A Handful of Beards

 My thoughts have been with the Beard and Bearden families of late. I've gone through years of newspapers, and still they hide. Finding little stories or bits about social life helps to flesh them out. These families are escaping me. 

I wrote last about Charlie Beard. His wife was Nancy Elizabeth Bearden, born March 12, 1865 in Bennettsville Alabama. She was the 10th child of Roland Bearden and Lucinda White. She died in 1944. My grandmother, Bizzie Lee Beard Brock, told me she had spent a great deal of time with Nancy after the death of her mother, Beatrice Brown Beard, my biggest brick wall. She did not tell me much about Nancy on a personal level. 

My grandmother was the only child of Charles Pinkney Beard and Beatrice Brown. Beatrice died in 1911 when my grandmother was barely 2 years old. In the 1910 census in Etowah County, Alabama, Beatrice was 18, my grandmother was listed as Lee B and 9 months old. In the 1920 census, same place, Pink is married to Myrtle Fanchier. The census lists my grandmother as Busylee. I have always, even as a child, wondered where on earth that name came from. Is it really Bizzie Lee? I know she was called Bizzie Lee by everyone. Where did it come from?

My father was Bizzie Lee's oldest child. He said to me long after her death, that losing his father was bad, but when he lost her something inside him broke. I should be happy they can be together now, but I miss them both so much. I know what dad meant by something inside being broke. Losing him was that for me. Time does not dull the pain of loss.

Well, now I want to go cry. This post got away from me. 

Oh yes, just in case, Beatrice Brown was born May 29, 1890. I only know her father was R. F. Brown.  She died October 1, 1911.  

Beatrice Brown and Charles Beard, (22 August 1907), Alabama Marriage: 318; FamilySearch, , Alabama.

1910 US Census, 1910 US Census, (Cox, Etowah County, Alabama); Page: 12 Dwelling 37 Family 37, T624, no. 13, HeritageQuest.

"Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JK3C-LX5 : 27 November 2014), Charlie Beard in entry for Nancy Elizabeth Beard, 28 Sep 1944; citing reference cn 19204, Department of Health, Montgomery; FHL microfilm 1,908,788.

Charles P. Beard - Myrtle Haynie marriage, (12 June 1914), Book S - Alabama Marriages: 504; FamilySearch, , Alabama., 504.

1920 U.S. Census, 1920 U.S. Census, (Cox, Etowah County, Alabama); Page: 80 Dwelling 302 Family 305, T625, T625, NARA, Heritage Quest.