Betty was Born November 7th... or was that the 8th?

     Depending on the document you're looking at, my grandmother, Betty Huyler Albea, was born on either November 7th or 8th of 1931. I have four different documents with birth dates for her, with two documents supporting each date. Here are the documents:

Birth Certificate:

Birth Announcement:

Bible Record:

Death Certificate:

     From what I understand (mom, correct me if I get this wrong), Betty always gave her birthday as the 7th. She said she was told that she was born late at night, but certainly before midnight. However, the hospital recorded her birth later than it actually occurred. And the newspaper announcement would come directly from the hospital records. One the other hand, the bible record follows the family tradition of the 7th. And the death certificate quotes the date Betty always used.

    In this situation, we follow the family tradition of November 7th over the original birth certificate. Usually birth certificates are considered to be one of the best and most accurate documents available. However, this situation shows that any document, even the most "primary" ones available, can be suspect. Heck, my birth certificate spells my middle name wrong. 

Are You My Smiths? (Pt 1)

     Like most every other genealogist, I have Smiths in my family tree. Here's how I've traced my Smith family so far.

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     My grandmama told me that my Great-Great Grandmother was born Louise Smith and was married to Leverett Waters. Their children were Ruby, Ethel, Alma, Ruth, LC, Milton and Jack. I was easily able to find this couple in the 1910 - 1930 censuses, living with their children in a different location each time. 

     But what about Louise's parents - the Smiths - who were they? I wasn't able to find a trace of Leverett Waters in the 1900 census and hoped that Louise was living with her parents at the time. She was born in 1881, so the 1900 census would be the only census for her to appear with her parents.

     My grandmama knew Louise's death date and place, so I started my research by requesting her death certificate. It listed her father as J. Richard Smith and her mother as "Don't Know." Next up: her obituary. Aside from her children, others listed in her obituary were Millard Waters (known to be her brother-in-law), Charles Smith, Aaron Smith, M. Smith, and Mary Hollis. Could these people be her siblings? I knew that in order to be able to say with 100% certainty that a particular Smith family was the correct one, I would need to utilize collateral line research.

     I started searching the 1900 census for Louise, paired up with names from her obituary. In the Atlanta, Georgia there was a Louiza N Smith of the correct age with a brother named Aaron and a father named Richard T. Could this be her? It looked good, but I really didn't have any concrete proof that this was the family I was looking for.

     Luckily for me, I had a happy dance moment in my research: my grandmother had Louise's family bible. On the New Testament introduction page, there was a list of names: Will, Mary, James, Aaron, Louise, Albert and Clarence. The family believed that this was a list of Louise's siblings. I was able to find Aaron, Albert and Clarence listed in the bible and the ages certainly lined up for these to be siblings. Going back to the possible 1900 census listing, I found that this list supported the record that I had found, which showed these names as the children of Richard T and Rachel Smith.

     With this family now defined, I was able to find Richard and Rachel together in the 1910 Rockdale County census and Richard as a widower in 1920 Rockdale County Census. I was able to confirm that these were my GGG-Grandparents since they consistently appeared with their children.

     Next I wanted to find information on Richard and Rachel's death. In the bible, I had a record of "R. T. Smith - Died Oct 24, 1920," which was probably Richard. I confirmed that this was a Richard from the Georgia Deaths Index on Ancestry.com and ordered a copy of his death certificate. Richard's death certificate indicated that his parents were George Smith and Mary Lane of Georgia. He was listed as having been buried in Milstead, the town where he last appeared in a census. Some research on the town of Milstead showed that this had been a mill village, complete with cemetery. Sure enough, graves for Richard, Rachel and son, Albert, were found in the Milstead community cemetery.  The gravestone provided information on Rachel's death, which I had been unable to find. Unfortunately, she died a few years before death certificates were required in Georgia.

Having created a brief sketch of the Smith family from the time of Louise's childhood on, now I would start to locate the Richard and Rachel Smith on records prior to 1900.

Surname Saturday - Smith

Like many others, I have a troublesome Smith family in my lineage. And, like others, the popularity of the name makes the family hard to trace.

My Smith family can be traced to Richard T. Smith, who was born on either 2 Jan 1829¹ or 11 Feb 1830², depending on the document you're looking at. He died on 24 Oct 1920 in Rockdale County, Georgia¹.

Based on Census records, he married Eliza UNKNOWN around 1848, and then Rachel Garman on 18 Aug 1870³. His children from his first marriage were Paulina or Priscilla, Lucresy, Delmus, Amanda, Richard and Sarah. From his second marriage, his children were William, Mary J, James Henry, Aaron M, Louise, Louisa, Albert H, and Clarence. I descend through Louisa Smith, who married Leverett Waters. These names are based on census and Bible records. I find it curious that Louise recorded only her full-blooded siblings and not her half siblings in her Bible. It's made me wonder if I have the correct families, but at least some of the siblings from different marriages are listed together on census records.

I have a good amount of information on Richard, but not enough to find his parents. According to his death certificate, his parents were George Smith and Mary Lane, both of Virginia. I haven't been able to locate this couple. I also have not been able to find a listing for Richard in the 1850 census. At that time, he should have still been single and, hopefully, living with his parents. He was likely in Fulton, Cobb, Milton or in the surrounding Georgia counties.

Right now I'm working on tracing the lines of his children to try and make a connection with other family members. Also, I'm continuing to search the 1850 census for him. If you're connected to this Smith family, I'd love to hear from you.

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Sources

1. “Certificate of Death for Richard T. Smith,” 24 Oct 1920, File No. 29598, Georgia Bureau of Vital Statistics, http://www.flickr.com/photos/genealogyphotos/137928528/.

2. “Georgia, Confederate Pension Applications, 1879-1960 about Richard T Smith,” Rockdale County, 1906, GCP-406, Confederate Pension Applications, Georgia Confederate Pension Office, RG 58-1-1, Georgia Archives.

3. Edna Strickland [ednab@mindspring.com]. “MILTON COUNTY, GA - VITALS MARRIAGES Alphabetical Groom.” [http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/milton/vitals/marriages/groom.txt].

Monday Memories - The Family Bible

I ♥ Bible Records

My favorite record are probably Bible Records.  I'm lucky enough to have access to a family Bible on my direct maternal line.  I was also given a Bible with family information for a family that branches out to touch mine.

Why do I ♥ Bible records? For two reasons: they provide a lot of information but must also be puzzled out.  When you have Bible records, you have a list of names and dates, often jumbled together and lacking relationship information.  You could have a page that lists Grandchildren, Parents, Children, Grandchildren, Nieces, Nephews, Cousins, etc, all on the same page.  Now you have to figure out how these people relate to each other. It's a challenge, which can be both fun and frustrating.  But in the end, I'd much rather have the Bible and not be able to identify some people, than to not have the Bible at all!

I also hope that by deciphering the Bible entries, that the Bible will be helpful to other researchers.  There might be someone else researching the same line, that would find the information extremely valuable.  It's always nice to be able to help someone else!

One thing that I would really love to have happen, is to make a connection to my Smith line, which is partly covered in my maternal line family Bible.  I've yet to connect with anyone who is researching my Smith line - which is brickwalled with Richard T. Smith (1829-1920).  I'm really hoping that putting the family Bible out there will help me connect with fellow researchers.  *fingers crossed*

Randomness

When I read the article "Found! Who gets the Bible," in Ancestry.com's magazine, I was very surprised to see that the bible they featured appears to be the very same Bible edition that was used by my G-G-Grandmother. A quick census check showed that the family of the featured Bible lived only one county over from my G-G-Grandmother's family. I've always been curious about where the Bible came from and how old it might be. There's no publisher information. I emailed the editors with the question: Are there any sources for tracing Bible publishers?

More to Louise's Bible than we thought

I've been meaning to purchase some archival safe products for a while now (gloves, boxes, tissue, etc). I have some boxes and envelopes for old photos, but I'd like to also protect my documents as well. One of the documents that's most important is my great-great grandmother (straight maternal line), Louise Smith Waters, family bible. 

     We have the Bible in an archival safe box, but I'd like to protect the pages with genealogy information by placing acid-free tissue or paper between them (that choice is another topic entirely). So, Mom & I got out the Bible to measure it. The Bible is old and delicate. The bindings are all gone, except for a few strings and a memory of more solid bindings. Heck, all of Genesis is missing. Anyway... tangent - back on topic.

     We were turning some pages, trying to remember where the Family pages belonged before they were moved to the front of the Bible, when I found writing on a page that stated,

" Alma Water + Edward T. Underwood were married Dec_15_1948."

     I was very surprised to find this. We had no idea that there were family dates in the Bible except for what had been recorded on the pages included for this purchase. So, we started at the beginning and flipped through the entire book. In the end we found four pages where extra info had been recorded on blank pages. Now, none of this information is going to break down a brick wall, but it was very surprising and exciting.

My favorite page is probably the one that records dates that relate to World War II. Check the pages out: