3 Evans Brothers

There were 3 brothers who came to America.  That is almost as common as one of my ancestors was an Indian Princess.  But I really do have a story of 3 brothers.  The family tradition is that they were orphaned as teenagers.  They were suppose to have some sisters, but no one knows their names or what happened to them.  All of the children were spread out among the family to be raised. 

The three boys were John William, James Thomas, and J. M. (Jeptha or Jeremiah) Evans. I've done extensive research on all three boys but hadn't come up with any information before 1880.  John William was living with Jasper Flynn on the 1880 census in Tallahatchie County, MS.  He was only a few houses down from Mary Josephine Isabella Sumner who he married a few years later.  One of the other boys married Janie Flynn.

The third reference to the Flynn family came when I found three boys named, John, James, and Jerry who were the right ages living with Eliza Flynn on the 1860 census in Adams County, MS.   Even though their last name is listed as Flynn instead of Evans, it is obvious that it is a blended family because there are two children named John and two named Mary.  If this is the correct family, then it must mean that one of the Marys is their sister.  

I've ordered microfilm from Adams County but didn't find anything conclusive.  There was no probate record or orphan records which named the boys. Recently I found a notice from the St. Mary's Cathedral Church which mentions a Robert Evans who died just months before the census record.  My next goal is to search the christening records at the church to see if I can identify the three boys and their parents. 

 

Serendipity

Last Tuesday, I was one of three members of a panel discussing "Finding Who You Are".  It was suppose to be a little like the show "Who do you think you are?"  in that we were to highlight an interesting ancestor and how we found them or something about their life.   I chose Cassie McCarley,  John William Evans, and John Golightley.  I worked diligently on a Prezi presentation which had copies of documents, how I found the information, and in one case what I am going to do to finish solving the puzzle.  

The first, Cassie McCarley, was a daughter of my Great Grandparents who died when she was 3 years old.  I became interested in her when my Grandmother told me that they didn't know why she died but that she had been playing in the yard.  She ran into the house to tell her Mother that there were Angels playing in the trees.  Cassie became ill that evening and died.  I wanted to prove that Cassie did exist and find out as much about her as I could.  I found her on the 1900 Census as a 1 year old, but for years afterwards I found nothing else.  Eventually I found an affidavit of birth for her in the McCarley / McDuffie Chickasaw Indian file.  It said at that time that they were living in Ryan, Indian Territory which matched the census record.   I searched for a death record, newspaper obit, and cemetery record, but found nothing.  I was resigned to not finding anything else about Cassie. 

Tuesday morning before my program that evening, I received an email from the digitalization and archives mailing list of the Library of Congress.  The email was announcing an update of a newspaper project.  In learning how to use the database, I searched for the surname McCarley in Oklahoma.  A newspaper article popped up, which I quickly added to my program for that evening. I finally knew why, where, and when Cassie died.

The Daily Ardmoreite., February 12, 1902

Ardmore Courthouse

Last week I spent the day at the Ardmore courthouse with my good friend, Paula.  Paula was diligent about going through misc. indexes as I went through the court case, felony indexes.  I was specifically looking for the court case of Oscar Parish who shot and killed Jim McCarley in 1905.  This was two years before Oklahoma became a state.  I've searched for this record before, multiple times, but not at this courthouse.  Since it was before statehood, I spent one day at the Regional National Archives in Fort Worth since all of the federal records before statehood were transferred to them. The case was not there.  The archivist told me that if the case had dragged on and had not been resolved then it would still be at the courthouse in Oklahoma.   There were 3 district courthouses before statehood, the next one I'll try was in Tishamingo.  However it isn't often that I get a day off during the week when the courthouses are open.

The trip wasn't a waste of time though.  We found my great great grandfather's probate record.  M.W. (Mitchel Wilbern) McCarley didn't have any land listed, but did list a horse, buggy and harness, 1 cow, 120 bushels of corn, 80 bales of hay, watch, and other misc items.   Although there is an affidavit which states some of the property listed belongs to Mamie Bray and the buggy and harness was sold to Lee Bray the first of January.  Sidney McCarley (my great grandfather) filed the paperwork.

M.W. McCarley departed this life on January 16, 1916 at Nocona, Montague County, Texas and was a resident of Healdton, Carter County, OK.   The petition for letters of administration lists heirs as:
Eli McCarley age 44, residence Mariette, OK
Sidney McCarley, age 41, residence Ringling, OK
Macom McCarley, age 38, residence Unknown
Sarah Stout, age 35, residence Staunton, OK
Effie Stewart, age 32, residence Glenn, OK
Fred McCarley, age 28, residence Wirt, OK
Mamie Bray, age 25, residence Healdton, OK
Nannie Laurence, age 23,residence Legal, OK
Walter McCarley, age 27, residence Marlow, OK

M.W's obit

http://lelasgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/02/mitchell-w-mccarley-obit.html

Probably Art Lamb

This is a picture found in an album of my Dad's mother, Eva Lamb Golightley.  My Dad suspects this picture of is of her brother, Art Lamb.  Dad remembers that he was in the Navy and that his Dad, Johnnie Golightley, tried to help Art find a job when he first came home from the Navy.   If anyone knows for sure who this is, please let me know.

Eva Lamb Golightley

We found a box of pictures today that have not been opened since my parents moved back to Mineral Wells 18 years ago.  There was an album in it of Grandma Golightley's.  It was mostly of her family with pictures of her as young lady maybe a teenager.  It is amazing how much my Aunt Opal and my sister, Barbara look like her.
 

Eva Lamb Golightley,  Mr. Beatty, Florence

Presentations

This is going to be a busy week.  Monday I  presented the program "Fur Traders: Was your ancestor a Mountain Man?" to the Ellis County Genealogical Society.  Tonight I will be in Plano presenting, "Googling for Genealogists" to the Collin County Genealogical Society, and Saturday, I will be presenting the same program at the DeSoto Public Library. They are all open to the public so if you are nearby......

Family Pictures

Our family had a tragedy this summer, in that my Aunt and Uncle's house burned to the ground.  It made me realize our collective memories are fragile.  Along with my grandmother's pedal sewing machine, most of her pictures are now gone.  There were pictures of her with her cousins and friends that had no copies any where else.  Along with the images, the names of those friends are in jeopardy.  I don't know if any of her children remember them or not.  Another question I need to ask at the next reunion or sooner if I get the chance. Meanwhile I've decided that we have to spread our family pictures out more, so that one tragedy will not claim them all.  I realized that I have pictures of my brothers and sisters that I took with my brownie box camera that no one else has.

Since getting the Flip Pal scanner, I've been scanning pictures every time I go to visit my parents.  This weekend I didn't scan any, but I did bring some home to scan on a larger scanner.  This picture is of my Grandparents, Gladys Mamie Sample and Thomas Osa McCarley and their first daughter, my Mother, Gwonda.  My Grandmother was only 15 when she got married and is probably 16 in this picture. 

My Dad

  

While I was at my parents house, I scanned this picture of my Dad.  He said he was about 10 years old.  I think he looks younger, but my Dad has always looked younger than his age. 

Jewish Genealogy

This is not my story but I found it  fascinating family research. Judy Wilkenfeld has researched and documented a part of her family's history.  It puts a face on a tragic chapter in our history. 

http://judywilkenfeld.tumblr.com/

Flip Pal

I have found a limitation of the Flip Pal.  If the original picture is a little fuzzy or hard to see, the Flip Pal scans does not improve it, but makes it worse.  Several of the black and white pictures came out so pixeled that I can't use PhotoShop to improve them.  I'm making a list of them because I'm going to have to bring them back to the house to use a scanner that has better resolution. 

This picture is one that didn't scan well.  It wasn't marked and Dad doesn't know who it is.  It was in Eva and Johnnie Golightley's pictures.  They had many pictures of friends, so she could be a friend or a relative.  Does anyone recognize her?

Flip Pal scanning

Today I spent the day at my parents.  I took some pictures back that I had borrowed awhile back to scan.  Mom has some pictures that she wanted me to scan and copy.  She wants prints of them so I decided to bring them back home to use the home scanner as it scans at a higher resolution.  She brought out a tub of photos. We spent the day talking about them and scanning them.  This photo had to be scanned in 4 scans and then stitched together.  It was only about an inch larger than the screen on both sides.  The stitching software did a good job.

 

 

Leeland Henry Lamb and Myrtle Olive Parker and their children.

Back Row: Eva (my Grandmother), Rose, Henry, Naomi, Nina

Middle Row: Jeff, Leeland, Myrtle, Beulah, Margarite

Front Row: Clarence, Art, Mary, Earl

My Dad was named after Leeland Henry, his grandfather.

My Uncle Earl, Dad's brother was named after their mother's brother, Earl. 

New Toy

I have a new toy.  I bought it in preparation for our genealogy research trip this Fall.  The Flip Pal is a small portable scanner that I can take to libraries, archives, and relatives homes who are reluctant to allow their pictures to be taken somewhere else to be scanned.  The Flip Pal runs on batteries, saves scans to a memory card so you don't have to have a computer with it.  The scan surface is small so if the picture is larger than 4x6, it takes several scans to get the complete picture.  It has software on the memory card to stitch the scans together to put the picture back together. I haven't tried that yet, but I will soon.  It will scan at 300 dpi and 600 dpi.

These are pictures that I scanned with it.  I put them together with PhotoShop and then saved for the web to save download time.  The right side is the back of the photograph.

A start

George Morgan suggested doing a time line for an ancestor and then writing up a biography for the ancestor.  He suggested doing it in word and showed his format.  I already had a timeline for Charles M. McCarley in an Excel spreadsheet, so I decided to continue with it.  After going through all of the information I have on Charles M. McCarley, I have 29 pieces of information about his life including his birth, death, and marriage information.  I included the birth of his 12 children which in most cases tell me where he probably was at their birth.  I guess he might be somewhere else but he is always on the census with the family so I am assuming that he was close by when his wife had the children.  I also have some tax records and all of the census records during his lifetime.  I'm including his wife's birth and death information. 

There are reasons why I haven't started the book before.
1. I have no proof that Ezekiel McCarley is Charles M.'s father though I am fairly certain of it.
2. I don't know who his wife's parents are.  I would love to prove that the Mrs. Hines who is running a Female Institute (school) in Maury County, TN is Ann Matilda Hines' mother.
3. I would like to check the deed records in Smith Co., TX, Marshall Co., MS, Hardin Co., TN and Maury Co., TN for any land that Charles M might have owned.   I plan on going to Smith County in Sept to check those deed records.

But no more delaying, I'll write his story and if I find more information I'll add it later. Now how to write it without being boring?

A new committment

Today I attended several workshops presented by George Morgan at the Lancaster Library.  He mentioned a technique that sounds like it would be a good way to finally start that book without being overwhelmed. So for all of my relatives who have been gently nudging me and the one who has been threatening to pass on before I get around to doing it, I'm starting tonight.

That puts all other research on a back burner for now.  Doesn't mean I won't be doing research on other lines but I've decided to focus on this project for awhile.

Bob's Great Great Grandparents

While I admit that I don't do nearly as much research on his family, I didn't realize how much information I was missing.  I don't know any of his Great Grandparents on his Mother's side, much less his Great Great Grandparents.  I am positive that all of his ancestors on that side were born in Japan.  

Even on his Dad's side, the facts are kind of sparse.  It is just a calculated guess that 16 & 17 were born in Ireland, based on who I think the boys were living with on  the 1860 census.  I could be wrong about the census record, as other relatives think that a different census record is them. 

Bob’s Great Great Grandparents

16.   Unknown  probably bn in Ireland 

17. Unknown  probably bn in Ireland

18. Joseph Burton Sumner

            Bn  11 Oct 1837 - AL

            Dd  15 Feb 1920  - Sumner, Tallahatchie Co., MS

19. Susanna Ferguson

            Bn abt 1840  AL

            Dd 5 June 1909 Sumner, Tallahatchie Co. MS

20.  Emery A. Jordan

            Bn  1838 - MS

21.  Martha Sparks

            Bn:  abt 1844  TN

22. Thomas Dottry

            Bn: abt 1846 MS

23. Jane Teer (maybe)

            Bn: abt 1856  MS

24. unknown

            Bn  Japan

25. unknown

            Bn Japan

26. unknown

            Bn Japan

27.  unknown

            Bn Japan

28.  unknown

            Bn Japan

29.  unknown

            Bn Japan

30.  unknown

            Bn Japan

31.  unknown

            Bn Japan

My Great Great Grandparents

Randy Seaver issued a Saturday Night Challenge last night.  I was busy with something else so I decided to do it tonight.   Randy's Challenge   The first challenge was to list all of our Great Great Grandparents with birth and death information.  For my relatives reading this, the first 8 are on the Golightley side and last 8 are on the McCarley side.  I went to my genealogy software to get the data, but realized that I haven't updated it in a long time.  I needed to go to my notebooks to get some of the information.  It also showed me a few holes where I need to focus.

2nd the pie charts are below the list. 

 

16. John Golightley

                Bn 24 Oct 1846 Sedgefield, Durham Co. , England

                Dd  25 Dec 1925 Belle Plaine, Sumner Co, Kansas

17. Elizabeth Caroline Johnston

                Bn 2 June 1849 Ontario,  Canada

                Dd 20 Dec 1939 Wellington, Sumner Co., KS

18. Jonathan Mofford Wilcox

                Bn 25 Feb 1848 New Providence, NJ

                Dd 13 Nov 1929 Belle Plaine, Sumner Co. KS

19.Clara Alice McDonald

                Bn 11 Sept 1844 Urbana, Ohio

                Dd 12 Oct 1921 Winfield, Sumner Co.  KS

20. Ewing Wesley Lamb

                Bn 1 March 1857 Warren, KY

                Dd 14 June 1887  Sumner  Co., KS

21. Lucy Bell Rasdell (Ragsdale)

                Bn 17 April 1861   KY

                Dd 4 Sept 1886  Sumner Co., KS

22. John Henry Parker

                Bn 7 April 1841 Colebrookum, New Hampshire

                Dd 18 April 1915 Colin, OK

23. Carolyn S. Maddy

                Bn 9 Oct 1851 Shelbyville, IN

                Dd 10 May 1923  Harper, KS

24. Mitchel  Wilburn McCarley

                Bn Sept 1846  Holly Springs, MS

                Dd Jan 1916  Nocona, Montague Co., TX

25. Nancy R. McDuffie

                Bn 1848 AL

                Dd 14 Oct 1899 Ardmore, Indian Territory

26. Telghman Newton Niblett

                Bn  14 Aug 1836 Macon, Bibb co., GA

                Dd  March 1919 Cement, Coal Co., OK

27. Martha Adline Briggs

                Bn 13 June 1842 Alabama

                Dd 14 April 1898 Hughes Springs, Cass Co., Texas

28. William Britton Sample

                Bn 20 Sept 1866 Spickardsville, MO

                Dd 30 Sept 1908 Stockton, Rooke Co., KS

29. Edith Ethelda Neese

                Bn 22 May 1869 Webster City, Iowa

                Dd 11 July 1944 Springfield, MO

30. James W. C. Herndon

                Bn  May 1862 MO

                Dd 14                     MO

31. Martha Jane Lawrence

                Bn  July 1864  MO