Lest We Forget, Furry, Button, Bates

Along the way of searching for our ancestors The Three Sisters have made many discoveries about our family.  We often advise those searching for family history that one of the most effective research tools is finding an older family connection that has already done much work on our shared family history.  Two of our most useful bits of Powell history came to us from Furry, Button, and Bates.


James Furry passed on to us his copy of information from our  Charles Powell Bible.  James received this from William Garland Button.  The list of names and dates from this Bible has been one of the most useful tools in tracking down our early American Powell family history.

The Three Sisters have, I believe, more than paid this forward by sharing this and our other family discoveries with hundreds of other interested amateur historians.  We often see something on the net that seems to be a hint of something new only to find ourselves as the originator.

Hazel Bates had been researching her family before some of us were even born.  She shared generously and freely with us and others. One small copy of one piece of paper among the many she sent us that has proven most valuable in establishing our Charles Powell military history was a list of deserters from the Halifax County, Virginia Revolutionary Militia.  This is actually the only Revolutionary War document that we can definitively say is our own Charles Powell.  And, the DAR agrees because we have found DAR membership papers for Charles Powell descendants citing this Halifax County Militia service as proof of Revolutionary service.  However, we have yet to find any DAR document that in any way mentions this is actually documentation of desertion from that Militia.  Just the same, Hazel was a really big help to us in finding our Kentucky Powell family.

We remember.

Freedom

by Fleta

Shackled and Chained,

Yoked and Bound,

Dreaming of Freedom,

New Worlds, New Ground.

Give him just one glance,

He'll never again be found,

Shackled and Chained,

Yoked and Bound.