Parents of Mary Polly Massey

For quite sometime now I have been searching for the parents of my Paternal 3rd Great Grandmother one Mary Polly MASSEY. Some say she was the daughter of Nicholas Elon MASSEY and others say she was the daughter of James MASSEY and Jane MORRISON. I have decided to look at the records more closely and see what they tell me and hopefully I will be able to draw some clues from them as to which is the right father for Grandmother Polly.

This one has certainly given me a run for my money. I have located a marriage record for Polly MASSEY and John EADS. The document is transcribed as follows:

"To any regular Minister of the Gospel having the care of souls of whatever denomination or to any Justice of Peace of said county....you...are hereby authorized to celebrate and solemnize the rites of matrimony between John Eades and Polly Massy and join them together as Man and Wife. Witness R. Simonton clerke of Iredell County Court at offices the 23rd day of October 1822." Signed R. Simonton---source File C.R. 104.926 N. C. Archives.

Anne Hessaltine Graham Tinker

Anne Hessaltine GRAHAM was born 5 June, 1838 somewhere in Tennessee, probably Washington, (Unioci) County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of John GRAHAM and Mary BAYLESS. To my current knowledge Anne was just one of fourteen children born to John and Mary GRAHAM.

Anne GRAHAM married one Phillip Parks TINKER Sr,son of James Abraham TINKER and Nancy PARKS.

This post is going to look at what the records tell us regarding this family.



The first record that I have located Anne GRAHAM on is the 1850 Census for Subdivision 4, Washington, Tennessee.

Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place: Subdivision 4, Washington, Tennessee; Roll: M432_898; Page: 169A; Image: 342

As you can see Anne was twelve years old at the time. The only odd person living within the household is one James SHERMAN whose identity I am currently looking into. I will share that information in a later post.

Anne married Phillip Parks TINKER on 8 January, 1857 in Washington County, Tennessee. To my knowledge there were thirteen (13) children born to their union:(Not in any particular order)

1. Alice Margaret TINKER she married James F. DUNBAR son of Benjamin DUNBAR and Elizabeth Betsey CARTER.
2. James Franklin TINKER he married one Sarah Elizabeth PHILLIPS a daughter of Jesse PHILLIPS and Sarah DYKES.
3. John Marion TINKER he married Carrie Elizabeth MABE a daughter of William T. MABE and Dizzanna HURST.
4. Mary Ann Hessaltine TINKER she first married a HIGGINS and her second husband was one Mark L. SEATON son of David SEATON and Alice GREEN. Mark SEATOn`s first wife was one Elizabeth Jane PAINTER a daughter of Samuel PAINTER and Hannah JOHNSTON.
5. Sarah Delilah TINKER she married Jesse Barton PHILLIPS a son of Jesse Farris PHILLIPS and Margaret Lindsay DYKES.
6. William E. TINKER to my knowledge he never married, if he did I have yet to locate a wife for him.
7. Jacob B.TINKER I was also unable to locate any wife for Jacob.
8. Barnett Ray TINKER he married one Mary Elizabeth Eliza ERWIN daughter of Jesse Kendrick ERWIN and Mary "Mollie Jane" MCLAUGHLIN
9. McBurney (Bernie) TINKER  I have been unable to locate a wife for Bernie.
10. Daniel Boone TINKER I have been unable to locate a wife for Boone either.
11. Phillip "Walter" Parks TINKER he married one Rosetta POPE daughter of John Walter POPE and Mariel Althea "Martha" KNIGHT.
12. *Unknown may have died as a child or infant, not listed on any records I have seen.
13. *Unknown, may have died as a child or infant, not listed on any records I have seen.

The family appears on the 1870 Census for District 18, Washington County, Tennessee. Their surname is misspelled as TINDER during this census year.

Phillip Tinder	39
Ann H Tinder	31
Margaret Tinder	12
James F Tinder	10
John M Tinder	8
Mary A Tinder	6
Phillip Tinder	3
Sarah D Tinder	1

                             Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: District 18, Washington,            Tennessee; Roll: M593_1568; Page: 370A; Image: 745; Family History Library Film: 553067.

On the 1880 Census they appear in District 1, Washington County, Tennessee

Philip P. Tinker	49
Ann H. Tinker	43
John M. Tinker	18
Mary A. Tinker	15
Philip Tinker	13
Sarah D. Tinker	11
William Tinker	9
Jacob Tinker	7
Barnett Tinker	5
Mc Burney Tinker	2

Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: District 1, Washington, Tennessee; Roll: 1284; Family History Film: 1255284; Page: 429C; Enumeration District: 028.

On the 1900 Census the family appears in Civil District 1,Washington County, Tennessee. The record states that Anne and Phil had been married forty-three (43) years and that she was the mother of thirteen *(13) children, eleven (11) of which were still living

                                                                      

Philip P Tinker	68
Annie H Tinker	62
William E Tinker	29
Jacob B Tinker	26
Barnet Tinker	24
Mc Barnie Tinker	22
Daniel B Tinker	19

                             Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Civil District 1, Washington,                  Tennessee; Roll: 1603; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0140; FHL microfilm: 1241603.

Predicted Cousin Relationships

Today I want to talk a little bit about predicting relationships using your DNA results. It is not an exact science. The further back you get the less likely that these predictions are going to be accurate. Now, with that being said it is not to say that you are not related to the individual with whom you match. You definitely are at some point in time. This is where your paper trail is going to come in very handy.

If you have yet to test your DNA then I wholeheartedly recommend that you first develop a good solid paper trail that includes multiple generations as well as collateral lines. If you do not have this to go with your DNA results then you are going to have one heck of a time figuring out some of these relationships. Let me give you just two examples from my husbands relative finder list this week. We were working on trying to determine if the woman he knew to be his Paternal Great Grandmother was indeed his Biological Great Grandmother. DNA results have conclusively confirmed that she is indeed his Biological Great Grandmother. Using my paper trail with what I already knew about her line I was able to place two of his matches within her line.

Both of the above relatives as you can see I have already set them to reflect that they are a Distant Cousin. However lets look at how 23andMe Predicted them to be. As you can see the top match shares 0.18% across 1 segment. The system predicted this relative to have been a 5th Cousin (3rd to Distant) it turns out she is actually a 10th Cousin, 1 time removed! Now, lets look at the second relative. She shares 0.24% across 1 segment. The system predicted her to have been a 4th Cousin (3rd to Distant) she was actually a 9th Cousin, 1 times removed.

So folks it is not an exact science at this point. But, I still feel that the value in getting this test done is great! I would definitely recommend it. If you are new to Genealogy or if you have a Non Paternal Event or some other situation such as an adoption it is going to be harder to locate and place the more distant relatives within your family line. But by all means do not let that stop you. There are others out there like myself who can and will do their best to help you figure things out.

We started this journey with believing that my husbands father had been fathered by someone other than the person who raised him. Within 30 days time I have been able to determine using my husbands DNA relatives list that the man who raised him, was indeed his father. I have now set out to determine whether my husbands Grandfather was the first Bio relative, in order to determine each generation and rule them out, I have to look at the mothers. If I can definitively place that mother in my husbands matches then I rule out that generation. Given the above matches, I am now able to look at my husbands 2nd Great Grandmother to see if I can rule out the male in her ancestry. Once I can go no further, I will have located the generation in which the Non Paternal event occurred. Until next time... Happy Hunting!

Tinker Family Washington County, Tennessee

A TINKER family descendant sent me this photograph several years ago. It was in her grandmother's collection. This is the same photograph which appeared in a book that others have listed on ancestry and elsewhere. She also copied the writing on the back and sent that to me as well.

Transcription by me: Phillip Parks Tinker (Our Great Grandpa). Wife Alice Tinker, Our Great Grandma. Aunt Hess Tinker (our Great Aunt) Frank Tinker, (Our Grandpa) Grandpa`s brothers Barnett, Phil, Willie, Jake, Boone, Bernie. White Coat, has grapes in his hand. Aunt Sallie Phillips, grandpa`s other sister is not in this picture. Our Great Grandma Alice Tinker was a Graham before she married and Grandpa Phillip Parks Tinker mother was a Parks before she married.

This photograph is of the Phillip Parks TINKER Sr. family. Phillip Parks TINKER Sr married one Anne Hessaltine GRAHAM daughter of John GRAHAM and Mary BAYLESS.  Apparently this family member referred to Anne as Alice. This is the first time I have seen her called Alice, she is usually referred to as Anne in the documents pertaining to the family. Anne GRAHAMS line of the Graham family can be traced back to Scotland. In a future post I will be sharing a little of the GRAHAM genealogy that I have traced thus far. Phillip Parks TINKER Sr was the son of James Abraham TINKER and Nancy A. PARKS. This couple made their home in Washington, then Unicoi County, Tennessee area.

Graham & Allied Families of Virginia

This evening I have been doing some research on the GRAHAM family. In the course of my research I ran across some information that I wanted to share here with my readers.



I have been trying to connect two different lines of the GRAHAM family. One appears within my husbands Biological Family and the other within his Surname Family. In the course of trying to locate his Biological Grandfather I ran upon these two distinct lines and it is imperative for me to determine as to whether these lines connect so that I can track his matches who list the GRAHAM surname. At this point I do not know if his matches are coming from his Biological family or if perhaps his Non Paternal event stretches back further than we thought and thus the reason we show matches to this particular line of GRAHAMS.

                   

Melungeon Roots Admixture

Today I am going to continue an earlier post on the process of discovering my Melungeon Roots. Like many folks who grew up in the Southeastern United States I too had many oral stories and traditions of Native American Ancestry. For someone with a strong European Genetic Makeup it can often be hard to flesh out those Native American components in ones DNA. I love 23andMe and am so thankful for their service. I have learned so much from having had my DNA tested. The biggest complaint I have along with others like me is that their calculations do not pick up small amounts of admixed DNA.

So what does someone like me do when faced with that situation? You turn to 3rd Party Services and use their calculators who are set to pick up smaller amounts from different populations.

My Maternal Grandmother referred to herself as "Black Dutch, Irish and Cherokee".  Black Dutch is a term synonymous with many things but what it all boils down to is it simply means she was of "mixed ancestry".  My paper trail has been able to confirm her claims of Cherokee ancestry as her Paternal Great Grandfather was born in Cherokee Nation East in Georgia. As you will see from the admixed results which I will post below, I do have some Native American Ancestry.

The first calculator I used which you see listed above was the Eurogenes K36 admixture tool. As you can see it did find some American Indian in my DNA.

The next tool that I used was the MLDP World 22 Calculator. It too was able to find and identify my Native heritage as well.
I have recently joined a group of cousins who we share common strands of DNA and feel that we have connection through our Melungeon heritage. I have yet to figure out which of my ancestors contributed to my Melungeon Heritage but I am on the right track. Aside from the Grandmother listed above I do have about three other Grandparents with whom I have always suspected they may have some sort of ethnicity other than European.

Above is my Grandmother who proudly claimed her Black Dutch ancestry. She was into herbs and herbal remedies. She liked to read Tea Leaves and was very superstitious as well. The other woman in the photo with her is my mother. 

Melungeon Ancestors

This week research into my own personal family tree has led me to find that some of my ancestors were of Melungeon Descent. I had long suspected and even anticipated that I may find something of that nature when my autosomal results came back. I am proud of my heritage. Each of my ancestors deserve equal recognition and they deserve to have their stories told. They are what made me who I am today.

Back when I first started doing Genealogy the word Melungeon was not as prominent as it is today. I have always understood it to mean a diverse population of tri racial individuals. General consensus was to be a mixture of European, African and Native American ancestry.

According to Wikipedia the Melungion people were located in the areas of the Cumberland Gap in the Central Appalachian Mountain Range, as well as portions of Eastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

Read the rest of the Wikipedia article on Melungeons HERE.

My family descended from the Appalachian Mountains and the Smoky Mountains. I come from a long line of Mountain Folk. My Maternal Ancestors the ACORD family even have their own Mountain named after them much like the fictional family The Waltons. Some of my ACORD ancestors are buried on Acords Mountain in West Virginia. It is on my bucket list to one day visit Acord Mountain.

I am creating a research project based specifically on my Melungeon Roots. I will be posting additional update here as well. It appears my husband may also have some Melungeon history as well.

For more information on the Melungeon People check out the Melungeon Heritage Association website. There is also a good PDF document by Roberta Estes entitled Melungeons, a Multi-Ethnic Population. It gives a very well organized in depth look at the Melungeon people. Stay tuned for future updates on my own personal quest to uncover my Melungeon Ancestors.


Photo in this post was provided by Public Domain and under the Wikimedia Commons License for Distribution.

Tag Cloud Trick for Sorting DNA Matches

The Tag Cloud Trick is a little known useful trick that those of us in the DNA communities sometimes use to help sort out our matches and look for common surnames, haplogroups or locations. I am going to list the step by step instructions here as to how to make this trick work for you.

Step 1: Download your CSV file from either Countries of Ancestry or Relative Finder (if you are a 23andMe customer). You may want to rename the file to something you will easily remember so that you can readily locate it on your computer.

Step 2: Create a list of words and abbreviations that you wish to exclude. For example if you wish to sort by the most common surnames then you would want to exclude states, locations, state abbreviations, haplogroups, and other common terms such as sort, mother, father...etc. I have put together a list of the ones I used when I created the photo above. This is not an all inclusive list as you can see from the photo I missed a couple haplogroups but you get the idea.

sharing, cousin, genomes,  Alabama,Alaska,American Samoa,Arizona,Arkansas,California,Colorado,Connecticut,Delaware,District of Columbia,Florida,Georgia,Guam,Hawaii,Idaho,Illinois,Indiana,Iowa,Kansas,Kentucky,Louisiana,Maine,Maryland,Massachusetts,Michigan,Minnesota,Mississippi,Missouri,Montana,Nebraska,Nevada,New Hampshire,New Jersey,New Mexico,New York,North Carolina,North Dakota,Northern Marianas Islands,Ohio,Oklahoma,Oregon,Pennsylvania,Puerto Rico,Rhode Island,South Carolina,South Dakota,Tennessee,Texas,Utah,Vermont,Virginia,Virgin Islands,Washington,West Virginia,Wisconsin,introduction,haplogroup,3rd,4t,5th,6th,accepted,alabama,arkansas, ca, california,canada,carolina,co, county, distant,england,europe female, male,match,ireland,northern, maternal, paternal, public, united, tx, texas, va, wva, west virginia, washington, tx,family, father, 4th,e1b1b1a2,eastern, florida,g2a,germany,h1,h1a,h1c1,h1ch3,h4a1,h5a1,h7,il,i2b1,africa, city, de, france,ga,h10,I16,h1a1,h1a3,h1c,h3,i1,j1c1,j1c1,j1c3,j1c,k1,k1a4a1,kingdom,ky,multiple,nc,ny,oh,pa,r1a1,r1b1b2a1a1,regions,scotland,sent,states,switzerland,unknown,usa,wales,wv,x2b,u5a5a1a,u5b2b,i2b2,j1c2,j2a1a1,mo,mother,name,ok,ontario,r1a1a,r1b1b2a1a1a,r1b1b2a1a1d1,r1b1b2a1a1d,r1b1b2a1a2,r1b1b2a1a2d3,r1b1b2a1a2d,r1b1b2a1a2f2,r1b1b2a1a2f,r1b1b2a1a,sc,surnames,t1,t1a1,t2b,tn,ar,australia,brooklyn,denmark,h16,h1g,h5,hv, italy,j2a1a1b,j2a1a,r1b1b2a,southern,u2e1,u2e,u5a1,u5a1b1,u5b1b1,van,von,western,

Step 3. Go to this website: tagcrowd.com

Step 4: Once you arrive at the website you will see a box like the one above. The first thing to do is to click on the tab that says:upload file Then locate the CSV file you have saved on your computer, click to upload. Then set the maximum number of words to show to 150 (some use 100, I like 150). Set the minimum frequency to 3 and tick yes to show frequencies. Then paste the list of words to exclude that I posted above in the box that says: Dont Show these Words. You can't see that box in the screenshot I have posted but it is directly underneath the Show Frequencies option. Then click Visualize. Your list will populate on the next page. Then you can save your image or download it to a PDF if you choose.

Note: If you wish to see how common a haplogroup appears you may opt to only include haplogroups in your search and limit other words and phrases. You have quite a few possibilities with this tool. You can choose to use it to see how often a particular location appears within your DNA relatives list. I have chosen to use Surnames in my list as you can see in the photo above. I have gone back into the list and added the ones that I originally missed to them.Hope this helps!

Below is my own image from my CSV relative file. As you can see I have missed a few words that should have been excluded even with the updated list I posted above. You will just have to add to and take from the above list to suit your own needs. I will do my best to get these added to the above list as well soon.

This is not a complete photo of my list as it had too many names so I could not capture it all in one screenshot 

Untangling the Vines

This past week I have been fairly busy going through my husbands DNA matches and trying to make sense of what I found. In the process I have found a lot of tangled vines that are going to take some work in untangling. Thus the reason for this post topic.

I am sure most of us who have been doing this for any length of time will discover at some point or another that they have a lot of common surnames. Names such as JOHNSON, MILLER and SMITH as well as JONES are quite a few that come to mind.

But what do you do when you not only have a common surname but a common first name as well? Research this week has turned up a gentleman named Henry WIMER. As I set out to conduct my research I ran across four possible wives for this man. The more I dug the more confused I got. I finally was able to come to the conclusion that there are two men with the name Henry WIMER. Both look to have been born about a year apart and both were born in Pendleton County, West Virginia. These are my husbands relatives. It is going to be necessary that I sort out just how these folks connect. That is going to take a lot of time and effort on my part. If you are in a similar situation there is a wonderful online article published HERE that might help you formulate how to conduct your own search.

As to what I have done in this situation. I have created two documents. One for each gentleman and I plan on forming a timeline as suggested in the article for each one. With the two of them having similar years of births as well as the exact same location it may prove hard for me to discern between the two.

The first Henry WIMER that I have located which I believe is my husbands relative was born about 1793 in Pendleton, West Virginia probably Dry Run area. I show a wife for him by the name of Elizabeth THOMPSON. They were married 25 September, 1817. It looks as though his parents are Henry WIMER and Catherine LONG. There is another Henry WIMER who was born about 1794 in Pendleton, Highland, Virginia. His fathers name is said to have been one Phillip WIMER and I have seen his mothers name stated as either Sarah SIMMONS or Sarah Catherine HARPER. I believe this second Henry WIMER is also a relative of my husband as he has HARPER and SIMMONS relatives in this line as well. I have also see the WIMER surname spelled as WYMER.  I note there are marriages between a Henry WIMER and a Susannah JUDY as well as a marriage record between a Henry WIMER and a Margaret MILLER. I am in the process of untangling all of these vines. As soon as I have them sorted I will post the corrected and sourced information to this blog.

If anyone out there has ties to this family and has documentation as to which one is who, I would appreciate hearing from you!

Obituary Findings and More!

This week I decided to check out the Newspaper Archives in order to help further my research efforts in my husbands line.

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you probably saw my other post regarding his Slave ancestors, namely one Richard "Uncle Dick" Fancher. To recap, Uncle Dick would have been my husband's Great Granduncle in some capacity, we have not exactly figured out how many greats just yet but we will get there.

I have been doing my best to track each of the slaves owned by his Great Grandfather James Fancher. I decided to utilize every source I could possibly think of and so having done that I ran across some newspaper clippings that I wanted to share here on this site. The first one is an Obituary for Uncle Dick. This particular one was published in the Harrison Times in Harrison County, Arkansas on 6 May, 1911.

Forgive the yellow highlighting in the passage. I have yet to figure out how to turn that off in their system. 

The next passage I located was the following:

This was also published in the Harrison Times, Harrison Arkansas on 26 January, 1901. There was a second write up in February of that same year that spoke of the family having recovered from the Small Pox issue.

I went on to find many other valuable articles and passages concerning the Fancher family which I may share at a later date. There is a lot of valuable information contained in Older Newspapers. Do not forget to check them for things like Obituaries as well as announcements of all sorts. I note that members of the Fancher family were good at making the Society Column on a regular basis. It never hurts to check there as well. Happy hunting!

The Cemetery Graphic in this post was provided by Rhio's Sampler. 

Memories of the Grandmother I never knew

I can only remember having one Grandmother, my mother's mom. I called her Grandma. I never got to know my father`s mother. Her name was Bertha Mae. Grandmother Bertha died when my father was nine years old.

I only have one photo of her that my Grandfather had in his possession and he passed it on to my father. I had searched for a long time for my Grandmothers death certificate. I even contacted the State of Missouri and they stated they could not locate her death record. It took a little ingenuity on my part but I was finally able to conduct a search and find it myself. Her last name was misspelled and her date of death was not consistent with what appeared on her tombstone.

Her Death Certificate was listed under: Bertha M. Eaus as opposed to Bertha M. Eads which it should have been.

Grandmothers cause of death was listed as Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Acute Nephritis. According to Wikipedia, Tuberculosis was one of the principal diseases of poverty.

Public Health Campaigns were launched in the 1920`s to increase the efforts in preventing Tuberculosis. Grandmother also had Acute Nephritis. Wikipedia describes Nephritis as:

Nephritis is often caused by infections, toxins, and autoimmune diseases. It can be caused by infection, but is most commonly caused by autoimmune disorders that affect the major organs. For example, those with lupus are at a much higher risk for developing nephritis. In rare cases nephritis can be genetically inherited, though it may not present in childhood.

In her case it may have indeed been caused by the Tuberculosis. The death certificate states that the Tuberculosis precipitated the diagnosis of the Nephritis, so in all likelihood in her case it was a result of her having the Tuberculosis.


I do know that several of the family members on that side of the family have had various degrees of lung and kidney diseases. My father passed away from Lung Cancer and Renal Failure. He took Dialysis for quite some time before he passed away. One of his Kidneys was malformed and I inherited the same kidney, ours is shaped odd and it shows on X-ray. I wonder if Grandmother had the same thing?

The date on Grandmothers tombstone is incorrect. The correct date of death is listed in her above Death Certificate. The first clue that I came across which verified my suspicions (other than the fact that my father was adamant she died when he was 9 years old, he would have been just 7 in 1939) was my discovery of her alive and well on the 1940 Census.

Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: Bernie, Stoddard, Missouri; Roll: T627_2159; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 104-11.

Granderson: What`s in a Name?

What`s in a name? Does your family have any specific naming traditions? One special one that comes to mind for us is the use of the name Granderson. During the course of our research we uncovered that this specific name had been handed down in five consecutive generations, ending with my husband. His middle name is Granderson.

I decided to see if I could find the meaning of the name Granderson: the son of Grand

We decided as parents of two sons to not hand down this name to our boys. Instead we passed down my husbands father`s name and used it as the middle name of our oldest son. So he not only has his fathers name but his grandfathers as well.



The man in the picture above is my husbands Grandfather Granderson Edgar "Jack" ALLEN. He was the son of one Elbert Granderson ALLEN . Elbert was the son of Granderson Edward ALLEN.  Granderson was the son of Charles Granderson ALLEN.

I do not know why the ALLEN family placed so much significance on the name Granderson. There are three famous people that I am aware of that had the name Granderson:

Lily Ann GRANDERSON Lily was a Slave born in 1816 in Virginia. She was a Pioneer Educator. Her grandmother was a Free woman of Native American Descent.

Curtis GRANDERSON a major league Baseball Player.

L.Z GRANDERSON an American Journalist and Commentator for CNN and ESPN.

Do you have any names that were handed down through the generations?

James Arnold Eads

James Arnold EADS was my Grandfather`s brother. Thus he was my Grand Uncle. Uncle James was born 23 September, 1911 in Silva, Wayne County, Missouri. He was the son of William Franklin EADS Jr and Dorthula Dalue SMITH.

Uncle James married one Ella Ethel RANDALL a daughter of Louis and May RANDALL. Aunt Ella was born 7 August, 1915 somewhere in Missouri. She died on 10 December, 2005.

The couple had four children born to their union that I can account for. For privacy reasons I have chosen not to post those names of their children.

Ella Ethel RANDALL-EADS

James Arnold EADS

The couple had one son who recently passed away:

Sgt. Jerry Ray EADS

Note: I will finish this bio as time permits. Stay tuned!

Updates: 5 July, 2013

It is time to post another Update to the blog. I try and do this ever so often so that my readers can keep up with the newest posts and they do not become lost within the pages of this blog.

Since our last update on June 18th, 2013 I have made some additional changes to the blog. I have added some more photos the the Family Photos page.

I have updated my husband progress with his DNA testing. I created a page for the newest addition to our family due in October, our Grandson Skylar.



New Posts since the last Update:

Ancestry Composition
A New Leaf on our Tree
Updated Review of 23andMe Services
Non Paternal Event
Tracing your African American Roots
Isaac Carlock Fancher
Slave Ancestors
A Genealogy of the Eads Family
Mountain Meadows Massacre-Part One
Mountain Meadows Massacre-Part Two
Happy 4th of July
Successful DNA Confirmation
The Bouse Family
The Harper Family
Noah H WEBB-Korean War
Wedding Day 1970
Another Lost Photo:Velma Corbon

Another Lost Photo Velma CORBON

Do you know this young lady? This is another lost photo that magically appeared in my parents photo collection. On the back it reads: V Corbon, Dexter, Mo and underneath that it is written Velma Corbon if you flip the photo upside down it is written in the upper left corner in pencil Friday D W 28

I am unsure who she is. She may have gone to church with my parents or my siblings or she may have been a playmate of one of my siblings. I would like to find some member of her family who would appreciate having this photograph. I have scanned in the back side of the photo as well. If you recognize Velma please let me know!

Wedding Day 1970

This photo was taken on my Sister Nina`s Wedding Day. It was 15 July, 1970. She was just 16 years old.

Going from left to right are my Sister Sherry, my sister Nina and my brother Tim. I was not in the photograph, I was just about 2 years old then. All of my siblings were older than I was. The only one I remember being at home with me was my brother Tim. He was 11 when I was born so he must have been about 13 in this picture. He sure doesn't look like a 13 year old does nowadays does he?

Noah H WEBB Korean War

Do you know this gentleman? My father had this photo within his collection. He served in the Korean War and spent some time in Japan and Korea. This was one of his Service buddies. The photo is signed: Noah H Webb then on the back it reads: "Korea Jan,195? To a real pal from your buddy Noah H Web"

I would love to pass this photo on to a member of this mans family. I have tried researching him but I have little to go on. I do not have any names or dates and my father passed away in the early Nineties. My mother has no information that she can provide me with other than he was one of Dad's buddies.  If you are a family member or you know someone who is please tell them about this photograph. I would be happy to send it to them if they are a child or grandchild or even a great grandchild or related in some other fashion. I have also scanned in the back of the photograph so that you can see the handwriting.

The HARPER Family

This post chronicles the HARPER family line from Crawford and Washington County, Missouri.  We start with my husbands 2nd Great Grandfather John W.HARPER.

According to his Death Certificate posted above, Grandfather John was born 10 April, 1850 and he died 5 March, 1939.

As you can see based on the Death Certificate the date on John`s tombstone is incorrect. Many thanks to Find a Grave contributor DeSoto Joe/The Record Man for taking and posting the photo. If you get the time read his Bio on his contributor page. I got a good chuckle out of it and I so agree! I wish there were more users with this same philosophy. 

John was buried in the Souls Chapel Cemetery, Ebo, Washington County, Missouri. Thanks again to De Soto Joe for providing the above photo of the cemetery. Many more of the HARPER family are also buried within this same cemetery.

John W. HARPER was the son of one Noah E. HARPER and Phoebe HARMON. I believe that the cemetery listed in John HARPER`s memorial is incorrect.  Noah and Phoebe were actually buried in Harper Cemetery, Berryville, Missouri. I am in the process of trying to pinpoint an actual location of this cemetery. Meanwhile here is a photo of their joint tombstone, thanks to Ancestry User dpbabe1 for allowing me to use the photo here on this blog.

On 26 September, 1869; John HARPER married one Mary Ruth STANFORD daughter of Robert STANFORD and Frances K. PRICE. Mary was born 20 January, 1850 and died 20 September, 1894 in Berryman, Crawford, Missouri.

To my knowledge there were 3 Children born to this union.

     2.Margaret "Maggie" J. HARPER married John Benjamin BOUSE see HERE for this line.

     2.Almeda F. HARPER Almeda was born 26 April 1874 and on 22 October, 1899 in Washington County, Missouri she married one Charles T O`DELL son of Peter O`DELL and Sarah Jane STOTLER.To my knowledge there were six children born to their union:

          3.Raymond Clarence O`DELL Raymond was born 6 February, 1893 in Missouri. Some say Missouri City, Bend, Texas but I have yet to find anything that proves that at this point. 

As you can see from the above application for Headstone or Marker from the National Archives it states his Date of Birth but does not list a place. This document shows that he was buried in Hagy Cemetery which is located in Stoddard County, Dexter, Missouri. 

National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Applications for Headstones for U.S. military veterans, 1925-1941; National Archives Microfilm Publication: A1, 2110-C; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General; Record Group Number: 92.

 Raymond`s wife`s name was Gladys. I am unsure of her maiden name or who her parents were.

          4.Dora M. "Tressa" O`DELL 

          4.Preston William O`DELL

          4.Gordon Alexander O`DELL born 29 August, 1904 in Missouri. Married one Alveen Bethel. CALLAS daughter of Alva William and Willie E CALLIS.

          3.Mary Lou O`DELL Mary was born 7 Feb 1907 in Missouri. She was married a total of three times that I can account for: Hugh W. GETTYS, and Robert Wilson LEACH Robert was the son of one James LEACH and his wife Mary E. LEACH. Mary Lou also married another son of this couple, namely Milton Chester LEACH. She and Milton had one son named Milton Chester "Milt" LEACH II he married one Rosemary Susanne "Susie" DOMBROWSKI Apparently Susie and Milt had four children together, I do not have the names of their children. Susie later married one Charlie C. SUMMERS.

          3.Marvin William O`DELL  Marvin was born 26 January, 1912 in Missouri. His wifes name was Mignon Jimmy O`DELL, I am uncertain of her maiden name. I have been unable to locate a marriage record for the couple. It appears they had two, quite possibly three children:

          4.Pat Lloyd O`DELL

          4.Genelda O`DELL

  2.John T. HARPER  was born 8 Aug 1876. He married one Eula HALBERT (MADISON). Their marriage document states her name was Eula MADISON so she must have been previously married.

See:

 Ancestry.com. Arkansas, County Marriages Index, 1837-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data:

"Arkansas County Marriages, 1838–1957." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2011. "Arkansas County Marriages, 1838–1957," database, FamilySearch; from Arkansas Courts of Common Pleas and County Clerks. Digital images of originals housed at various county courthouses in the State of Arkansas. Marriage records.

I have been unable to locate a marriage record for Eula to anyone named MADISON as soon as I do I will amend this post. Eula was a daughter of Drayton H. HALBERT and Mahalia DAVIS. 

She and John T HARPER were married 1 October, 1911 in Conway, Faulkner, Arkansas. Eula was 29 so she probably was previously married considering her age at the time of this marriage. I show the following children for this couple:

     3.Edith Mae HARPER

     3.Pamela HARPER

     3.Veneeta Eva HARPER

     3.Howard Gordon HARPER 

     3. Herman C HARPER

     3.Lyndell HARPER

This concludes this generation of our HARPER family. Stay tuned for further posts on other generations.