52 Ancestors: # 2- My Grand Aunt: Fern HARTLINE-CLARK

Today's story is about my Paternal Grandmothers sister, my grand Aunt. Her name was Fern HARTLINE by birth. In the photo to the left Aunt Fern is the lady on the right, the gentleman behind her is her husband Albert "Curly" CLARK.  To the left of them is my father Floyd "Junior" EADS and my Mother Margaret. The man next to my mother is my grand uncle Jimmy HARTLINE, Aunt Ferns older brother and also my grandmothers brother.  The two men on the far left are my Paternal Grandfather Columbus EADS and my Uncle Lloyd Gene "Teddy" EADS, my fathers brother.

Aunt Fern and Dad were pals. I remember my father telling stories of the two of them walking to school together. My father was full of mischief and was always doing or saying something silly. He related one story about a time they were on their way to school together and Aunt Fern stopped dead in her tracks and looked at him and said: "Hey Junior! You smell something?" of course Dad being the clown that he was, there was not a shy bone in his body he very vehemently stated: "Yeah! I messed in my pants!". I thought he would die laughing as he related that story to my mother and I one Sunday afternoon. Of course, my mother being one to become easily embarrassed just blushed and chuckled and said :"Oh Junior!".

Fern HARTLINE was born 6 May, 1931 to John Newman "Lack" HARTLINE and Alice Mae JOHNSON. She was the youngest of seven children born to John and Alice. She grew up in Liberty Township, which was about halfway between Dexter and Bernie, Missouri.

Aunt Fern and I share a Wedding Anniversary Date. She was married on 22 October, 1949 (exactly 38 years before my husband and I would wed on that date). She married Albert "Curly" CLARK. They were married in Arkansas, most likely Piggott in Clay County. Their place of residence was listed as Malden, Dunklin, Missouri.

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.

After their marriage Aunt Fern & Uncle Curly lived in Malden and St. Louis for a little while, in 1958 they moved to Dexter, Stoddard, Missouri. Aunt Fern worked at the Hickory House Restaurant for a while and also the Dexter Memorial Hospital. She and Uncle Curly were of the Assembly of God faith and attended church in Essex, Stoddard, Missouri. 

Aunt Fern & Uncle Curly had two children born to their union, a Daughter named Judy Ann CLARK (AUBUCHON) and a son Albert "Larry" CLARK.

I remember visiting with Aunt Fern and Uncle Curly a few times as a child. I never knew my Paternal Grandmother, her sister, Bertha as she died before I was born, but I did get to know Aunt Fern.

                                  (c) Obituary as appeared in The Southeast Missourian on
                                       23 May, 1997

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors: 52 Weeks Challenge at No Story too Small

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!

New EADS Info Added!

I wanted to post an update and let my readers know that I have added a new page on this blog. It is called Wayne County Missouri Roots. You will find the link at the top. What I have added on that page is my direct paternal line. My EADS family settled in Wayne County, Missouri after having came here from Iredell and Davie County, North Carolina along with some members of the McDANIEL family. I will be adding more content in the days to come as I have some other EADS and MCDANIEL ancestors to add to the page. For the most part it currently contains my Direct line from my Paternal Grandfather and his siblings all the way up to my 2nd Great Grandparents.

In spite of all my efforts I am still seeing some incorrect information floating around concerning Consadie EADES. I know I have been beating a dead horse here (no disrespect intended) but it is imperative that this erroneous information get corrected. I have updated Consadie`s page with some actual documentations verses just my word.

NOTE: If you came here due to a surname tag you will find the surname you are searching for on the Wayne County page of this website. Click the tab across the top task bar.

James Marion JOHNSON

This post is a followup to my prior post on my Great x 2 Grandfather The Elusive Ike JOHNSON


I have been searching for quite sometime for anything I could find related to my JOHNSON side of the family. To recap my Great Grandmother was Alice Mae JOHNSON the only record I have that states her parents names is that of her death record. It only gives her fathers name as that of Ike JOHNSON. Her mothers name was not listed. With JOHNSON being such a popular surname I knew it was going to be quite an effort to find anything that might lead me to her.

This evening I got a message from a gentleman on 23andME who stated that we were a significant match and that I also was a match to several more of his relatives. He asked me to email him so that we could discuss our connections. I did so and am waiting to hear from him. So, while I was waiting I decided to take a peek at his profile and I saw the name of his one of his great grandmothers so I decided to plug her into Ancestry and see what I could find. From there it just snowballed and it led me to this man: James Marion JOHNSON, the subject of this post.

Now, with that being said I cannot say for certain that the man with whom I am a match is related to this gentleman, the search led me to this person though.  The reason why this person seems of great significance to me is two fold. Number one, the person who posted his information in their tree on Ancestry has given him the name: James Marion I. JOHNSON. I have no clue what the I stands for but I have to wonder if it might stand for Isaac aka Ike. Also, the second thing I noticed in this persons tree was the fact that this man had a daughter named: Alice. The only discrepancy with that is his daughter Alice was born in 1862 and my Grandmother Alice Mae JOHNSON was born in 1889. Now, with that being said there can be an explanation for that as well, please follow me. This does not conclusively rule him out.  My Great x 2 Grandfather Ike JOHNSON would have to have been born about 1871. (I took Grandmother Alice Mae`s birthday and subtracted 18 years, so if he was 18 when she was born that gives us a year of 1871 for his birth.).

James Marion JOHNSON and his wife had 8 children, according to the obituary for their daughter Cynthia Elizabeth JOHNSON (CORZINE). I have accounted for four of their children:

• William Jordan JOHNSON Jr. b. 1854
• Alice JOHNSON b.1862
• Cynthia Elizabeth JOHNSON b. 1863
• Jefferson Marion JOHNSON b.1869
• Uknown
• Unknown
• Unknown
• Uknown

That means that there are currently four of their eight children that are unaccounted for. Also, in looking at the birth dates of 1854-1869 it is highly possible that my Great x 2 Grandfather Ike may have been one of their sons. Thus he would have named his daughter Alice Mae after his sister Alice? I cannot say for certain but I am adding this to my research project for Ike JOHNSON and seeing if I can find anything of significant value, if I do, I will post.
Also, when I put the surnames into the search engine in my DNA profile I get lots of hits with folks who match me through those surnames. It is enough to say that I am onto something here, just do not know what, as of yet. Stay tuned!

The Elusive Ike JOHNSON

The subject of today's post is my 2nd great grandfather Ike JOHNSON. Ike is my paternal grandmother`s grandfather. Her mother`s name was Alice Mae JOHNSON, Alice was the daughter of Ike JOHNSON and to this date who her mother was is unknown to me. I have very little information on which to base my search.

On Grandmother Alice`s death certificate her father is listed simply as: Ike JOHNSON and mothers name is listed as UNKNOWN.  I was hoping to be able to draw some clues from Grandmother Alice`s marriage record;however, it stated the following:

This License authorizes any Judge of a Court of Record or Justice of the Peace or any licensed or ordained Preacher of the Gospel , who is a Citizen of the United States to solemnize Marriage between N. U Hartline (blank) of (blank) in the County of Stoddard and State of Mo who is under the age of twenty-one years, and Alice Johnson (blank) of (blank) in the County of (blank) and State of Mo who is under the age of eighteen years

An affidavit from the Guardian and the father of the above named parties. WITNESS MY HAND as Recorder of Deeds with the Seal of Office hereto affixed at my office in Bloomfield, this 30th day of May, 1906.

(Note: There are the intials by the last paragraph above of L.L. I am unsure what those represent or if they stand for some sort of legal symbol?)

The record goes on to state that the marriage was solemnized at the brides home in said county on 2 June, 1906 and it signed by William A WARD M. G

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.

 

N. U HARTLINE stands for Lack John Newman HARTLINE, my Great, Grandfather. He was the son of Henry HARTLINE of Germany. 

 

Now, with what information contained in the above marriage license it appears as though either my Grandmother Alice or my Grandfather John had a legal Guardian and the other a parent. It is going to be my mission to determine which one. At this point I almost want to say that it was probably Alice. I cannot locate my grandfather Ike JOHNSON the subject of this post at all. There are several Ike`s. I have checked the Missouri Death Records to no avail. Her census records state her parents were born in Missouri. I am checking every Ike JOHNSON that I run across currently. Once I have more I will update this post. JOHNSON is such a common surname and without knowing if he had a second or even a first name to go with Ike it is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. 

 

At this point the above information is all I have. I will update this post soon. I am also going to add it to my research projects page since it is something I am currently unsure of and working towards solving. Until next time.. happy hunting!

Nancy Jane Eads Johnson

 Nancy Jane Eads was born abt. 1872 in Wayne County, Missouri she was the daughter of William Franklin Eads SR and Amanda America Clementine Eads nee McDaniel. Nancy died 1894. I am unable to locate a death record for Nancy.

Nancy was married to Joseph Dempsey Johnson son of Joseph Johnson. Joseph Dempsey Johnson was born 13 November, 1870 in Wayne County, Missouri and died  7 February, 1941 in Wayne, Missouri. 

Nancy and Joseph are buried at Bounds Cemetery in Wayne, Missouri. The date above for birth of Joseph Dempsey Johnson was taken from the cemetery transcriptions, however, it does not match up with the date of birth listed on the death certificate for Joseph Dempsey Johnson. The Death certificate states Joseph was born: November 8, 1870 and died 7 February, 1941 due to Malaria. Joseph was residing in Bernie, Stoddard, Missouri at the time of his death. His father is listed as Joe Johnson and mother unknown. The certificate informant was listed as A. Johnson of Bernie, Stoddard, Missouri.