Circa 1884 McCuiston House
Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:30 pm
Who is excited? I am excited!! The great-granddaughter of the man who built my house is coming to visit next Saturday, after Thanksgiving! She is planning to bring her grandson as well, whom to my knowledge has never seen the place, except for driving past it.
She and her daughter have searched through several boxes and found a number of old photographs of the house before any changes were made in the '20s and '30s. I am so excited!!!
I need to start a new thread on how I contacted the original family because there was a bit to it, and it might be of help to others here who wish to do the same. I traced back the property records as far as I possibly could, then researched each name online. (You would be surprised what you can find on Google... kinda scary! ) I ended up discovering through finding obituaries that the house was basically passed down through the women of the family, which, of course, is not a common thing. So it went from the builder --> his daughter --> her niece (the granddaughter) --> the niece's daughter (great-granddaughter). The great-granddaughter raised her children in the house (great-great-grandkids), and from what I understand then sold it out of the family when they went to Virginia.
I then started a new family tree on my Ancestry.com account and plugged in the information from the oldest obituary I found. From there, I was able to find more obituaries, which eventually led me to people still living. I then went to yellowpages.com, clicked "find people" and called one of the great-granddaughters who lives in the area.
I then left one of the most awkward voicemails in my life... "Hey, my name is Michelle ***, and I just purchased the old white farmhouse on the corner of *** and ***. I am planning to restore it back to the way it originally was myself, so I did some searching online and found that you are kin to the people who seem to have built the house. I was wondering if you might know of any old pictures, stories, or anything else to do with the house that might help me with putting it back to the way it was. I promise, I am not a crazy nut--I work for *** and am on their website as staff, which you can find at ***. I would love to talk with you about this lovely old farmhouse. If you would, too, please call me at *****."
Within about 15 minutes, I had a call from the extremely excited husband. They went on speakerphone and shared stories from when she was growing up and going to visit her great-aunt who lived there, getting in trouble for slamming the door on what was once the screened porch, etc. She then pointed me to contact her sister, who was the last one to own the house, and who had a bunch of the old pictures. I found her on Facebook, sent her a private message, and have had a new friend ever since.
So, next Saturday, her sister gets to visit (and hopefully she herself as well), and the great-great-great-grandson of John McCuiston gets to walk the floors himself.
I will be sure to share the pictures here, and will be using this thread to post my progress on the house.
She and her daughter have searched through several boxes and found a number of old photographs of the house before any changes were made in the '20s and '30s. I am so excited!!!
I need to start a new thread on how I contacted the original family because there was a bit to it, and it might be of help to others here who wish to do the same. I traced back the property records as far as I possibly could, then researched each name online. (You would be surprised what you can find on Google... kinda scary! ) I ended up discovering through finding obituaries that the house was basically passed down through the women of the family, which, of course, is not a common thing. So it went from the builder --> his daughter --> her niece (the granddaughter) --> the niece's daughter (great-granddaughter). The great-granddaughter raised her children in the house (great-great-grandkids), and from what I understand then sold it out of the family when they went to Virginia.
I then started a new family tree on my Ancestry.com account and plugged in the information from the oldest obituary I found. From there, I was able to find more obituaries, which eventually led me to people still living. I then went to yellowpages.com, clicked "find people" and called one of the great-granddaughters who lives in the area.
I then left one of the most awkward voicemails in my life... "Hey, my name is Michelle ***, and I just purchased the old white farmhouse on the corner of *** and ***. I am planning to restore it back to the way it originally was myself, so I did some searching online and found that you are kin to the people who seem to have built the house. I was wondering if you might know of any old pictures, stories, or anything else to do with the house that might help me with putting it back to the way it was. I promise, I am not a crazy nut--I work for *** and am on their website as staff, which you can find at ***. I would love to talk with you about this lovely old farmhouse. If you would, too, please call me at *****."
Within about 15 minutes, I had a call from the extremely excited husband. They went on speakerphone and shared stories from when she was growing up and going to visit her great-aunt who lived there, getting in trouble for slamming the door on what was once the screened porch, etc. She then pointed me to contact her sister, who was the last one to own the house, and who had a bunch of the old pictures. I found her on Facebook, sent her a private message, and have had a new friend ever since.
So, next Saturday, her sister gets to visit (and hopefully she herself as well), and the great-great-great-grandson of John McCuiston gets to walk the floors himself.
I will be sure to share the pictures here, and will be using this thread to post my progress on the house.