My husband thought it important enough to leave a message for me on my telephone at work: “You have a package. From South Carolina.”
Hooray! Hooray! Christmas in April! Am I going to have fun!
I don’t even have to ask you all whether you would be happy to get what was in that package.
65 obituaries. And 65 more are coming shortly. This is on top of the first 40 obituaries I ordered a few months ago from a researcher in Greenville County, South Carolina for my “Descendants of Samuel Moore” project. I am using obituaries in combination with other resources to identify descendants and add them to my file in Reunion. Each time I find a new person mentioned in an obituary, I check in the Greenville Library’s online obituary index to see whether or not the Library has an obituary on file for them; if it does, I add them to my new list of people to look up.
There are a few challenges, however.
Did you ever have to do one of those logic puzzles in which you had to match people up or associate them based on a few clues, i.e., A is married to a person E who is the sister of D, while B is the brother-in-law of a person who is not related to C, and so on? This very much resembles the mix and match game l sometimes have to play when using older obituaries, which have an irritating tendency to name married female survivors of the deceased by married names only. It often happens that I will know the names of the daughters of the deceased from censuses or other sources but do not know the names of their husbands, so I have to start fiddling around on Ancestry and the Greenville Library obituary index to get enough information to match people up. Based on my trial-and-error experience, I have one piece of advice: do not rush ahead with assumptions that A was the husband of B when you enter these people into your genealogy program.
Oh, and Captain Obvious has another piece of advice on top of this one: make sure you read the obituary carefully. Look for such pieces of “minor” information, such as how many sons and daughters the deceased is said to have had.
To take the example of an obituary I went through just the other day from The Greenville News, 30 September 1938, p. 10:
Mrs. Crayton Shirley
ANDERSON, Sept. 29 – Mrs. Crayton C. Shirley, 66, died this afternoon at the Anderson County hospital following an illness of the last three weeks.
Mrs. Shirley, a daughter of Bruce Moore and Mrs. Mary Shirley Moore, was a native and life-long resident of Anderson county and was a member of the Oakwood Baptist church. She was a resident of the Midway community east of Anderson.
Besides her husband, Mrs. Shirley is survived by five daughters and six sons, Mrs. O. D. Drake, Mrs. Luther Freeman, Mrs. Dewey Poore, Mrs. Fred Fowler and Mrs. Frank Stone; Waymon, Robert, Ansel, J. B., Grady and Leroy Shirley all of Anderson county. She also leaves two brothers and one sister, A. P. and W. D. Moore of Anderson, and Mrs. J. K. Miller of Laurens county.
The funeral services will be held at 5 o’clock Friday afternoon at Oakwood Baptist church with the Rev. E. C. White officiating. Interment will follow in Silver Brook cemetery.
From census information I had the following daughters listed for Bessie and Crayton Shirley: Ruth, Cora Corrine, Mamie, Gertrude, and Lila. I already had Corrine tentatively connected to Dewey Poore due to her distinctive name and soon found Ruth Shirley Drake in the Greenville index. This seemed to indicate that the daughters were listed in order of age, but I couldn’t take that for granted. And on top of that, there was one less husband than there were daughters, so one of the daughters had not married by that time; the question was, who was the spinster daughter?
Before I got too carried away with this line, I reread the obituary and looked back at my notes for each of the daughters. The key phrase in the obituary was “is survived by five daughters and six sons,” because when I went over my notes for Gertrude, I found the following: “Listed as a son, Gady, age 2, on the 1910 census, and as a daughter, Gertrude, age 12, on the 1920 census.” And so I did something you should never do: I made an assumption, namely, that it would have been easier to mistake the sex of a young child than an older one. It was the wrong assumption. And, of course, Grady (not Gady) was listed among the sons.
Well, lesson learned.
And, by way of a wish list, other items in obituaries that could use a little more detail, at least from the perspective of someone using obituaries for research, are: listing of (great) grandchildren by quantities rather than by name; clumping of all the sons’ children (who have the same last name) together; and referring to the appointed day for burial by day of the week instead of by day of the month (though a perpetual calendar is all that’s needed to figure out the day of the month).
One final item that I do not think is too reliably reported in obituaries, especially in older ones: military participation. The particular era that this has involved in my research is the Civil War, and it could very well be due to faulty memories. One relative, who died in 1924 at the age of 73, was reported as being a Confederate veteran. Well, perhaps he had been a young drummer boy near the end of the war, but so far I have found nothing indicating that he was.
This is not meant to be a whine-fest, as I am very grateful for the wealth of information to be found in obituaries, and I actually rather enjoy solving the puzzle they create. Moreover, more recent obituaries do seem to provide a few more details.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A Noble Life: Clarence Edward Brinlee and Ethel Lena Bennett
The word prompt for the 12th Edition of Smile For The Camera is A Noble Life. Show us a photograph of an ancestor, relative, or friend that is the embodiment of A Noble Life. A life that is worthy of those who came before and those who follow after. A Life filled with small but courageous acts; filled with love and honor. A simple life, an ordinary life, A Noble Life. Bring them to the carnival and share with us how you’ve honored them. Admission is free with every photograph!
Clarence Edward Brinlee (b. 10 April 1892, d. 22 February 1980) lost his mother, Mary Ann Sims Brinlee, when he was eight years old and his father, James Edward Brinlee, when he was 15 years old. The 1910 census shows him living with his grandfather Hiram Brinlee Jr. and step-grandmother Lizzie Brinlee in Hunt County, Texas. Also living with this family was Hiram and Lizzie’s oldest son and my grandfather, Lawrence Carroll Brinlee, who would have been Clarence’s uncle but was almost a year younger than Clarence.
Clarence and Ethel were known among the Brinlees to have taken in and taken care of numerous relatives, both close and distant, who needed help. I do not know of anything dashing or exciting in their history, but I want to know them better, and one of my self-assigned research goals is to get in touch with some of their descendants and find out more about them. One of the things about family research that surprised and delighted me was how compelling the stories of ordinary but strong and decent people like Clarence and Ethel can be. I hope to have more of their story to share in the future!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Wordless Wednesday: Sisters-in-Law
Mattie Joy Campbell Moore (my Aunt Joy, 1914-2008) and Grace Madeline Moore Roberts Brinlee (my Mom, 1917-1987)
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
A Threefer: Prompt #11, Saturday Night Fun, and Episode 1 of GenSpace Makeover
In my usual “day late and a dollar short” manner, I am way behind in the blogging prompts (this is #11, Share your way of tackling the record mountain and help others get organized!) and three days late for Randy Seaver’s latest Saturday Night Fun; moreover, I am not one to preach to others when my own house (literally) needs cleaning, so for this post I decided to highlight “What I Do Wrong” in my genealogy filing.
(1) Not being complete enough in backing up paper files with digital ones and digital ones with paper ones. The alert and “greenish-inclined” among you may be horrified at the second half. Why waste paper when it is better to have digital backups of digital copies? Well, it’s because I’m a belt-and-suspenders kind of person, not to mention paranoid, so I indulge my paranoia in this aspect. In particular, I should have been more careful earlier to print out all e-mails with family and fellow researchers that have any connection to family research. Most of the time I did this, but I know there were lapses. One of my e-mail accounts is on AOL, and I used to use the old AOL “shell” for this. However, after a while this clunky application was wreaking havoc with my computer, so I finally gave up and switched to web-based AOL. However, none of my previous correspondence could be accessed from my browser. So … I learned my lesson. I hope.
(2) Putting binders and hanging files in awkward, hard-to-reach/see places. Two of my sets of bookshelves are actually 2’ deep plastic storage shelves from Hope Depot; they hold a lot of stuff, but the stuff in the back is hard to see and reach, especially on the top shelves. As you can see from the second picture below, my genealogy/family binders are on that top shelf. Most of my actual file drawers in my office are filled with non-genealogy files (mistake #2-1/2), so my hanging files have been relegated to a cardboard box which has another cardboard box filled with something else on top of it.
(3) Having browser bookmarks (and 75% of these bookmarks are genealogy-related) on three different computers; the categories are similar, but no single computer has a consolidated list of bookmarks.
(4) Unnecessary duplication of files. I must have at least six “General Genealogy” paper files. I do have a separate file for genealogy forms and should consolidate or sort out the remaining papers.
(5) Not having a safe for valuable items. Like Cheryl Palmer at Heritage Happens, I keep important documents and precious mementos separate from my other genealogy files, but I still have them in a portable file box. (The idea is, if the house is burning down, I grab the cats and the file box and we’re outta there.)
(6) Not having old photos properly stored, organized, scanned, and catalogued. Whether in albums or containers, they should all be located in one convenient place. I probably cannot even begin to address this problem until my office has undergone a complete makeover.
Above: My computer work area, with office supplies on the storage shelves to the left. On the wall above the desk is an icon of Sveti Ioann Rilski (St. John of Rila), a Bulgarian saint. Some people appeal to St. Anthony when they lose things. Me, I go to St. John of Rila; he looks like an absent-minded kinda guy, himself. To the left of him are some fairy-themed party favors I made for my older daughter’s first-grade birthday party (she’s now 19).
Above: Storage shelves with many of my genealogy resources and family binders. The bottom shelf contains framed documents and pictures and a couple of bins with loose pictures and other family mementos. (The second shelf from the bottom contains mostly music CDs that I have not yet added to iTunes. I simply cannot work without music.)
A hand-drawn diagram (not to scale!!) of my home office/genspace.
What’s wrong with this picture? Lots of things. Things I intend to correct during the Year of the GenSpace Makeover! (But don’t hold your breath.)
(1) Not being complete enough in backing up paper files with digital ones and digital ones with paper ones. The alert and “greenish-inclined” among you may be horrified at the second half. Why waste paper when it is better to have digital backups of digital copies? Well, it’s because I’m a belt-and-suspenders kind of person, not to mention paranoid, so I indulge my paranoia in this aspect. In particular, I should have been more careful earlier to print out all e-mails with family and fellow researchers that have any connection to family research. Most of the time I did this, but I know there were lapses. One of my e-mail accounts is on AOL, and I used to use the old AOL “shell” for this. However, after a while this clunky application was wreaking havoc with my computer, so I finally gave up and switched to web-based AOL. However, none of my previous correspondence could be accessed from my browser. So … I learned my lesson. I hope.
(2) Putting binders and hanging files in awkward, hard-to-reach/see places. Two of my sets of bookshelves are actually 2’ deep plastic storage shelves from Hope Depot; they hold a lot of stuff, but the stuff in the back is hard to see and reach, especially on the top shelves. As you can see from the second picture below, my genealogy/family binders are on that top shelf. Most of my actual file drawers in my office are filled with non-genealogy files (mistake #2-1/2), so my hanging files have been relegated to a cardboard box which has another cardboard box filled with something else on top of it.
(3) Having browser bookmarks (and 75% of these bookmarks are genealogy-related) on three different computers; the categories are similar, but no single computer has a consolidated list of bookmarks.
(4) Unnecessary duplication of files. I must have at least six “General Genealogy” paper files. I do have a separate file for genealogy forms and should consolidate or sort out the remaining papers.
(5) Not having a safe for valuable items. Like Cheryl Palmer at Heritage Happens, I keep important documents and precious mementos separate from my other genealogy files, but I still have them in a portable file box. (The idea is, if the house is burning down, I grab the cats and the file box and we’re outta there.)
(6) Not having old photos properly stored, organized, scanned, and catalogued. Whether in albums or containers, they should all be located in one convenient place. I probably cannot even begin to address this problem until my office has undergone a complete makeover.
Above: My computer work area, with office supplies on the storage shelves to the left. On the wall above the desk is an icon of Sveti Ioann Rilski (St. John of Rila), a Bulgarian saint. Some people appeal to St. Anthony when they lose things. Me, I go to St. John of Rila; he looks like an absent-minded kinda guy, himself. To the left of him are some fairy-themed party favors I made for my older daughter’s first-grade birthday party (she’s now 19).
Above: Storage shelves with many of my genealogy resources and family binders. The bottom shelf contains framed documents and pictures and a couple of bins with loose pictures and other family mementos. (The second shelf from the bottom contains mostly music CDs that I have not yet added to iTunes. I simply cannot work without music.)
A hand-drawn diagram (not to scale!!) of my home office/genspace.
What’s wrong with this picture? Lots of things. Things I intend to correct during the Year of the GenSpace Makeover! (But don’t hold your breath.)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Memory Monday: Junk in Our Yard
I must have been around seven or eight years old when I started to get an inkling that it might not be socially acceptable to have junk lying around in one’s yard. My mother frequently and emphatically expressed this sentiment in reference to my father’s many mechanical projects sitting in our yard in various stages of (in)completion.
The offending items were not in the front yard, of course; my mother would not have allowed that. In our yard on Pico Street in San Bernardino, this meant that the junk was, for all practical purposes, safely hidden away in the back yard (unless one peered straight back along the left side of the house and had the experienced eye to spot the outlines of a car chassis). On Lankershim Street in Highland, however, this concealment ploy was not so successful. The lot was a deep one, with our house, similarly long and narrow, situated lengthwise somewhat to the side so that on one side you could see all the way to the back of the lot, where there was usually at least one nonfunctioning vehicle. And you could always tell that the vehicle was nonfunctioning, whether from its obvious great age, bad paint job, or position atop blocks.
Below is a picture of this lot (and that's my Dad working on the driveway): on the left from front to back are the corner of our house, the garage, and a rental house in the vary back, and in front of that house is the obligatory “heap of junk.” A different “heap of junk” can been seen in the picture of me with our dogs accompanying my post, Memory Monday: Pets, Part I. (I believe the truck in that picture actually ran.)
Then there was Dad’s tractor. As far as I remember, he built it himself. He must have acquired the parts from junkyards; Dad was the kind of guy who would have known all the local junkyard owners and scrap dealers on a first-name basis. The picture below was taken at our house on Pico Street; though the ostensible purpose of the picture was to show off my Easter duds, one’s attention cannot fail to be lured to the tableau of my father and my brother Don celebrating Easter in their own preferred way.
Some people have fountains, statues, or other types of “lawn art” in their yards. I guess you could say that we had “mixed-media” sculptures in ours. As they say, some people’s junk is other people’s art.
The offending items were not in the front yard, of course; my mother would not have allowed that. In our yard on Pico Street in San Bernardino, this meant that the junk was, for all practical purposes, safely hidden away in the back yard (unless one peered straight back along the left side of the house and had the experienced eye to spot the outlines of a car chassis). On Lankershim Street in Highland, however, this concealment ploy was not so successful. The lot was a deep one, with our house, similarly long and narrow, situated lengthwise somewhat to the side so that on one side you could see all the way to the back of the lot, where there was usually at least one nonfunctioning vehicle. And you could always tell that the vehicle was nonfunctioning, whether from its obvious great age, bad paint job, or position atop blocks.
Below is a picture of this lot (and that's my Dad working on the driveway): on the left from front to back are the corner of our house, the garage, and a rental house in the vary back, and in front of that house is the obligatory “heap of junk.” A different “heap of junk” can been seen in the picture of me with our dogs accompanying my post, Memory Monday: Pets, Part I. (I believe the truck in that picture actually ran.)
Then there was Dad’s tractor. As far as I remember, he built it himself. He must have acquired the parts from junkyards; Dad was the kind of guy who would have known all the local junkyard owners and scrap dealers on a first-name basis. The picture below was taken at our house on Pico Street; though the ostensible purpose of the picture was to show off my Easter duds, one’s attention cannot fail to be lured to the tableau of my father and my brother Don celebrating Easter in their own preferred way.
Some people have fountains, statues, or other types of “lawn art” in their yards. I guess you could say that we had “mixed-media” sculptures in ours. As they say, some people’s junk is other people’s art.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Blogging Prompt 13: My Area of Expertise
Have expertise in a specific area of study? Share your knowledge!
There is nothing much in my educational background or professional life that is specifically useful in genealogy. As I wrote in Will Translate for Genealogy Help, languages are my thing. This might be helpful in researching my husband’s family, branches of which are from Germany, Italy, and Romania, but these are not the languages I have studied, though I do remember a smattering of German. My college major was Russian language, in graduate school I spread out to Slavic Studies, and as a professional linguist I have studied a few more languages, both in classroom settings and on my own. Russian is still my strongest language, but I also translate from Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian and Georgian, can do Serbian, Croatian and Slovene in a pinch, and would try my hand at Macedonian and Bosnian if someone is desperate.
I know that many people think there is no long a need to resort to a professional translator when there are things out there like Google Translate, Babelfish, and other computer (“machine”) translation applications, and these applications can in fact be useful in identifying documents and translating material with uncomplicated syntax and ordinary vocabulary. And it is possible to some extent to sort out some of the odd constructions and word choices into passable English, but – and this is a big “but” – the accuracy of the results cannot be trusted with a high degree of certainty. The same can of course be said of human translations. A “smooth” but inaccurate translation of either sort can be dangerous; it “sounds” correct and so is trusted. So, my advice is if you have documents of more than basic difficulty, find a reputable translator to translate them for you.
As for how my skills can help others, I would say that I can produce at least a decent translation or gist from these languages. In addition, the need to research often obscure subjects for my translations has led to the formation of decent research skills and knowledge of some handy search tricks, not to mention knowledge of potentially useful pieces of trivia. And as those of us who pursue genealogy know, those obscure bits of information can come in handy when you least expect it.
And it we take the word “area” in “area of study” to refer to a geographical area, then I could say that I am becoming quite familiar with the following counties: Anderson and Greenville in South Carolina and Baylor, Dallas, Collin, and Fannin counties in Texas.
There is nothing much in my educational background or professional life that is specifically useful in genealogy. As I wrote in Will Translate for Genealogy Help, languages are my thing. This might be helpful in researching my husband’s family, branches of which are from Germany, Italy, and Romania, but these are not the languages I have studied, though I do remember a smattering of German. My college major was Russian language, in graduate school I spread out to Slavic Studies, and as a professional linguist I have studied a few more languages, both in classroom settings and on my own. Russian is still my strongest language, but I also translate from Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian and Georgian, can do Serbian, Croatian and Slovene in a pinch, and would try my hand at Macedonian and Bosnian if someone is desperate.
I know that many people think there is no long a need to resort to a professional translator when there are things out there like Google Translate, Babelfish, and other computer (“machine”) translation applications, and these applications can in fact be useful in identifying documents and translating material with uncomplicated syntax and ordinary vocabulary. And it is possible to some extent to sort out some of the odd constructions and word choices into passable English, but – and this is a big “but” – the accuracy of the results cannot be trusted with a high degree of certainty. The same can of course be said of human translations. A “smooth” but inaccurate translation of either sort can be dangerous; it “sounds” correct and so is trusted. So, my advice is if you have documents of more than basic difficulty, find a reputable translator to translate them for you.
As for how my skills can help others, I would say that I can produce at least a decent translation or gist from these languages. In addition, the need to research often obscure subjects for my translations has led to the formation of decent research skills and knowledge of some handy search tricks, not to mention knowledge of potentially useful pieces of trivia. And as those of us who pursue genealogy know, those obscure bits of information can come in handy when you least expect it.
And it we take the word “area” in “area of study” to refer to a geographical area, then I could say that I am becoming quite familiar with the following counties: Anderson and Greenville in South Carolina and Baylor, Dallas, Collin, and Fannin counties in Texas.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Featured Family Friday: Harlston Perrin Moore and Martha E. “Mattie” Lewis
I am so excited to be starting a series of posts on my Moore family (and ultimately the Lewis family as well). These families are my #1 research focus – not because I love them more than my other families, but because so little research had been done on them, or at least on my particular branch in the case of the Lewises. I have recently been contacted by a 3rd cousin on the Floyd side, so I am hoping my blog posts on the Moores may produce similar results. Another element in this strategy will be to post queries on these families in the genealogy discussion boards such as GenForum and the Rootsweb boards.
Harlston Perrin Moore
b. 4 Dec 1845, Anderson Co., South Carolina
d. 12 Dec 1921, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
& Martha E. “Mattie” Lewis
b. 8 Nov 1848, Franklin Co., Georgia
d. 22 Sep 1930, Plano, Collin Co., Texas
m. 3 Dec 1865, Anderson Co., South Carolina
|--William H. Moore
|----b. 1869, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. bef Oct 1950
|--Mary M. Moore
|----b. 1871, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|-----d. bef Oct 1950
|--Etta Marie Moore
|----b. 5 Jun 1875, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. 12 Jan 1959, Garland, Dallas, Texas
|--& Lee Elmo Campbell
|----b. 21 Feb 1873, Dallas Co., Texas
|----d. 18 May 1935, Dallas Co., Texas
|----m. 1894
|--Rosalie/Rosa Lee Moore
|----b. 24 Aug 1877, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. 22 Nov 1953, Kern County, California
|--& Clifton Randolph “Cliff” Brownlee
|----b. 14 Jan 1878, Lancaster, Texas
|----d. 19 Jan 1932, Lubbock Co., Texas
|----m. 1905
|--Kirby Runion Moore
|----b. 29 Apr 1880, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
|----d. 1 Oct 1950, Baylor County Hospital, Seymour, TX
|--& Eula Amanda Floyd
|----b. 3 Sep 1883, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
|----d. 9 Jun 1972, Torrance, CA
|----m. 14 Nov 1907, Oak Cliff, Texas
|--Claude Moore
|----b. 12 Nov 1882, Dallas County, TX
|----d. 24 Feb 1955, Wichita Falls, Wichita, Texas
|--& Dona Pearl Philips
|----b. 10 Apr 1887, Texas
|----d. 2 Sep 1955, California
|----m. 1906
|--Luther Lee Moore
|----b. 31 Mar 1885, Dallas County, TX
|----d. Mar 1967, 85009 Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona
|--& Ethel Clara England
|----b. Nov 1895
|----m. 1914
|--Clyde Harlston Moore
|----b. 3 Aug 1889, Dallas Co., Texas
|----d. 18 Aug 1970, Allen, Collin County, Texas
|--& UNNAMED
|----Preston Earl Moore
|--b. 24 Nov 1891, Dallas County, TX
|----d. 18 Oct 1963, McKinney, Collin County, Texas
|--& UNNAMED
From the above two-generation descendant report you can see that there are a lot of gaps, but there aren’t nearly as many as I started out with. This is my mother’s father’s family (he is the Kirby Runion Moore), and when I began, I only knew part of his father’s name: Perrin Moore. You can read about how I began finding his family in my Getting Hooked on Genealogy series of posts.
Harlston Perrin Moore was the son of William Spencer Moore and Emily Tarrant of Anderson County, South Carolina, and Martha E. Lewis was the daughter of Elisha Berry Lewis and Martha Poole of Anderson County, South Carolina. During the Civil War H. P. Moore served in Company G, 2nd Battalion, South Carolina Reserves, one of the “old men and little boys” units (he was about 17 years old when he enlisted in the unit). Most of Private Harlston Perrin Moore’s duty would have consisted of guarding Union officers who were prisoners at Camp Sorghum (described at http://www.geocities.com/cmp_csa/index.html), located outside of Columbia and so nicknamed because the main rations there consisted of cornmeal and sorghum molasses. The prison was actually “an open field, a five-acre track of cleared ground without walls, fences, buildings, a ditch, or any other facilities.” There were many escapes. Conditions were poor for both inmates and guards. The witnesses on H. P. Moore’s Confederate Pension Application state that he served through the end of the war, so he probably also saw duty when the prison camp was moved to a mental asylum in Columbia, South Carolina which came to be called Camp Asylum (also Camp Lunacy).
The date of H. P. Moore’s and Martha Lewis’ Marriage is given as 3 December 1864 (“while on furlough”) in H. P. Moore’s Confederation Pension Application; however, on the 1910 US Federal Census for Justice Precinct 5, Dallas Co., Texas (Enumeration District 94, Sheet No. 13A, 3 May 1910) H. P. and Martha indicate that they have been married 42 years, which would point to 1867 or 1868 as the year of their marriage. 1877 is the year cited in the pension application as the year they moved to Texas and this is consistent with the states of birth listed for their children in the censuses. H. P. Moore’s name appears on an 1877 map of Hopewell Township, Anderson County, South Carolina; the farm (this would have been the farm he inherited from his father William Spencer Moore) is slightly to the south of Twenty-Six Mile Creek.
The main gaps in my information for the children of H. P. Moore and Martha Lewis are for the two oldest, William H. Moore and Mary M. Moore. The 1900 census indicates that one of their nine children had died by then, and I have been unable to determine whether it was William or Mary. I am working on the possibility that a Mary M. Harvey, shown on the 1900 census for Dallas County as the wife of Thomas Harvey, may be this Mary M. Moore. The month and date given for her birth, December 1870, would be consistent with the calculated year of 1871 from the 1880 census for Dallas County, and South Carolina is given as the state of her and her parents’ birth. The October 1950 obituary for my Grandfather Kirby Moore does not list either William or Mary, so I am guessing that both had died by 1950. I would also like to find the names of the wives of Clyde Harlston Moore and Preston Earl Moore. I did not know that either of them had married until I found their death certificates on the Family Search pilot site. The informant for both death certificates was given as Mrs. Clyde Moore, and she indicated on Preston Earl Moore’s certificate that he was divorced.
If any descendant of this family or other person researching this family reads this, please contact me.
Harlston Perrin Moore
b. 4 Dec 1845, Anderson Co., South Carolina
d. 12 Dec 1921, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
& Martha E. “Mattie” Lewis
b. 8 Nov 1848, Franklin Co., Georgia
d. 22 Sep 1930, Plano, Collin Co., Texas
m. 3 Dec 1865, Anderson Co., South Carolina
|--William H. Moore
|----b. 1869, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. bef Oct 1950
|--Mary M. Moore
|----b. 1871, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|-----d. bef Oct 1950
|--Etta Marie Moore
|----b. 5 Jun 1875, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. 12 Jan 1959, Garland, Dallas, Texas
|--& Lee Elmo Campbell
|----b. 21 Feb 1873, Dallas Co., Texas
|----d. 18 May 1935, Dallas Co., Texas
|----m. 1894
|--Rosalie/Rosa Lee Moore
|----b. 24 Aug 1877, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. 22 Nov 1953, Kern County, California
|--& Clifton Randolph “Cliff” Brownlee
|----b. 14 Jan 1878, Lancaster, Texas
|----d. 19 Jan 1932, Lubbock Co., Texas
|----m. 1905
|--Kirby Runion Moore
|----b. 29 Apr 1880, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
|----d. 1 Oct 1950, Baylor County Hospital, Seymour, TX
|--& Eula Amanda Floyd
|----b. 3 Sep 1883, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
|----d. 9 Jun 1972, Torrance, CA
|----m. 14 Nov 1907, Oak Cliff, Texas
|--Claude Moore
|----b. 12 Nov 1882, Dallas County, TX
|----d. 24 Feb 1955, Wichita Falls, Wichita, Texas
|--& Dona Pearl Philips
|----b. 10 Apr 1887, Texas
|----d. 2 Sep 1955, California
|----m. 1906
|--Luther Lee Moore
|----b. 31 Mar 1885, Dallas County, TX
|----d. Mar 1967, 85009 Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona
|--& Ethel Clara England
|----b. Nov 1895
|----m. 1914
|--Clyde Harlston Moore
|----b. 3 Aug 1889, Dallas Co., Texas
|----d. 18 Aug 1970, Allen, Collin County, Texas
|--& UNNAMED
|----Preston Earl Moore
|--b. 24 Nov 1891, Dallas County, TX
|----d. 18 Oct 1963, McKinney, Collin County, Texas
|--& UNNAMED
From the above two-generation descendant report you can see that there are a lot of gaps, but there aren’t nearly as many as I started out with. This is my mother’s father’s family (he is the Kirby Runion Moore), and when I began, I only knew part of his father’s name: Perrin Moore. You can read about how I began finding his family in my Getting Hooked on Genealogy series of posts.
Harlston Perrin Moore was the son of William Spencer Moore and Emily Tarrant of Anderson County, South Carolina, and Martha E. Lewis was the daughter of Elisha Berry Lewis and Martha Poole of Anderson County, South Carolina. During the Civil War H. P. Moore served in Company G, 2nd Battalion, South Carolina Reserves, one of the “old men and little boys” units (he was about 17 years old when he enlisted in the unit). Most of Private Harlston Perrin Moore’s duty would have consisted of guarding Union officers who were prisoners at Camp Sorghum (described at http://www.geocities.com/cmp_csa/index.html), located outside of Columbia and so nicknamed because the main rations there consisted of cornmeal and sorghum molasses. The prison was actually “an open field, a five-acre track of cleared ground without walls, fences, buildings, a ditch, or any other facilities.” There were many escapes. Conditions were poor for both inmates and guards. The witnesses on H. P. Moore’s Confederate Pension Application state that he served through the end of the war, so he probably also saw duty when the prison camp was moved to a mental asylum in Columbia, South Carolina which came to be called Camp Asylum (also Camp Lunacy).
The date of H. P. Moore’s and Martha Lewis’ Marriage is given as 3 December 1864 (“while on furlough”) in H. P. Moore’s Confederation Pension Application; however, on the 1910 US Federal Census for Justice Precinct 5, Dallas Co., Texas (Enumeration District 94, Sheet No. 13A, 3 May 1910) H. P. and Martha indicate that they have been married 42 years, which would point to 1867 or 1868 as the year of their marriage. 1877 is the year cited in the pension application as the year they moved to Texas and this is consistent with the states of birth listed for their children in the censuses. H. P. Moore’s name appears on an 1877 map of Hopewell Township, Anderson County, South Carolina; the farm (this would have been the farm he inherited from his father William Spencer Moore) is slightly to the south of Twenty-Six Mile Creek.
The main gaps in my information for the children of H. P. Moore and Martha Lewis are for the two oldest, William H. Moore and Mary M. Moore. The 1900 census indicates that one of their nine children had died by then, and I have been unable to determine whether it was William or Mary. I am working on the possibility that a Mary M. Harvey, shown on the 1900 census for Dallas County as the wife of Thomas Harvey, may be this Mary M. Moore. The month and date given for her birth, December 1870, would be consistent with the calculated year of 1871 from the 1880 census for Dallas County, and South Carolina is given as the state of her and her parents’ birth. The October 1950 obituary for my Grandfather Kirby Moore does not list either William or Mary, so I am guessing that both had died by 1950. I would also like to find the names of the wives of Clyde Harlston Moore and Preston Earl Moore. I did not know that either of them had married until I found their death certificates on the Family Search pilot site. The informant for both death certificates was given as Mrs. Clyde Moore, and she indicated on Preston Earl Moore’s certificate that he was divorced.
If any descendant of this family or other person researching this family reads this, please contact me.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Wordless Wednesday: Howard and Joy Moore
Howard Lee Moore and Mattie Joy Campbell Moore (my Uncle Howard and Aunt Joy)
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