A Courthouse Fire: Hancock County, Georgia (August 14, 2014)

My Warren ancestors moved to Hancock County in the late 18th century and my direct lineage remained there until about 1830. I've been indebted to Family Search for their digitizing of Courthouse records microfilmed in the 1960s.

["Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G935-VWJT?cc=1999178&wc=9SBM-YWG%3A267654601%2C267808601 : 20 May 2014), Hancock > Wills and administration records 1837-1850 vol P-Q > image 3 of 662; citing Houston County Probate Court Judge, Georgia.]

Of course I've alway known that this represents only a part of all the records held in the 1881 Hancock County Courthouse (locally known as "Her Majesty") but I had always hoped to visit there one day and see what more I could learn about my family.

Alas! A fire started in the Courthouse* on August 14, 2014 and burned for three weeks because there was a store of coal in the basement. Enough of the brick structure survived** that the building has been rebuilt*** but it's not clear to me how much, is any, of the historical court records remain.

[31 Aug 2014, ZJ2 - The Atlanta Constitution at Newspapers.com]

*Only a year before, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation had placed the building on its “Places in Peril” list.

**More information here from a report by The Heritage Emergency Response Alliance (HERA) published twelve days after the fire started.

***This blogpost by Maria Saporta includes photos during and after the fire.

© 2020 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

December Weddings in my Family Tree

In 2016 the Martha Stewart Weddings website opined that Christmas is one of the worst days to get married, but I've noticed that date given for the nuptials of some of my ancestors. I asked Christine if she could create a list of those folk and she responded with 17 pages of December weddings. Of course most of those folks aren't in my direct line but I've decided I'll spend the next several days seeking out the ones who are and sharing them here.

This mid-19th century engraving hints at the small-scale celebration involved in a marriage,* but it would be misleading to think that many of my ancestors' unions would have taken place in such opulent surroundings.

[Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. The wedding. Forrest, J. B. (John B.) (ca. 1814-1870) (Engraver)

Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-d187-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99]

As far as we know, none of my direct ancestors got married on Christmas Day but there are two couples whose weddings took place on December 24th:

My 3X great grandparents Jesse Warren Jr. and Timney P. Watts married on on December 24th, 1824, in Morgan County, Georgia and 2X grandparents George Marion Tomlinson and Elizabeth "Betsey" Taylor on Christmas Eve, 1860 in Washington County, Iowa.

Coincidently neither of these couples were destined to have a long life together. Jesse Warren Jr. died a little over a year later (when his only child was an infant) and Betsey Taylor Tomlinson disappeared from records about the time of her daughter Rufina's birth in early 1863. Both surviving spouses married again; their second unions lasted for decades and produced more children.

Why get married during the Christmas season? This blogpost by findmypast focuses on England but I think some of the same reasons would be relevant for U.S. couples.

*You can find a description of mid-19th century wedding preparations here at a blog by NYC's Merchant’s House Museum.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Rufus Watson Freeman (1862 - 1921) M.D.

Someone radically trimmed this photo of Dr. Rufus Freeman, one of my paternal second cousins, twice removed.*

[RLouiseHazelip46 posted this to Ancestry.com] 

I was able to find his obituary:

[5 Mar 1921, Page 3 - The Chickasha Daily Express at Newspapers.com]

So he graduated from Vanderbilt School of Medicine just like my great uncle Hill Freeman Warren, the oldest son of my great great grandmother Nannie Freeman Warren.

*Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Jamestown People to 1800

Deciding that it's time to take a closer look at my father's Warren lineage and its Virginia roots, I ordered Martha W. McCartney's 2012 book Jamestown People to 1800: Landowners, Public Officials, Minorities, and Native Leaders via Amazon and it arrived this morning.

[Amazon.com]

I already own another book by this author.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: "The prehistoric shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico is so fertile you can see it from space"

The Washington Post published a piece about the region of Mississippi and Alabama known as the Black Belt and used this satellite image to illustrate their point:

It is subtle, and it blends in well with the surroundings, and if you are not looking for it there is a good chance you will scan right over it. But once someone points it out on a true-color map, it is impossible to unsee: a crescent of off-hue land in Mississippi and Alabama that is so perfectly-arced it looks unnatural.

[NASA via The Washington Post]

More from the Post's article:

In reality, this arc is super-fertile, cultivated land surrounded by dense forest. It is the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico as it existed 145 million years ago.

[NASA via The Washington Post]

As you can see, Macon County is one of the Alabama counties in the Black Belt and that's where my Warren, Hardy and Freeman ancestors moved as soon as the land was forcibly taken from the Creek Indians. They settled in an area called Cotton Valley which is located in the southern part of Macon County.

[The University of Alabama Department of Geography via TrueSouth.com]

Before intensive agriculture changed the land forever, the Black Belt comprised at least 356,000 acres of open prairie of which only a small fragment remains. Here's more information (with photos) about some of the plants and insects found there.

Cotton Valley proved to be a stopping point on my ancestors' way west as younger generations all moved on to Texas in the 1850s.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Warren/Hardy Wedding Announcement in The Tuskegee (Alabama) Republican - 1849

We already knew about the marriage of this pair of paternal great great grandparents but the second paragraph elicited a chuckle from me.

[13 Dec 1849, Page 2 - Tuskegee Republican at Newspapers.com]

Remember the Printer!


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

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.

Working on Wednesday: Mabel Myrtle (Bryan) Morriss (1895 - 1991)

Without knowing her story, anyone looking at the 1940 U.S. Census record for Mabel Morriss (one of my second cousins, twice removed*) would have no reason to think that her life was any different from the other farm wives in Cass County, Texas. It seems there's no census category for "tireless pioneer."

[1940 United States Federal Census. Online publication - 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]

The Bowie-Cass Electric Co-op wouldn't exist without her vision and hard work. This is from the co-op's history page:

The slight, pleasant East Texas lady with limitless hope for the future and belief in her fellow East Texans brought the Douglassville co-op into being almost single-handedly, braving numerous condemnations of the project as "economically unfeasible." A few years back when employees and members of Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative were asked about the organizing of the co-op, they would reply, "Ask Mabel Bryan Morriss. She did it." 

It all started one warm night in May 1935, as Mabel Bryan Morriss read the latest issue of the Atlanta Citizens-Journal. If she hadn't been too interested in the story about the new-born Rural Electrification Administration and its offer to finance electricity for everybody who could qualify, Mrs. Morriss could have heard the whispers from other pioneers about the obstacles to be encountered along unblazed trails, and the heartaches and rebuffs that go hand in hand with the challenge of leadership.

Over the years she served on the board of directors, as secretary-treasurer, and even donated the land that the co-op's offices occupy to this day. Go read the rest of the story to get an appreciation of how hard Mabel worked to achieve her goal: "John Carmody [the government official in Washington DC] approved the project in August 1937, but his reservations were far from resolved, for he commented even while approving, "I know this thing will never pay out, but this is the only way to get that woman off our necks!' "

The Cooperative currently serves over 36,000 members.

[Originally posted on her Ancestry.com family tree by SummerGBmore]

[From the Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative website]

You can read more about the Cooperative here, which includes some background on the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). Here's the application form that Mabel had to fill out to start the process:

[Source: East Texas History-Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative]

*Here's how we're related:

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Fathers Day

The father who raised me: Harold D. Currey (1902-1981).

[Coos Bay, Oregon -1911]

[With son Harold D. Jr., San Diego, California - c. 1928]

[Holding me, San Diego, California - 1947]

[After Mother's death - La Jolla, California - 1980]

My biological father Tracy Stuart Warren (1923- )

[Center, with half brothers, probably Dallas, Texas - c. 1936]

[In the Navy - World War II]

[Probably Corsicana, Texas - c. 1998]

All the photos of Harold Currey are from my personal collection, the first two pictures of Tracy Warren are courtesy of James Turnbull, the portrait was sent to me by Tracy after we contacted him in the late 1990s.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: John H. Hardy - Russell County, Alabama - 1857

In 1857 John Hardy's son-in-law and the executor of his will David Lockhart listed the estate's heirs for the probate court:

["Alabama Estate Files, 1830-1976," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RGV-32B?cc=1978117&wc=MX5T-7N1%3A314239401%2C315421601 : 19 May 2014), Russell > Hardy, John H (1854) > image 42 of 51;

county courthouses, Alabama.]

The State of Alabama Russell County.
     Personally came David Lockhart Exr
of John Hardy dec'd who being duly sworn doth
depose & say that the within is a true account
of his acts as Executor to the best of his knowl-
edge & belief and that the heirs of the estate are
1  Fereby Lockhart wife of the affiant.
2  Elizabeth Kennon wife of Herry J M Kennon
3  William Hardy of full age
4  The children of Charles Hardy deceased ^all of^ whose names
    and ages are unknown to affiant,
5  The children of Alfred Hardy dec'd viz 1 John Hardy, 2 Martha 
    Warren wife of Jesse Warren, 3 George Hardy, who are
     full age to the best of his knowledge, 4 Sarah Hardy
     minor, 5 the children of Martha Ann Baker de'd viz 1 Cobb Craw-
     ford, by a former marriage & some children by her hus-
     band Baker whose names are unknown.
6  Eliel Lockhart, Elizabeth Lockhart, James Lockhart
     Jane Lockhart. Fereby Lockhart; Eliel & Elizabeth
     being of ull age, the others minors, Jane being
     married to one Bell.
7  The children of Mary Park de'd unknown
8  The children of James W Hardy ^dec'd^ whose names
     and ages are unknown
9  The children of John P Heardy ^dec'd^ whose names ^& ages^ are
     unknown
10 Sarah Guire wife of Lewis Guire
11 William Bennett & Lizabeth Whiteman
     wife of ----- Whiteman of full age
Sworn to & subscribed 31  }
January 1857                      }      David Lockhart
     John A Lewis                }
    Judge of Probate            }

I have bolded my direct ancestors in the above transcription. 

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Georgia G. Kay (1890 - 1946) Dramatic Soprano

Georgia Kay, the wife of Henry Thomas Warren (my first cousin, twice removed) was born in Utah, the daughter of an English father and Danish mother. She appears in early records first as Alice M. Kay in the 1900 U.S. Census and then, after her 1908 Wyoming marriage to Franklin L. Arnold, as Matilda G. in the 1910 federal enumeration. I'm not sure when she picked the name Georgia by which she was later known.

Georgia and Mr. Arnold had two children together, the second of whom was born in California in 1910. Since her husband married a second time in Utah in 1919 it's clear that he and Georgia had parted before then.

The costume worn by Georgia on this advertising placard looks like it dates from the early 1920s. Unfortunately I don't know where she was performing although it's likely to have been somewhere in Southern California.

[Posted by Heather Valtee on an Ancestry.com family tree]

Cousin Henry Thomas Warren left his home in Cass County, Texas, for California sometime after the 1920 U.S. Census and Georgia married him in Santa Ana in 1924 and she seems to have ended her singing career thereafter because she claims no occupation in the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census records.*

She died in 1946 and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale; he never remarried and eventually returned to Texas where he died in 1976.

*Henry was a street car conductor.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: Davis Stevens Pearson (1919 - 1945), Soldier

Davis Pearson is a fifth cousin of mine--we are both descendants of Jesse Warren, Sr.* His father died when Davis was six years old and his mother married a second time when he was eleven. Military and census records state that Davis completed only one year of high school before he had to help his step-father on the farm.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army on October 22, 1940, and was killed in action on January 21, 1945. I found this blurry photo of him on Findagrave.com.

[Davis S. Pearson. Source: Findagrave.com Memorial ID 3113374;

photo added by Rhunae Helms Cross]

Here's his name on the Army's casualty list for Hancock County, Georgia:

[Page 23 WWII Army and Army Air Force Casualty List - Fold3]

From this newspaper article in the Atlanta Constitution we learn that he was probably buried originally in Belgium** and his body was shipped home to Georgia in 1947.

[26 Oct 1947, page 62 - The Atlanta Constitution at Newspapers.com]

All of this left me wanting to know where Davis died because it isn't stated in any of the above records. Fortunately his mother's application for his headstone him as belonging to Company M of the 23rd Infantry Regiment.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Applications for Headstones for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1941. Microfilm publication M1916, 134 rolls. ARC ID: 596118. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92. National Archives at Washington, D.C.Applications for Headstones, compiled 01/01/1925 - 06/30/1970, documenting the period ca. 1776 - 1970 ARC: 596118. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, Record Group 92. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.]

As part of the 23rd Infantry, here's what Davis experienced in the last eight months of his life beginning with the Normandy Invasion through his death during the Battle of the Bulge:

On 8 June, 1944, the Twenty Third Infantry landed on Omaha Beach with the first invasion forces. 

In slow, painful hedgerow fighting, the Regiment inched its way forward day after day against hard fighting enemy paratroop elements. St. Georges d'Elle, Hill 192 (which commanded St. Lo), St. Jean des Baisants, Etouvy, Vire, Truttemer le Grand and Tinchebray were scenes of bitter fighting up to August when the organized German resistance in Normandy collapsed. A short respite, the first one up to that time, was interrupted by an overnight motor march of 210 miles to Brest. From 21 August to 19 September the Regiment battled the 2nd German Paratroop Division which fanatically defended the surrounding hills and villages. Knowing that the fortress seaport, which housed German U-boats, was greatly needed by the Allies for the purpose of establishing supply routes into France, Hitler ordered the garrison to hold for at least 90 days. 

However, Brest, the scene of some of the most savage and bitter street fighting of the war, fell in 39 days. Formal capitulation of the Fortress to the 2nd Division occurred on 18 September, 1944. Its hard-driving leader, General Herman B. Ramcke, was captured the following day on the nearby Crozon Peninsula. 

Another rapid motor and train move of 720 miles on 30 September, 1944, saw the 23d Infantry crossing France and Belgium to new battle positions on the German border. Defensive positions were taken up along the Siegfried Line just north of Luxemburg.
The first ceremony of American troops on German soil was a 23d Infantry parade in November, south of St. Vith. Major General W.M. Robertson, Divisional Commander, presented decorations for heroism to officers and men of the Regiment. On 12 December, the Regiment moved 30 miles north to the vicinity of Sourbrodt, Belgium. 

The German break-through on 16 December found all three battalions of the 23d Infantry fighting savagely in the line. The failure of the enemy to accomplish a penetration in the division sector, despite repeated tank and strong infantry. attacks, upset the entire German plan of action to reach and cut off the vital supply nets at Liege. The Regiment stopped attack after bloody attack. 

This action was summed up by General Courtney Hodges, Commanding General of the 1st Army, who declared, "What the 2nd Division has done in the last four days will live forever in the history of the United States Army." 

During the period of 13 to 23 Jan. while attached to the First Division, the Regiment fought under the most severe climatic conditions. It spearheaded a drive that broke the determined enemy resistance in the vital Ondenval-Iveldingen Pass to clear the way for armored thrusts into St. Vith, Belgium. Sleet, rain and bitter cold froze the men's clothing to their bodies as they, struggled through waist-deep snow over rough terrain. The enemy forces, principally the 8th Regiment, 3rd Panzer Division, were decimated. So heavy were enemy losses in men and material that the 8th Regiment ceased to exist as a fighting force.***

Davis Pearson was one of the more than 19,000 American soldiers who died during the Battle of the Bulge. He's buried in Wisteria Cemetery in Union Point, Greene County, Georgia.


*Chapter and verse according to Ancestry.com

**Henri-Chappelle Cemetery in 1945:

***This information is taken from an official booklet printed after V-E day and sent home to soldiers' families as found on the website LoneSentry.com.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Texas and the Civil War

Half of my eight great great grandfathers fought in the Civil War. One, Willet O. "Dick" Worden, was a private in the Iowa 24th Infantry, and of the three who were Confederate soldiers*, two were in Texas and I've never been able to locate them in online military records.

So when this email from the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) arrived in my inbox this morning I jumped at the chance to learn more about what happened in Texas during the war.

Of course I don't expect to find any mention of those ancestors who reputedly enlisted in Texas regiments, but since we do know where they were living at the start of the war this information may help me focus on likely military units they would have served in.




*They were John Warren Avery (of Mississippi); the Texans were J.T.S. Warren and Abner Webb.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Frances L Turner (1827 - 1851)

When my third great aunt Francis Turner married my third great uncle Benjamin Blanton Freeman in 1844 the couple weren't the first members of their respective families to be joined together. Her older sister Elizabeth "Lizzie" and his older brother Henry Hill "H.H." had gotten married four years earlier and were to become my great great grandparents through their daughter Nancy Elizabeth, known as Nanny.

[Ancestry.com. Georgia, Marriage Records From Select Counties, 1828-1978 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: County Marriage Records, 1828–1978. The Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia.]

Francis only appears in one Federal Census record (in 1850) and she'd already had three children in the six years of her marriage.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: Subdivision 65, Newton, Georgia; Roll: M432_79; Page: 514A; Image: 440. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Another son was born in December, 1850, and it's believed that Francis died around that time but no date is known for certain.

A few days ago Christine and I was discussing how quickly the names of parents can be forgotten and the 1925 Texas death certificate of her son Josephus (J.C.) is an example of that, although his information is more complete than some. His father's name is recognizable while his mother's given name is correct, but her maiden name is listed as "Tonnel". The informant is listed as "Hosp Chart" so perhaps J.C. was the source?

[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. Austin, Texas, USA.]

The parental information for his brother Richard Turner Freeman's death certificate two years later is complete and correct, undoubtedly due to the source of information being his cousin (and my great grandmother) Nanny Freeman (Mrs. James Chappell Warren).

[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. Austin, Texas, USA.]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

A Visual Comparison of My Son's Ethnicity Estimates to Steve, Me, and My Parents

My son's Grandtree on 23andMe.  I finally have enough people on my direct lines to make interesting comparisons (the problem of the only child (Marc) of an only child (Christine) of an only child (Pat Hartley, sorta).

Marc's father Steve's map.  His paper trail is mostly German/Polish with some British Isles.

My map.  My paper trail is mostly British Isles/Scandinavian/Germanic and some French.

My mom's map.  Her paper trail is mostly British Isles, German/Dutch, and some French.

My dad's map.  His paper trail is Scandinavian, British Isles, and Germanic.  On most DNA ethnicity tests he has trace Native American, but 23andMe points to Subsaharan African, even at 90 percent confidence (I get West African at 90 percent confidence).

Marc's map, a combination of all the people above.  He didn't get any of the fancy stuff, just 100 percent European.  Very interesting.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.