Brands and Barbed Wire

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 7 (Feb 15-21)

Prompt: Unusual Source
#52ancestors

I’ve found unusual and important information from lots of different kinds of records, but the records themselves were not unusual sources. Most genealogy is being meticulous in searching the usual sources. However, often the family heirlooms are what give you the life stories.

For several years, we had a camping family reunion. On one of those weekends, my Uncle brought my Grandparents branding irons. My Uncle Ted shared stories about using the irons as he was growing up. There are two irons, one a capital M and the other a bar. Up to that point, I thought that my Grandparents brand was a rocking M, but my Uncle who helped in the branding when he was growing up knew it was bar M, a bar over the M.

I discovered that brands are often recorded at the local courthouse. The McCarley brand was not recorded at the courthouse in Duncan, the county seat for Stephens County, Oklahoma. However, there are still several courthouses that need to be searched to see if the brand was recorded.

 Bringing the branding irons to the reunion not only allowed us to learn more about the family but caused us to build more memories. We found chunks of wood left around the foundation of the old house, built a fire, and burned the brand into the wood for anyone who wanted it. I also found some short strands of rusted barbed wire on the old homeplace and wrapped it around the chunk of wood that I branded. My Uncle supervised us to make sure that brand was correct.