Monday Is for Mothers: Polly Williams (? - ?)

This paternal fourth great grandmother is one of my brick walls. The only time we've found her name is this record of her marriage to Barnabeth Herod in 1796 in from Davidson County, Tennessee.*

[Year: 1789 - 1971: Marriages. Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Marriage Records, 1780-2002 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm.]

Here's the line of descent from Polly to me:

[Ancestry.com]

Of course it's entirely possible that Polly Williams isn't my ancestor--since we don't know her death date, Barnabas could be the son of a second wife of Barnabeth's whose name isn't recorded at all.



*Davidson County is centered on Nashville. Here's an 1795 map of Tennessee with the location of Nashville highlighted:

[Map of The Tennassee [sic] State. - David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: William Freeman - Surry County, North Carolina - 1802

I haven't found any information about my paternal 4X great grandfather William Freeman before 1753 when someone of that name appears in colonial records as a resident of Chowan County, North Carolina. There is some reason to believe that he may have been of Scots-Irish descent and could have been an immigrant. Although there have been claims that he was a veteran of the Revolutionary War I don't find any convincing evidence to support them.

However, by 1784 he had become a resident of Surry County where his name appears in the 1790 and 1800 U.S. Censuses. And that's where he was living when he made his will on March 25, 1802.

[North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:SQWX-D191-9?cc=1867501&wc=32L2-K6X%3A170003101%2C170786401]

In the name of God Amen. I William Freeman of the County of
Surry and State of North Carolina being weak in body but
of perfect mind and memory Thanks be to God for the same but
calling to mind the mortallity for all men once to die do make and
ordain this my last will and testament that is to say
  First of all, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of
god who gave it and my body to the earth to be buried in a decent
Christian like manner at the discretion of my Executors nothing
doubting that at the General Resurection I shall receive the same
again by the Power of God; and as touching such worldly Estate 
wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life I give demise
and dispose of the ame in the following manner and form.
   Item the 1st, And first and first I give to be beloved son
Josiah Freeman my negro boy named Hardy.
And 2ndly I give to my daughter Kiddy Mitchel a negro girl
named Chloe
   3rd I also give unto my son William Freeman one negro girl names Crease
   4th I give to my well beloved wife Sarah one mare saddle and bridle
and two cows and calves two basons and one dish and six plates and
likewise her peacible liveing on the plantation during her life time or
widowhood: Also I give her one negro man name Primas and one

                                                                                             wench

[North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:SQWX-D191-9?cc=1867501&wc=32L2-K6X%3A170003101%2C170786401]

wench named Ruth during the same (and after that the said
mare and negroes to go to my son Tyre I also give her one
feather bed and furniture
   5th I also leave to my daughter Polly one mare named Pol
and twenty dollars in cash.
   6th I also give to my daughter Penelope Hains one negro girl
named Milly.
   7th I also give to my son Tyre all my lands and plantation
where I now live: A also give and bequeath him my still and
all the necessary utentials to her belonging, I also give him
one negro boy name Will and one horse called Sumpter also I give
him all my stock of hogs and Sheep and one feather bed and 
              & all necessary household furniture
furniture ^ and plantation tools and one cow and calfe 
   Then all the property or remaining part of my Estate I leave
to be equally divided between Noah, John, Richard and David
   And I do hereby utterly disallow revoke and disannul all and 
every other formes Testament wills legacies bequests and Executors
by me in any wise ^before^ named, willed, or bequeathed ratifying and
confirming this and no other to be my Last will and testament
   I do constitute and appoint my worthy friends James Howard
and Nathan Haynes Executors to this my last will and testament.
   In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal 
this twenty-fifth day of March in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and two.
Signed sealed and delivered in presents of us}  William Freeman {seal}
Edward Smith
Lydia Smith
Jonathan Allen

                                                                                    State of 

[North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:SQWX-D191-9?cc=1867501&wc=32L2-K6X%3A170003101%2C170786401]

State of North Carolina Surry County, May Session AD 1802

Edward Smith and Lydia Smith two of the subscribing witnesses

to the foregoing last will and testament of William Freeman, made

oath that they saw the said Freeman sign publish and declare 

the same to be his last will and testament that he was of sound

and disposing mind and memory and at the same time they

saw Jonathan Allen sign the same as a witness thereto which

was ordered to be recorded.    Recorded according by Jo Willliams CC

There are more probate records for William Freeman's estate which I'll post about next week.

Here's how I'm related to him:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Turnbull/Warren/Williams

Here they are: my grandmother Letta Estella Porter Warren Williams Turnbull's three sons, James Edward Turnbull, my father Tracy Stuart Warren and Clifton Porter Williams.

[Left to right, clockwise: Ed, Tracy, Clifton.

Courtesy of James Turnbull]

This photo was almost certainly taken in Dallas, Texas, in the late 1930s.*


*Estimate based on the Ed's birth year of 1931.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Mercy Manwaring/Mannering (1685 - 1739)

A life-long resident of the Connecticut Colony,* this paternal sixth great grandmother was born in New London in 1685. She was the daughter of Oliver Manwaring and Hannah Raymond.

[Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova by Willem Janszoon Blaeu, ca. 1635. Based on the 1614 explorations of Adrian Block

Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center]

Since the first record (in transcription) we have of Mercy is her profession of faith and baptism on October 5, 1702, it's clear that her family belonged to a sect that didn't believe in infant baptism. The same source documents her marriage to Jonathan Palmer of Stonington on December 1, 1706 and presumably the couple settled there.

[Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: 2013.

Original data: Connecticut. Church Records Index. Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut.]

Six years later there's another mention of Mercy (called Mary here in the transcription) on June 2, 1712, in church records for Stonington, which is the last mention of her in the records.**

[Stonington, CT: First Congregational Church Records, 1674-1874. (Online Database. AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008), Originally published as: History of the First Congregational Church, Stonington, Conn., 1674-1874 with the Report of the Bi-centennial Proceedings, June 3, 1874. Richard A. Wheeler, T. A. David and Co., Norwich, CT, 1875.]

We believe that Mercy and Jonathan had nine children, seven daughters and two sons. I descend from their daughter Love (1717-1796) whose great great great granddaughter was my father's mother, Letta Estella Porter Warren Williams Turnbull.

While Stonington church records give us the date of death for her husband on August 26, 1726, I haven't found a similar listing for Mercy. There is an unsourced claim that she survived Jonathan for 13 years, dying on March 4, 1739.

*Originally settled by the Dutch which is why I've chosen the above map.
**Birth records only list the father of the child.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Caroline Celestine Avery (1871 - 1955)

Thanks to internet magic and the generosity of a cousin (via Ancestry.com) we have this image of my paternal great grandmother and five of her six children*, including my grandmother Letta Estella Porter Warren Williams Turnbull.

[Orville Porter - upper left, Chester Porter - lower left, Herbert Porter - upper center, Estella Porter - lower center, Caroline Celestine Porter - upper right, and Violet Porter - lower right. Mother Caroline "Carrie" Celestine Avery has Violet on her lap.

Courtesy of J.E. Turnbull, III.]

Caroline, usually known as Carrie, was born on July 3, 1871, probably in rural Winston County, Mississippi, as that's where her parents** were living the year before according to the 1870 U.S. Census. By the 1880 U.S. Census the family had moved to Lafayette County where we find the first mention of Carrie by name.

[Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

With the almost total loss of the 1890 U.S. Census records, we don't know where the family was ten years later. We also don't know exactly where and when Carrie married Tracy Darrow Porter but we assume it took place in the Mississippi Delta area, possibly not far from Clarksdale*** in about 1895. Their first child, my great uncle Orville Alvin Porter, was born in Lyon, on the northeastern border of Clarksdale in 1896.

By the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, Carrie and Tracy were living with her widowed mother on 5th Street in Meridian, Mississippi, right next to the household of her youngest brother Henry Clifton Avery. Tracy's occupation is listed as "Printer" and Henry worked as clerk for the railroad.

[Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

["Meridian downtown postcard" by Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History - http://mdah.state.ms.us/bugle/cooper/index.php?itemno=2165. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meridian_downtown_postcard.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Meridian_downtown_postcard.jpg]

Mississippi City*** in Harrison County is where we find the Porter family residing in the 1910 U.S. Census, now including my grandmother Lettie E., aged 8. Her father's occupation is described as "House Painter" but I'm pretty sure that her 3-year old baby sister wasn't a "Ship Broker".****

[Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls).

Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.]

["MS City Courthouse" by Forrest Lamar Cooper - Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Forrest Lamar Cooper Postcard Collection is in the public domain and therefore free of copyright or other use restrictions. Photograph number 000091190.http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/cooper/index.php?itemno=232Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Woodlot using CommonsHelper on Labs.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MS_City_Courthouse.jpg#mediaviewer/File:MS_City_Courthouse.jpg]

["L&N Depot" by Forrest Lamar Cooper - Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Forrest Lamar Cooper Postcard Collection is in the public domain and therefore free of copyright or other use restrictions. Photograph number  000090466.http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/cooper/index.php?itemno=230Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Woodlot using CommonsHelper on Labs.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%26N_Depot.jpg#mediaviewer/File:L%26N_Depot.jpg]

By the 1920 U.S. Census, the Porters had relocated to Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana and Tracy was back to his profession of job printer, assisted by his sons Orville, Chester and Herbert. His mother-in-law Celestine was living with them. The American foursquare house they lived in at 2816 Catherine Street is still standing and you can find it on Google Maps here.

[Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).]

By 1923 the Porters were living in Dallas, Texas, where Letta, Chester and Herbert had moved in the early 1920s. This is the last record we have of Tracy living with Carrie.

[ Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Publication Title: City Directories for Dallas, Texas State: Texas City: Dallas Year: 1923

Publisher: John F Worley Directory Co Page Number: 1318]

In the 1925 Dallas City Directory Carrie is described as a "canvasser" and four of her children are living at the same address, including Letta, now widowed with a 2-year old son.****** My great grandfather Tracy Porter is not listed as a resident of Dallas. (In 1927 he was living in Gulfport and until his death in 1945 in Sacramento he lived alone and described himself as single on census records.)

[Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Dallas, Texas, City Directory, 1925]

Although we haven't found any records to confirm her divorce and remarriage, in the 1930 U.S. Census Carrie was using the surname Webb******* and Letta Estella (now with two children, my father and his half brother Clifton Porter Williams) and her second daughter Violet (and her husband and son) were living with her. The final resident in her household is a lodger, J. Edward Turnbull, who was listed as single, but who purportedly married my grandmother in 1929.

[Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.]

By 1940 Carrie had all three of her daughters and her son Calvin living in her household, together with eight of her grandchildren (including my father). Everyone (except for the youngest children born since that date) had been living Dallas in 1935. There was also a lodger, Archie Vicks, living with them.

[Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.]

From the scanty information on her 1955 death certificate it's clear that her son Calvin, who provided the details, knew nothing about his maternal grandparents. Either Carrie didn't talk about her past or Calvin didn't listen.

[Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas Death Certificates, 1903–1982. iArchives, Orem, Utah.]

From the Dallas Morning News for July 29, 1955 we have this:

Mortuary Notice
Part 3, Page 4
WEBB
Mrs. Carrie, age 84, residence 4362 Cabell Drive. Survived by three sons. C. C. Porter of Grand Prairie, O. A. Porter of Los Angeles, Calif.; H. W Porter, Chicago: two daughters. Mrs. Sue Graham of Santa Monica, Calif.: Mrs. Estella Turnbull of Dallas: fourteen grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren. Services 2 p.m. Friday, Oneal Funeral Chapel. Rev. Dean Moore officiating. Interment Grove Hill Cemetery. 

*Her youngest child Annie Sue was born in 1910 and Violet in 1906, this photo was probably taken about 1907-8 in either Meridian or Mississippi City.
**John Warren Avery and Celestine Letitia Herrod
***I visited Clarksdale in 2005. Unfortunately it was before I learned that some of my ancestors had ever lived in that part of the country.
****Annexed by Gulfport in 1965.
*****Obviously the census enumerator Charles Gallowaye meant that information for their neighbor but put in on the wrong line. Since this is the only census where Tracy Porter is described as anything other than a printer, perhaps Mr. Gallowaye got his occupation wrong too?
******My father Tracy Stuart Warren, born just before his father's death in 1923.
*******In the 1944-45 Worley's Greater Dallas City Directory Carrie is listed as the widow of W.T. Webb.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.