Mid-West Tennessee Genealogical Society will meet Tuesday, September 14, at 5:30 p.m. at the Jackson-Madison County Library at 433 East Lafayette Street in Jackson. Please note the new time and location.
Kevin McCann will present a program about Robert Cartmell’s Diary and Madison County’s Bicentennial. Robert Henry Cartmell (1828-1915) was a young man on his own for the first time, making his start as a cotton planter in West Tennessee in the 1850s. What began simply as a means to account for his farming activities ultimately evolved into a personal diary of thirty-three (likely thirty-four) volumes through the mid to late nineteenth century and into the first quarter of the twentieth century. Each book chronicled not only his life, but the lives of his family and neighbors, as well as incidents, events, and deaths that took place in Jackson and Madison County, Tennessee. He shared his daily trials and triumphs on the farm, interactions with his enslaved people, his personal life, interest in politics, and opinions about the escalating tensions between North and South over the institution of slavery. This is the first volume of Robert Cartmell's transcribed and annotated diaries.
Anyone interested in genealogy is invited to attend the meeting. Annual membership dues are $20 and include quarterly issues of “Family Findings” with West Tennessee genealogical stories and research tips. Questions should be sent to mwtgs1968@gmail.com.
# # #
September 14 – Kevin McCann – Robert Cartmell’s Diary & Madison County’s Bicentennial
October 12 – Evelyn Grissom Keele – The Making of Historic Madison, the Story of Jackson and Madison County, TN by Emma Inman Williams
November 9 – Gwen McReynolds – Dowsing for Graves & Compiling Genealogical Narratives
December 14 – Vintage Christmas Ornament Show and Tell