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Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2009

Warner Robins native turns family history into pet project

John Poynter, Warner Robins High School Class of 1963, has started an ambitious family-history project. Poynter, who now lives in Kansas near his wife’s family, is asking for help with the project, but he also hopes to share his genealogical research with other Middle Georgia families.

Poynter’s great-great-grandfather, John Barrett Everett of Marion in Twiggs County, enlisted in the 6th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company F, in May 1862. The First Battle of Manassas (as it was known to Southerners; the First Battle of Bull Run to the Yankees), already had been fought, and the Battle of Yorktown, in Virginia, was just over.

According to Poynter, military units were being raised on both sides to fight what was no longer considered to be a short or easy war. In Middle Georgia, the call went out for volunteers, and the men of Twiggs, Bibb, Pulaski, Houston, and Wilkinson counties responded. In addition to his great-great-grandfather, Poynter learned, he had other relations in that same unit: His great-great-grandfather’s brother-in-law, John B. Everett, who lost a leg in 1864 at the Crater; Charles Bullard; Henry H. Bullard, who died of wounds he received at Antietam in 1862; Ira Bullard, who died at Bentonville, N.C.; and Wiley Bullard, who died of measles in 1862.

“When I found that I had so many relatives in that one company, I began to wonder if I had other relatives involved in that unit,” Poynter said.

He discovered two more, Romaldo and Henry Julius Whitehead, who were at Appomattox when Lee surrendered. Discovering these relationships was a long process; Poynter did the genealogies of as many members of his great-great grandfather’s regiment as he could.

“During that process, I found that there was a high degree of family interrelationships in that unit. There are 46 close relationships in that unit, out of a total of 140 members.

Most are brothers, some are close cousins, brothers-in-law and even an uncle or two,” said Poynter, who shared some of his information via e-mail.

Poynter’s curiosity with his family history made him wonder how many relations he had in other Twiggs County units. There were four Confederate units from Twiggs County: the 4th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Company C, “Twiggs County Volunteers”; the 6th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Company I, “Twiggs County Guards”; the 26th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Company E, “Faulk Invincibles,” and the 48th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Company G, “Slappey Guards.”

“All, as it turned out, contained my relatives, on the order of 14 each. But in order to find all this out, I had to do the genealogies of each member of each unit, a total of around 500 families.

And of course, there were many men in the rosters whom I wasn’t able to assign to a particular family. They’re just kind of hanging in space and time,” Poynter said.

According to Poynter, each of those units was highly interrelated, with as many as 40 brothers, cousins, uncles and nephews on each roster. Many of the surnames are the names of families who Poynter knew as a student at Warner Robins High.

Poynter would like to expand his research and share the results with anyone who is interested. But he also would like the help of Middle George residents.

Poynter is asking that local residents send him any and all data on Middle Georgia families of the Civil War era or families listed on the rosters of the four Twiggs County units. Documentation of family histories is best, Poynter said, but family legends and stories will also be accepted.

He would also like any information on Confederate Veteran gravesites, regardless of where the grave is located. Headstones might be considered for the graves.

For those interested in local history or their own family genealogy, Poynter said he is willing to share his research, which includes rosters and battle histories of each unit, including detailed information on individual soldiers.

He has offered to help individuals get started with family history projects and to share the databases he has compiled on the members of the Confederate units.

Any information supplied to Poynter will be integrated into his family database and will be made available to the Sons of Confederate Veterans for verification of Confederate ancestors.

Poynter said his work on family genealogy and history reminds him of working on the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle, but he said that living in Kansas he is reminded daily of the importance Southerners place on family.

“When you meet someone up here, the first thing they ask is, ‘What do you do?’

When you meet someone from the South, the first thing they want to know is ‘Where are you from?’ History is very important to Southerners.”

John Poynter can be contacted via e-mail at jack_poynter@att.net.

Contact Alline Kent at allinekent@cox.net or at (478) 396-2467.