From Mother to Daughter

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 20  (May 17 - 23)

Prompt: Textile

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 In years past our ancestors didn't have time for the creative activities that we do now. Their lives were taken up with more practical endeavors. They did manage to use their creativity in creating some of the practical items needed by their families. They sewed  the clothes their families wore, often copying patterns from New York or Paris if they were from the city or needed a party or church dress.  Clothes for daily wear were practical and sometimes they only had a few outfits depending on their circumstances. The cloth scraps were used to make beautiful quilts that often commemorated an event or family. 

My mother had a red velvet quilt with blue velvet pieces that was made from the scraps of material left from making her wedding dress and bride's maid dresses.  The quilt was used on my parents bed for many years. It kept my brothers warm when they slept on an enclosed porch and it was used for picnics and other occasions. Overtime it became faded and worn and was folded and put away.

My Great Grandmother, Sarah Violet Herndon Sample pieced a wedding ring quilt before 1932 .  My Grandmother, Gladys Mamie Sample McCarley, quilted it sometime in the 1970s. After my daughter was born in 1978, she gifted it to Katharine Meghan.  Gladys was her mother's first and only daughter, my mother, Gwonda Jane McCarley was her first daughter and I was my mother's first daughter. Katharine (Katy) is my first daughter.  This quilt has passed through 4 generations of daughters to the 5th generation daughter.

Family Maps of Ozark County, Missouri

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 6  (Feb 8-14)

Prompt: Maps

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I love doing research with maps because they often point the way to further research, help create fan (family, associates, and neighbors) groupings, and locate local churches and cemeteries.  One of my favorite maps to search is published by Arphax Publishing.  They have taken the original landowner maps from the land survey states and created books.  The books are not intuitive. I had to actually read the instructions to figure out how to use them and find the landowners related to me. Even with that, they are so much easier than the information at the Bureau of Land Management.  The BLM website helps in letting you know which county to search and information about the land itself.  The Family Map books shows where the land is located in context with the entire county and it is easier to see how close the land is to other relatives.  There are also maps showing local landmarks, such as rivers, churches, and cemeteries.

Family Maps of Ozark County, Missouri book has patent maps showing the land patents and where they are located for my 4th Great Grandfather, George Herndon, my 3rd Great Grandfather, Isaiah Herndon, my 3rd Great Grand Uncle, Goodman Daves, and a number of other surnames who married into the family including Piland and Norris. 

After studying these maps, I could see that in one case even though a groom lived fairly far from the bride by road that following the river, they were not that far apart.  It gave me a ready made list of neighbors and I could see who was signing as witnesses on deeds.  When the same surname showed up close, I knew to research that name and fit them into the family.  I can see that Isaiah Herndon owned land near his brothers, Stephen and Henry. 

When I find a new name or place, I check to see if there is a Family Map book.  Then I check my local library to see if they have the book and if not, then WorldCat to find the nearest library that has it. 

 

 

 

 

Curious About Their Gift

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 4  (Jan 25-31)

Prompt: Curious

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 My ancestral family attended the Mt. Lebanon Church in Ozark County, Missouri.  A transcription of the church records listed when my 4th Great Grandparents, "Br. George Herndon & Sister Hannah Herndon came forward & joined by experience." (Dec. 1849). Later that same month, my 3rd Great Grandfather and his sister, "Br. Isaiah Herndon & sister Mary Ann Herndon came forward & joined by letter & was rec'd in full fellowship in our church."   

 The records list the Herndons, Pilands, Daves, and Norris family members among others as they joined or left the church, including Sarah Davis/Daves who later became Isaiah's wife. This is a piece of evidence which contributes to the evidence of their marriage since no marriage record has been found for them.  They are both listed in the church rolls in 1851 proving that they did know each other as there were only 47 listed at that time.

 In May of 1850, the record states, "2nd by a motion & second the church resolve that Brs. H. W. Herndon & Isaah Herndon be virtually liberated to exercise their gift in any way they think proper."

 As I read this the first time, I couldn't help but be curious about their gift.  What was the gift that my 3rd Great Grandfather and his brother had?  Were they snake handlers?  No, that couldn't be it, could it?  I decided to do some basic research and found there are many gifts that they could have, Ministry gifts, Manifestation gifts, Utterance gifts, Power gifts, or Revelation gifts.

 Since there are indications that the two men were excused from the church and then rejoined at later times, I suspect that their gift was Ministry, which could include being an apostle who establishes and builds churches, or an evangelist, prophet, pastor, prophet or teacher.  In July of 1850, the church resolved unanimously to grant Br. Henry W. Herndon license to preach which supports that conclusion.

 If you are interested in spiritual gifts, here are a couple of websites that I discovered which describes spiritual gifts listed in the Bible.

 Learning Religions:   

Tyndale House Publishers:

 Garr, Margie F. The old records of the Mount Lebanon Church of Thornfield, Ozark County, Missouri.  1992. Viewed at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Twins and more Twins

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 9 (March 1-7)
Prompt: Multiples
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The myth is that twins come every other generation.  That is not true in my family.  It seems as if every generation has twins. My mother even had two sets of twins.

Going backwards from the youngest generation and their relationship to me: 

(Gen 1) Eryn Nissa & Kenneth Lee - Grandchildren 

Kenny & Eryn are 21 now
How time flys!

(Gen 2) Heather LeAnn & Chase Wayne- 1st cousins, once removed 

(Gen 3) Bobby Lee & Barbara Lynn - Brother & Sister 

(Gen 3) Bryan Keith & Brent Kevin - Brothers

(Gen 4 ) Sadie Fay & Vadie May - Aunts 

(Gen 5) Not in my line as there was only one child born in this generation, but maybe some of her cousins? 

(Gen 6) That brings us to the 6th generation.  The family story is that two brothers drowned in a tank (pond) when one brother tried to save the other.  There were some who thought that they were twins or at least very close in age as they were supposed to be in college at the time.  At this point, I have not been able to prove this story. I have found no indication of any twins for this generation in either the maternal or paternal line of generation 5. Nor have I found any proof of two brothers drowning. 

(Gen 9)  Going back in this line, there is a brother born on 1 Jan 1830 and his sister, born on 2 Jan 1830.  Is this a mistake?  or twins born hours apart?  This brother and sister are not in my direct line but siblings to my 3rd Great Grandfather, so this genealogy conundrum hasn't been a priority for me to solve. Maybe it should be. 

Sarah Daves Herndon Miller Clark

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 52 (Dec 23-31)

Prompt: Resolution

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 Literaryterms.net describes resolution as " the conclusion of the story’s plot. It’s where any unanswered questions are answered, or “loose ends are tied.” So it seems only right to come to a resolution at the end of the year, to answer at least one of the mysteries of my ancestors. The mystery was solved in the last few days with several nights of researching into the early morning hours.

 The mystery involves my 3rd Great Grandmother, Sarah Daves.  In 1850, she is living with her brother, Goodman Daves, in Ozark County, Missouri.  She was only 14 years old so the assumption is that her parents are no longer living.  An assumption that still needs to be proven, but that mystery is close to being solved as I have 2 men living in Kentucky in 1840 who are good candidates to be her father.  Her brother, Goodman, married his wife in Henderson County, Kentucky.  I used a spreadsheet and the 1840 census to determine that two men named Daves or Davis had children of the right age and sex to be her father.  Since the 1840 census doesn't give the children's names more research will need to be done to determine exactly which one is their father.  

 The second mystery about Sarah Daves involves what happened to her in later life. By 1860, Sarah was married to Isaiah Herndon who in 1850 lived only 2 houses down from her and her brother.  The 1860 census, lists her oldest 3 children of which Hannah is the oldest at 8 years old.  Due to Hannah's age, their expected marriage should have taken place between 1850 and  1852.  The two counties where they lived had their courthouses burn with a loss of all records after the expected marriage date. Ozark County courthouse burned in 1858 and the Douglas County courthouse burned in 1886.

 Toward the end of the Civil War, Isaiah was killed and is buried in Douglas County.  The family story states that he was on the way back from fighting in the war when he was set upon by bushwhackers and killed.  However no records have been found for him for military service. It has been proven that the I.O. Herndon who did serve in the Confederacy was not him. 

 Sarah's mystery comes after her husband's death. In 1870, she is living in Ozark County with her three youngest children. By this time, Hannah has married and is no longer with the family. After that Sarah disappeared.  I heard family stories that she married a man named Thompson and filed for a widow's pension for her husband's military service.  But that proved to be false as I discovered that it was Hannah that married a Thompson. There didn't appear to be any widow's pension for Sarah A. Herndon. 

 For many years, I pondered Sarah's fate. I picked up her son's story in 1900, but where he was between 1870 and 1900 was also a mystery.  I had searched Ozark, Douglas, Greene, and Webster  counties  census records page by page when census research was done by microfilm without finding them. The courthouses'  loss of records accounted for not finding a second marriage.

 This last week, I was working on the DAR paper work for a supplemental for my 6th Great Grandfather, Joseph Herndon, and I decided to try one more time to find Sarah Daves Herndon. The Ancestry search engine allows you to search for first names only and I have used that to find other ancestors. The ancestors that were found that way in the past had unusual first names so I didn't have much hope for finding Sarah, James, or Mary. Elisha would have been easier to find but I already knew where he was living with his wife in Douglas County.

 This simple technique proved to be the breakthrough that I needed.  I started with Ozark County as it was the last place that I knew Sarah lived.  But there were way too many Sarahs born close to her birth year.  So, I tried her son, James. In almost every record that I have found for him up to this point, he was listed as James W C Herndon.  I entered James W C into the first name box of the search engine, his year of birth, and that he may have lived in Missouri, USA.  Then I limited it to the 1880 census. The first name that came up and the only one that said, James W. C. was for a James W. C. Miller.  The head of household was Sarah E Miller, a widow.  Close but her name should have been Sarah A. But one of the other children was Mary A. C. Miller.  My James W.C. had a sister, named Mary Ann K.  Sarah was born in Kentucky. James and Mary were born in Missouri and they were the right ages. Despite the discrepancy in the middle initials, I am convinced I have found Sarah.

 There were two other children listed in the household that I did not know, Emma V Miller, age 4, and Sallyann R. Miller, age 3 (on the next page). Emma is listed as the daughter of Sarah and Sallyann as a granddaughter. 

The breakthrough information was from the 1880 Taney County, Missouri Census

 From there, I was able to find that Sarah A Miller had filed for a widow's pension on Burgess G. Miller. Burgess was living with his 3rd wife in 1870, living within a few house of Sarah's brother, Goodman Daves. His wife, Mary A., died in1872 and Burgess died in 1878. So it appears that he and Sarah married  between 1872 and 1876.

 Sarah Miller married Calvin Clark in September of 1908 in Ozark County. Just two years later, she  is listed as divorced on the 1910 census with the last name of Clark and living with her daughter, Emma V. Alsup and 5 grandchildren.

 Perhaps this is not the last resolution for Sarah Daves Herndon Miller Clark as there is still her final resting place to be found.