Her Name Was…

Every family researcher has an ancestor that interests them more than any others. My friend in Russellville, who is as nuts about genealogy as me, has one…Sally Briley. I have one. Her name was Mamie Daisy Delia Margaret Eva Ella Annie Laura Lee Ellison Farley Key…or at least that’s what I was told by my grandmother. She was supposedly named after all her aunts…of which I can find none!

Mamie was my great-great grandmother on my mother’s maternal side.

She was born either in Georgia or Alabama in…

…February, 1880 (1900 Census)

…1879 (1910 Census)

…1873 (1920 & 1940 Census’)

…1878 (1930 Census)

…March 17, 1863 (death certificate)

…1869 (headstone date)

…1865 (my mother told me Mamie was 89 when she died)

I have no idea when the woman was born because apparently she lied every time she was asked her date of birth!

I do know that she married (although I haven’t found a marriage license) James P. Farley and had three children: James Albert, Almer (who apparently died as an infant), and Mary Magdalene. James died and then she married John Washington Key on July 24, 1904 in Cullman County, Alabama. I have a copy of the marriage license.

I know that Mamie and John Key had at least six children:

Eugenia Leonie Tressie Jane

Ruth Carline

Audie Mae

Charlie Roy

Josephine Irene

Johnnie Lawson

I have found her on the 1900 – 1940 Census’, but she seems to have dropped out of the sky in 1900 into Jefferson County, Alabama. I can find no trace of her before 1900.

Mamie had at least one sister, Josephine (Josie), who married Hiram Crawford in 1894 in Morgan County, Alabama. Josie had a twin sister that died at birth or shortly after. I’m not even sure exactly what their maiden name was. Mamie’s death certificate shows her father’s last name as Ellison. Josie’s death certificate shows her father’s last name as Allison.

I do know that Mamie died of hypertension and heart disease on December 3, 1954 in Walker County, Alabama and she’s buried in New Prospect Cemetery in Jasper.

One of these days I will find Mamie’s parents and siblings. I’ve been searching for them for about 15 years and I’ve been told that persistence pays off. We’ll see.

Filling In a Branch on the Tree

I have been concentrating on Canaday research lately due to having been asked to speak at a Canaday reunion at the end of the month.
Yesterday I decided to look at my great-grandmother’s siblings to see if I had information on all of them.
Pearlie had a younger brother, Elisha, born April, 1890 (shown on 1900 Census) who married Mollie Pilkington May 16, 1912 in Jefferson County, Alabama. They had four children: Lucy, Johnny, Clyde and Lishie. Elisha died before 1920. He’s not on the census with Mollie, who is shown as a widow and living in her brother’s household. Lishie was born in 1919, so Elisha died between 1919 and 1920. I haven’t been able to find a death certificate or burial place for him.
Mollie re-married (to Julius Logan) and they had at least one child, Charley, who was born in Kentucky. A year or so ago, I had found Charley’s obituary, but I had no death date on Mollie or anything other than approximate birthdates on the Canaday children.
So, I began looking for Mollie. I went to Ancestry.com and checked the Kentucky Death Index. I found a Mollie Logan who died in Bell County on March 11, 1975. I checked online for an obituary, but found nothing. My next step was to go to Facebook to Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) and post a request for a copy of this Mollie’s obituary, not knowing if this is the right one or not. I continued to look for the Canaday children and found a Clyde Canady who had died in Dayton, Illinois in 1986. I posted a request for his obituary on RAOGK. In the afternoon, I received, from a wonderful lady, the actual obituary of Mollie Logan…and it was the correct Mollie! Her obit listed all her children and where they were living when she died.
Another researcher on RAOGK sent me the newspaper, date and page where the obituary for Clyde Canady can be found, along with the telephone number for the Archives in Ohio. I called them and they are going to email his obituary today…at no charge!
So, I’ve found Clyde (maybe) and Mollie, but I found nothing on any of the other Canaday children. I went back to the obituary for Charley Logan and saw that when he died in 2006, he had a son who was living in Villa Ridge, Illinois. I went to WhitePages.com, checking to see if I could find him there. I did…along with a telephone number that I used to call him! I left a message and he returned my call in the evening. He was very nice, but told me I needed to talk to his mother and sister, because they know a lot about the Canaday family. He gave me their number and I had a wonderful conversation with both of them. They live about 55 miles from where the Canaday Reunion is going to be, so I invited them to attend. The sister is going to email me photos of the Canaday children (YEAH!) and her mother is going to write down some of information (names, dates, deaths, etc.) on the family.
Yesterday was a good day. I added information to a Canaday branch of the family tree and I spent most of the afternoon doing the Genealogy Happy Dance! Makes me want to do more research today….

Mary Lucas Canaday (right), son Elisha, Mollie, Lucy & Johnny

My Canaday Connection

My great-grandmother was a Canaday.

Pearlie Almira Canaday was born on October 8, 1887 in Jefferson County, Alabama to William Henry & Mary Elizabeth Lucas Canaday. She was the 10th of 12 children. Her father died in 1899, when she was 12 and my guess is that her mother, Mary, with 10 living children had a very difficult life.

Pearlie married James Pierce Self on February 12, 1905 in Jefferson County. She was a farmer’s wife and bore him 13 children, of which my grandfather, Alfred Levi, was the oldest. Eleven of her thirteen children lived to be adults.
On March 11, 1972, at the age of 84, Pearlie died. She outlived her husband, James (Jim), by four years. Her funeral was the first one I ever attended and since she died when I was only 10, I don’t remember a lot about her.

The name Canaday is not one you run into every day. I have spent years trying to track down Canaday ancestors and have found about 10 different spelling variations of the name. One of her brothers ended up in Illinois and I have been fortunate over the past couple of years to connect with and get to know some of the cousins on that branch of the family tree. In fact, I have been asked to speak on the Canaday family at a reunion in Illinois in May and am looking forward to meeting even more of the cousins. One of these days a document will surface that will lead us to the father of Archibald H. Canaday, grandfather of my great-grandmother, Pearlie.

Look at the Date, for Goodness Sake!

To begin, I’d like to thank all the people who have taken the time to post cemetery information on the website http://www.findagrave.com. This website not only allows burial information to be posted, but photos of headstones, family photos and obituaries can also be added to the memorials, and family links can be added (parents, spouses, children).
I have spent the past couple of days digging around in a branch of the Hughes family that ended up in Texas. And, thanks to people who have put their burial information on Findagrave, I have added a lot of dates and cemetery information to my data on that line of my husband’s family.
But, in the process of looking up descendants of William Moses Hughes (1842 -1930), I have found errors in family links. One error was a brother who had been added as a son and another error was a grandson who had been added as a son. Now, I will allow that it is possible for a 15 year old to have a child (that was the difference in the brothers’ ages), but in that time period…not likely. And as to the grandson, listed as a son, the age difference was 61 years. Again…possible, but not likely. And, considering the mother would have been 52 when the child was born…again, not likely in that time period.
When you begin adding family members to your family tree and you’re not sure if or where they fit, please look at the dates and use common sense to see if they compute.
I have found a lot of families in my research that took in grandchildren when a parent died and those grandchildren end up listed as children on census records. I have even found death certificates where the grandparent was listed as a parent. Check for all the sources you can find to confirm relationships of family members.
Another problem I have found on Findagrave is that when people are putting in birth and death dates (and even names!), they are not proofing their typing before posting. I don’t know how many errors I have found when comparing the dates posted to the dates on the actual headstone photo.
While we are all human and everyone makes mistakes, it sure will help future researchers if the information we put out there is as correct as we can make it.

Hughes Cemetery Plaque Erected

On Saturday, February 23, 2013, Becky Hughes Yeager and her husband erected the Alabama Historical Cemetery plaque at the Hughes Cemetery/Sullivan Graveyard on Happy Top Road in Jefferson County, Alabama.
Thanks to Becky and her family for all their hard work in getting this project completed.

A Cousin Found

Thanks to the entry I did about my grandmother being illegitimate, a cousin on that side of the family has found me. That is the one entry I would never have expected to hear from someone about. Genealogy is funny like that sometimes.
I look forward to getting to know my cousin and to seeing if we can figure out this puzzle together.
It’s a new year and I have an new direction for an old question.

Hughes Cemetery/Sullivan Graveyard Clean-up Day

On Saturday, November 10, 2012, my husband and I joined his cousin, Becky, and 7 members of her family to clean up the Hughes Cemetery (originally known as the Sullivan Graveyard).  A total of 7 adults and 3 children helped.

We met at 9 AM and worked until 1 PM, cutting trees (medium & small), dragging brush and raking several decades of leaves from the graves. We found 2 or 3 graves we had not seen before, making a total of 23 to 24 marked graves in the cemetery.  Only 8 of the graves have markers with names on them.

A survey of the cemetery can be found here: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=23588

More work is needed before the entire cemetery is cleaned up, but we made a good start.  Becky has ordered a historic cemetery plaque to be placed at the cemetery.

Here are some before and after photos…

 Looking across George & Mary Hughes’ graves - before

Looking across George & Mary Hughes’ graves – after

 

 Before

 After

  New graves found

Following the Correct Trail

When doing research on long-dead relatives, it is very important, but sometimes very difficult to follow the correct paper trail. Census records usually offer the most help when tracking a family, especially between 1850 and 1940.

About 1993, I was referred to a family researcher by my paternal grandfather, Alfred Self.  He had corresponded some with the researcher and shared the letters with me.  I, in turn, contacted the man and we corresponded for a while.  He had put together a book on one line of our family and was in the process of working on another one.  Like me, he was descended from two of the same families.

He shared with me that one of my paternal grandmother’s lines came from a Thomas Briscoe, who was probably born in Virginia and settled in Morgan County, Alabama.  The line then came through a son, Martin Van Buren Briscoe, then through his daughter, Nancy.

For years I worked on tracking down information on Martin Van Buren Briscoe and his family.  Then, one day, while looking at census records, I made a discovery. There were two girls in Morgan County with the name Nancy Briscoe and they were only about a year apart in age.  I began comparing the two girls and finally determined, with other resources, that I had been tracking the wrong line from Thomas Briscoe.

My ancestor, Nancy Briscoe (who married Daniel Curry), was the daughter of John Briscoe, the oldest son of Thomas Briscoe & Sarah Hill.

Families name their children after grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles.  When they all choose to name them the same names, it makes family research that much harder.

The lesson learned…don’t just take someone’s word that a particular ancestor is yours.  Do some digging.  Follow the line and the evidence for yourself.  You’ll be surprised sometimes what you find.

Montezuma Goodwin

One of the reasons I began writing this blog was to share research. I haven’t put my tree (over 34,000 people) on Ancestry.com because I don’t want my research sold and I don’t want to deal with all the folks who don’t agree with my findings. I share with individuals specific information that they need (if I have it).

This morning I had an email through a Goodwin Forum that I have posted questions and answers to through the years. A man posted this question back in 2000 and I replied in 2012 that I had a little information I could share.  Here is his question (condensed):  I am searching for the parents of and information about my GG-Grandfather Montezuma Goodwin b. June 1865 in Alabama (prob. Jefferson County) who married Alice Sims b. 1868. Montezuma’s oldest daughter, Lela Goodwin, m. William Earl Norred (my G-Grandfather). The story passed down in our family is that Montezuma Goodwin was part Cherokee Indian and that his mother was Full-Blooded Cherokee. Also, he was supposedly named for a Cherokee medicine man – who we’ve heard was related to his mother (might have been her own Father). Montezuma Goodwin does exist – I just haven’t been able to positively trace his Father or Mother. Any information, guidance or help is appreciated.

Montezuma is my second cousin three times removed, so I have a little information on him. Some of what I know is shown below and I will share more with the man who made the request.

Montezuma was born June 11, 1865 and died on June 12, 1904, according to his headstone at Bass Cemetery in the Irondale area of Jefferson County. His parents were Emanuel Goodwin & Mary Ann (Polly) Goodwin, who were probably first cousins. Montezuma married Alice Sims on November 4, 1885 in Jefferson County, Alabama. Census records for 1870 Jefferson County show Montesuma (spelling is always an issue on a census) in the household of his mother, Polly Goodwin. He is 5 years old. The 1880 Census shows him (Montezuma) in the household of his mother, Mary Goodwin. He is 14 years old. The 1900 Census shows Motezuma with his wife, Alice (born 10/1867), and 5 children: Lela (born 12/1889), Frankie (daughter born 9/1891), Montie (daughter born 4/1893), Jennie (born 8/1894), and Cynthia E. (born 10/1898).

His obituary…

KILLED BY BROTHER-IN-LAW

  Farmer Who Lived Near Trussville Slain Sunday

     Montezuma Goodwin, a white farmer, who lived near Trussville, was shot and killed Sunday afternoon about dark by James Sims, his brother-in-law. Sims is under arrest, and Coroner Paris has made an investigation.

     It is said that the trouble resulted from a family feud. It is said that the deceased went to Sims’ house Saturday night with a knife and threatened to kill Sims. The latter was not at home, but later the two met on the road and the trouble took place, which resulted in Goodwin’s death. Three shots were fired by Sims from a 38-calibre pistol, one of them taking effect in the heart and causing instant death.

- published in “The Birmingham Age-Herald” on Tuesday, June 14, 1904, page 2

My Grandmother Was What??!!

My maternal grandmother, who I called ”Nanny”, always said her name was Gladys Lee Ruth Pearly Gertrude Aaron Cato. She was born January, 27, 1921 and had one older brother, Henry Franklin Aaron, and eventually a younger brother, Giles Earnest (Bo) Aaron. Her mother was Mary Magdalene Farley Aaron Calloway.

When I would ask her about her father, all she would ever tell me was that his name was Earnest Aaron and that he just walked out of the house one day when her brother, Bo, was about 6 months old and never came back.

After I began seriously researching my family tree, I looked for years for a marriage license for Mary Farley and Earnest Aaron. I knew they lived in Walker County and the license should have been there, but I couldn’t find one. Since Uncle Henry was born in August, 1918, I checked marriage record books from 1915 to 1921, when my grandmother was born. No license to be found in any of the surrounding counties.

My grandmother passed away on November 1, 2001. Within months of her death, while looking at census records, I discovered that on the 1930 Census for Cullman County, Mary was living in the household of her mother and stepfather and she was shown with three children: Henry Farley, Gladys Farley and Earnest Aaron. Say what?!  I looked again. Yep…Henry & Gladys FARLEY, not Aaron.

So, on my next trip to Jasper to the Walker County courthouse, I checked again for a marriage license. Since Bo appeared to be the only child with Aaron as his last name, I began looking in 1921 and moved forward. Found it! Mary Farley and Earnest Aaron married October 25, 1922 in Walker County, Alabama, about 9 months before Uncle Bo was born.

I don’t know why, sometime in 1923 or 1924, Earnest Aaron walked out on his wife and child, but he did. As far as I know, the only contact any of the children ever had with him after he left was a letter that his wife (2nd marriage?) wrote to Uncle Bo around 1967 telling him that Earnest was sick and if he wanted to see him before he died, he needed to come. The letter was mailed from somewhere in Mississippi.

So, I have a lot of dead ends with this family. I haven’t been able to find any information on Earnest Aaron except that my great-grandmother divorced him for desertion in 1944, just before she married again. And, I have no idea who my grandmother’s father was. It could very well have been Earnest Aaron, but maybe not. DNA testing isn’t possible, since Uncle Henry had no sons, only two daughters.  Uncle Bo had a son, but I’m pretty sure he was an Aaron, so that’s no help.

All I know at this point is that my grandmother and her oldest brother were illegitimate.  I wish I could find someone that could tell me who their father was.

  Henry, Bo & Gladys