A Closer Look at Sarah "Sallie" Delilah Tinker-Phillips

Jessie & Sally (Tinker) Phillips (c) Charlotte Campbell

This week I have been doing some corresponding with a pretty close cousin of my husbands who happened to contact me on my Find A Grave profile. It has been some time since I have worked on the Tinker line or any line for that matter. He and I have been discussing the family in detail and some of his information reminded me of prior conversations that I had had via email with another Tinker cousin Charlotte Campbell.  Charlotte had sent me some photos of the Tinker family which I had stored in my files. Since this new gentleman (named Ray) had came forth he descends from the same line and was kind enough to also allow me to share some of his photographs and information as well. The photo to the left is Sarah "Sally" Delilah TINKER and her husband Jessie PHILLIPS. That photo belongs to the private collection of Charlotte Campbell, many thanks to her for sharing it with me a few years back.

Both Cousin Charlotte & Cousin Ray have mentioned a Gentleman by the name of Ralph, whose last name is not known to me. Ralph is said to have done some extensive work on this line of the Tinker family way back before computers. He mainly done his research on foot, by visiting courthouses and libraries and so forth. Both Ray & Charlotte feel that Ralphs work is pretty much spot on with regards to the family.

Given the fact that Ray`s information matches up with that of Charlottes, I have decided to once again look through this line very closely. I am going to comb over the information that I have in my records and investigate what they have in theirs. I want to see if I have overlooked anything in my research. It is imperative to me that I have good sound and documented research. Now, with that being said, I am only human and all humans make mistakes at one time or another. Thus the reason I am backtracking to make sure that I did not inadvertently make a mistake in my research. A good Detective always visits and revisits his or her clues from time to time.

Jessie PHILLIPS & Wife Sarah Sallie Delilah TINKER & Children (c) Ray Ford-Used with Permission

I am going to start with Cousin Ray`s information. He descends from Sarah & Jessie PHILLIPs daughter Carrie. Now according to his research there are three children who descend from this couple who are in the photograph above, namely Ray says those children are:

1. John Leander Lee PHILLIPS
2. William Taylor PHILLIPS
3. Carrie Belle PHILLIPS-TATE (Roy`s Grandmother)

Ray and I both agree on the fact that the 1900 Census for Sarah "Sallie" Delilah TINKER does indeed state that she had given birth to six children and of those six children only four were still living; yet only three appeared within the household. See my prior post regarding all of this information HERE.

Ray`s response to me when I asked him what he thought about the 4th missing child and could it possibly be my husbands missing link he stated: "We'll probably never know the story behind these numbers.  Many times a child is born out of wedlock and raised as someone else's child as was Jesse Barton Phillips' grandmother. That was a mystery solved by existing 1806 court documents where the mother sued the father for support." 2014-Ray Ford

Confusion surrounding John Leander PHILLIPS

My records have indicated the name of this son was actually: James Lee PHILLIPS and NOT John Leander PHILLIPS. So, with that being said I have revisited my documentation and came to the following conclusions. My information was based upon the following Death record for one James Lee PHILLIPS.

The above Death Certificate states James L. PHILLIPS could be Lee could be Leander. There is not enough information on this certificate to state which one it was. The name James Lee PHILLIPS also appears upon his headstone as you can see in the photo below submitted via Find a Grave user Frances Donnelly and used by permission as expressed on her Find A Grave profile page.

Now for the conflicting piece of information. Cousin Ray forwarded me a Document, namely an Draft Registration record for one John Lee PHILLIPS as you see below.

This is a Draft Registration Card dated 1917 and signed by one John Lee PHILLIPS. One might consider was this a different person, given the differences in the names. However, we must take into account the birth date listed above is also the same birth date for our James Lee PHILLIPS. I must therefore conclude that James Lee PHILLIPS and John Lee PHILLIPS are one in the same individual. We have two records here, since this is an actual record that bears the individual in questions signature we say it is closer to the source and therefore more reliable than the death record.  The person would know his name, would he not? So, why the other documents refer to him as James Lee PHILLIPS is a puzzling question. I have decided to refer to him as John James Leander "Lee" PHILLIPS. Cousin Ray states that he went by his middle name of Lee his whole life. John is also listed as Leander on the 1900 Census. 

Carrie Belle Phillips-Tate 1905 age 5- (c) Ray Ford-Used with Permission 

At this point in time this still leaves us with questions regarding the 4th child belonging to Sarah. Hopefully further research will turn up some more clues for us. Stay tuned for more posts regarding new information from Cousin Ray & Cousin Charlotte surrounding other members of the Tinker family. Until then, Happy Hunting!