Archives. I didn't know fold3 existed or about the NPS database. I was a very new member of this forum at that time too.

As to the relative who posted that in my FB thread. His father and my mother's mother were siblings which I guess makes him my second cousin. We were both probably teenagers the last time we saw each other. In the message,he mentioned that his GG Grandfather,James Michael Bishop, fought with the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US). I don't think it clicked at the time that he was my GGG Grandfather. It clicked last night but it was late and I was on my cellphone. It's easier searching fold3, Ancestry and NPS on a desktop.

I did it today and found a lot of stuff. The first hurdle was that my second cousin had his regiment wrong. The fold3 records for James Michael Bishop say he was in the 1st Florida Cavalry(US), not the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US), and he enlisted on March 15,1864 and mustered out on Nov. 17,1865. There was a Jacob M. Bishop in the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US) in fold3 and he died of typhoid fever in Cedar Key,FLA in September 1864. I cross-checked the regiments on the NPS database and it matched.



More later.
 
Great Info and I knew you had a little more yankee blood in you then you let on too. :D
 
What a thrill - it's like finding a twenty dollar bill in the pocket of an old jacket.
A $20 bill that had been in the pocket for 5 years. :biggrin:
 
The FB reply from my second cousin also said that our common ancestor, James Michael Bishop, is buried in Sandy Creek Cemetery in Ponce de Leon, Florida. That is actually where I started my search today. Found the cemetery and him at FindAGrave.

 
42708127_132899394572.jpg


When I saw the military gravestone on the FindAGrave page, that's when I went to the NPS database to search for him in the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US) roster and discovered the discrepancy.
 
After scrolling through the rosters of the 1st Florida Cavalry(US) and 2nd Florida Cavalry(US) at NPS, I went to Ancestry next to see what kind of family tree information there might be and to see if it had any pension documents. The discrepancy between what my second cousin said about our ancestor's regiment and my findings on NPS and FindAGrave needed to be resolved. As far as I was concerned,pension records showed me that NPS was right and my second cousin and FindAGrave were wrong:

32959_032698-01470.jpg
 
At that point I thought I was done. The pension record was the only military document I could find on Ancestry. Years ago,when I let my fold3 subscription lapse, very few Union records were there except Reference Cards. I gave fold3 a try this time anyway and Boom! 17 pages of records. I even found the records for "Jacob M. Bishop" in the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US). So far,I haven't found any burial record for him. His records say he died of typhoid fever on September 20,1864 at Cedar Keys,FLA, so I'm guessing he was buried there somewhere.

Anyhow,here's my GGG Grandfather's enlistment paper. I noticed right away that he was a farmer,born in Covington County,AL and that he signed his enlistment paper by making his mark "x". A lot of my mother's side of the family is from Covington County,AL. My ancestor in the 40th AL Infantry is buried there along with other kinfolk. He made his mark "x" too.

Bishop, James M (21).jpg
 
There's only one thing bothering me about all this. His enlistment paper posted above and one of his muster records says that he was 21 when he enlisted on March 15,1864 which would have made his birth year 1843 or 1842. His gravestone says he was born in 1837. All of the information I have makes me 99% sure that he is a direct ancestor. They show his wife to be Catharine Bishop and one of their children was Alice Bishop. Alice Bishop married Sidney Sutton. One of their children was Ostella Sutton Smith. She was my great grandmother. I knew her and saw her many times before she died at the age of 90. Sidney Sutton was one of the children of my direct ancestor in the 6th Florida Infantry(CSA).

I found the family of James and Catharine Bishop, including Alice, in the 1880 Census. The problem is that it appears to list James Bishop's age as 43 which would make 1837 his birth year.

Bishop 1880 Census.jpg
 
I have contacted my second cousin in Florida to see what family records he may have. I am looking for Ostella Sutton Smith and Alice Jane Bishop Sutton's death certificates. On James M. Bishop, I am still looking for the headstone application and more pension records.
 
I have learned not to get too hung up on age discrepancies. People didn't seem to be that particular and I often find age and birth dates vary from record to record.
 
I have learned not to get too hung up on age discrepancies. People didn't seem to be that particular and I often find age and birth dates vary from record to record.
I'm not gonna be upset if I can't figure out how/where the discrepancy originated. I've gathered enough to be 99% sure that he is my ancestor. With the travel restrictions,I've got extra time on my hands and I love this genealogy stuff anyway. I'm a 61 year old real estate and probate attorney. I'm used to digging through birth,death,marriage and property records. The stuff you find is interesting. This is a branch of my family that I don't know a lot about yet either. It has been making me a bit sad lately too. They're from the Florida panhandle and Alabama. They were poor then and still are. I've lived in the Houston area since I was 4. As a child,we made a couple of trips a year out there as a family. My mom's father died in 1975 at age 59 and her mother died in 1980 at age 62. After that,the visits were't even annual. The families have grown up and grown apart. I'm saddened by that now but I seem to be the only one in my Texas family still interested about our genealogy. I'm gonna leave something behind in that regard when my time is up.
 
I have learned not to get too hung up on age discrepancies. People didn't seem to be that particular and I often find age and birth dates vary from record to record.
That's why I am particularly interested in the headstone application. That had to be a family member that filed it. I'm guessing the fact that he apparently did not know how to read or write created problems too. He's not the one that filled out any written record I might come across. That is an issue with the men in that branch of my family. My mother's father didn't know how to read or write much either.
 
That's why I am particularly interested in the headstone application. That had to be a family member that filed it. I'm guessing the fact that he apparently did not know how to read or write created problems too I'm guessing. He's not the one that filled out any record I might come across. That is an issue with the men in that branch of my family. My mother's father didn't know how to read or write much either.
Poor reading and writing skills definitely compound the issues with dates. No one in the family keeps a written record and something becomes the standard - a memory maybe - that sticks with everyone even when it isn't correct. Similar things happen with names. A child is christened one thing but then the name morphs later in life and we who look at records 100 years later have to figure out what is "correct"
 
I ordered this book from Abebooks on Saturday. I enjoy reading about Florida in the Civil War in general.

1stFlaCav.jpg
 
Today was a fun day. Last night I was scrolling through my bookmarks and saw something I had forgotten about. 5 years ago,when I was still new to this, I posted on my Facebook page about what I had found in my Civil War research on my ancestor on my mother's side in the 6th Florida Infantry. For some reason I bookmarked that and I think it's because of a reply I got. One of my mother's cousins who lives in Pensacola has done quite bit of genealogical research on our common family. One of his replies had some information that I must have overlooked or just didn't know what I didn't know. At that time everything I knew came from Ancestry and the National Archives. I didn't know fold3 existed or about the NPS database. I was a very new member of this forum at that time too.

As to the relative who posted that in my FB thread. His father and my mother's mother were siblings which I guess makes him my second cousin. We were both probably teenagers the last time we saw each other. In the message,he mentioned that his GG Grandfather,James Michael Bishop, fought with the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US). I don't think it clicked at the time that he was my GGG Grandfather. It clicked last night but it was late and I was on my cellphone. It's easier searching fold3, Ancestry and NPS on a desktop.

I did it today and found a lot of stuff. The first hurdle was that my second cousin had his regiment wrong. The fold3 records for James Michael Bishop say he was in the 1st Florida Cavalry(US), not the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US), and he enlisted on March 15,1864 and mustered out on Nov. 17,1865. There was a Jacob M. Bishop in the 2nd Florida Cavalry(US) in fold3 and he died of typhoid fever in Cedar Key,FLA in September 1864. I cross-checked the regiments on the NPS database and it matched.



More later.
Hi. I am Beth Bishop. James M. Bishop was my Gr Gr Grandfather. I would like to chat with you.
 
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