Breaking through Brick Walls Part 2: Descendancy Research

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

Yesterday I spoke of how beginning to search my grandfather’s siblings I came across a few surprises.

Surprise #1: Ellen Erving was living with her brother A L Moore in 1920 in Minnesota. My first reaction was that I had the wrong Ellen Erving but in checking the data it all matched what I had already gathered for Ellen; her birth year, place of birth and parents birthplace. What didn’t match up was her brother. Her brother A L Moore was also born in Texas, his father’s birthplace was correct but not his mother’s. Then it dawned on me. Was there another marriage?

Now to make everything a bit more confusing, I will speak of two Jack Moore's. One is my great grandfather (Sr.) and the other is Jack Sr's son and my great uncle (Jr.)I went back to the 1880 Williamson County census and sure enough, I found a Jack (Sr.) and Rebecca who had two children, Arthur and John. The birth dates matched up and I was 99.9% sure this was my great grandfather and his first wife Rebecca. In finding the first marriage, I needed to know who Rebecca was. It took some looking but I finally found their marriage record in Travis County, Texas not Williamson County where they resided. I have actually found several marriage records in Travis County rather than Williamson County. With finding the marriage record, I learned that Rebecca’s last name was Burleson and was a niece to Texas hero General Edward Burleson. All this from finding Ellen living with a brother I didn’t know existed.

Surprise #2: Jack Moore (Jr.) (Ellen’s brother) in the 1930 census stated that he had a “sister” named Georgia Martin. A sister? Had I overlooked another sibling? I felt I had found all the census records I could find on my great grandfather Jack (Sr.) and the two families. The 1880 census Jack (Sr.) was married to Rebecca, and there was not 1890 census. So my next choice was to go through court records in Williamson County, TX and see if I could find Georgia listed as a sibling. Luckily, the Williamson County land records are online Williamson County Texas land records online, so I started there.

There are hundred’s of land records for Moore’s in Williamson County because they were some of the early settlers and had around 3600 acres of land in the Taylor area. I started with Jack (Sr. and Jr.) and searched the records again but found no inkling of a Georgia Martin as a sister. I then began to search each of the children starting with Arthur Lee Moore as the oldest and figured if Georgia was a sister he would be from my great grandfather's first marriage to Rebecca Burleson. Imagine my surprise to find a record for A L Moore that stated, “Here comes Arthur Lee Moore and his wife Lizzie”. I thought Lizzie? Who is Lizze? Arthur’s wife’s name is Florence. Could it be another marriage? So you see how this kept leading to more mysteries. Now I am searching for a Georgia Martin and a Lizzie Moore.

I have contact with someone who connects into Arthur’s line and I asked her if she knew about another marriage for Arthur, she did not. At the Georgetown Public Library is an index to Marriage Records for Williamson County. I picked up the book, laid it on the table, the book plopped open to the page where I saw A. L Moore and Lizzie Westbrook. “I’ll be danged!” I murmured out loud. Another patron in the Genealogy room asked, “Find something good?” “Oh yeah”, I said. “I just found a marriage record I did not know existed.” Then I told her about the book just plopping open to the right page. She said, “Okay that just gave me goosebumps!” All I could think of was I had searched this family for over 30 years, and all of a sudden I felt Lizzie was saying, “Wait don’t forget about me!!” Okay Lizzie, I found you, now what do I do with you!!!

Interesting enough I asked my Uncle Claude if he knew about the marriage. He just grinned and said, “Yes I did, but I want to know how you know about it?” I chuckled and said, “I am a pretty good little detective aren’t I?” Uncle Claude said he had overheard his mother and Uncle Lee (Arthur went by his middle name Lee) talking one day, but when his mother realized he was listening, the conversation ended.

So in looking for Georgia Martin, I came across a marriage I did not expect, but what about Georgia? Who was she? I had traced Jack (Jr.) through the Great Falls directories listed on Ancestry.com. I had a general idea of when Georgia died as she was no longer listed in the directory after 1944 and before 1947. But in my searches I could not find a marriage record. I asked a friend if I was missing something and she found Georgia had been married to a Joe Martin but we could find no record of Georgia and Jack being married, and in the 1930 census it stated they were brother and sister. I presumed from the beginning they were not brother and sister and had never married. However when I spoke with Uncle Claude he told me they had married. So I went back to the drawing board and finally found they were married on 06 Nov 1937 Townsend, Broadwater, Montana. Notice the date of 1937, seven years after the 1930 Census where someone claimed they were brother and sister and also out of the county where they resided.

So by simply finding Ellen living with her brother, A L Moore (Lee) I found another marriage for my great grandfather. By looking at the second child Jack, I found yet a second marriage for Lee, and eventually a first marriage for Jack. This was all becoming quite confusing to me as a very mixed up family!! Also notice how two of these marriage records were found outside the counties in which the families resided. Tomorrow I will tell you how I found Uncle Claude and how he helped fill in more pieces of the puzzle as well as bring more mystery!!

Breaking through Brick walls Part 1: Descendancy Research

A few years ago when I was very frustrated and thought I would never learn my Great Grandparents names I felt the only way was to come forward. But in a Genealogy chat room when I began asking questions of how I would go about finding living descendants, the gentleman said, “Please don’t tell me you are thinking of searching forward? It is a waste of time!!” They told me to keep looking for my records, and eventually I would find them. So I did.

In August 2009, I heard a presentation titled “Hit a Brickwall Searching Backwards? Search Forward”. I was interested in what Crista had to say and when I heard her story, I knew that was my answer!! And so the journey began.

First of all you need to pick a married couple to work with. For me it was my elusive great grandparents I only knew as Jack and Minerva Moore. I started with what I knew. I knew when their first child was born, Ellen in 1882. Their marriage must have happened before this but I had no date and no record. I took Ellen and begin to trace her through the census and build a time line.

1900 Taylor, Texas living with Grandparents Richard and Virginia Forehand

1910 Chicago, Illinois - Attending Nursing School

1920 Washington Co., Minnesota living with Brother A L Moore Brother?

1930 Santa Barbara, California

It took me a third try to find Ellen in the 1910 Census. I had searched in Texas, South Dakota, and Minnesota with no luck. I just knew she was in one of those states. After talking to Uncle Claude, I did a nation wide search and finally found her in Nursing School in Chicago. Knowing she was a nurse, helped me to pinpoint her in the many Ellen Moore's I found. One of the things I did know and am not sure how I knew it, was that Ellen was married to a Claude Erving. So in 1920 when Ellen Erving was in MN living with A L Moore I didn’t know who the A L Moore was, it was not one of the brothers I had found. It turned out there were TWO Marriages for my Great Grandfather, the first being to Rebecca Burleson, and 2^nd to Minerva Cain.

From just tracing Ellen I learned of a second marriage, who her children were, and they had moved from Texas. But why? And where was her husband? I did this with each of the children, tracing them through each of the census trying to find children and the area they had gone to.

All I saw was a family that was never connected, gypsies like myself. In meeting with my great uncle Claude he filled in some of the pieces of the puzzle. Ellen was the oldest of the children and the only girl. When she became of age, they as a family decided to sell all their property in Taylor (but one acre) and move to South Dakota to homestead. Ellen was 11 when both parents had died, Jack Jr. 10, my grandfather Vernon 8, Bell 6, and little Grady was 4. By the 1910 Census, my grandfather was with his grandparents as well as Grady, but all the other children were gone. Through my Uncle I learned my Grandfather took one winter in South Dakota and decided it was too cold and came back to Texas. We are unsure of why Grady came back, but he is also listed on the census that year. Had it not been for Uncle Claude clueing me into this, I would have never found the Homestead grants for them I did in South Dakota!!!

I eventually found Ellen in the 1910 census living in Chicago, IL going to Nursing School. I did not know she was a nurse till I met up with Uncle Claude. However, I could have been more aware of it had I noticed on the 1930 Census when Ellen was in Santa Barbara that she was a “visiting nurse”. So through each sibling, I did this same process, tracking them through the census, and creating a timeline.

I found Jack Jr. in Montana. He was listed in several City Directories for Great Falls, but in 1930 he eluded me for quite some time. I finally discovered him as Cack Moore in the index. Always be aggressive when searching through an index or soundex. If you knew they were there, don’t just take the answer “they were probably missed.” Interesting find was on the 1930 Census I found him with a Georgia Martin who was listed as a “Sister”. Did I miss a sibling? Stay tuned tomorrow as I clear up that mystery.

Vernon is my grandfather and I had him pretty well documented.

Bell I found in Portsmouth, NH. I not only found him in the census, but also found newspaper articles on him in the local newspaper. One article gave an account of his nephew Claude coming to NH with his boy scout troop and the two meeting for the first time. Another article spoke of his retirement with a picture of Bell! And these articles I found all because I went in search of his obituary.

Grady, the baby of the family I found in St. Paul, MN. I learned Grady died at a very young age, but could never find much more on him other than a WWI Draft Registration and a death certificate. Grady’s name was always listed as W Grady Moore and I “assumed” W meant William as we had Williams in our line. But according to his Draft Registration card it stood for Woodfren. No idea where that name came from, but I would have gone by Grady too! Uncle Claude knew his story. Another tragedy for this family in that Grady refused to join the Union at a meat packing house where he worked and was beaten to death. Still looking for the obituary and newspaper articles on Grady.

So just by searching my Grandfather’s siblings I learned a lot about the family. Tomorrow I will tell you how doing this research, clued me into some surprise marriages.