The Law and Order Method of Genealogy

Genealogy people often talk about “the thrill of the hunt” and “sharpening our detective skills.”

“Playing detective” seems to be a large part of the attraction for those of us who love genealogy. Yet there is also that other aspect of genealogical research that may be either part of the attraction or a big turn-off: the scholarly aspect. You know, citing your sources, adhering to the genealogical proof standard. Yeah, that stuff.

This is how I described that combination in one of Randy Seaver’s famous Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges at Genea-Musings (“Why Do I Pursue Genealogy?”):

“You get to be a cross between a detective and a scholarly researcher. Sometimes you are pursuing the thinnest of clues (detective), and other times you are amassing, comparing and cross-checking, and filtering out many different pieces of information from sources of widely varying thoroughness and reliability (researcher). Depending on your mood on any given day, you can assume one role or the other, or both.”

I still do think of it this way.

However, while watching TV and doing genealogy on my new laptop the other day, I realized there was perhaps a more compatible and natural combination of vocations that might describe this dual nature of genealogical research.

We were watching “Law and Order UK,” the latest version of the franchise – you know, the one with crown prosecutors (wigs) instead of district attorneys (no wigs). And it struck me that much of what the prosecutors/district attorneys do (or are supposed to do) is that “second half” of the genealogical process. And in an ideal world, as they investigate crimes, the police detectives work closely with them to build the case.

Some of us prefer one role over the other, and some like both but may give preference to one or the other at different times. The most common problem is when research does not focus enough on the second, proof-oriented, role. However, while being scrupulous and thorough, we should not forget that sometimes it is necessary to get down and dirty, to try something off the wall or unconventional, or even – gasp! – to use Google or check online trees.

Sometimes it’s time to call that psychic.

Like the police detective, sometimes ya gotta rely on that tip line. You have to check out some places where those genies, even unsavory ones, hang out. You know which sources tend to be unreliable, so you take what they say with a grain of salt. Yeah, sometimes you let your guard down and accept something at face value that you shouldn’t have – but what mystery is not made all the more interesting by a red herring or two?

And when you think you’ve got a good case, one that will nail that ancestor/perpetrator, you take it to the district attorney.

And he tells you that won’t fly with a judge and jury. You have to have proof – maybe not beyond a shadow of a doubt, but beyond a reasonable doubt.

You have to pound the pavement some more. Get deep down into the paperwork. Maybe you won’t find anything that supports your case, but you have to be able to demonstrate at the very least that you didn’t find anything disproving your case, either. And, the really tiresome part is, you have to keep records of everything you searched, everything you found, and everything you didn’t find.

You hand it all over to the lawyers, who put it in the right order and dress it up with some fancy and, you hope, convincing words, hoping against hope that the perpetrator/ancestor will not get off on a technicality.

And then maybe – just maybe – the judge and jury will agree: “Yeah, that’s the guy.”

2010 and 2011: Review and Preview – 101st COG

The topic for the 101st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: My genealogy research/writing plan for 2011. Figure out what you think you can accomplish in 2011 and write it up on your blog.




Well. This is more serious than New Year’s genealogy resolutions, which I usually just break, anyway. To tell the truth, I took a peek at last year’s resolutions, and that actually helped me to formulate a plan, because I can see where I tend to fall short and what kinds of resolutions actually get done. And there is a second phenomenon at work here: Last year’s work and accomplishments determine and create many of this year’s to-dos.

For instance, one of my accomplishments last year was to take my first genealogy research trip (which, significantly, was not on my resolution list or in my plans – it was a spur-of-the-moment thing after my cousin got in touch with me). It was very successful, which meant that my cousins and I found a lot of material. Now recording, analyzing, and exploiting that material has to be one of the main tasks on my research and writing plan for 2011.

I saw from my 2010 resolutions that I am very weak at the transcription thing. This is a necessary chore – as in, I have to do it but it is not going to be a lot of fun. Part of my writing plan is going to be to use the Amanuensis Monday/Transcription Tuesday prompt to keep me on track with transcription. Another writing resolution was to do more research-related posts – this will be the other part of my writing plan.

I carried out the resolution for finishing inputting information on the Joseph Madison Carroll Norman family, but have only made a bare start on the Hiram Brinlee, Sr. family – this must get done this year. I did more work on my Lizzie Smith brickwall, but almost nothing on the Elisha Lewis-Rosannah Dalrymple family.

Yet another resolution was to take advantage of my Footnote subscription – I did that fairly well and have to continue, primarily in digging up everything I can on my 4g-grandfather William Lewis’ Revolutionary War record so that my husband can use it to find out more about his time as a British prisoner. And there is a parallel this year – I now have a Genealogy Bank subscription, which has proven very useful and needs to be used consistently in my research.

Another “unplanned accomplishment” was the progress that was made on Floyd family research. Much of this was due to a “cousin ex machina” e-mail from a distant cousin that contained invaluable information on George Floyd’s family and scans of family letters. This spurred me and my Dallas Floyd cousins to do more research, which resulted in pages of court transcripts and newspaper articles … that have to be transcribed and analyzed. Again, unexpected progress was made but resulted in more work to be done.

My first resolution was to make time for my research and writing, and that will be critical to the success of my research and writing plan. Part of the solution is to make more efficient use of my time. For example, earlier this year I tried to carve out more research time by making my Follow Friday posts (which are, admittedly, pretty time-consuming) more of an occasional thing. So when I started using the early evening hours for research instead of working on the post, I realized that later in the evening I am too tired to do research, anyway, but could still summon up enough concentration to use that time to read and write about blogs. Thus, a compromise was achieved that served both research and writing goals.

I am also hoping to find extra research and writing time without compromising family time (i.e., we all sit in front of the TV with our laptops in front of us – yes, it is family time because we definitely do talk to one another while we are doing this – what can I say, we all have short attention spans in this family). My hope here is that the new MacBook Pro that my husband bought me for Christmas will enable me to do this. While we are on this subject, does anyone out there have any suggestions for syncing Reunion databases on two computers? I tried looking up solutions online, but so far have found only outdated information on this subject.

In brief, my 2011 genealogy research plan boils down to this: consolidation and filling in the gaps for my family lines to the great-great-grandparent level. For my great-grandmother brick wall, this means taking the research as far as I can (without a research trip) to find her parents. I would also like to get inputting on my Ancestry trees caught up to what I have input on Reunion, since these trees have actually turned out to be useful in my research.

The writing plan will consist of two parts: (1) transcribing the tons of documents and newspaper articles I have acquired and posting some of them on the blog, and (2) blogging about research projects and results. And finally, to serve both ends, I need to find more time, make better use of the time I have, and take full advantage of my paid subscriptions such as Footnote and Genealogy Bank.

My Visit to the Library of Congress

I am now the proud possessor of a Library of Congress Reader Identification Card. This last Wednesday, January 7, I was part of a group of 28 members of the Fairfax Genealogical Society which participated in guided tours of three parts of the Library of Congress: the Geography and Map Reading Room, the Newspapers and Current Periodicals Reading Room, and the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room. All three of our librarian-tour guides were excited about their collections and very generous in sharing information, particularly information they felt was relevant to historical and genealogical research, as well as research tips that would be useful in exploiting these collections to the fullest.

Three of us researchers had done some searching of the Library of Congress website beforehand and had written down call numbers for books we were interested in; in the Local History and Genealogy Room we filled out request forms and handed them in before we went to lunch so that after lunch we were able to return and use the books for a couple of hours of research. I chose Jessye Ann High’s John Finley, “Fighting Jack,” 1760-1839, and His Descendants. A John Finley of Greene County, Illinois has been cited as the father of my great-great grandmother Nancy Finley. There were two John Finleys in Greene County during the period in question, and while I was fairly certain this John Finley was not the father, I though he might be the grandfather, as the other John Finley was young enough to be his son. However, High’s book makes no mention of “my guy”; moreover, it includes John Finley’s will, which does not mention a son named John. The alternatives are: some other type of relative such as a nephew or no relation.

An exciting and relatively new (it’s in its third year) program at the Library of Congress, jointly sponsored with the National Endowment for the Humanities, is Chronicling America, “a site produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program, [which] provides free, public access to select digitized newspaper pages and a wealth of information about historic American newspapers held in libraries across the country.” You can find information on Chronicling America at http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/ and see what’s available or do a search at http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/.

Kudos to Bobbie Leamer for organizing this and other wonderful field trips; the next one is to the DAR Library.

My Brick Wall: Susan Elizabeth Smith Bonner Brinlee

(Warning: The following post is rather long. This is my “special” brick wall, so I am attempting to include as much information as possible, and I welcome any and all advice on how to break through this brick wall.)

All genealogy researchers have many brick walls, of course, in the sense that each family line hits a brick wall at some point, whether earlier or later, but the definition of this term, in the way it is generally used, appears to include an element of selection. That is, not every “dead end” ancestor inspires the researcher with the same strong desire to learn more about that person and find his or her family. The number of persons in a family tree who might be considered brick walls varies from researcher to researcher; among that group there is often one person in particular who has a special claim to the title of “brick wall.”

When I first got hooked on genealogy – meaning that I knew this was going to go beyond a few Internet searches based on idle curiosity – I set myself a very modest goal based on my appalling, near total ignorance of my family tree: I just wanted to know who all of my great-grandparents were. Within the space of a year, I had found all eight of them, and for seven out of the eight, I knew who their parents were, as well.

The eighth great-grandparent is my “special” brick wall: Susan Elizabeth Smith Bonner Brinlee. I will set forth what little information I am aware of, and none of this information can be taken as absolutely reliable. Among Brinlee researchers there are different theories and versions of the facts, so I can only cite what little evidence there is.

Name: It is generally believed that her maiden name was Susan Elizabeth Smith and that prior to her marriage to my great-grandfather Hiram Carroll Brinlee Jr. she had married a man named Bonner, who died young. She appears to have gone by the nickname “Lizzie.” I have found death certificates for three of her four known children: Lawrence Carroll Brinlee (my grandfather), Austin Franklin Brinlee, and Cordelia Brinlee Clinton. Austin’s death certificate indicates that her maiden name was Susan E. Smith, Cordelia’s says it was Lizzie Smith, and only my grandfather’s death certificate indicates a serious variation from these two: Elizabeth Baker. However, the informant on my grandfather’s death certificate was my grandmother, Sallie Norman Brinlee, and I believe her recall of Lizzie’s last name was less reliable because Lizzie lived with Austin’s and Odell’s families in later years; Baker may have been my grandmother’s attempt to recall the name Bonner.

The earliest document I know of on which Lizzie’s name and age appear is the Marriage License for her and Hiram Brinlee, and on that document her name is given as Mrs. S. L. Bonner. Another document with her name is her Confederate Widow’s Application for a Pension; there and in appended documents her name is given as Mrs. Susan Elizabeth Brinlee, Susan E. Lizzie Brinlee, and Mrs. S. L. Brinlee, and she herself signs one note “Susan E. Brinlee.”

Age: This is the area with the largest amount of conflicting information, and though most researchers agree on some time around 1868 for her date of birth, that agreement is not universal. The aforementioned marriage license, which was dated 1 Dec 1892, indicates that she was 23 years old at that time. According to a Post-It left on a WorldConnect genealogy for the Brinlees by a second cousin, Lizzie’s Bible lists her date of birth as April 4, 1856. If this is true, her age at her death on 7 September 1958 would have been 102. Perhaps the year was misread or was entered later in her life when she may have forgotten the actual year of her birth, but I believe various pieces of evidence indicate that 1856 is too early for Lizzie’s year of birth.

For one thing, Lizzie’s youngest known child, Cecil Odell Brinlee, was born in 1908. If Lizzie was born in 1856, she would have been 51 or 52 when Odell was born – possible, but not very likely. Unfortunately, Lizzie does not appear with Hiram on the 1900 census, which could have been a good corroborating source to use with the marriage license. Hiram is shown only with his son from his previous marriage, Louis, and a hired hand. Perhaps Lizzie and the children were living elsewhere, but so far I have not been able to find them and I suspect that Hiram simply spoke with the census taker outside the house and for whatever reason did not care to provide information on the rest of the family.

Lizzie first appears on the census in 1910 (dated 4 May 1910), where her age is given as 41, and the 1920 census (dated 30 Jan 1920) is consistent with this, giving her age as 50. By 1930 (21 Apr 1930), however, the advanced age of 73 is claimed for her. Information provided by her on her Confederate Widow’s Pension Application may shed a little bit of light on this. On that document, dated 27 July 1925, she gives her age as 68, and this is consistent with the 73 on the 1930 census. However, there is a note written by Lizzie that is appended to the application (the date is September 10th, and the year as written could be 1929 or 1924) in which she writes: “i have lost my correct age i am somewhere in 60 i am not 75.” So she may have been losing track of her actual age by this time. No disrespect intended (and her note does indicate that she is trying to be honest), but I have seen a few ancestors age on these applications (there was a minimum age requirement).

Lizzie’s death certificate gives her date of birth (provided by son C. O. Brinlee) as 4 April 1860 and the age cited in her obituary (Plano Star Courier, 31 July 1958) gives her age at death as 98. This is a bit more plausible than 1856, but I still think 1860 is at least a few years too early. I have a copy of a photograph that must have been taken sometime around 1916-1920, based on the appearance of her sons Austin and Odell, and from that photograph I do not think she could have been much over 50.

Place of birth of Lizzie and her parents: All three censuses on which Lizzie is known to appear indicate that she was born in Tennessee; that state also appears on her death certificate and obituary, as well as on the death certificate of her son Lawrence. Knoxville County has been cited as the county in which she was born, but I do not know what the source for this is. The 1910 and 1920 censuses give North Carolina as the state of her parents’ birth; 1930 gives Tennessee. It is still too early to make any assumptions based on this information.

Earlier life, possible avenues of research, and why Lizzie is the brick wall ancestor about whom I most want to know more: The reports of an earlier marriage appear to be true. The 1910 census indicates that she has been married more than once, and the 1930 census indicates that she was 17 at the time of her first marriage. I am not sure whether there are other sources for the name of her first husband, but her name does appear to be “Bonner” on the marriage license, although it looks as though “Brinlee” was entered first and “Bonner” was then written over it, so I cannot be quite sure. For some reason, in my computer folder for her and Hiram I have a separate document with a single cryptic sentence on it: “A Lizzie Smith married a W. T. Banner in McMinn County, Tennessee in 1886 – would this be the “Bonner” that we have been looking for?” If she was married at age 17 and was born in around 1868, 1886 would fit as a year of marriage. (Note to self – must put source of information on all notes!)

Some people believe that Lizzie had children with Mr. Bonner and some do not. According to the 1910 census, she had given birth to 7 children, of whom 4 were still living. Those four were my grandfather and his siblings, but it is not clear if any or all of the remaining three were Hiram’s or Mr. Bonner’s children. The years of birth for my grandfather and his siblings are 1893, 1895, 1904, and 1908. There is definitely a large enough gap for three more children from her marriage to Hiram. I am guessing that she married Mr. Bonner in Tennessee in around 1885-1886, that they came to Oklahoma for the land rush in 1889, and that he died some time shortly after that. Other scenarios are possible, but this would probably be the simplest explanation for a girl from Tennessee ending up a widow in Oklahoma. These time frames would also be sufficient for Lizzie to have had one or more children with Mr. Bonner.

Why am I so intrigued with Lizzie Brinlee? It is not just that she is the only one of my great-grandparents for whom I have been unable to find a family. There are a number of scraps of information on her that make a compelling story. She was the only great-grandparent who was still alive when I was born. My Uncle Bill remembers her cooking for him when he was a young man getting ready to join the Navy. There are stories that she was at least part Native American, though there is nothing in the single photograph I have of her that gives any strong indication of that. One particularly tantalizing piece of information was provided in the above-mentioned Post-It left by my second cousin Kathy, whose grandmother Amy Kent Brinlee had said that Lizzie “was from Tennessee and had lived with a family that had taken her in to help work, where she washed dishes by standing on a bucket. Therefore, she had to have been fairly young.” Was she orphaned, or was her family reduced to sending her out to work because they were extremely poor? I love the challenge of Lizzie – by all accounts she was very modest and said very little about herself. Her maiden name, Smith, makes the challenge of finding her family all the more difficult.

Where to go from here: While I have picked out a few Tennessee Smith families as possible candidates, that is not where I should really start looking. I can ask my Texas relatives for more information, but at this point it does not appear that there is a great deal more to find out there. I believe I should probably start in Oklahoma, where Hiram and Lizzie met and married. Hiram and Lizzie were married at White Bead Hill, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory; Lizzie’s residence is also listed as White Bead Hill. By 1900, they were living in Britton Township, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Territory.

At the top of this post is a picture of Lizzie, Austin, Odell and, seated, Hiram Brinlee. Can anyone tell me anything more about Lizzie?

Tombstone of Hiram C. Brinlee

Above is a picture of the tombstone of my great-grandfather Hiram Carroll Brinlee. It reads as follows:

Hiram C. Brinlee
Capt. Mantua Co.
15 Texas BDE
Confederate States Army
1842-1920

I believe that there are at least two errors in it. The first is the date of birth, 1842. Online genealogies give two dates for Hiram Carroll Brinlee Jr.’s date of birth: 1842 (apparently from his gravestone) and 1844 (apparently from the Bessie Sims Sheppard article in Collin County, Texas, families). I tend to agree with the 1844 date; it is consistent with all but one of the censuses in which Hiram Brinlee, Jr. appears (16 in 1860, 25 in 1870, 35 in 1880, 65 in 1910, and 75 in 1920; on the 1850 census his age is given as 8). The 1900 census did not figure in my original calculations because at that point no one had been able to find him on the 1900 census. The 1844 year of birth would also make the story of the reason for termination of his first enlistment more plausible. If his service enlistment record is correct, he had turned 17 by the date of his enlistment on 10 Sep 1861. That record also indicates that he was discharged June 13 1862 at Camp Maury, Miss by the Conscript Act. The Conscript Act was passed on 13 Apr 1862; it exempted men under age 18 and over age 35 from service, but stipulated that those who qualified for this exemption at the time should continue to serve for an additional 3 months so that replacements could be found. This indicates that he had not turned 18 on 13 Apr 1862 and probably had still not turned 18 by 13 Jun 1862. The day of his birth probably came before the 10th of September in the year, but after 13 June.

Some months after making these calculations, I finally found Hiram on the 1900 census. I had searched both Texas and Oklahoma for him and tried Soundex, but the misspelling of his name still did not show up, so I looked for men named Hiram of the right age in both states and finally found Hiram C. Brinnee in Britton Township, Oklahoma Co., Oklahoma Territory, age 55, born September 1844. So I think this gives a window of September 1 to September 10 1844 for his birth.

The other item which may be misinformation is the rank given on his tombstone, Captain. H. C. Brinlee indicated on his Confederate Pension Application that he had served for about 10 months in Company D, 6th Texas Cavalry, and then again later "under Gano about 1-1/2 years." The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System indicates that the second period of service was six months in the 3rd Regiment, Texas Infantry State Troops. He may have transferred into the 15th at the end of that service, but it does not show up anywhere that I can find so far. He was a private when he finished his first term, and I suspect he might have finished his second term at the same rank. Perhaps he was called "Captain" in later years. To get the full picture, I will have to do some searching in Footnote and find out more about these units.

Matlocks: Thomas A. Matlock and Mary Adeline Stratton

This is the final family from the Absolom C. Matlock and Nancy Malvina Harris family. According to a note in Eunice Sandlings "History of the Floyd Family," this brother of my great-great grandmother Angeline Elizabeth Matlock was "ordained as a ruling Elder of the Presbyterian Church of Lisbon, 1886. Ordained with E. A. Gracey and T. M. Goodnight. News clipping says he was engaged in hardware business in Petrolia." Thomas and Addie are buried in Petrolia Cemetery, Clay Co., Texas, next to Dona and Boon Slayback, daughter and son-in-law of Thomas' sister Angeline Matlock Floyd.

Thomas A. Matlock
b. 20 Oct 1859, Dallas Co., Texas
d. 19 Jun 1925, Petrolia, Clay, Texas
& Mary Adeline “Addie” Stratton
b. 7 Sep 1859, Texas
d. 30 Jan 1936, Houston, Harris County, Texas
|--- Ollie T. Matlock
|----- b. 16 Dec 1888, Texas
|----- d. 19 Mar 1976, Wichita Falls, Wichita, Texas
|--- & Eleanor
|----- b. 14 Jul 1892, Texas
|----- d. 14 Aug 1989, Texas
|------- | Joan Matlock
|--------- | b. 1919, Texas

Based on the name of the informant on Ollie T. Matlock's death certificate, Joan may have married a Wittmire.

Descendants of David Floyd? - Part 1

David Floyd was the oldest brother of my great-grandfather Charles Augustus Floyd. I put a question mark after the title of this post because it is not certain that there are currently living descendants of David Floyd, but I recently discovered that at least one of his daughters may very well have living descendants.

Here is what is currently known about the family of David Floyd and his wife Zillah Kelly (Claywell Floyd Lovett – more on her three marriages later):

David Harriet Floyd
b. 1836, Illinois
d. ca 1867
& Zilla Ann Kelly
b. Jun 1839
d. 9 Jan 1914, Sipe Springs, Comanche Co., Texas
m. 23 Dec 1858, Dallas County, TX
| Eliza Ellen Floyd
| b. 1860, Dallas County, TX
| d. bef 1890
| & Mason W. Crum
| b. Mar 1852, Kentucky
| d. 1930, Hopkins, Texas
| m. 16 Apr 1880
| David Angeline Floyd
| b. 1863, Texas
| d. bef 1900
| & George W. Bingham
| m. 21 Jul 1884

It is apparent from the 1900 census that Eliza must have died by 1890, because Mason Crum and his new wife Anna married in about 1890. In addition to Mason and Anna’s daughters Audry and Alma, there is a third daughter, Sada, born in 1884 according to the census. Sada must have been Eliza’s daughter.

This was as far as the line had gone as far as we Floyd researchers knew. At one point when I was researching this family I took a little “detour” to find out who Zillah Floyd was. The item that initially aroused my curiosity was the 1860 census entry for her and David. [David died some time before 1870, when Zillah had already remarried to a man named Elihu Lovett. I am guessing that David Floyd died some time in 1867 or perhaps early 1868 because he appeared in the partition of father George Floyd’s land in 1867 and he witnessed the marriage of his brother Charles to Angeline Matlock on 13 Jan 1867. ] On the 1860 census, a young (5 years old) boy who is referred to as Noah Penny is shown living with David, Zillah, and their daughter Eliza. How was he related to this family? The first place I looked for clues, as I always do for the Floyds, was Eunice Sandling’s History of the Floyd Family, which stated that David Floyd married Zillah Claywell on 23 December 1858. I tried to find a Zillah Claywell with her family on the 1850 census for Illinois but could not; however, Claywells and Pennys did turn up in Sangamon County on that census.

Searches for Zilla(h) Claywell/Lovett and for Eli Lovett brought up several posts on genealogy discussion boards. As I started to track these down, it became clear that Zilla’s maiden name was not Claywell, but that she had married a Claywell and had son Noah from that marriage. Noah’s last name was actually Claywell, and he appears in later censuses under that name, but perhaps the census-taker associated him with the Penny family in Dallas County, which had also come from Sangamon County, Illinois. A little more searching revealed that Zillah’s maiden name was Kelley. By this time I had discussions going with two of her descendants both on the discussion boards and through e-mail, and I even ended up in one of those Texas two-hour-long phone calls with one of them. Eventually we straightened out Zillah’s marriage history. Zillah’s first husband was Warren Claywell, by whom she had son Noah; her second husband was David Floyd, by whom she had daughters Eliza Ellen and David Angeline; and her third husband was Eli Lovett, by whom she had children John Wayne and Emily Lucy. The first and third families and their descendants knew of one another’s existence, but did not know of the David Floyd family until we found one another online. Why was this? The 1900 census contained a possible explanation: both Eliza Ellen and David Angeline had died by 1900 (the census showed that Zilla had had five children, of whom three were still living, and those three were Noah, John, and Emily). I knew that Eliza had died, and apparently David Angeline (who married a George W. Bingham) had as well, which explained why I could not find her on the 1900 census.

I will continue on the fate of Sada Crum in the next post.

Alvin Cletus Floyd and Essie Maples

I mentioned this family in a previous post (on Alvin's sister Alice Floyd); Alvin was the first "new" Floyd sibling that I found from the Caswell B. Floyd and Mary Miller Floyd family. As I mentioned in that post, when I found Alvin Floyd in the census I strongly suspected that his mother Mary Long (wife of Charles Long) was Mary Miller Floyd, who must have remarried some time after Caswell Floyd's death in 1890. Mary and Charles' son Emmet Long was born in February 1893 according to the 1890 census, so she must have remarried in around 1892. One confusing thing was that Mary Miller Floyd's tombstone in Kleberg Cemetery has her last name as Floyd, not Long, There are a couple of possible reasons for that - perhaps the tombstone had already been purchased, or perhaps she split up from Charles Long before her death. But it kept me from being entirely sure that Mary Long was actually Caswell's widow, even though her date of birth from the 1900 census - January 1848 - matched the year of her birth on her tombstone.

Some time later, I did a search on "Caswell Floyd" and came up with a post on a genealogy inquiry board for the Floyd surname - but the name was Cletus Caswell Floyd, the grandfather of the poster, Shari Floyd Sinkler. The location given for him was New Mexico. This still wasn't enough to make a connection (I did not know yet that Alvin's middle name was Cletus). A search on this Cletus brought up an obituary, which stated: "Born on Feb. 21, 1913, in Cleburg, Texas, to Alvin and Essie Floyd, he received his early education and was raised on a homestead in Pecos County, N.M." I realized that Cleburg was Kleberg, and this with the name Caswell clearly indicated that he had to be Caswell's grandson, which meant that Alvin Floyd was indeed Caswell's youngest son (born 1888).

I wrote to the original poster, but did not hear back from her for a while. But when I did, it was a wonderful e-mail about her grandfather Cletus (with a little about Alvin and Essie) and his 3rd wife, her grandmother Gwendolyn, written in an affectionate and wonderfully readable style. Shari painted a vivid picture of this colorful couple and their strong faith. Cletus' faith apparently came after some life experience and youthful hell-raising, including a stint as a Golden Glove Boxer that ended with him getting knocked out at Madison Square Garden, but the conversion took - he spent the rest of his life as a minister with the United Pentecostal Church. According to the obituary, "He was married for 57 years to Gwendolyn Marie Bradley Floyd until her death in 1994."

Cletus had a sister, Ruby, who may have married a man named Miller. He had at least one brother, Linton, who married a woman named Pearl and possibly a second woman whose last name was Edwards. There may have been another brother named Grover or George, but SSDI indicates that Linton Floyd was born on 10 March 1910, and Grover/George's age on the 1910 census indicates that he would have been born in late 1909, so perhaps they were actually the same person (Grover's middle initial is given as "L"). I would love to hear from anyone who has any additional information on this family.

Alice Floyd Ezell Bibb, 26 Jan 1882-17 Oct 1918

One of the first things I learned about Alice Floyd Bibb was that she died of influenza and pneumonia on 17 October 1918. The date in itself is eloquent - these were the early days of the Great Influenza Epidemic. Now the task that confronted me was to work backward from her death and find out whom she had married, what children she had, if any, and everything else I could find out about her life. I started with her death certificate. Originally I had a transcription, but now I could get an image at the Family Search pilot site. Alice died in Kleberg, Dallas County, Texas. This was the area where members of the Caswell Floyd family lived. The other two brothers who survived Caswell, Charles Augustus and Alfred Byrum, had lived in the Hutchins/Lancaster area of Dallas County. The informant on her death certificate was Ira Floyd, her brother. The undertaker who signed the certificate was E. O. Prewitt, the husband of Alice's niece Cheba Floyd. Cheba herself would die within four years after complications from an operation. The registrar who signed the document was W. S. Skiles, a distant relative by marriage through Charles Floyd's wife Angeline Matlock Floyd.

My next step was to find out precisely who Mr. Bibb was; at this point I assumed that he was the man that Alice had married by the 1900 census, making her an "invisible" Floyd. A simple search did not reveal the couple on the 1910 census, so I took another piece of information from the death certificate, Lee Cemetery, to see if I could find someone there. Through a bit of googling, I found a site which listed a number of graves in Lee Cemetery and even had pictures of the tombstones. One of the tombstones was for a T. H. Bibb, 1868-1818. This looked promising. I could find no Bibb family with that spelling in the Dallas area on the 1900 or 1910 census, but the 1880 census for nearby Kaufman, Texas showed a widower named Thomas H. Bibb with his children, and the oldest child was also named Thomas, age 12. The younger Thomas must be the T.H. Bibb in Lee Cemetery (and the older Thomas Bibb is also buried in Lee Cemetery), but was he also Alice's husband? With a little creativity I found a Tom Bib on the 1900 census, born November 1868, with his wife Nancy, born February 1877, and daughters Lora and Mabel. It appeared that he was not Alice's husband. However, I went back to the Lee Cemetery records, and the 1918 date of death for Tom was very suggestive. Then I found an important piece of information - one of the other Bibbs In Lee Cemetery was a Nancy Bibb, born 1873 and died in 1904. It struck me that perhaps Alice was Tom's second wife and, given no Alice Floyd on the 1900 census, Tom may very well have been Alice's second husband.

To find this couple (I hoped) on the 1910 census, I decided to work on finding Lora or Mabel, without the last name. That worked - this time the family members were listed as Thomas and Allice Bibbs, Thomas' daughters Lora and Mabel, and, what gave me the final clue I needed to find Alice with her first husband on the 1900 census, listed as Thomas' stepson (therefore Alice's son from her first marriage), James Ezell. Looking for an Ezell family on the 1900 census in Dallas County was fairly straightforward and produced Tom Ezell, wife Allice, and son Oran T. James Ezell was born after 1900, so Oran must have died by 1910. Oran's death, the early deaths of Tom Ezell and Nancy Woody Bibb, and Alice's early death were the first chapters I found in the tragedy-marked life of this family. I returned to Lee Cemetery to find out how the other Bibbs were related, and quickly found two daughters who died quite young, Elizabeth (1912-1913) and Frances (1913-1914). Their death certificates, which were also online, showed that they were Thomas and Alice's children and showed that Elizabeth had died of bronchial pneumonia and Frances of dysentery. Thomas Bibb's death certificate confirmed what his tombstone hinted at, that he had died in the influenza epidemic, and in fact showed that he died on the very same day as Alice.

A search on Ancestry turned up a third daughter of Thomas Bibb and Alice Floyd, but no name was given. Further census work showed that she survived (her name was Billie) and was brought up by Lora Bibb who, at the young age of 22, had been the informant on her father's death certificate. The 1920 census with Lora and Billie shows them with Lora's husband Arthur Glenn and their son Martin. The 1930 census shows Lora as a widow, a younger son Phillip K. Glenn, and Billie. At first I thought this was the continuation of the numerous tragedies suffered by this family, but Ancestry searches for Arthur and Martin to find death dates led me to believe that the tragedy that befell this family may have been one of separation, not death. I found evidence that a Charles Arthur Glenn from the same area of Dallas County as the Caswell Floyd family was the "right" Arthur Glenn, and this Arthur Glenn, his son Martin (both of the right ages), a new wife Anna, and Anna's daughters Lorean and Caroline Ray living in Cameron County, Texas on the 1930 census. Arthur's stepdaughters were of the right age for him to have still been married to Lora when youngest son Phillip was born. The interesting thing was that each parent had taken a son.

Lora Bibb Glenn did not completely escape further tragedy, however. On 30 June 1951, her younger son Phillip Keith Glenn died at age 26 in a prison camp in Korea. The following information is provided for him in the Korean War Casualty listings:

"First Lieutenant Glenn was a member of the 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on November 30, 1950 and died while a prisoner on June 30, 1951. First Lieutenant Glenn was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Korean War Service Medal." I believe that he may have married a woman named Millie Etta Reed and had a daughter named Donna; perhaps this was some consolation to his mother. I believe Arthur Glenn died 23 July 1943, but I do not know what happened to Martin Glenn. Lora Bibb died on 22 March 1969; the informant on her death certificate was Billie (Bibb) Kay, her younger half-sister.

The other Bibb sister, Mabel Bibb, died at age 37 on 8 December 1934, about three weeks after the birth of her seventh child, Nancy Mabel Walton, apparently from an infection that set in after the birth.

I have not been able to find out anything further about James Ezell.

Finding a New Family

The “new family” mentioned in the title above does not refer to a set of direct ancestors, i.e., the parents of a “brick wall” ancestor, but is located in a “collateral line,” in this case, the family of one of the brothers of my great-grandfather Charles Augustus Floyd. The brother in question is Caswell B. Floyd, who was born in 1845 in Illinois, married Mary Miller, and died in 1890 in Kleberg, Dallas County, Texas. The Floyds were one of the first families on whom I had any information, thanks to some outstanding Floyd family researchers, Eunice Sandling and the Jim and Pat Dodd family. It often seemed that there was very little I could add by way of research to what they had already done. They already had a family group for Caswell and Mary Floyd, which included five sons – George Albert, William Henry, Joseph Ira, Ollie B., and Charles Alford. However, Caswell ‘s death in1890 opened up the possibility that there were additional children born between the 1880 census and Caswell’s death in 1890.

The 1900 census showed an Alvin C. Long, born ca 1888, living with a Charles and Mary Long in Precinct 4, Dallas County, Texas, and I suspected that Mary Long was Caswell’s widow. I eventually got in touch with a descendant of Cletus Caswell Floyd, Alvin Cletus Floyd’s son, and the name Caswell and the descendant’s claim that the family was from Kleberg, Texas, made me positive that my guess was correct. However, this still is not the family referred to in this article.

When I did the census work for Charles and Mary Long, I found that in the 1910 census, Mary was shown as having given birth to 10 children, of whom 8 were still living. That meant it should be possible to find eight living children at that point in time, but at this point I knew only of Caswell and Mary’s six sons plus another son, Emmet, born to Mary and Charles Long. Emmet was born in 1893, at which time Mary was already about 45 years old, and in the 1900 census Mary was mistakenly shown as having had only one child, i.e., Emmet, so I guessed that the child not accounted for must have been Caswell’s child. After eliminating Floyd males from the Charles August Floyd and Alfred Byrum Floyd (Charles’ and Caswell’s youngest brother) families, there did not seem to be any additional male Floyds born in the early 1880s living on their own in the Dallas area. That left one possibility, a phenomenon known to many family researchers dealing with this period in history – 1880 to 1900 – who understand that one of the consequences of the loss of almost the entire 1890 census is the “lost daughter” – a daughter born in the early 1880s (so she does not appear on the 1880 census) who has already married and no longer lives with her family (so she cannot be found under her maiden name in the 1900 census).

My next step was to look for a young (less than 20 years old) married woman in the Kleberg area. There were several candidates, and for at least two of these it was indicated that one or both parents had been born in Illinois (the only reliable “distinguishing feature” I could use to narrow down the field), but I was actually able to find their maiden names with a little hunting, and none of them was the missing daughter. That was several months ago. About a week ago I was taking care of one of the more mundane genealogy chores, recopying quickly scribbled notes to put in the proper family binders. Probably about a year or so earlier (before I was very familiar with the Caswell Floyd family), I had hastily jotted down some information from Jim Wheat’s Dallas County Texas Archives (another plug for one of my favorite websites) – the transcript of the death certificate for a young woman named Alice Bibb who had died in the great influenza epidemic in 1918. Listed as her parents were C. B. Floyd and Mary Mills. At the time it piqued my curiosity, but I was not familiar enough with the family to be certain that this was Caswell and Mary. Seeing my notes a second time, however, gave me that jolt and then the rush familiar to so many genealogy buffs – this was the daughter I had been searching for! This was followed by embarrassment at my “senior moment” – forgetting that I had already “found” the daughter. I then remembered that her death fell within the right time frame to be covered by the Texas death certificates on the Family Search pilot site (another favorite website). A glance at the image of the original death certificate showed that Mary Mills was indeed actually Mary Miller, and Alice Bibb was Alice Floyd, the missing daughter.

In a subsequent article I will describe what I have learned about this family.

Still More Matlocks: The Eliza Jane Matlock and Elisha James Mathis Family

This is another group of Matlock descendants (Eliza Jane was the sister of my great-grandmother Angeline Matlock Floyd) about whom I know very little. If you are descended from or related to this family, I would love to hear from you.

Elisha James Mathis
b. 18 Apr 1845, Tennessee
d. 5 May 1884, Dallas, Dallas County, TX
& Eliza Jane Matlock
b. 15 Mar 1854, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
d. 4 Feb 1935, Dallas County, TX
|.. Ella Mathis
| ....b. 15 Sep 1873, Dallas, Texas
| ....d. 3 Dec 1959, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
| ..Nettie Mathis
| ....b. Sep 1875, Dallas Co., Texas
| ....d. Johnson Co., Texas
| ..& Joseph Birch Loper
| ....b. Jun 1874
| ....d. 21 Oct 1920
| | ....Corinne Loper
| | ......b. 10 Jun 1900
| | ......d. 30 Nov 1981
| | ....Roy Loper
| | ......b. 7 Feb 1903, Dallas Co., Texas
| | ......d. 30 Mar 1992, Potter Co., TX
| ..Joe? Mathis
| ....b. 1878, Texas
| ..Lena Mathis
| ....b. Mar 1880, Texas
| ..Sidney Young Mathis
| ....b. 8 Apr 1882, Dallas Co., Texas
| ....d. 4 Aug 1887, Dallas Co., Texas

Civil War Record of Joseph Madison Carroll Norman

I am currently researching the family of my great-great grandfather Joseph Madison Carroll Norman of Talladega County, Alabama and Garland County, Arkansas. (At this point it is not in-depth research; I am rather trying to do basic research and organize and clarify what I have already learned about him, his three wives, and their children -- reportedly some 26 or 27 in all -- to be entered into my genealogy program.) Researching JMC Norman involves several challenges. The first is simply to sort out and identify as many of his children as possible, no small undertaking considering how many of them there were. This also means that he most likely has a large number of descendants, and a few of them have apparently already done some research on him. The second challenge is figuring out his Civil War record. A search on the National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System using different forms of his name turns up four items: a Joseph M. C. Norman in Company H, 25th Alabama Infantry, a Joseph M. C. Norman in Company B, 3rd Alabama Infantry, a Joseph C. Norman in Company B, 28th Alabama Infantry, and a Jos. M. C. Norman at the Camp of Instruction, Talladega, Alabama. It is possible that the Joseph C. Norman is another man, but there is a record for a Joseph C. Norman being discharged at Oxford, Mississippi for disability on 4/1/1862 and that is consistent with what I know about JMC Norman. I have received a copy of his and his widow's applications for Confederate service pensions and the only unit named in those documents is the 25th Infantry (or at least in most parts; the first page of his application gives the regiment as the 21st). It may be that he cites only that unit because his medical condition (reported as rheumatism) dated to that time or, as has been the case for other ancestors who fought in the Civil War, assimilation of units into other units over the course of the war may account for some of the confusion. I will soon be signing up for Footnote.com to try to solve this mystery.

A Second Look at the Martha Amanda Matlock and Emory A. Gracey Family

After my first post on this family, I started combing through the Texas Death Certificates on the Family Research pilot page and, as reported in a couple of previous posts, found a wealth of additional information on many members of my family lines who died in Texas. The report in this family in particular ended up with a lot of information added. My original intention was to amend the post to reflect the new information, but I have decided instead to simply publish a new post so that the difference can be seen through comparison. Of all the information listed as missing in the original post, everything has been found, and there are little details added here and there -- a middle name instead of an initial or the day on which a person was born in addition to the month and year. Contrast and compare!

Emory Anderson Gracey
b. 13 Mar 1837, Bond Co., Illinois
d. 3 Aug 1915, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
& Martha Amanda Matlock
b. 3 Sep 1849, Warren County, Kentucky
d. 22 May 1927, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
m. 27 Aug 1865
| Malvina Isabella “Bell” Gracey
| b. 10 May 1868, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| d. 8 Dec 1934, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| & Luna M. “Luney” Goforth
| b. 12 Aug 1865, Missouri
| d. 29 Jan 1940, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| m. 1888
| Ann White Gracey
| b. 14 Sep 1869, Texas
| d. 27 Apr 1959, San Angelo, Tom Green, Texas
| & Jerile George Dodge
| b. 19 Apr 1869, Kentucky
| d. 29 Jul 1959, Sweetwater, Nolan Co., Texas
| m. 6 Nov 1895
| Alvie Lee Gracey
| b. 8 Aug 1871, Texas
| d. 29 May 1948, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
| & Sarah Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hight
| b. 24 Aug 1875, Dallas County, Texas
| d. 21 Nov 1948, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
| m. 1899
| Effie E. Gracey
| b. 21 Jun 1872, Texas
| d. 16 May 1956, Herefored, Deaf Smith Co., Texas
| & Joseph Lafayette Hight
| b. 19 Jun 1867, Tennessee
| d. 1 Nov 1942, Canyon, Randall, Texas
| Lura Pearl Gracey
| b. 2 Feb 1876, Texas
| d. 9 Aug 1962, Nolan Co., Texas
| & D. D. Potter
| b. 9 Oct 1872, Texas
| d. 29 May 1951, Sweetwater, Nolan Co., Texas
| m. 13 Jul 1898, Dallas County, TX
| Addie May Gracey
| b. 3 May 1878, Dallas Co., Texas
| d. 8 Jan 1958, Memphis, Hall Co., Texas
| & William Henry “Billy” Goodnight
| b. 12 Jun 1878, Hardin County, KY
| d. 9 Oct 1940, Memphis, Hall Co., Texas
| John Emery Gracey
| b. 30 Aug 1882, Texas
| d. 15 Mar 1961, Brownfield, Terry, Texas
| & Dora Pearl Cruse
| b. 21 Sep 1886, Texas
| d. 28 Feb 1983, Texas
| Ida Gracey
| b. 1884, Texas
| d. 1884, Texas
| Walter Gracey
| b. 23 May 1887, Dallas, Texas
| d. 24 Feb 1956, Terry Co., Texas
| & Jennie Lee Allman
| b. 2 Sep 1894, Texas
| d. 27 Jun 1984, Brownfield, Terry, Texas
| Jo Gracey
| b. 20 Aug 1890, Texas
| d. 4 Feb 1916, Lisbon, Dallas County, TX

Highlighting the Koehls

I'd like to feature a family on my husband's side for a change. Researching his ancestors is quite different from researching my own. Most of my families are Southern and came over from the British Isles no later than the mid-18th century. My husband's family lines come from Germany, Italy, and Romania and the earliest immigrants among those apparently date to the mid-19th century. They immigrated to New York, New Jersey, and Canada. As a result, I have to learn to use a different set of resources.

Here is what I have been able to learn about the family of Julius Henry Koehl and Josephine Lochner, my husband Stuart's great-great grandparents:

Julius Henry Koehl
b. 1839, Prussia
d. bef 1900
& Josephine Lochner
b. 1842, Wurttemburg
d. bef 1900
| Josephine Koehl
| b. Feb 1867, New York
| ..& Peter Glasshoff
| ..b. May 1866, Germany
| m. 1899
| Julia Koehl
| b. 1868, New York
| Lena Koehl
| b. 1869, New York
| Lillie Koehl
| b. 1872, New York
| Frances Koehl
| b. 1874, New York
| Lena Koehl
| b. 1876, New York
| Harry Julius Koehl
| b. 4 May 1878, Brooklyn, Kings, New York
| d. Feb 1965, New York
| ..& Christine Fichtelmann
| ..b. Feb 1882, New York
| m. 1898
| Augusta Koehl
| b. 1879, New York
| Louis Julius Koehl
| b. 22 Aug 1881, New York
| ..& Katherine “Katie”
| b. 1884, New York
| | ...Louis Koehl Jr.
| | ...b. 1906, New York
| | ...Peter Koehl
| | ...b. 1909, New York

This information is based primarily on census information and the Social Security Death Index. If you are related to this family or researching it, I would love to share information with you. If you are familiar with methods and resources for researching these areas, I would welcome any advice.

More Matlocks: Joseph Matlock and Adeline Aiken

Of all my great-grandmother Angeline Matlock Floyd's siblings, this is the family I (and other Floyd/Matlock researchers) know least about. I cannot find Joseph on the 1870 census, and only recently learned his wife's maiden name (from her daughter's death certificate on the Family Search pilot page). Which reminds me, thanks to the Texas death certificates on that website, I now know a lot of the information that was missing for the Martha Amanda Matlock-Emory A. Gracey family (will post an update in the near future).

Joseph R. Matlock
b. Dec 1851, Kentucky
& Adaline “Addie” Aiken
b. Mar 1852, Illinois
d. bef 1920
m. 1878
| Neva Adaline Matlock
| b. 13 Apr 1879, Texas
| d. 5 Apr 1970, Quanah, Hardeman County, Texas
| & Robert Alphaeus Brooks
| b. 24 Oct 1875, Whiteboro, Texas
| d. 3 Oct 1947, Quanah, Hardeman County, Texas
| m. 1908
| Cora B. Matlock
| b. Apr 1885, Texas

Missing information: dates of death for Joseph, Addie, and Cora Matlock.

More Matlocks: Martha Amanda Matlock and Emory A. Gracey

One of my great-grandmother Angeline Matlock Floyd’s younger sisters was Martha Amanda Matlock, who married Emory A. Gracey, a colorful character who is said to have come to Texas when he was 13 years old (apparently following his older brothers Marquis de Lafayette Gracey and Casper Grundy Gracey). He worked as a prospector for the Texas & Pacific Railroad, rode with the Rangers, and served in Company H of the First Texas Cavalry in the Civil War.

Emory A. Gracey
b. 13 Mar 1837, Bond Co., Illinois
d. 3 Aug 1915, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
& Martha Amanda Matlock
b. Sep 1849, Warren County, Kentucky
d. 21 Aug 1927, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
m. 27 Aug 1865
| Malvina Isabella “Bell” Gracey
| b. 10 May 1868, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| d. 8 Dec 1934, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| & Luna M. “Luney” Goforth
| b. 12 Aug 1865, Missouri
| d. 29 Jan 1940, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| m. 1888
| Ann White Gracey
| b. 14 Sep 1869 Texas
| d. 27 Apr 1959, San Angelo, Texas
| & Jerile George Dodge
| b. Apr 1869, Kentucky
| d. 29 Jul 1959, Nolan Co., Texas
| m. 6 Nov 1895
| Alvie Lee Gracey
| b. Aug 1871, Texas
| & Lizzie
| b. Aug 1875, Texas
| m. 1899
| Effie E. Gracey
| b. Jun 1872, Texas
| d. 16 May 1956, Deaf Smith Co., Texas
| & Joseph L. Hight
| b. Jun 1867, Tennessee
| Lura Pearl Gracey
| b. Feb 1876 Texas
| d. 9 Aug 1962, Nolan Co., Texas
| & D. D. Potter
| b. 9 Oct 1872, Texas
| d. 29 May 1951, Nolan Co., Texas
| m. 13 Jul 1898, Dallas County, TX
| Addie May Gracey
| b. 3 May 1878, Texas
| d. 8 Jan 1958, Hall Co., Texas
| & William Henry “Billy” Goodnight
| b. 12 Jun 1878
| d. 9 Oct 1940, Hall Co., Texas
| John Emery Gracey
| b. 30 Aug 1882, Texas
| d. 15 Mar 1961, Texas
| & Dora Pearl
| b. 21 Sep 1886, Texas
| d. 28 Feb 1983, Texas |
| Ida Gracey
| b. 1884, Texas
| d. 1884, Texas
| Walter Gracey
| b. 23 May 1887, Texas
| d. 24 Feb 1956, Terry Co., Texas
| & Jennie Lee
| b. 2 Sep 1894, Texas
| d. 27 Jun 1984, Brownfield, Terry, Texas
| Jo Gracey
| b. Aug 1890, Texas
| d. 4 Feb 1916, Dallas County, TX

Missing information for this family: maiden names for the wives of John Emery, Walter, and Alvie Lee Gracey and dates of death for Joseph Hight and for Alvie Lee Gracey and his wife. Also, five of the fourteen Gracey children died in infancy; are there any records for any of them except for Ida? Was Emory’s middle name Anderson or Augustus? Fun facts: Alvie Lee Gracy served as a registrar who did registration of men for the World War I draft; he signed his nephew William Emory Goforth’s registration card. Addie May Gracey Goodnight’s daughter Pauline Goodnight married a man named Clarence Clifton Knight, so that she became Pauline Goodnight Knight.

The Matlock Family

This is the family of my great-grandmother Angeline Elizabeth Matlock (my mother’s mother’s mother). The Useful Links section to the left includes a link to a great Matlock site. The main source for a lot of information on this family is Eunice Sandling’s “History of the Floyd Family.” Some of that information is based on articles from the Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, 1892, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago. Jim Dodd has added some information and I have added a little bit. Below is a descendant chart for the family (parents Absalom C. Matlock and Nancy Malvina Harris and their children). Absalom’s parents were Rial Matlock and Camila Clark; Nancy’s parents were Thomas Highsmith Harris and Martha Elizabeth Skiles. Absalom, Nancy, Nancy’s parents and grandmother Nancy Highsmith Harris, and several of Martha Skiles Harris’ siblings and their families moved to Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas from Warren County, Kentucky in 1852.

Absalom C. Matlock
b. 21 Mar 1825, KY
d. 1865
& Nancy Malvina Harris
b. 28 Apr 1827, Warren County, Kentucky
d. 11 Aug 1862, Dallas County, TX
m. 13 Aug 1846, Warren County, Kentucky
| Angeline Elizabeth Matlock
| b. 18 Nov 1847, Bowling Green, Warren Co., Kentucky
| d. 11 Oct 1916, Dallas County, TX
| & Charles Augustus Floyd
| b. 28 Jun 1840, Greene Co., Illinois
| d. 4 Mar 1894, Dallas County, TX
| m. 13 Jan 1867, Home of T.H. Taylor, Texas
| Martha Amanda Matlock
| b. Sep 1849, Warren County, Kentucky
| d. 21 Aug 1927, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| & Emory Anderson Gracey
| b. 13 Mar 1837, Bond Co., Illinois
| d. 3 Aug 1915, Lisbon, Dallas, Texas
| m. 27 Aug 1865
| Joseph R. Matlock
| b. Dec 1851, Kentucky
| & Adaline “Addie” [last name unknown]
| b. Mar 1852, Illinois
| d. bef 1920
| m. 1878
| Eliza Jane Matlock
| b. 15 Mar 1854, Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
| d. 4 Feb 1935, Dallas County, TX
| & Elisha James Mathis
| b. 18 Apr 1845, Tennessee
| d. 5 May 1884, Dallas County, TX
| Thomas A. Matlock
| b. 20 Oct 1859, Dallas Co., Texas
| d. 19 Jun 1925, Petrolia, Clay, Texas
| & Mary Adeline “Addie” Stratton
| b. 7 Sep 1859, Texas
| d. 30 Jan 1936, Houston, Harris County, Texas

The families of each of the children will be dealt with in separate posts. Researchers working on this family are still trying to learn the cause, location, and exact date of Absalom Matlock’s death (1865 was given in the article on Charles Augustus Floyd in the Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County.) Did he serve in the Civil War (he does not show up in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System)? There is no record of his burial, but Nancy Harris Matlock is buried in the Floyd-Taylor Cemetery in Lancaster.