Names:Barnett

 

From: Laurie Huffman [[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 11:23 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Kenneth Huffman
Subject: Brasilla Barnett

Dear Dean,

 

My husband, Ken Huffman, passed your request along to me. I am the lucky member of our 2-person team who does the in-depth searches for the website.

 

You really presented us with a challenge, and I am afraid I can’t give you anything in return. I checked every resource available to us, as well as a few internet sources, but came up without even a hint. So I have emailed our friends at the Versailles Area Genealogical & Historical Society to see if they have anything on him or his family (perhaps a death notice), in their museum library. I will let you know the moment I hear back from them. You could also contact them, but they will answer me at no charge (we have a lifetime membership), whereas I think they would charge you an hourly fee.

 

I believe the reason Brasilla and family left Alabama is fairly simple: the Civil War.  Gen. Sherman’s campaign against Georgia, with ripple effects devastating the surrounding states, was waged between May and September of 1864. Thousands of families became refugees. Many who were either opposed to the South’s succession from the Union, or gradually became convinced of the error of the decision, were forced to go north. Brasilla Barnett may have been one of these.

 

There was at least one Barnett family already in Brown County during this time period, and they may have been related to Brasilla. In my experience, people do not just head somewhere unknown without a contact person at the other end. Perhaps they knew they could find a temporary residence with cousins.

 

It is interesting that the record you have says Brasilla died of typhoid fever. I am wondering if he had contracted it during the exodus north. The South was already suffering hundreds of civilian deaths resulting from disease by this time. Perhaps he was ill when he arrived, and did not survive long.

 

I’m sorry I haven’t any more information to offer, but I will keep your name and query on file and if I do happen upon anything helpful, I will notify you. I will, as I said, also let you know that the volunteers at VAGHS say.

 

Best wishes,

 

Laurie Huffman, Co-Coordinator

Brown County, IL-GenWeb Project