Grace Truman Jordan Evans

  

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 3 (Jan 18-24)
Prompt: Namesake
#52ancestors

 

Grace Truman Jordan

 Grace Truman Jordan was born on April 6, 1909 to William and Minnie Lee Jordan.  There was a mystery pertaining to Minnie Lee’s parents. The only record I could find for years was the 1880 census record where M. L. Dottry, was living with her parents,  T  and J Dottery.  For years that is all we knew about her parents.  It seemed easy to assume that Grace Truman Jordan’s name might be the clue needed to find her grandparents. Surely, she was named after her grandfather, T Dottery, making his given name, Truman.

 Alas, that proved to be wrong, her grandfather’s name turned out to be Thomas G. Dottery, which is another story. Where did the name Truman come from?  It seemed like it should be a surname passed down. Could she have been a distant relative to Harry S Truman? That proved to be wrong, too. 

 In the 1850s, Sallie Rochester Ford published a serial story in the Christian Repository owned by her husband, Reverend Samuel Ford titled, Grace Truman, or Love and Principal.  The serial was published as a book in 1857 and republished multiple times[1].  The 1886 edition included an afterword in which “Ford noted that the work was semi-autobiographical and referenced her own personal and public struggle as she converted from Presbyterianism to the Baptist movement[2].” This book was influential in Baptist circles for many years.

 The two sides of the character, Grace Truman, spoke to many of the faithful Baptist women of the last half of the 1800s and early 1900s.  While Grace Truman was the epitome of the faithful, submissive, devoted wife, she was also a fierce warrior of her faith.  She reflected a strength that appealed to many women of that time. The book, Grace Truman, must have made an impression on Minnie Lee Dottery Jordan for her to have named her daughter, Grace Truman.  In fact, there were many girls named Grace Truman after different editions of the book were published. A search of the first name “Grace Truman” with no other information gives over 4 million results in Ancestry.com and 1,184 results in the family trees. 

Grace Truman Evans with niece, Christine and sons, John (Son) and Ed

 Grace Truman Jordan’s namesake was not another relative but a fictional character, a woman of faith. It gives an insight into the character and faith of her mother, Minnie Lee Dottery Jordan.

---

[1]Sallie Rochester Ford.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Rochester_Ford

[2] Sallie Rochester Ford: fiction, faith, and femininity: nineteenth-century Baptists offered two general, and different,  cultural messages to women within the church regarding social expectations. - Free Online Library (thefreelibrary.com). https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sallie+Rochester+Ford:+fiction,+faith,+and+femininity:...-a0138811971

A Break through ?

In February, a lady from LA, called me asking about the Dottery Family. I had some information she didn't have but she had some interesting information that I didn't have. She is descended from William M Jordan and Minnie Lee Dottery through their son, James.

I didn't know what had happened to Minnie Lee. Margo told me that Minnie Lee had lived with her parents in LA and eventually went to a nursing home when she got mad at them. She was buried in Palula (Kalola)?, LA. and that she had a son, J.G. Hope.

I didn't follow up on this, other than to look for census records.

Now someone else has called about this same family. Debbie did follow up on some of this information. She talked to the funeral home and found out that Minnie Lee's death certificate lists her mother as "Jane Teer". Despite having been married to someone named Goodman, her tombstone reads Minnie Lee Jordan.

She has also told me that a baby named Mary Teer is buried at the foot of Chester Evans Grave in Ebenezer Cemetery. I'm not sure what the significance of this is as Chester is quite a ways from any Teers on the genealogy chart.

1. I need to get Minnie Lee's death certificate from LA.
2. Who is J.G. Hope? Is this an indication that Minnie Lee was married to a man named Hope before Goodman? Maybe this is why I couldn't find a marriage for her and Goodman. This means another trip to the library to check the MS marriage records.

Other records

Still in search of I. Dotterys maiden name, I searched death records. There were no Dotterys listed in the Montgomery County Cemetery book. Of course it would be a long shot that her maiden name would be listed on her gravestone, but it does happen sometimes. I also checked the Choctaw co. Cemetery book at the Dallas Public Library. And I checked the 1887 newspaper index for Montgomery county for an obituary. That is the only year I found at the library.

So why did I check Choctaw County in particular? I found a Nimrod Dottery in the Choctaw County, MS census record of 1860 with a son, Thos Dottery who was the right age to be the T. Dottery who married I. If they are the same person, it is possible that T & I married in Choctaw before moving to Montgomery County.

I need to check the slave census in 1860 for a female the right age near the Dotterys.

I Dottery

The first thing that I want to know is "What is I. Dottery's maiden name?"

What I know about her:
1. She was born about 1856 in MS
2. She was married to T. Dottery
3. She had a son, Odum E. Dottery born about 1877 in MS
4. She had a daughter, Minnie Lee Dottery, born about 1880 in MS
5. She was in Montgomery co., MS in 1880 with her husband and 2 children.

From that information I am assuming she married in MS around 1875-1877. Since a marriage record is the easiest way to find a maiden name, I first concentrated on finding a marriage record for I and T Dottery.

I searched the marriage records at the MSGenWeb county site for Montgomery County, the MSGenWeb and the USGenWeb archives. I also searched ancestry.com.

Then I spent two days at the Dallas Public Library searching for their marriage record in microfilm and in books on both the county and state level. Dallas owns the MS state marriages index which you would think has all of the marriage records for MS. I'm not convinced. If I Dottery really was 1/4 black, their marriage may be recorded in the colored books. I don't know that all of the colored books have been included in that index.

She may have been born into slavery and they moved from somewhere else to Montgomery county where no one knew her so she could pass as Indian. The marriage record may not even be in MS. At one time, it was illegal for interracial marriages in MS and some went to LA to get married. I need to investigate the laws during the 1870s to see if it was illegal then.

My next step is to do some research on the MS Marriage index. I plan on contacting the state archives in MS to see what they have to say about it. There are also other places that marriages might be recorded.

African American Genealogy

I did a program on African American Genealogy last week at the DeSoto Public Library. I was a little concerned since I don't look like I have the creditials or knowledge to do a program on AA genealogy. I was pleased with the response though. Besides going through the major records sources and explaining how they are different for African Americans, I also laid out a research plan for a line that I am working on. Unfortunately like many AA lines, I have it back to 1880 and have hit the brick wall. I haven't given up yet as there are some avenues that I just haven't had time to research yet.

To lay out the problem. I am researching a woman named I. listed on the 1880 census in Montgomery County, MS. She is with her husband, T. Dottery. According to her age on the 1880 census, she would have been born about 1856 and she and her parents were born in MS. Family stories passed down say she was Indian, wore Indian clothes and was even known to do Indian rain dances in the yard. I've always admired her because how many Indians during that time period flaunted their race. However DNA has pretty much ruled out that she was Indian. Her great granddaughter and great great great grandson's DNA results indicate she may have been about 1/4 Black. At least she seems to be the most likely candidate of that generation. This opens up some record searches that I hadn't thought about exploring before, so I'm hoping that one of them reveals more information about I Dottery. I'll let you know how it goes.