A Vick Genetics Project in 1827 – Vick’s 100 Cotton Seed

As I was indexing volume XIII of the Vick Family Newsletter tonight I came across a story about Henry William Vick. It turns out Colonel Henry may have organized our family’s first genetics project. The newsletter article was based upon information in Nitta Yuma King Cotton. The article says the following on page 15:

‘it was in the year 1827 or 8…my brother Gray Vick and myself then planting
together at the prairie near Manchester (Yazoo City) on the Yazoo River, known
among the Choctaw Indians as Nitta Yuma…procured from Thomas Vaughn of Petit
Gulf Hills some of his ‘Little Brown’ Mexican cotton seed, which were considered
at least equal to or superior to any of that celebrated
variety.


On establishing myself, in 1831,…on [land] on which my brother Willie B. Vick
had for many years resided and planted previous to his death (1817 to 18300 I
ordered from Thomas Vaughn 100 bushels of seed for which I paid him seventy-five
dollars, and continued the order for the same quantity, at the same price, for
five years.’



(The third year, Mr. Vaughn supplied Henry William with 100 bushels of what he
considered his best yield. The seed he supplied the two following years
was not comparable, so H.W. decided to improve the seed he had.)
‘…it was not until the month of March of this present year, 1844, that I made discovery of the fact that my former method, the one usually practiced by planters in the Petit Gulf Hills of selecting from the bank of seed those of a certain color,
coat and size, would not and could not carry the improvement of any considerable
degree of perfection.


The discovery I allude to was made this way. In the month of
September and October last year, having no answer, and being perpetually with
the hands while picking, I was in the habit of looking, examining ahead for the
best stalks, bolls and cotton, and upon meeting with a very superior stalk, of
picking the cotton and keeping it to self, and upon returning to the house
putting the separate parcels in paper to themselves. In the month of
March, preparatory to planting, I picked with my own hands the various lots…and
was surprised to find…they exhibited 2 find distinct varieties of seed and
consequently of cotton…


On the 4th of April, I planted the various lots of seed picked by me by hand,
and the wagon having passed frequently unknown to the driver over my favorite
lot – which in consequence of the 10 or 12 locks having furnished precisely 100
seed – I call my strain the 100 seed variety.’

Progress in Indexing Place Names in the "Vick Family Newsletter"

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I have been indexing the place names in the Vick Family Newsletter. All of the volumes (except one) have name indexes of the people, so a place name index would allow us to cross-reference people to places (or places to people). Eventually I hope to put all of the index references (people and places, newsletters and book) in Microsoft Access to make the cross-referencing much more efficient.

So far I have indexed the first ten volumes. Having one index of all the volumes would be ideal, but I am going to have to do it in two parts if I am also going to start publishing the index in the newsletter this year. Part I will be an index through volume XV. As it turns out the Joseph Vick Family of America sold soft copies of volumes I through XV bound in two parts. So, an index of those volumes would be particularly handy for anyone who has the bound copies. Part II will then complete the newsletter volumes. After I finish part II, I will merge the two parts into one index which can then be placed on a CD with all of the newsletters. Pam Vick and her sister have scanned all of the newsletters, and she believes they will be searchable. The index will provide another layer of search because it will contain the city, county, and state for places that can be associated with them. The index, therefore, will allow you to find all of the places in a county, for example, that are mentioned in any of the newsletters even if the county name isn’t included in the article’s text (provided the newsletter had enough detail to identify the county or that the location was in a county).

Well, I had better get to indexing. I am holding up the newsletter.

Work on the January 2010 The Vick Family Newsletter

Pam Vick (assistant editor) and I have started putting together the January 2010 The Vick Family Newsletter. Beyond the normal columns (e.g. Footnotes, In Memoriam, New Members, etc.) we will have at least four feature articles. Of course, the first one will be about the late Di Ann Vick, co-author of Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight County, Virginia and His Descendants, and past editor of The Vick Family Newsletter. I was surprised at how little I found about Di Ann in past issues of the newsletter. Hopefully, we can find a photo of Di Ann to put in the article.

The second feature article will be a lineage of John Stephen McArthur6 (Stephen5, Jacob4, Isaac3, William2, Joseph1). A lineage of his brother, Sebastian C. “Captain Bass” was in the April 2009 newsletter.

While we have a regular column on The Vick Y-DNA Project, the third feature article will expand that column to include information about our new Vick and Allied Families DNA project at 23andMe. Our new project allows us to include female and non-patrilineal male Vick descendants’ DNA test results in our efforts to reconstruct Vick family trees.

The final feature article will be a place name index to the first two volumes of the newsletter (1985 and 1986). Last year we published a place name index to the book, and this year we will publish a place name index for many of the early volumes of the newsletter. We hope to help researchers identify the locations where they can find information on Joseph1’s descendants.

Since it is already past mid January, we have our work cut out for us.

Recording Our Research Work in a Blog

A couple of months ago I gave a presentation to the Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County (GSPBC) about one-name studies. Of course, I used my own Vick one-name study as an example. After the presentation I was talking with one of the attendees about ideas for future GSPBC presentations (I am the 1st Vice President and my primary responsibility is arranging programs for the general meetings). As we talked it occurred to me that a program on blogs might be something of interest to our GSPBC members. As we talked I also realized that many people have collected and are collecting a great deal of family history information that they would like to publish, but for many reasons they may never getting around to publishing.

The thought I came away with (which I am sure isn’t new) is that perhaps blogging might be a great way for people to record their research findings in small, manageable entries. Their research would be preserved on the internet, and anyone could access and comment on it. Their blogs might even lead to valuable contacts.

One of my other genealogical interests is The Vick Family Newsletter. I am the editor. To put more meat into this blog I am going to start including more information in my blog about the articles I am writing for the newsletter. Perhaps the blog will also encourage people with additional information to contact me about the articles I am writing. It would be good to catch any mistakes or to find additional information before an article is published. Maybe people who would like to contribute material to the newsletter, but don’t want to write an article, would want to be contributors.

I look forward to seeing how this all turns out.

The Passing of Di Ann Vick

Di Ann Vick, one of the leading researchers of Vick family history and long time member of the Board of Directors of the Joseph Vick Family of America died on December 13, 2009, at the age of 72. Di Ann was co-author of Joseph Vick of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight County, Virginia and His Descendants. Starting with the April 1993 issue of The Vick Family Newsletter she became its publisher. Then in July 1993 she became the co-editor of the newsletter. Finally, from January 1997 until May 2008, Di Ann was the editor of the newsletter. Di Ann was also the administrator of the Vick RootsWeb surname mail list since December 2002.

Her parents were Walter and Effie (Beckom) Vick. Di Ann was born on June 20, 1937, in Jefferson Co., TX, and she died in Philadelphia, PA. She was not married and has no descendants.

She will be missed greatly by those who are interested in Vick family history and the Joseph Vick Family of America.