Why Analyze Genealogical Data?

Genealogy is a constant learning process. In the beginning stages, the question may be, who were my great-grandparents. Learning a name and where they lived fills in an empty spot on a family tree and for many that is sufficient. But once a name on a tree is not enough and you decide to look for documentation to track where they lived and worked, bore their children and are buried, the need for careful examination and evaluation of what you find becomes important.

Yesterday, as I was trying to clear up a death date – to which of the multiple Leanders did it belong [I had the same birth/death dates for two Leanders - one in Linn County, Missouri and one in Carroll County, Virginia]. Although the Virginia death date came from the family Bible, it was beginning to look as if it were the one in error]. In this process, I came across a perfect illustration of why it’s important to analyze the data from the documents you find. Although the search began with Leander Lineberry, eventually the bigger question of the moment became who were the parents of Robert J. (R.J.) Lineberry.

I started with information from the 1900 census for Linn County, Missouri for Leander Lineberry, which showed him with a second wife [first wife, Prissilla Coulson Lineberry, had died in 1893].

This record shows that he and his wife, Mary, have been married for six years and that she is the mother of one child born/one child living. She is recorded as 52 years old, which would mean she was over 45 when a child of that marriage would have been born; however, there is no child enumerated within the household. The most logical interpretation for this information would be that her child had been born in a previous relationship, but at this point only a guess.

I found the marriage record for Leander and Mary, which verified what I had already learned from other family records – that his second wife was Mary Harmon:

The 1850 census for the Harmon family shows both Mary ‘Polly’ Harmon and her sister Elizabeth still living at home in Carroll County, Virginia with their widowed father, Patrick, my third great-grandfather:

When I looked at the 1880 census for Mary Harmon, I found her living with her sister, Elizabeth Harmon and her husband, Joseph H. Lineberry, and their children.

By the 1880 census, relationships within a family unit are listed; the relationships are listed as to how they are related to the head of household. Typically, a census lists the core family as a unit before listing any other people living in the household. Since that is not the case here, it is cause for wondering why. The core family would appear to be Joseph and Elizabeth and two children, Patrick L. and Harriet A. with Mary Harmon as a sister-in-law living with them. The insertion of Robert Lineberry below Mary as a son of the core family is a little unusual and the main reason for further consideration. The 1870 census for Mary sheds a little light on the situation.

Joseph and Elizabeth are shown on the previous page, which I have not copied; at the top of the second page are three of their children – Wilburn, Alverdo and Patrick. In the next household [this enumerator seemed to place the household numbers at the bottom of a family unit rather than at the top], Mary Harmon is enumerated with her son, Robert Harmon. Since Harmon is Mary’s maiden name, it leads to a possibility of his birth being outside of a marital relationship [it would not be unheard of for her to have married someone with her same surname]. This listing does seem to support the interpretation from the 1880 census that the listing of Robert underneath the name of Mary rather than underneath the core Lineberry family was not an accident. It does not, however, address the name change from Harmon to Lineberry and whether this was an enumerator choice or reflected some surname shift.

Checking with Ancestry.com family trees for Robert Harmon Lineberry does not show anything for the Harmon name, but does for Robert Lineberry. Every tree shows him as a son of Joseph and Elizabeth Harmon Lineberry. If one stopped at the 1880 census and the listing of him as a son of the head of household without considering his placement on the census form, that would be the conclusion.

However, assembling information on a family line is a process that, over time, gives a lot of variables – from that list of variables, I now know Robert Harmon went by R. J. Lineberry. a 1900 census listing for R. J. Lineberry provides additional insight to help clarify who he was:

This record shows R. J. living in a presumably unrelated household, listed as a servant but [not shown in this image] also working as a saw mill hand. He is listed as 35 and widowed; I have not yet discovered a marriage record to account for the widowed status. Here is the more telling piece of the puzzle: both he and his mother were listed as born in Virginia but he doesn’t know the birth location of his father, which would not be the case if Joseph Lineberry were that father.

Still with the name of Robert J. Lineberry, two years later, there is a marriage record for him and Mary J. Briggs.

I found a FindAGrave record for R. J. Lineberry showing his death in April 1909. The 1910 census record gives credence to that death:

This 1910 record supports several items of interpretation even though it is an enumerator mess – please note the head of household is listed as Mary Lineberry [who only picked up the name of Lineberry in her 1896 marriage so not pertinent to the 1865/66 birth of her now known to be only child]; this Mary is widowed and 64, while her mother-in-law is also Mary Lineberry who is widowed and only 24. Additionally, Robert is listed as a female born in about 1907 – Robert was, in fact, a male child who died in 1909 while there was another male child, Theodore, who was born in 1909 but is not listed. That misinformation notwithstanding, we can now see that Robert’s mother was not Elizabeth Harmon Lineberry, but was Mary Harmon Lineberry – she, once again is listed as having had one child, this time deceased, while Mary Briggs Lineberry is the mother of four children, one of whom is deceased [Robert, the who is the one listed as living].

The FindAGrave record for Mary L. Lineberry opened new questions. It listed her as the spouse of R. J. Lineberry rather than the Leander of the marriage license and 1900 census. It also illustrates another reason to not take records at face value – if I had, I would have believed this death/burial record to be for another Mary L. Lineberry. Upon a review of the details, this Mary Lineberry’s birth is listed as 6 January 1845 while her spouse, R. J. Lineberry, has a birth date of 16 November 1866 – he would have been 19 years younger than his wife (not impossible but certainly unusual); additionally, the 1910 record for R.J.’s wife, Mary, would show her to have been quite young at the time of her marriage – perhaps 15. Since Mary Harmon was approximately 19 years old at the time of the birth of her son Robert J. Harmon-Lineberry, I had to wonder if  this was perhaps a mis-linking by the FindAGrave memorial creator. I emailed him with my questions and a request for any supportive details he might be able to provide in order to determine if this record was my Mary Harmon Lineberry or another Mary Lineberry. He responded by saying he couldn’t determine why he had them linked since this memorial was Mary L. and R.J.’s wife was M. J. He said he would look into it and get back with me. After several emails back and forth his conclusion is that R.J. was, in fact, the son of Mary L. Lineberry rather than her spouse. He also contacted his sister who provided a brief obituary for Mary L. Lineberry, a transcription [or summary] is below:

June 24, 1921
Died, Mrs L. Lineberry died rural home near St. Catherine age 76. Services at Wyandotte Chapel Husband and son preceded her some years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Griffin had cared for her for a number of years.  This came from the Marceline Mirror-Journal 1920–1924. [The date listed is the date of publication - her death date was 21 June 1921.]

A marriage record for Beulah Lineberry, the child listed in the 1910 census] shows her mother as Mary Griffin who had to give permission for her underage daughter to marry, which record, combined with the obituary, tells me Mary Briggs Lineberry Griffin continued to provide a home for her mother-in-law until her death in 1921.

Although I still do not know when, why or how Robert Harmon changed his surname to Lineberry, I believe it is clear from the record that he did. I also believe that since Elizabeth Harmon Lineberry was not his mother, it is not likely that Joseph Lineberry was his father [though such complicated relationships are not unheard of] – the 1900 census record stating he did not know the birth location of his father is also supportive of the interpretation that Joseph was not his father. I have not searched for any possible legal name change papers, but it is highly probable that due to being raised in the home of his aunt and uncle, Joseph and Elizabeth Lineberry, and to avoid the difficult issue of illegitimacy, and going to school with his cousins that the name merely evolved over time. It is also clear that his relationship with his mother remained over that same period of time, in spite of a name change.

Without taking the time to analyze as broad a spectrum of the paper trail as is feasible, the names and relationships on a family tree are likely to contain a relatively large degree of misinformation and error. To utilize an expression most of us heard when we were growing up – “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.” Genealogy or filling in names on your family tree is a great illustration of that family adage.

M. Robert Welch – Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings’ Saturday Night Genealogy Fun assignment for this week is:

1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born?  Divide this number by 100 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your “roulette number.”

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an “ahnentafel” - your software will create this – use the “Ahnentafel List” option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the “roulette number.”

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

I arbitrarily picked my mother’s grandfather, George Alex Lineberry, who was born in 1844. Dividing that by 100 gave me 18.44; I chose to round up rather than down because I have already written several times about my number 18 ahnentafel grandparent, Nancy Foster Buckner Watson Saling.

Number 19 on the chart would be Mellie Jane Welch Willis’ (my maternal grandmother) grandfather, M. Robert Welch. We don’t know a great deal about him. Even when I thought Robert and Sarah Welch were my great-grandfather’s parents, I wasn’t at all confident. What information we have has been very hard-fought for. We believe he was born November 7, 1828 in South Carolina to Elisha ‘Eli’ and Jane Blakeney Welch and died October 13, 1861 in Fayette County, Alabama. He married the former Sarah A. Farquhar in about 1851. Robert and Sarah had four children: Basheba Jane Welch (1853), James Alexander Welch (ca. 1854), Mary Isabella Welch (1858) and William Thomas Welch (1860).

Our research on Robert Welch is still very incomplete. When my daughter, Kay and I had the opportunity to travel to Fayette County, Alabama in 2010, we searched for probate documentation to see if we could find anything on Robert Welch that might confirm or deny him as the father of William Thomas. We did find administration files that identified his widow as Sarah A. Welch and listed each child’s full name, including William Thomas, plus the fact Robert died before 1862.

Over the past two years, I have assembled a fairly convincing amount of supportive documentation for the identification of Robert as William Thomas’ father, including, the fact the administrator of his estate was James Farquhar, who I eventually discovered was the father of his widow.

In June 1858, Robert purchased 80 acres of land in Fayette County and in July 1860 he purchased another 40 acres of land (since the plot below shows 160 acres, he also purchased an additional 40 acres). A land map of the time period in Fayette County reveals the proximity of his land to his in-law’s land (James Farquhar a little below and to the right).

A few months ago I received an email from someone in the Farquhar family who told me the family tradition says the person buried in the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery across from the family homestead listed as M. R. Welch was the deceased spouse of their daughter, Sarah. Since the birth death dates listed above were taken from that headstone and they fit the information we have discovered about Robert, I believe the tradition likely to be accurate.

Although we have managed to compile a framework of basic information about Robert, including what we can learn from the 1850 and 1860 census records, land purchase records, the administration papers for his estate and the presumed location of his burial, we know very little about him, his parents or his siblings. I would, as always, welcome input from any Welch, Blakeney or Farquhar/McGuire descendant who can shed more light on this man who died in his prime.

My Family – 100 Years Ago – Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver in this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun has given us this mission:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 January 1913 – 100 years ago.

2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.

My grandparents, Zed Hamp and Mellie Jane Welch Willis were living in New Salem Precinct, Itawamba County, Mississippi April 23, 1910 when the census enumerator listed them. Their children at the time were Franklin (7), Thomas (6) [my daddy], John (4), Earnest (3) and Ruthy (1 yr 8 months). Mellie would have been early in her pregnancy with the next son, Rufus Rex who was born in December 25, 1910. They were family number 155 while family number 158 was Mellie’s brother, James W. Welch, and his wife, Pearlie, and their 3-year-old daughter, Brazzie.

On a visit to the library in Fulton, Itawamba, Mississippi in 2002, we found a 1912 listing of school students and all but Ruth were listed as students in Township 10, Range 9 of Itawamba County. This would have been two to three miles north of New Salem where they were for the 1910 census (Township 11, Range 9). I found an old Itawamba map that shows the township/range on it; I copied just that section to have some idea of where that was.

By the time of the 1920 census they were just south of the New Salem location in Smithville, Monroe, Mississippi, which might indicate they were somewhere within a 25 to 30 mile straight line  in eastern Mississippi. However, another child, Lee Roy, was born May 17, 1913 and his birth location was Fayette County, Alabama, which was the marriage location as well as the birth location for the first three of their children (the first daughter died in infancy). Whether they had moved back to Alabama for a brief time between 1912 and May 1913 or whether Mellie had delivered a baby on a visit there is not known, although we did find a quit claim deed for 40 acres of land in Township 10, Range 9 that was conveyed in May 1919, which would indicate they were most likely living there from 1912 through 1919.

Zed Hamp’s father and my great-grandfather, James Franklin Willis was born and died in Fayette County, Alabama. J.F.’s wife had died about 1883  and his mother sometime between the 1900 and 1910 censuses but he lived until 1926. On a trip to Fayette County in 2010, a second cousin, Charles Burns, drove us along Old Gin Road and pointed out locations where JF had lived. The land was totally overgrown with no homes anywhere along Old Gin Road. At the end of the road, we made a right turn onto Ballenger Road and Charles drove us by the last home location for JF when he lived with his son John William. We do have a photo of that home taken in 1961.

Although J.F.’s wife and my great-grandmother, Mary Jane Buckner Willis, had died sometime after 1883, and her father died during the Civil War, her mother lived until 1917. Nancy Foster Buckner Watkins Saling moved to Wise County, Texas sometime around the middle of the 1890s where she married for the third time in 1897. According to a Civil War pension file dated December 1913, Nancy had resided in Decatur, Texas for 20 years. On a trip to Wise County in 2011, we drove through areas we had found records about her and visited Oaklawn Cemetery in Decatur, Texas where she is buried.

My paternal grandmother Mellie’s parents, William Thomas and Mary Monroe ‘Molly’ Sanford Welch were living in Fulton, Itawamba, Mississippi at the time of the 1910 census. Also enumerated in the family home were Jessie Ellis (21), Lovie (16), Essie (15) and Myrtie (11). We do not have any photos of their home. Today would have been their  134th wedding anniversary, having married January 5, 1879 in Fayette County, Alabama at the home of his brother, James Alexander ‘Bud’ Welch. Mellie’s grandparents were both deceased prior to 1913 (in 1907 and 1911).

My mother’s parents, Jacob Wesley and Eva Keithley Lineberry were living in the Capitol Hill area of Oklahoma City. There are city directories for almost every year available on ancestry.com and the majority of them show them living at 318 Avenue D, which is approximately the 300 block of SW 26th Street in Oklahoma City. In 1908 he was a carpenter, 1910 a dairyman, 1913 working in feed and coal – from letters he wrote to his brother, he was actually working in feed and coal in Cushing, Oklahoma and only managing to come visit his family in Oklahoma City periodically.

The children living in the home on Avenue D would have been Willie (11), Bernita (9), Johnnie (7), Leonard (5), Joe (3) and George (1); my mother would not be born for another year. We were sent a photo of their home by a distant relative who found it in a box of photos in Galax, Virginia, which is where Jacob was from – he had presumably sent it to his sister.

The woman on the left is unidentified but the woman on the right is Eva and the children are Bernita, Johnnie and Leonard in Eva’s arms; the picture would have been taken about 1909.

Jacob’s father, George Alex Lineberry, had remarried in 1896 after the death of Jacob’s mother. George (67) and Amanda (37) and their five living children were enumerated the 1910 census in Sulphur Springs, Carroll, Virginia. He was a farmer in the Blue Ridge mountains and we do not have any pictures of his home.

Eva’s parents were both deceased prior to 1913; her mother sometime around 1890 and her father in 1911. Her father was living in Joplin, Jasper, Missouri at the time of his death. Her paternal grandmother died in Lewiston, Fulton, Illinois in May 1912 and we have no information on her maternal grandparents.

None of the residences of my grandparents and great-grandparents still exist and I’ve never seen any of them; in fact all but Zed Hamp died before I was born and he died when I was one year old.

Tugging on Clues

I was searching for Farquhar family when I noted a Welch family on the same census page and decided to record that information while I was there. The next thing I knew, I was sidetracked from Farquhar to Welch. One of the daughters in this Welch line is a great illustration on the complexity of the search for ancestors  and why it is important to look for more than just an ancestor’s name and absolutely necessary to follow crazy-seeming clues to gain a more thorough view of an ancestor [so I decided to get sidetracked again and write a blog].

The 1870 census was slightly confusing because the columns, in order, represent Family Number, Surname, First Name, Age, Gender, Race, Occupation, Value of Real and Personal Property and State of Birth. In the Race column, this family is listed as Black,which should have indicated this is not my family line.  However, because in previous  and following censuses, the names and relative ages of these, family members were not black, I had to assume this was an enumerator error, probably caused by not completing the census during the interview but filling in columns at a later time.  The family members are John (75), Sarena (35), Cranner/Dianner (11), Malissa (9), and William (4) Welch. [by searching multiple years of censuses and death records, the Cranner/Dianner name was ultimately shown to be Milly Diana, but also shows a southern pronunciation characteristic of names ending in 'a' taking on the 'er' sound].

The 1880 census indicates this is a white family and again, with minor changes or additions, they appear to be the same people: John (87), Serena (45, Milly (19), Malissa (17) and William R. (14). Birth locations are the same as in 1870. The daughter Cranner/Dianner from 1870 has an additional name of Milly.

When I had done what I could with finding information on John and Serena [Serena, by the way is a second wife and I have information on John and his first wife and children as well], I looked at some of the trees on Ancestry.com to see if there might be clues to tug on. I found Milly Diana with a husband still listed as living and therefore private, so couldn’t see his name; however, the above 1880 census was linked to her so I was able to pick up a name for her husband, Rosco Davis. Additionally, Diana’s sister Malissa was living with them so I found her as well.

When I finished with Diana and Roscoe whom I discovered from more clue tugging was actually Richard Oscar Davis, I moved on to see if I could find a marriage for Malissa. One of the Ancestry.com trees had her married to a Thomas J. Davis, so off for more tugging.

I prefer to find information in date order, but I didn’t find a census for 1910, but I did find a 1920 census.

Thomas is 20 years older than Malissa and I now have a middle initial ‘C.’ to add to my search clues. I checked out FindAGrave and got a full name for her husband, Thomas Jefferson Davis, and discovered by links there that he was a brother to Milly Diana’s husband Richard Oscar Davis. I also got birth and death dates for both of them. Once I plugged in death dates in Ancestry.com, I was rewarded with a transcription from their Alabama death certificates; in Malissa’s case, it confirmed she was the daughter of John Welch, although his birth location was listed as North Carolina rather than South Carolina.

Another clue popped up as a pension application. Thomas died in 1923, which left Malissa as an unemployed/unemployable woman with no income and no children to support her. Thomas had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and had been receiving a pension. In the pension application, Malissa (who referred to herself as Malissie) noted she married Thomas on January 29, 1901 on one application page and January 30, 1901 on a different application page. She also listed a middle name of Caroline.

From FindA Grave, the person who prepared the memorials had linked a previous wife, Catherine, to Thomas and had her death date as 1899. The 1900 census had Malissa living with her sister and brother-in-law as a single woman, so I knew their marriage had to have taken place after those 1899 and 1900 events. As I reviewed marriage documents, I noted one for Fayette County between Thomas J. Davis and Sallie Welch on January 30, 1901. Both the date and the maiden name seemed worth looking at, so I plugged it in and found the 1910 census I had been unable to locate.

The ages are slightly different from the earlier-discovered 1920 census – 74/54 versus 60/40 but the same 20-year difference is present. This is clearly the couple in the marriage license because in the 5th small column over it lists a 9-year marriage, although the enumerator noted it was the first marriage for both of them. The two zeros are on the wrong line but indicate the wife has not borne any children and no children are living.

With the name of Sallie as a new and totally unexpected clue, I searched for Sallie Davis for a 1930 census and found one I’d seen before, but just didn’t know to look for Sallie.

When I recorded the 1930 census for Malissa’s sister, Milly Diana, I noted a sister-in-law to Richard named Sallie Davis was living with them; however, a sister-in-law could have been his brother’s widow. But with the information from the marriage license and the 1910 census, the Malissa Caroline “Sallie” Davis circle was completed.

Malissa Caroline “Sallie” Welch Davis, daughter of John Sanders and Serena White Welch, and wife of Thomas Jefferson Davis was born September 11, 1863 in Bankston, Fayette, Alabama and died April 1, 1938 in Berry, Fayette, Alabama. She is buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Berry, Fayette, Alabama.

Anthony Edward Foster – 198th Anniversary of His Birth

Today is the 198^th anniversary of the birth of Anthony Edward Foster who was my 3^rd great-grandfather. Anthony was born in the Spartanburg District of South Carolina on November 18, 1814 to Archilles K. and Jane Blackstock Foster. After the trip my daughter and I made this summer, we know the Fosters, Blackstocks, Bobos, Ballengers, Yarbroughs and Miles all lived in the vicinity of Cross Anchors and surrounding communities near the juxtaposition of Spartanburg, Union and Lauren counties. Those surnames being together have importance in that some of each of those families moved from South Carolina to Georgia to Fayette County, Alabama in the 1830s to 1840s and continued to interact as neighbors (and ancestors to me) in a new location.

While we were in South Carolina, Kay and I were able to visit the burial location for Anthony’s grandparents, Anthony and Sarah Golding Foster, which was on their land, and is currently right beside the two-lane highway for the area. There are only three graves there – the third being Anthony’s uncle Golding Tinsley. His parents, Archilles K and Jane Blackstock moved to Georgia and then to Alabama and their burial locations are as yet unidentified.

We also visited the site where Jane’s grandparents and parents lived – the Blackstock Plantation where one of the Revolutionary War battles took place, which is probably two to three miles away, as the crow flies, although there is no direct access from the Foster place to the Blackstock place. Tradition says the Blackstocks are buried on the plantation but no markers remain.

Anthony Edward and his parents and brother, William E., moved to Hall County, Georgia sometime before his sister Polly was born in 1818. On the 28th of February 1834, Anthony married Mary King, daughter of James and Rachel King, and shortly thereafter they moved to Alabama – they were enumerated in the 1840 census in Saint Clair County as was his brother-in-law, also Anthony Foster, and his sister, Polly. By the 1840 census, they had three children: Anthony Edward Foster, Jr., born May 9, 1835 in Alabama; Sarah M. Foster born August 9, 1936 and my great-great-grandmother, Nancy M. Foster, on July 2, 1838.

I have been unable to locate a 1850 census for them, although a Foster family website states: “Anthony Edward Foster’s name appears in several records in Fayette County.  In 1850, he was listed in the census as head of household (Volume II, p. 14).” I have scrolled through every page of the Fayette County census for 1850 and was unable to locate a listing for him. I have also searched every page of the Saint Clair County and Blount County censuses as well and still have not seen one. None of the census pages on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.com are labeled as Volume/Page, but are rather listed by District or Beats and Divisions.

Between 1840 and 1850 more children were added to the Foster household: John W on March 14, 1840; Ellen V. on February 25, 1842; Mary M.or A. on October 1, 1843; James Monroe on July 20, 1845; and William Rkeles on October 18, 1847. As was the case for many of our ancestors, they lost children to early death. Their son, John, born in 1840, died May 6, 1841 – just over 13 months old.

The family relocated to Blount County sometime between 1840 and 1850.a Foster family webstie states about Anthony Edward: “He was a Circuit Rider Methodist Minister in the Fayette County, Alabama,* area.  He would ride his horse with his Bible in the saddle bag to rural churches to preach on weekends.  The Methodist Library at Birmingham Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama, was researched for information about his ministry.  No records were found of Anthony Edward Foster; however, there were no records of any Circuit Rider Ministers.  It is assumed that Circuit Riders were not included in the Methodist Church District proceedings in those days.” Although this researcher apparently did not find documentation to support the story tradition that Anthony was a Methodist minister,on our 2010 trip to Blount county, we found his1853 ordination papers filed at the courthouse.

When I created a database of Alabama marriages, i listed the names of the officiating person, if listed. In doing so, I found many couples who were married by Anthony Edward Foster.

I found a website with Blount County plat maps, one of which shows the Foster’s land to be one farm away from the farm of the John Buckner family. This was an important piece of information since I had found it difficult to determine which Nancy had married John Foster, Jr. on Apr 1, 1855. I have cropped the pertinent section to make it easier to see their proximity – Anthony Foster’s land is in spring green almost in the center and John Buckner’s land is gray and catty-corner down to the left [Anthony's brother, Riley Bidemous Foster, has land that abuts John Buckner's as well as another plot to the center right (in pink)]:

In the 1850′s, another four children were added to the family, making a total of twelve: Rachael Jane on January 4, 1851; Frances Narcissa on December 28, 1852; Vienna Termelsa on December 1, 1856; and Simpson Bobo on March 5, 1858 – Simpson only lived about seven weeks, dying on June 28, 1858.

During these same years, some of their children came of age and married, as mentioned earlier, my grandmother Nancy in 1855; Ellen V. married Josiah Anderson on November 3, 1858. I have so far been unable to track either Anthony Edward Junior or Sarah to adulthood.

Their first known grandchild was my great-grandmother, Mary Jane Buckner, born on January 20, 1856. Additional grandchildren were William Rufus Buckner born in March 1858, Sarah M. ‘Sallie’ Buckner in March 1859, and Medora Buckner in June 1860.

On March 1, 1860, Anthony purchased 78.47 acres of land while he was still a resident of Blount County.

The 1860 census, enumerated effective June 1, lists the family in Fayette County: Anthony and Mary and the children from Mary to Vienna:

Their daughter, Mary married William Leander Miles on January 7, 1861.Ellen and Josiah provided Anthony and Mary with another grandchild, William Anderson born on June 7, 1861 followed by daughter Mary and William Miles bringing granddaughter Mary Frances Miles into the world on June 29, 1862.

By 1862 the world in Alabama was changing drastically as the Civil War became a reality. Their son-in-laws, Josiah Anderson and John Buckner, joined with many of the young men of Fayette County and enlisted in the Confederate Army’s 41st Infantry in Captain Abernathy’s unit – Josiah on May 30 and John the day after Mary Frances was born, June 30. John died in Tennessee on September 18, 1862 and Josiah died in Atlanta, Georgia on November 1 – Anthony and Mary’s daughter, Nancy, was a widow with four children and Ellen was a widow with one son.

Mary and William Miles  had another daughter, Melissa Jane ‘Mollie’, on May 30, 1866 and their daughter Mary died less than six weeks later on July 6.Son William Rkeles married Rebecca Moore on November 15, 1866. Daughter Ellen remarried to Benjamin McClure in 1867, William and Rebecca had a son, William Thomas in 1867 and Nancy married her recently widowed neighbor, Joshua Watson, on January 12, 1868.Anthony and Mary’s son, James Monroe married Martha Mary ‘Louiza’ Thompson on February 6, 1868 and Rachel Jane married John Whitt Dodson, also in 1868.

Although Benjamin and Ellen did not have more children, Joshua and Nancy did; their son Joshua Watson was born November 4, 1868, followed by James and Louiza’s son, Orlando Jefferson born December 8, 1868.

Frances Narcissa married Francis W. McClure on January 26, 1869. William and Rebecca had Virginia Idella Foster on  April 29, 1869 and James and Louiza had daughter, Ellen Eolysta on October 13, 1870.

The 1870 census shows a bit of the changing dynamics of their family. Anthony and Mary had two daughters still at home – Rachael Jane and Vienna Termelsa – and they also had their granddaughters, Mary Frances and Melissa Miles, living with them. The Civil War had also been responsible for the death of my great-grandfather James Franklin Willis’ half-brother, Jabez G. Willis, and his widow Mary Priscilla Middleton Willis had married Mary Foster Miles’ widower, William Leander Miles and most censuses continued to show Mary Frances and Melissa living with family members other than their father and Mary Priscilla.

Mary King Foster died on December 8, 1871. An obituary was provided to the Nashville Christian Advocate, a Methodist periodical that appeared February 17, 1872; it said: “ MARY FOSTER d/o James and Rachel King; w/o Rev. Anthony Foster, born Spartanburg Dist., S.C. 1815; died near Fayette Court House, Ala. Dec. 8, 1871; mother of twelve children.”

It has long been a confusing issue that Mary’s death date on her head stone is December 8, 1872 yet Anthony Edward remarried Louisa J. Edwards on November 28, 1872 – two weeks before Mary’s death. Everyone recognized a problem but had no good answers for the discrepancy. As I was putting this together, I noticed the obituary appeared ten months before her listed 1872 death – the logical answer to this issue is that Mary died in December 1871 rather than 1872; by the time the magazine could be published with her obituary it was the middle of February 1872.

More grandchildren arrived during the 1870s:

Oliver Foster was born in 1871 to William Rkeles and Rebecca; William Columbus ‘Willie’ McClure was born in July 1871 to Francis and Frances Narcissa McClure; Mary Myrtle ‘Molly’ Foster born December 18, 1872 to James Monroe and Martha ‘Mary’ Louiza; Frances Etta Watson was born April 1, 1872 to Nancy and Joshua Watson; Mary Annie Foster born in 1874 to William Rkeles and Rebecca; Mary ‘Mollie’ Nancy McClure November 9, 1874 born to Francis and Frances Narcissa McClure; Maca ‘Mackie’ Jane Foster was born May 1876 to William Rkeles and Rebecca; John Anthony Foster born August 1, 1876 to James Monroe and Martha ‘Mary’ Louiza; Walter William Watson born in 1876 to Nancy and Joshua Watson; Gwen Victoria ‘Babe’ McClure born in 1878 to Francis and Frances Narcissa McClure; Daugherty Watson born in 1879 to Nancy and Joshua Watson;

And another marriage – Vienna married C. M. Moore in March 1871. In addition, Anthony Edward and his new wife, Louiza, added two more children to the original twelve siblings: Livingston A. Foster born March 16, 1874 and Cena E.Foster born on May 15, 1875. In addition, their first grandchild, my great-grandmother, Mary Jane Buckner, married James Franklin Willis on July 14, 1872 in the home of her mother and stepfather, Nancy and Joshua Watson.

Great-grandchildren born during the decade of the 1870s were: Zelda Willis in 1873; Margaretta Willis in 1874; John William Willis in 1877; and Rufus Braxton Will in 1878.

The decade of the 1880s brought more grandchildren: Maggie Foster was born March 4, 1880 to James Monroe and Mary Louiza; James A. Cameron Watson was born after the 1880 census to Nancy and Joshua Watson; John Winston McClure was born May 28, 1881 to Francis and Frances McClure; Effie was born to Vienna and Cornelius Moore in 1881; Elbert Lee Dodson was born September 19, 1881 to Rachel Jane and John Whitt Dodson; Mattie Tiercy Foster was born January 30, 1883 to James Monroe and Mary Louiza; Mary was born to Vienna and Cornelius Moore in 1883; and Dora Alice Foster was born September 15, 1885 to James Monroe and Mary Louiza.

There were also more great-grandchildren: my grandfather, Zedic Hamilton Willis born in 1881, and Thomas Richard Willis in 1883. Their second grandson, William Rufus Buckner married A. J. Collins on April 1, 1883 and produced three more great-grandchildren:  John Howard Buckner in 1884; an as-yet-unidentified great-granddaughter born about 1885, and Guy Sylvester Buckner born in 1889 after Anthony Edward’s death.

On October 7, 1885, Anthony Edward Foster died. He was buried next to his wife, Mary, at Mount Vernon Methodist Cemetery.

Even though both Anthony Edward and Mary King Foster were dead, the generations continued:James Horace Dodson was born March 15, 1886 to Rachel Jane and John Whitt Dodson and Zada Forster was born to James Monroe and Mary Louiza on September 12, 1888. And, of course, many of those grandchildren married and produced more great-grandchildren – and the family goes on and on.

Sharing Memories 2012 – My First Memory

My daughter Kay and I, in working on genealogy for the past several years, have become very aware of all the questions we have about our ancestors – what they did and why and where. In 2011 I started writing “my memoirs” so my children and grandchildren would have a record of my life, and perhaps answers to their questions when they arise.

When I began writing, I didn’t think I remembered much of my earlier childhood – like my Uncle Joe: “I don’t remember nuthin’” – but as I began to write it down, a little snippet of a memory here and another snippet there began to emerge.

As one memory led to another, pretty soon I was having so much fun realizing my grandchildren and, in many cases, even my children, would not have a clue about things such as a wringer washer or a mangle or even Monkey Island at the Zoo. I realized the physical and social landscape has changed in ways to make the earlier world almost unrecognizable, so I did Internet research to find pictures and explanations.

One of the things that came out of my writing endeavor was recording my earliest memories and in response to Olive Tree Genealogy blog prompt for today, I’ll share from my writing. Because I have no clear grasp of which came first, I’ll record two that must have happened at about the same time.

My parents bought a home when I was three and that is where my earliest memories occurred. I suspect both these memories occurred at about the same time period, in fact, possibly on the same day, which would have been mid to late September of 1944 and about a year after we moved into the home.

Although I’ve been an extrovert as long as I can remember, many of my early memories are of me being alone and the first memory I’ll record is one of those. The house Mom and Dad bought, which I’ve previously blogged about, had a brick arch on the front west corner.

Probably one of my strongest memories of that house on Hardin Drive was playing London Bridge by myself with the arched brickwork – unfortunately, no picture shows that full arch to provide a visualization [based on the County Assessor’s website photo of the house, the arch is gone now]. I don’t remember being sad and lonely in playing by myself, but rather was singing the song and circling through the arch. I don’t know if the song was commonly sung by children in those days or if it was something connected in some way to mother’s brother, George, who was stationed in England and, consequently close to London, at the time.

One day after playing at the arch, I came through the front door and saw mother on the sofa with a crumpled piece of paper in her hands and sobbing deeply – the crumpled paper was the telegram telling her of the death of her brother, George, in Arnhem, Holland on September 18, 1944 in the largest World War II airborne operation called Operation Market Garden [Kay has written about George and his WWII experience in her blog]. In reviewing George’s letters on my daughter’s website, I can see George had written mother a letter from England on August 13, 1944 and mailed on August 23 (the letter to her brother, Johnnie, written the same day was apparently post marked on August 19). I would guess George’s letter had only reached mother a few days before she received the telegram, which likely heightened her already huge pain and loss compounded by the early deaths of her father, then mother and oldest brother, Willie.

Sharing Memories: A Genealogy Journey (Week 30) – We’re Having a Heat Wave!

This past week I joined the Google+ group and have connected with several genealogists, including Lorine McGinnis Schulze and her Olive Tree Genealogy blog. She has a writing prompt series she calls Sharing Memories: A Genealogy Journey and is now up to Week 30. I decided to join in this week on the topic of “We’re having a heat wave” and talk about the heat in my own childhood and youth.

One of my first memories of the heat was the summer of 1947 or 1948 in Gainesville, Texas. I have always loved to read and that summer mother let me go to the library by myself. From having been back to Gainesville on a research trip, I know we must have lived about a mile from the library, which was downtown on California Street. I don’t specifically remember the library – what I remember was the trip home. I had obviously gone to the library in the morning and stayed there a long time because when I returned home it was clearly afternoon and HOT! I know that specifically because I was barefoot [a typical condition for me during the summer] and the concrete paving was, as has frequently been observed, “hot enough to fry an egg.” In response to that unexpected hot concrete, I attempted to find as many patches of grass as possible and leap from one patch of grass to another as I crossed streets and sidewalks on my way home.

Another way the neighborhood children handled the heat that summer was with a metal washtub we filled with water from the outdoor faucet and we took turns sitting in it. We also got frequent drinks from that same outdoor faucet.

Sometime during the mid-1940s, Mother purchased what was, I’m sure, an inexpensive and heavy gray with blue stripes stoneware pitcher; during the summer she would occasionally make a pitcher of a mixture of really cold orange juice and lemonade and pour us a glass as a treat. I loved that pitcher and thanks to the Internet, I was able to find a picture of a similar one – wish I still had mother’s.

By the summer of 1949, we were back in Oklahoma City. That summer was a part of the huge polio scare that was so predominant during the summers. Every parent insisted their children come inside and rest during the heat of the afternoon. Our rented house had a large screened-in back porch and one of those inside afternoons it was so hot, even on the shaded and screened porch, that I had the screen door open and was lying with my head outside on the first step hoping for any any breath of air. We lived less than a block away from the old Blackhawk Swimming Pool; I remember walking by and watching people swimming, but I don’t remember swimming there myself that summer (although it’s possible I did since I love to swim).

We moved again the following year to a neighborhood that had a small park a few blocks away. It had a small wading pool and, although, I don’t remember being in it much, I did take my brother down there where he could play in the pool [he's six years younger than I am and would have been about three to four at the time]. Water was definitely a factor in summer-time cooling strategies and it could be a real treat when someone’s parents would allow the neighborhood kids to play with the water hose with every kid getting a turn at both spraying and being sprayed.

Summer in Oklahoma generally means a dearth of rainfall. Because our rain is generally part of a thunderstorm, which is usually accompanied by lightning, it’s not wise to be playing outside during the rain, but following an occasional late afternoon rain, one of my favorite things to do was go outside barefoot and splash through the water still standing against the curbs. Even the rainwater could still have some warmness to it because the streets would be hot, but wet skin picks up breezes so nicely. I was always fascinated with the earthworms that were so prevalent following the rain. Of course, you could find worms if you went digging in the dirt, but after a rainfall, there would be hundreds of them crawling on sidewalks and driveways and in the grass – amazing!

I’ve seen pictures of old rotating fans, but I don’t remember having them during those years. We finally lived in a house that had a large window evaporative or swamp cooler by the time I was in my mid-teens. This was a large metal box affixed to an open window. It had fiber-type pads [they looked to me as if they were filled with straw] on the sides that we would hose down in the afternoon; there was also about an inch or so of water standing in the bottom of the metal box. There was a large metal ‘squirrel cage’ fan that turned through the water and blew water-cooled air through the window into the house. It definitely helped in reducing the house temperature but because it was coming through only one window, the portions of the house without direct access to that cooler air could remain quite warm. Sometimes during the nights, I would get so hot I would get up and go sleep on the floor in the dining room where the swamp cooler was located.

Another way I sometimes cooled off at night was to take my bedding outside and sleep in the backyard. As the morning approached and the temperatures grew cooler, it could be quite pleasant sleeping with light covers on – until the time dew began falling in the mornings and you’d wake up with damp covers.

Although my typical fashion choice for home during the summers was shorts, a date night would mean a full skirt with starched net slips under them and often more than one of them to achieve the necessary fullness of the skirt. One night the young man I was dating and I went to the drive-in with another couple. We were in the back seat and I was probably wearing three of those underskirts plus a light blue cotton skirt with matching short-sleeve blouse. I stood the heat as long as I could, but I finally decided fashion was definitely subservient to comfort and I reached under my skirt and pulled off the underskirts and piled them on the floorboard. In those years of ingrained modesty, that was a bold move. My date, a young man with a great sense of humor from the deep south [Laurel, Mississippi],  thought it was quite funny but still allowed me to maintain both my dignity and my reputation.

All in all, I have to say, central heat and air is a definite improvement and an amenity I do not wish to forego – ever!