Tabitha Emma Ervin Kerr

Happy Birthday!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a birthday post. But today is Tabitha’s birthday and I feel she deserves one. It won’t be a long one, unfortunately. I’ve scoured every newspaper website I could think of, looking for the least little tidbit about Tabitha and her life. And unfortunately, at the moment, all I can really find are census records and marriage and death records. I had contemplated not even writing her biography, since she didn’t have much of a ‘story’. But just because she made her life peacefully as a mom and wife, doesn’t mean she should be forgotten. She has a story – she has a legacy – she should be remembered.

Tabitha Emma Ervin was the oldest of 9 children. I can imagine as a child she had a lot of responsibility helping her mom, Ann (Clark) Ervin, out with all the littler kids. It was normal in those days, and especially with families this size. In some ways, Tabitha was always a mother or a mother figure. Being born in 1851, she grew up in the 1850-1860s in Canada, and then later Michigan. It seemed inevitable that her life would consist of raising children. I hope it’s what she wanted, what she thrived at. I’ve no doubt she loved her children, as mothers usually do. I just hope she was happy.

Sometime between 1861 and 1867, Alfred and Ann moved their family from Canada to Sanilac County Michigan. This is where Tabitha met her husband, William Wrex Kerr. They married in 1867 in what I assume was Sanilac Co., MI. I haven’t been able to find a marriage record for them. But I got the year from the book “Portrait and biographical album of Sanilac County : containing portraits and biographical sketches … of citizens of the county”. You can find this book  at https://archive.org/details/portraitbiograph09chic/page/n4.   William and Tabitha are written about on page 191. I’ve clipped a bit here about Tabitha for you to read…

I do want to note that I have not found proof that Tabitha’s mother was born in Germany. In the census records I’ve found on her, they all say Canada.

Tabitha and William had 10 children:
Mary Jannet Kerr “Jenny”
James D Kerr
Alfred A Kerr
Anna Eliza Kerr
Joseph Robert Kerr
William George Kerr
Emma Elizabeth Kerr (my gg-gm)
Ogleve Clark Kerr
Francis Earl Kerr
Lillie A Kerr

Unfortunately, Tabitha passed away in 1888 just a few months after Lillie was born. She was only 37. Her death certificate doesn’t list cause of death, sadly, and as I’ve said before I haven’t been able to find any newspaper articles. One day, maybe I can find more!

But for today, I just say “Happy Birthday, grandmother”.

JL Hetrick… I see you

Hey everyone!!!!  It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I wanted to give an update on my JL Hetrick, whose real name was John David Hetrick.  Yes… I know who he is, now.  And while his whole life isn’t clear to me, a lot of his brick wall came tumbling down.  All thanks to dna, and some chance findings in an old book.  For those that haven’t been following, you can see all my old posts on John (and his wife) here – JL Hetrick 

I am basing John Hetrick’s parents on dna. It is subject to change.  My great-uncle (he’s my grandmother’s brother) has several 4th cousin matches to George Leonard Hetrick and Elizabeth Truitt. Knowing it was likely that John was a direct descendant of George and Elizabeth’s, I began to look for dna matches through the Truitt line.  By doing this, I would be able to “likely prove’ that I’m also descended through the Truitt line.  And what do you know… I began to find dna matches to people that also descend from the Truitt family. Thus, I believe that we are directly descended from George and Elizabeth. Based on their birth years, I knew it was possible they were either John’s parents or grandparents. So, I then began to research George and Elizabeth’s children. Their oldest child, Labannah moves to Chicago, where he dies in 1892. John and Alice lived in Chicago in 1903 when George was born. Labannah also has a son named David (which if you remember this post, is one of the names listed for John). I’m GUESSING that John is Labannah and Martha’s son, but I just have to prove it.

Now, first I have to decide about the name… Family ‘lore’ has said his name was John Lincoln.  This was actually from someone that was doing research years ago that had passed on.  So far I haven’t been able to prove a Lincoln, but he is listed as JL at one point.  He’s also listed as Jack David.  I believe it’s entirely plausible that his name was John David Hetrick, as Jack is a nickname for John, and his daughter remembers the name David.  Do I have proof beyond a reasonable doubt?  No.  But I do have plausibility.

Second… who was Labannah’s wife??  If I can find Martha’s maiden name, perhaps I can use dna matches to see if I have any matches to her family.  Now trust me when I say I did months of research for Martha.  And everything I found either fell through as not being her, or just wasn’t helpful.  I could do a full blog post on just finding her,  and I likely will (so I remember all my clues that confirmed her to me), but there was one major clue that I found.. a book called “Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania, Vol 3”.  In it was an article on Robert Drain and his wife.  I was already looking at the Drain family, thinking they may be my Martha’s parents, and then I read this…

MARTHA WAS IN PEORIA!!!!!  That’s right outside of Chicago, baby!!!  I was convinced that Martha Drain is in fact, wife of Labannah.  And we had dna matches to the Drain family also!

Third… back to those dna matches.  I now have dna matches to the Truitt family AND the Drain family.  I’m convinced that Labannah Hetrick and Martha Drain are my direct ancestors.  And for that to be true, their son David has to be my John.  Unless they have another son that’s never found in any census or paperwork.  That’s also possible, and something I have noted in my files.

There’s not much else I’ve found on John (or David) Hetrick.  Do I wish I had more definitive proof?  Yes.  Of course.  Even a proof of name change, or something simple.  But I’m still relatively positive I have the right guy.  And since I’m never 100% sure, no matter the evidence, relatively positive will work.  But I’ll never stop searching to help prove or disprove.

Dna researching – Oh Gentry!

SaWell, everyone, it’s been a lifetime since you’ve heard from me.  I keep saying I’m going to get back to blogging regularly.  And I will.  One day.  I’ve made some amazing contacts on here that I’m so thankful for, and I know blogging will just make more.

But for today – I’m researching my Gentry line with my dna.  My great-uncle tested his DNA for me, thankfully, as he’s 2 generations closer to our Gentry link.  His grandmother, Laura Gentry is our initial link into the Gentry family.  She’s also basically where I stop.  I do know her father’s name was most likely John… possibly Walter, and she had a brother Sam (whose first initial MAY have been H).    I also know that she was born in Mississippi, her father supposedly in South Carolina in 1845, and her brother possibly in Texas or Miss.  That’s it.  That’s the end of my Gentry paper trail.

The next obvious option is to go to the dna.  I was looking at my uncle’s matches, and their trees, and noticed that he has several pretty close matches that have Gentry in their trees.  My first thought was to build a dna tree based on these matches, adding in just their Gentry lines.  I discovered 7 close matches, mostly 2nd and 3rd cousins, but some listed as 3rd-4th.  When I began to make a tree, I discovered all the matches came from ONE line and lead DIRECTLY to my John Gentry and the CASE WAS SOLVED.

Well, that’s the way it happened until I awoke from my dna-researching induced coma.  In all actuality, out of those 7 matches, 5 *DO* have a commonality.  They ARE the same line.  A line that, as far as I’ve been able to find, has ZERO ties to Arkansas.  However, the 2nd line – with just TWO matches, DID end up in AR.  Well… let me just show you the skeleton of my dna tree…

I’m not sure if you could tell what’s going on in the tree.  Each of my 7 matches have been assigned a color.    I set each of the ancestors of that match to also share their color.  So in the first picture, you’ll find HIram Gentry and Jane Caldwell.  They match 5 of my uncles matches.  Red, orange, yellow, light blue, and purple.  The other line matches green and blue.
Here’s how closely each of those matches relates to my uncle.
Red – 2nd cousins (possible 2nd-3rd) … 207cM (pic1)
Orange –  2nd cousins (possible 2nd-3rd) … 204cM  (pic1)
Yellow –  2nd cousins (possible 2nd-3rd) … 214cM  (pic1)
Green –  2nd cousins (possible 2nd-3rd) … 204cM (pic2)
Light Blue – 3rd cousins (possible 3rd-4th) … 165cM   (pic1)
Purple – 4th cousins (possible 4th-6th) … 60cM   (pic1)
Dark Blue – 3rd cousins (possible 3rd-4th) … 129cM  (pic2)

That’s where I stopped, since the matches started getting more distant from there.  Now I firmly believe these two lines connect.  Somewhere.  How can he ben 2nd cousins with both, if there’s no connection between them??  (I can find no other connections either!)
Possibilities in group 1.  William J Gentry, born 1844.  Can J stand for John??  EVERYTHING lines up, and I can’t find any documents with William in them after 1870.  My Laura and Sam were both born after 1870.  SO it’s possible he’s the father.   Not to mention that William was born in South Carolina. HOWEVER — I find no references to them in Arkansas.
Group 2 — John L Gentry.  I do have him in 1880, with a daughter named Lyda, who has no documentation other than that one census.  Could she be Laura??  Nothing that I can find that could be Sam.  BUT THEY WENT TO ARKANSAS.  Some of them right near where my Gentry families were.  BUT THERES no record of my when there should be.  And John was born in Mississippi.

So I’m this close, and feel like a complete dunce because I can’t put the pieces together.  How do you solve dna trails without paper proof?  (extreme close matches notwithstanding)

A family history mystery

I’ve mentioned before my fatal computer crash last year.  Well, in many ways, I’m still recovering from it.  I’m still re-researching people and records I’d already “completed”.  I’m still re-adding records to my family tree maker.  I’m still slogging along, hoping to get all caught back up soon.  But, I’m taking my time.  Trying not to burn out on things that I find tedious.  Otherwise the monotony of redoing things I already know can get to me.

But then there’s that one record.  The one I just skimmed before, and never REALLY looked at.  The one that jumps out at me this time.  Those are the times I step back from recreating my tree to research something new.  It happens occasionally, and it keeps the spark alive.  Sometimes, it’s just something that takes an hour or so to ferret out.  Othertimes – like today – the process is going to be much longer.   But more exciting also!

When uploading my 3x great grandfather’s marriage record, I noticed a bit of an anomaly with his name.  I’ve always known him as Henry Barnes, who married Selena Allen in Spetisbury, Dorset, England.  They moved to Canada and U.S, where many of their descendants remain today.  BUT, this time, when I read that record, something jumped out at me.  His name.  It was listed as “Henry Barnes otherwise Fry”. FRY??  Who is Fry and why is my grandfather using the name?  The first thing I did was to recheck Henry’s birth record.  I knew it had to be listed as Barnes, or I wouldn’t have found it in the first place.  But perhaps his parents have a Fry name listed somewhere??

Nope… they are just Barnes at this point.  Ok.  So sometime between 1828 and 1850, Henry Barnes becomes Henry Barnes Fry, or Henry Barnes and Fry, or whatever.  I’m still unclear about why or when.  Then I run across this little tidbit – the 1841 census listing Thomas and Ann with 3 of their children and who I assume to be Ann’s mother:

Notice that here, in 1841, they are listed as Fry.  Even Thomas and Ann.  So Henry wasn’t the first to adopt the Fry name.  Thomas and Ann, in 1828, went by Barnes.  In 1841, they went by Fry.  While digging around in that family, I found several marriage record of their children listed as Barnes Fry or Barnes otherwise Fry.  I also found something to confuse me even farther….

Here Thomas is, listed as a Fry again when he married Ann in 1809.  So it really appears he’s a Fry and uses Barnes when his children are born??  I’m really not sure what’s going on, but I am looking forward to finding out.  Hopefully, I have the investigative skills to figure it out.  I’ve never ran across anything like it before…

 

Cruising is in my blood…

My family and I just returned from a cruise to Mexico in February.  It was an absolutely fabulous time with my parents, husband, and children.  I can’t wait to do it again some year.  That time won’t come nearly quick enough, I’m sure.  Perhaps, I’ll be able to take one with my grandchildren also!

Being on the ship got me to thinking about some ancestors who also loved and lived on the water.  Abraham Crocheron, Theophilus Peter Tremble, John Green, and Bert Payea… They, of course, didn’t spend time on cruise ships like I did.  However, they did live on the water.  Or in one fellow’s case – IN the water.  Interestingly enough, all these ancestors are on my maternal line.  Not surprising really, when you consider how much my MOTHER loves being on the water!

Today I wanted to talk about Bert Payea.  His full name was Ethelbert James Payea, and he was my great great grandfather.  Bert started out his life as a young man working in the lumber field.  It didn’t take him long, however, to realize he wanted to spend his days off land.  Out there – on the Great Lakes.  Life on a ship must have seemed mighty adventurous to a young man working in the lumber industry.  He quickly found his way to working on a ship.  It wasn’t long before he was a captain for Aetna Portland Cement Company out of Bay City.

As a mother of 4, I worried often during our cruise of something going wrong.  I wasn’t fearful, of course… the cruise ships are large, well cared for, and pretty steady.  We hit some turbulent waters the first night or two, but I was never afraid.  But I’m prone to fancy, and at times envisioned various disasters hitting our cruise ship.  As I researched  Bert’s life as a ship’s captain more in depth, I’m awed by the things he endured.  I’m unsure how long he was with Aetna, but Bert is most known for being the captain of the steamer Langell Boys.  He was its captain for 23 years, when it burned down.

I have newspaper articles talking about lake storms Bert had to navigate.  Can you imagine??  10 hours of fierce wind fighting – then another 35 hours riding out the storm?  My daughter became very sea sick the first night when we hit rocky waters.  I have to wonder if any of these sea veterans felt even a slight queasiness from such rough conditions – in a much smaller boat.

Then there’s the storm where two of his barges wrecked along shore.  Bert and his guys came to the rescue of the other 2 ships, which were full of lumber that Bert was hauling.  Or the time in 1931 when the Langell Boys met its fate by burning down.

But the ordeal that fascinates me the most happened in 1926.  It was early December when Bert was pulling a full ship as well as a barge, the Fillmore,  full of lumber from Ontario.  Typically, the full ship and full barge were easy going for the Langell Boys and crew.  However, this was at the end of the year when weather was starting to turn bad.  The water was cold and already becoming dense.  While nearing close to home, the wind began to pick up, and the steamer wasn’t able to keep up the pace like she had been.  The water was getting thicker.  A snow storm came up.  The boat began to run into ice patches in the water, and snow made visibility nonexistent.  Bert navigated as best he could throughout the night, pointing for shore.  However, when morning came, he quickly realized they weren’t nearly as close to docking as they should have been.

Due to the rough waters, and the steamer having to work so much harder to navigate through them, the ship ran out of coal about 15 miles from home.  I can just hear the fear and trepidation in the shipmate’s voice as he told his captain they were out of fuel.  To know there they sat out on the Great Lakes with winter settling around them, ice forming in the water.  And they had no way to move.  Bert dropped anchor, and by morning quite a bit of ice had formed around the Langell Boys, and the weather continued to worsen.  A tug boat, City of Sarnia, had been called to rescue the crew.  However, by the time she reached the Langell Boys, she was also experiencing troubles with the water.  According to one source, the Sarnia had broken its stem on the ice and had to return home.  So the Langell Boys and her tugboat sat there – stuck in the water.

The weather continued to get worse, the water continued to thicken.  It became to icy for a ship to get through to help them, but to thin for anything to travel on top of the ice.  Bert and the crew were well stuck.  To keep from freezing to death, the crew began to burn some of the lumber they had on board.  As food began to dwindle, three of the crew decided to walk the 30 miles to shore to get supplies.  Fortunately, there was a doctor that had went hunting in Canada and bagged a huge deer and moose.  He had chartered the Fillmore to bring the animals back to Bay City, MI.  The frozen carcasses provided food for the crew for the duration of their stay on the ice.

When the ice was thick enough, trucks brought fuel to the Langell Boys.  I’m sure just that was a nice break from the monotony of life on a frozen lake.  Eventually, an ice cutter – a ship that cut ice for the ice houses, made their way out in the lake and began to cut the ships free from the ice.  I can imagine it was quite the ordeal to make the ice passable.  After 67 days of being stuck in the ice… Bert Payea, the Langell Boys crew, and the other guys were finally moving again!  Can you hear the cheers going up???  I imagine they heard them on the shores.

You can view pictures of the Langell Boys stuck in ice at this flickr page:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/22257034@N00/222527417/in/photolist-kEvDB-kEvDN-kEvDA-kEvDD-kEvDG-tsFak/  There are pictures of the ships, the fuel trucks, the ice cutters, men walking around trying to help.  I found them quite fascinating!!!

My favorite of the Langell Boys is a picture of Bert’s wife and son in the rowboat in front:

And also a picture of Bert Payea.

New info on JL Hetrick

The last couple days, I’ve been working on my brick wall – John L Hetrick.  I’ve talked about him before on here, once.  You can see there how I had trouble even proving his name.  JL Hetrick, Jack David Hetrick, John Lincoln Hetrick?  So many choices, with no real proof.  However, it looking the other day I found an index to George R Hetrick’s birth in Chicago.  I knew he’d been born in Illinois, and was so excited to find the record.  I contacted a lady on genlighten.com to go to her local FHC and get a copy of the birth certificate.
Let me just say here – if you need simple research done, please check out genlighten.com!  There are people there selling their services to go and make copies, etc.  Many have VERY VERY reasonable charges.  I contacted chicagogenealogy.  She charged me $6 to get a record, and also found a few other records for me.  The same certificate ordered through Cook County clerk’s office would have been 15.  It’s a wonderful site.  Just do your research, read their reviews, etc.  This is the 2nd time I’ve “hired” someone to get local copies for me, and I’ve been pleased both times.
Anyway, back to my guy.  On George’s birth record, his last name is spelled Haterick.  And his father’s is Hagerrick.  Very strange indeed – but we all know what spelling and genealogy is like!!  Mom is correct – Alice Witherow (Withrow), date is correct, etc.  This *IS* my family – there’s no doubt.   So this little piece of paper tells me quite a few things.  One… my mystery man now has an actual name!  John Hetrick.  Since I’ve got documents now calling him JL, Jack David, and John.  I’m guessing his name really is John L Hetrick, and his nickname was likely Jack.

This document also lets me know he was born in PA – something I sort of guessed anyway, based on PA showing up in their kids census records.  It also tells me that John was born appx 1870, possibly.  And Alice in 1875.  Since I have Alice’s birth record, I do know she was, in fact, born Oct 1874.  So I’m tempted to believe that John’s record is at least reasonably correct.  One last thing – John is a laborer.  Ok then. So I go looking for Mr John L Hetrick, and with the help of a friend, find this 1900 census record: Now, is this my John L Hetrick?  I believe it’s highly probable.
1.  They are living in Greenbrier, Summers County, West Virginia.  Summers County borders Greenbrier County, where Alice was from.
2.  Another thing that caught my eye was that John’s occupation is listed as detective.  Now I find this interesting as family lore has John’s occupation as an FBI man.  Since FBI wasn’t around in 1900 – detective is as close as it comes.
3.  Also, this John L (and the L is a big plus for me!) was born in PA.  How many John L Hetrick’s moved from PA to West Virginia – that close to Alice – in this time frame.  Laws of probability say this has to be my guy.  At least the laws the way I interpret them do.

However, there are some concerns as to if this is truly my John L Hetrick.
1.  John here is married to Martha, and has a child – Harry.  Could Martha be a first wife, who also was born in Oct 1874, just like my Alice?  Or could Martha actually BE Alice?  What happened to Harry?  As far as that goes, what happened to Martha, if she was a first wife?
2. John’s birth is listed as July 1860.  A 9-10 year difference from the birth record listed above.
3.  John is listed as a detective.  This is both a plus and a con.  If he’s a detective, why is he listed as a laborer on the birth record?  Why would he give up being a detective to move and be a “common” laborer?  I can’t see him labelling himself as a laborer if he’s still a detective.  However, why would the family pass down the whole FBI story if he wasn’t some way involved in detecting something?

So that’s where I stand with John L Hetrick.  He now has a name and a state of birth.  I actually share dna with a man from a Hetrick line.  However, we haven’t been able to correspond and share information like I’d like.  Hopefully some day I’ll hear from him.  Or others that might also share Hetrick dna with me.

I’m BACK!

I’m back!  I doubt many noticed my absence, but if you did, thank you.   I’m hoping to be back for good now.  My computer decided to crash, and somehow in my last few backups, my genealogy information failed to back up.  Please let this be a warning to you.  Back up – verify your back up – then back up somewhere else.  And verify it all backed up!  Do it now… do it often.  Recreating work you’ve already done is no fun!!!

I’m hoping to be back to blogging once a week at least.  I’m trying to decide if I should continue with birthday bio type posts, or something altogether different.    I want to write about my research.  Such as it may be.  But I also want to make sure it’s interesting to any reader out there.  Perhaps, the only people that read are the ones that find a common name  in our trees.

It’s been nice having people come across my blog these last couple months, and contact me.  It’s the push I’ve needed to get back to blogging.  So thanks for contacting me!  Please keep on emailing me!  There’s nothing as exciting as the unexpected arrival of an email from a new cousin. Eventually, hopefully, the person that has the key to unlocking my brick walls will happen across the blog and give me a hollar.  Or likewise, hopefully I can help someone knock down theirs.  I love the give and take of the genealogical community.  I’m always willing to share, and hope others are the same.

 

Oggie Kerr #52ancestors

I’m a week late in saying happy birthday to this week’s ancestor.  Let me introduce you to Oggie.  Oggie Clark Kerr was born July 4, 1883 to William W Kerr and Tabitha Ervin.    I’ve talked about another one of William and Tabitha’s sons, Frank Kerr, on the blog before.

Oggie’s mom died when he was just 5.  William was busy with his farm life, and had a whole passel of kids to care for.  He and Tabitha had a total of 11 children, ages 6 months to 19 years.  I can imagine how difficult those years were right after Tabitha’s death, and how much those younger children depended on the older children.  3 years later, William remarried.   Oggie’s step mother had several children and step children from previous marriages, so they became one huge blended family.  Oggie was just 9, and I just wonder how many fights he went through with his new family… or if they were all angels and got along sweetly.

As Oggie gets older, he helps his dad out on the farm, working as a farm laborer in 1910.  But in the 1920 census things get interesting.  He’s listed as head of household, married to Mabel, with his dad and step-mom living with them.  However, when I get to looking, I find their marriage record. And it’s not before 1920… it’s in 1925.  Now the interesting thing about Mabel Staley, is she is the daughter of Oggie’s stepmother, Elizabeth.  They were raised together from a young age, he was 9 and she was 6,  so I was surprised to see them marry – even though they married much later in life.  He was 42, she was 39.  However, they began living together as a married couple sometime between 1910 and 1920.

In 1930, Oggie’s dad William has passed away, but Elizabeth is still living with Oggie and Mabel.  I can’t help but speculate that Oggie and Mabel waited until William passed before they married.  I, of course, have no proof of that.  Like I said… speculation.  Oggie carries on the tradition of farming for his family.  Mabel died in 1937, and Oggie passed away nearly 30 years later in 1966.

 

Louvenia Lipscomb Warren #52ancestors

Today, I’m writing about a lady that was very dear to my father, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  They had the privilege of knowing her, of spending a lot of time with her.  She was “Maw”.

Louvenia Lipscomb, or Venia as she was often called, was born in Gibson County, Tennessee to Thomas and Martha (Sloane) Lipscomb on July 3 1885.  She grew up as the youngest in a family with 7 children, with 18 years separating the ages of her and her oldest siblings.  It’s very possible that 2 of Venia’s siblings died before she was born.  Venia grew up, and began dating  a nice young man, Arthur Dunnovan.  According to family, this young man treated Venia like a queen.  But in her young, misguided ways, she broke up with him.  And it was a choice she often regretted.

At some point between 1900-1902, Venia’s family moved to Pemiscot county, Missouri. Here, Venia met Jess Warren. It’s my belief that Jess was living with his aunt and uncle in 1900.  These two fell in love (I’m assuming!), but for some reason felt the need to “run away” and get married.   They crossed the Arkansas border and married in Chickasawba, Arkansas. It’s *RIGHT* on the border. This was in July 1902. They would have both been about 16. Jesse may have been 17. They both felt the need to lie about their ages… He claimed to be 21, and she 18. This makes me think the marriage was not approved by her parents for some reason.  I believe Jess was probably the “bad boy”, and that’s what held the allure for Venia, and the disapproval of her parents.  Sometime between 1900-1910, Martha died.  I’m unsure if she was even alive when Venia married Jess.  Perhaps she died beforehand, and Venia’s thoughts and actions were skewed because of the pain.  Perhaps, she was just attracted to the bad boy.  There’s a lot I’m unsure of in those years.

Jess and Venia moved back to MO for a small time, where their first baby, Helen was born. However, they didn’t settle there long.  They moved and settled in Nettleton, AR by 1909. In 1910, Jesse (he’s listed as James H. on the census) Venia had 4 children, but only 2 were living (Helen and Rosebud).  A relative tells me they remember Venia talking about a daughter that had died.  They believe her name was Alberta.  In 1910, Venia’s sister, Martha Donie Lipscomb, and her family also lived in Nettleton.    However, they moved back to Missouri by 1920.

Now, Jess was quite the trouble maker.  He spent his time in and out of the court system for things such as bootlegging, squatting, and vagrancy.  I can just imagine how difficult it was on Venia, trying to raise her children and having the “bad boy” for a husband.  According to family story, Jess left sometime between 1913-1920. In fact, I was told that Jess left right after his youngest child, Jesse, was born.  That would have been 1913-1914.  Story says that Venia went out to the outhouse and when she came back, Jess was gone.  When she asked the children about it, they informed her that he left with the 13 year old girl that was waiting for him on the hill.  However, Jess couldn’t have stayed with the girl too long.  When he had to fill out his WWI draft registration, he was in jail. That was 1918.  He lists Venia as next of kin.   Perhaps he was in jail because of the 13 year old girl.  I haven’t yet gotten the court records, yet, to know anything for sure.

In the 1920 census, Venia is a single mom trying to support her 3 children. She is listed as a “wash woman”. And has 2 “boarders”.. a man named Tom Dotson, and his son Olando. She and Jesse divorced in 1922.  Just a few months later, Venia married Tom Dotson. Guess they fell in love while he was “boarding” there.   I was told by a few people that remembered Tom, or heard of him, that he was a very mean man.    Venia and Tom’s marriage didn’t last, and when she divorced him she took back her Warren name.  She wanted to share the same name as her son.

After Venia and Tom divorced, Venia spent the rest of her life living with her daughter, Helen.  In early 1950s they moved from Arkansas to Ypsilanti, Michigan.  There, she loved on her grandchildren.  I’ve been told my dad was one of her favorites.  But when I ask him about it – he just laughs.  I’ve heard such wonderful things about “Maw”, and what a great grandmother and she was.   I wish I had known her.

Hiram Steffey #52ancestors

Today, we are celebrating the birthday of Hiram Steffey.  Hiram is the brother to my 3rd great grandfather, Boston Steffey.  You can read a little about Boston here and here.  Hopefully at some later date, I’ll have a more thorough bio on Boss up. Hiram was the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Miller) Steffey.  He was born July 2, 1847 in Pennsylvania.  While he was still young, his parents moved to Ohio, then again to Indiana, where they settled.  Hiram was surrounded by family – he was the fifth of 11 children. When fighting broke out, Hiram joined in with the soldiers, and fought for the Union Army during the Civil War.  He was part of Indiana Infantry, 155 company A.  He went back home to Indiana after the war, but didn’t stay long.  Sometime between 1870-1871, Hiram moved to Warren, Missouri.  There he met and married Octavia True. Hiram lived the rest of his life in Missouri.  He was a farmer, and he and Octavia raised 2 children there.  Leona and Carl Rex Steffey.   You can read more detail about Hiram’s life in his grandson’s book.  You can download the book at:

Dale E. Steffey : genealogy and personal history  Steffey, Dale E. (Dale Ethelbert), 1922 This is a picture of Hiram (bottom left) with his brothers.