Finding our Native American Ancestor

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 35

Aug 26th-Sept 1st
#52ancestors
Prompt: Unforgettable

The most unforgettable thing happened in the National Archives in Fort Worth.  This was before the new building and the research room was small, dark, and cramped. It was lined with microfilm machines and cabinets of microfilm.  All of the previous times that I had been there, I spent hours searching microfilm.

 Before I arrived on this particular day, I had used PERSI to request a copy of an article from a genealogical society journal. The article talked about a Indian court case and mentioned my 2nd Great Grandfather and Great Grandfather McCarley.  My Grandmother had told me that we had Cherokee blood, but I was rather skeptical.  This was the first time that I found anything that might support her statement.

 I dutifully searched the Dawes rolls on microfilm to find the McCarley file. I didn't find it in the Cherokee Rolls, but in the Chickasaw rolls.  It was there but it was stamped cancelled.  At the time, I didn't know that there were families that had applied for and received their membership in the tribes and were placed on the Dawes Roll that were cancelled later. 

 The McCarley/McDuffy file was not on microfilm. It was an actual file of papers, lots of papers. The archivist took me to another room that had several copiers and some big tables. One wall was a window where I could see staff members working and they could watch what I was doing. They brought out the file box and I begin to go through it. The more I read the more excited I got. There was an affidavit of marriage that I had been searching for over 20 years. Affidavits of birth from the time period before birth certificates were recorded. There were documents that detailed relatives that I had never found information on before. Many of the pages had original signatures and I touched each of them in awe, thinking of my ancestors who sat down to sign these papers.

 I went to the archives that day with about $3.00 in change because I rarely found more than a few pages that I needed to copy. But I needed every page of these files so that I could spend the time needed to get every detail. I even went out to my car and went thought the seats to find more change.  I was able to copy about 128 pages from the files, not every page but almost.

 It turns out that the McCarley family had applied for membership on the basis of Nancy McDuffie, wife of Mitchel Wilburn McCarley being the granddaughter of Nancy Frasier, a full blood Chickasaw. The U.S. Government gave them their membership card but 3 years later it went before the Chickasaw Council. They hired a lawyer and there were three witnesses. Two of the witnesses were white and testified that Nancy Fraiser was a full blood Chickasaw and these were her grandchildren. One witness was a full blood Chickasaw and he testified that she was a full blood Chickasaw from the Big House Clan, but these were not her grandchildren.  The council ruled to cancel their membership cards.  Personally, I feel like the attorney didn't do a great job of representing them, but the court case produced records that I would never have had otherwise.

 As I copied the pages, I slowly became aware that as people passed me, they were grinning at me. There was just too much excitement to be contained. I didn't realize that as I waited for each copy to exit the machine, I was doing a happy dance.

Mitchel Wilburn (Walter) McCarley (Sept 1846 - Jan 1916)
Nancy R McDuffie (McCarley) (1848 -14 Oct 1899)
Nancy Frasier (?)

Mitchel & Nancy McCarley lived in Indian Territory by 1898 in Love & Carter County.  Their family eventually moved to Stephens County, OK.

Myrtle Olive "Ollie" (Parker) Lamb

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 34

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Chosen Family

 Years ago as I was beginning to research my Father's family, I found a census record from 1930 for my Grandmother as a child. It had a large number of children that were unfamiliar to me. My Grandmother was close to her siblings so I knew Uncle Yip, Uncle Hinney, Uncle Jeff, and others.   I had never heard of the children on this record. 

 I sat down with my Dad and he started laughing as he looked at the record. "This Earl is Uncle Yip,  this is Uncle Hinney, and Wilfred is Uncle Jeff.  He explained that the family often had nicknames that had nothing to do with their real name. There were other children with different last names to explain, too.  There was Taylor and Mowbray. Dad explained that his Grandparents took in some neighbor children whose parents had died. They adopted one of the children and raised the others as if they were their children.

 I looked for adoption records and guardianship records but there were none. It must have been a case of just taking the children to raise without benefit of any legal paperwork.

 Years went by and I became curious about them again, these extra children. I started researching to find their parents. I did eventually find that the Taylor children were my Great Grandmother's sister's children.  Her and her husband had died very close together. Despite having a large family already, they took her sister's children to raise. Since there was no legal paperwork and no original last name, it was many years later before I found any information about the fourth "adopted" child.

 After my Dad passed, my Mother and I searched for insurance papers, his will, and other paperwork that we needed. In a plain envelope mixed in with his important papers, I found the life story of my Great Grandmother. It held the information that I need for the search all those years.

 Titled "My Life Voyage",  Myrtle Olive Parker Lamb, told a heartbreaking story of devotion and dedication to her family and God.  This seems timely since we are once again in a pandemic.

  "Then in October [1918] when the flu was raging the Master came to me and said there is a Baby at Jefferson go get it and rear it for Me, or you will go to Hell. How I plead and made excuses but we must obey God rather than man, so lost a dear cousin and took her son, as she was called home to Heaven."

 When they took in Arthur, Leeland Henry Lamb and Myrtle Olive "Ollie" Parker Lamb already had 8 children living and one who was stillborn.  Then three  more children were added to their family.

  "Then lost our Dear Sister Nellie in July 1923 which left 3 Motherless children which God said to me as each time before, take the little babe. But, Oh, what a burden it seemed but I have always tried to obey the masters voice. Each of these little ones had as kind, patient, loving, self-sacrificing, and God fearing Mother as I ever saw. This sinful world was no place for them."

 Not only did I discover the background for the 4 "neighbor" children, I discovered the children were not chosen. Ollie Parker was chosen by God to raise these children.

My Life Voyage

Robert Johnston Golightley, troublemaker.

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 33
#52ancestors
Prompt:  Troublemaker

Sometimes it seems as if our families hide information from us. Often it is because they don't think of it as important or they don't realize we would be interested.  Sometimes it is because they just don't want to talk about it.  This was a hard story for me to publish but it is common knowledge in our family and part of our history. 

When I was 14 years old and already interested in my family history, I overheard my Grandfather tell my Dad that Robert had died. When they realized that I was listening, they changed the subject.  Later, I asked my Dad who Robert was and he told me that Robert was his Grandfather.  I was upset that I had a Great Grandfather that had been alive and I didn't even know he existed. When I asked why we didn't know him, my Dad said he was a bad man and he didn't want him around us. At that time, he wouldn't tell me anything else, but  ever so often, I would ask a question about him and gradually over the years I learned more about him. 

Years later when I showed my Dad the documents from Robert being charged as incorrigible and being put into a "facility" as a teenager, my Dad only commented, "He started early, didn't he?"  The paperwork doesn't tell what he had done as a juvenile so we will probably never know. Everyone who might know was gone by that time. I do know that when he was 15 years old, Robert was listed in the census records twice, living with his parents and in a separate household with his aunt. I would like to think he was there to help her.

My mother told me about the time my Dad was about 12 years old and he "threw his grandfather off of their property".  His great grandmother, Robert's mother, who was old, feeble, and blind was living with them.  Robert came to the house demanding that she sign paperwork to give him the old home place and farm that had been in the family since the 1800s. I don't know that my Dad really understood what was going on but Robert made his Great Grandmother cry so Dad made him leave.  But Robert didn't give up, he came back and brought the "law" with him.  My Dad refused to let them in the house and eventually the "law" told Robert that he needed to leave. 

Robert didn't give up on getting the property but going through the deeds and other records at the courthouse told the story of how his brother, George, and grandchildren enforced Robert's Father's will. Although, Robert lived on the property and controlled it for awhile, he was never able to claim it as his and sell it.  Robert's Dad, John Golightley, willed the property to Robert's brother, George and to Robert's children, by passing Robert. The property is still in the family today. 

Robert was a veteran of the Spanish-American war and married again after his 1st wife, Myrtle Wilcox, died in 1933. He held a variety of jobs. In 1920, he was a boiler maker in the oil fields. On the 1930 census he owned a blacksmith shop.  In 1939, there were several articles in various newspapers in Kansas, describing him as a disabled and unemployed railroad man, who would be in town to paint street numbers on curbs.  Robert died in 1969 in Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas and was buried in Oxford, Kansas. 

Donald, Johnnie, Leeland, & Robert Golightley

Robert Johnston Golightley (5 Aug 1884 - 15 Feb 1969)

Aunt Kitty's Flour Sifter

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 32
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Prompt: Small

Sometimes the smallest things can spark a family story.  Going through family pictures one day, I ran across a picture of Kitty Miranda Parker. In the most off hand way possible, my mother said, "oh that is Aunt Kitty. She is the one that I got my flour sifter from".  

Of course, I couldn't let that go. I already knew that Kitty Parker was Myrtle Olive Parker's sister. Ollie Parker was my Great Grandmother on my Dad's side. She was born on 18th of December 1873. I was surprised that my mom knew her. 

But she didn't really know her. My parents had not been married very long when Aunt Kitty died. My Mom went with her mother in law, Eva Golightley, to help clean out Kitty's home. As they cleaned the kitchen and packed things up, Eva came across a flour sifter and ask my Mom if she had one yet.  When Mom said no, Grandma Eva tossed it to her and said now you do. 

That flour sifter stayed in Mom's flour canister the rest of her life. My sisters and I used it when we were learning to bake.  It has a little rust and is beat up, but it holds a place of honor on a display shelf in my kitchen. 

My Great Grand Aunt
Kitty Miranda Parker (Oglesbay). (18 Dec 1873 - 1 Feb 1954)

Johnnie Golightley lived large.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 31

Prompt: Large

My Grandfather lived life large. He wasn't wealthy. He wasn't well educated. More than likely he would have been diagnosed with ADD in this day and age. He always told the best stories.

He was raised by his grandparents as his mother became very ill after his birth and even though she went on to have other children, he was more than she could handle most of the time. I suspect that even as a small child that he was a very active boy.

As a teenager,  Johnnie Golightley had a motorcycle. Once a traveling circus came to town that had a "Globe of Death".  Two, three, or more motorcyclist would race around the inside of the globe, barely missing each other as they raced upside down and around. The circus ring master challenged the locals boys to try it. Johnnie was the only one to take him up on the offer and raced around the globe.  Unfortunately for him, one of the police in town grabbed him as he was coming out of the globe. The officer lectured him and threatened to tell his Grandfather about his recklessness. Knowing that his motorcycle would be taken away from him, he promised to never do it again if the officer would just not tell his Grandfather.  But it certainly wasn't the last scrape that he got into with his motorcycle. 

As a young married couple, my husband and I traveled from Texas to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents. During that first visit with my new husband, Grandpa told us several stories that included his motorcycle, because we owned a Honda at the time. When they were dating and as a young married couple my grandparents had several adventures on his Indian bike.

Grandpa was upset with us when he found out that we had a sissy bar on the back of ours and was adamant that we should take it off immediately. He was  sure that if he had one on his bike that he and Grandma would not have survived an accident that they had. They were on their way to visit a relative in another town when they hit some gravel and were headed off the edge of a steep embankment next to the road. Grandpa slid backwards on the bike, pushing Grandma off backwards with him.  The bike sailed down the embankment while they tumbled in the grass before the embankment. They eventually hitched a ride to the relative's house and then came back later to get the wrecked bike. 

Once my Grandparents were traveling between Wellington and Belle Plaine, Kansas, when they saw something very strange.  A farmer on a tractor was plowing a field, going up and down each row as they normally do. Directly over his head about thirty feet in the air was a round saucer looking object. It was going up and down the rows with the farmer who did not seem to be aware of the object.  My Grandparents pulled over to the side of the road and watched the farmer and the object as they moved up and down several rows. Then all of a sudden the object shot straight up into the air and disappeared. 

Grandma was standing at the kitchen sink, while we were all seated at the kitchen table. She was always the rock of the family, the one who could be counted on at all times. I looked at Grandma and raised my eyebrow in a quizzical manner. Even though she was standing behind Grandpa and he couldn't see her, she carefully nodded her head.  I could think that Grandpa might exaggerate to tell a better story, but my Grandma wouldn't.  I know they saw something that day. 

Albert Johnnie Golightley, (1 Jan 1906- 29 Oct 1979)

Eva Maude (Lamb) Golightley (6 June 1902 - 18 Dec 1979)

52 Ancestors in 52 weeks

52 Ancestor's in 52 weeks 

It has been quite awhile since I posted in this blog so I've decided to use Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks to help me keep on track.  Since I've started in the middle of the year, I may or may not go back and do some of the prompts from earlier in the year as I have time.  I'm going to start with Week 31, so even at that I will have some catching up to do. 

So for the month of August, here are the prompts

Week 31 (July 29-Aug. 4): Large
Week 32 (Aug. 5-11): Small
Week 33 (Aug. 12-18): Troublemaker
Week 34 (Aug. 19-25): Chosen Family
Week 35 (Aug. 26-Sept. 1): Unforgettable