Civil War Blog Challenge - Accepted!

Bill West of the blog "West in New England" has challenged all genealogy bloggers to post about their Civil War ancestors for the 150th anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter and the following four years of war.

Bill, I accept your challenge.  

My direct ancestors who fought during this time were:

• Daniel Hoover - Union - 8th Kentucky Infantry
• John Hoover - Union - 47th Kentucky Infantry (Daniel's son)
• Henry Plowman - Union - 8th Kentucky Infantry
• Richard Aldridge - Union - 8th Kentucky Infantry
• Isaac Hickam - Confederate - 48th Virginia Infantry

Relatives who also fought?  Look at the rolls of the 8th Kentucky and the 47th Kentucky.

Over the next four years, I will be blogging about these men, their units and the battles they took part in.  I will walk where they walked, I will stand where they stood.  

And I will share it with you.

Do They Really Help Us?

Have you felt "guided"  to a place while doing genealogy research?  I've had this happen several times.

Yeah, I'm sounding all (insert mystical music here) weird, but it's happened several times.  Do the people we research help us in some way?  Sometimes its just a pull to a certain area.  Sometimes, it's the hair on the back of my neck standing up.  It's unexplainable, but....well, it's true.  A friend of mine once said that she'd never knew anyone who could find a cemetery like me.

There was a time we were driving with her mom.  I was in the backseat and yelled "Stop" as we were going up a hill in Clark County, Kentucky.  When I got out of the car, there it was - several, several unmarked graves.  We returned the next day to investigate it more.  There were only two marked graves.  As we wandered around, I found an old telephone insulator on the ground.  As I went to pick it up, I saw that it was resting on a grave.  The grave of William Aldridge.  I stood and looked.  And wondered.  My 2g-grandfather had a brother named William B. Aldridge.  I've been searching for more information on this generation of Aldridges in Clark County.  They don't seem to be connected to the rest of the Aldridges in that county.  Is this the William B. Aldridge I've been looking for?  Why was the insulator found right on his grave?  I'd walked past it a couple of times.  Then, the insulation caught my attention.   Was it  serendipity?  Was it just a coincidence?  What caused this insulator to be on this particular grave?  In the cemetery that only had 2 marked graves....  I have no idea, but it happened.

If you Google "Serendipity Genealogy", there are hundreds of stories like mine.

Did William help me find him?  I believe so.  Is he *my* William?  I can't help but believe it is.  Obviously, more research needs to be done, but, regardless, this is yet another episode in the wonderful, frustrating hobby we all have.