- This topic has 3 voices and 5 replies.
-
Posts
-
I joined the board and started a thread in the “Family Lore” section back in 2004. I didn’t know anything about genealogical research and only had family stories to go on, and they proved to be very accurate. I decided not to “bump” that thread and bring it back up, because there was also a good deal of discussion about a family line that is not “the other Blackfoot” (but is still part Indian), and I don’t want to go off-topic. I never meant to abandon this forum, but shortly after I started posting, I was diagnosed with Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus), and coming to terms with that and everything else that was going on in my life (not all bad, but very busy) took all my attention. Before I knew it, eight years had passed! 😮
So, I’m back and I still need help. But, this time I have some new information. So, here goes…
When I saw my great-grandmother Myrtle Fisher for the first time in 1983, she was senile, so I didn’t get to talk to her. When I saw her I thought she was a white woman. Her skin was white and her hair was totally silver and very long, down her back. I took an older cousin aside and asked who the white woman was, and that’s when I was told that she always maintained that she was a Blackfoot Indian. That REALLY confused me, because I paid attention in Social Studies and knew that the Blackfoot Indians were a Plains tribe and lived nowhere near this part of the country. This was pre-Internet, so I just had to accept what I was told. I was also told that she was a VERY strict and mean woman.
I don’t know if she was claiming Blackfoot through her mother and grandparents or her father. I know that a lot of Indians who didn’t leave the Southeast hid in plain sight by passing themselves off as mulatto or black depending on how light or dark their complexions were, and I know that on all the censuses I’ve seen, the family was alternately listed as mulatto and/or black. It’s really mind-boggling to see children who have the same mother and father get listed as different races on the SAME census.
Anyway, here are the vitals… I hope somebody can shed some light on this for me.
Myrtle SLOAN, b. October 1896, Pickens, Anderson, SC. Shows up for first time on 1900 census, listed as age 4 and black, in the household of Benson and Cinda (Lucinda) SLOAN. There are two teenagers also in the home. Benson and Lucinda had a LOT of children, so I don’t know which one of them is Myrtle’s parent. For anybody researching this, NONE of the girl’s names are Katie, according to the census. In the 1910 census, Myrtle is listed as Myrtle BROCK.
Myrtle’s father is LONIE BROCK (b. circa 1876). I have been able to find only one listing for him in the census, in 1900, when he was 24 years old. Other than him being born in NC, He was married to a Minnie BROCK and living in Hopewell Township, Anderson County, SC. Myrtle later told a story that she and her father lost touch and that years later they got in touch again when he ran an ad in a local Greenville newspaper, and Myrtle’s pastor happened to see it. This was sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s, and Lonie BROCK (also spelled Lonnie) was living in the Durham, NC area. He remarried several times and I have some names, but I have to dig them out.
Myrtle married Rush GRIFFIN in 1915, I think. I have a photocopy of their marriage license, but I have to dig it out of storage. At some point Rush died and eventually Myrtle remarried. From that second marriage until the time of her death she was Myrtle FISHER. I don’t know what her second husband’s first name was.
I have been able to find census records for a few of Myrtle’s uncles and male cousins, from her grandparents. But, I will have to wait until April 2012 to see the 1940 census in order to see if I have a chance of tracking down a living relative.
Does anybody have anything they can add to this, or a new direction that I can start looking in? Thanks in advance!
I think I found a death record for the Katie that you were looking for…
South Carolina Deaths, 1915-1943
Name: Katie Barton
Date of Death: 18 Feb 1941
Place of Death: Rte. 5, Greenville, South Carolina
Cause of Death: hypostatic pneumonia and senility
Gender: Female
Age at Death: abt 76y
Estimated Date of Birth: 1865
Date of Birth: D.K.
Place of Birth: Belton, S.C.
Marital Status: Married
Spouse’s Name: William Barton
Father’s Name: Benson Sloan
Father’s Birthplace: S.C.
Mother’s Name: Lucinda Mcmurray
Mother’s Birthplace: S.C.
Occupation: Domestic
Cemetery: Gethsemane
Burial Date: 21 Feb 1941
Informant: Mrs. Lula Mack, 1132 W. Broad, Athens, GA
Film Number: 1943890
Digital Folder Number: 4181105
Image Number: 292
Reference Number: fn 2570
Georgia Deaths, 1914-1927
Name: Lucinda Sloan
Death Date: 21 Jan 1920
Age at Death: 80 years
Death Place: 1132 West Broad St, Athens, Clarke, Georgia
Cause of Death: Endarteritis and Cerebral Thrombosis
Estimated Birth Year: 1840
Birthplace: S. C.
Gender: Female
Marital Status: widowed
Fathers Name:
Father’s Birthplace: S.C.
Mother’s Name: MC. Mackmurrey
Mother’s Birthplace: S.C.
Cemetery: Gospel pilgrim
Burial Date: 24 Jan 1920
Informant: Lula Crane, 1132 West B. St, Athens
Film Number: 2295283
Digital Folder Number: 4177079
Image Number: 00699
Reference Number: 601
If you don’t have access to Ancestry, let me know, and I can email the actual records to you. I didn’t find a death record for Benson, but according to census records, he died 1910-1920. I found a few census records, too. I will post them later.
Stacey
Thank you, Stacy! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you. I was under the weather and not checking my email. Yes, the death record you listed are for “my” Katie, and my great-great-great grandmother Lucinda.
There’s just one thing. Katie is not listed in the Benson Sloan household on ANY census – at least not by that name. I have the 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1910 census records for the Benson Sloan household, and there are many children and several grandchildren named, including my g-grandmother Myrtle… but, there is no girl named Katie.
However, if the birth year on the death certificate (1865) is accurate, Katie would have been 5 years old in 1870. On the 1870 census record for the Benson Sloan household, there is a 5 year old daughter listed by the name of (what looks like) Tempey. It’s likely that this is Katie. I can believe that for whatever reason she preferred to go by Katie when she got older. Honestly, if my name was Tempey, I’d probably go by my other name, too, LOL.
There is this other thing, though… I think I found the marriage license for Katie and William Barton, but if it’s the right one then I think Katie was married prior to marrying William. On the license, the bride’s name is listed as Katie CALDWELL. The marriage date was May 16, 1925. I wasn’t able to find Katie or Tempey CALDWELL in the census.
The information you gave me was a huge help. I know where the cemetery Katie was buried in is. There is no free-standing Gethsemane cemetery in Greenville, but there is a black Baptist church named Gethsemane that has it’s own cemetery. Ironically, as a child I used to live right down the street from it and passed it often.
The death information for Lucinda Sloan was a great lead. I was able to get a copy of her actual death record from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website. I also was pleased to find out what her maiden name was, as well as what her mother’s name was. I did an all years census search for SC on the McMurray spelling, but nothing came up. When I tried McMurry, a lot of names came up with the majority being in Lancaster, SC. So, that gave me another clue.
Thanks, again! If you find anything else, please post it. 🙂
Hi
I am still looking some things up, but I just wanted to send you some thoughts…
Lucinda stated in the 1900 and 1910 census that she had 9 children and 4 were living. The known children from the census were: Warren (ca1861), Ann/Annie (ca1863), Tempey/Tempie (ca1865-67), James/J.W. (ca1869), Amanda (ca1872), Maggie (ca1874), Lula (ca1875). I don’t know if Warren was included in those totals since he appears to be from Benson’s previous marriage. Lula was married at least twice (to a Crane and a Mack).
Do you have a copy of Katie’s death record? I can send it to you if you need me to. The birthdate on the index portion says “estimated birth year: 1865”, but the actual record says “D.K.” for “don’t know”. Her sister, Lula, was the informant and stated that Katie was “about 76 years”. I wouldn’t put too much into the birth dates. They seemed to bounce around quite a bit. (My family was the same way. It makes ’em harder to find.:)) I think Ann or Tempey either one could be Katie. Tempey is usually a nickname for Temperance. Ann could have been Anna Catherine or Catherine Ann. Same with Tempey: Temperance Catherine or Catherine Temperance. If we could narrow down the four living children, it might help in determining which one could have been Katie.
Some suggestions to look into…
(1) Since you have a exact date of death for Katie, see if you can find an obituary for her. The two teenagers in the 1900 census might be hers also and siblings to Myrtle. It might also mention if she had any other husband(s) and their names (to verify the Caldwell marriage that you found).
(2) Since you have a exact date of death for Lucinda, see if you can find an obituary for her. I would check Clarke County, Georgia, as well as, Anderson and Greenville counties in South Carolina. It might give you the names of all her children and even give Benson’s date of death.
(3) Check the Gethsemane Cemetery records for additional relatives.
(4) Check the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens, GA for Lula (and maybe even Benson). Lula’s mother and 1st husband were both buried there.
(5) Check the Secona Cemetery in Pickens Co, SC. That is where Warren is buried.
Stacey
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
