Shaky Leaves and a Headache

Question? What do you get when you subscribe to Ancestry? (answer above)

I subscribed to Ancestry this year. First time since the turn of the century. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Anyway, a lot has changed there. This leaf/hint thing. I think it was created to make me feel pressure. My original plan was to take a 6 months sub and check to see what they have there for my ancestors. I don't think that this is going to work. I have been working my way through my hints, one at a time, and getting them in my program. It's going to take a while. I still have 4,206 hints to go. My sub is up in July. Do you think I will make it? This is for my small tree. I didn't put the monster up, my huge tree. I did the Genealogy Do-Over and the tree that I work on now is so much smaller. Just over 2000. So, I would have been totally over-whelmed if I had put the old one up.

I find the search to be a little frustrating. Also, I have not been very successful in making contacts. I have only gotten one reply from a message. So far. Still hopeful.

Today when I signed in, my top bar does not list anything. No Trees or anything. I had to go to my profile to get to my tree. Hmmmm. Maybe they will throw me out for having so many hints left to go through. It seems that every time I get a hint taken care of 3 more pop up.

I was really hoping to find something, anything, about Beatrice Brown Beard. I have almost run out of options. I was excited to find her in 10 Family Trees. I went through each one. I found out I have more information about her than any of them. So, back to the drawing board.

I have a lot of work to do. I think it is going to take more than 6 months to do it. What do you think?

Correction: Top bar popped in after an hour or so. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 5

In the Census

Well this won't take long. There is only one census involved. The 1910 U.S. census of Etowah County, Alabama. It really is the only proof I had that she was real. She, is my great-grandmother, Beatrice Brown Beard.

Beatrice Brown Beard

She was born Beatrice Brown, on May 29, 1890 in Alabama. She should be in the 1900 census with her family, but I have not been able to find her. She married Charles Pinkney Beard on August 22, 1907 in Etowah County, at least I think so. I did get a message once saying that they had seen the marriage record in Etowah and on it was her father's note that it was ok to marry, and he was R.F. Brown. The family story is that she had a brother name Robert. 

The 1910 census lists the family as: Pinkney C., Beatrice, and Lee B. Lee B. is actually Bizzie Lee, my grandmother. Beatrice is listed as 18, but she should be about 20. My grandmother is listed 9 months old, which would be correct. This is the only place I saw her listed for many years.

I sent for the marriage and death record at the state level and they did not have it. I need to find out how to get it at the county level, this year. I searched for R.F. Brown and there are a million, just not one with a daughter that is named or even fits Beatrice, and many had a son named Robert. 

Beatrice died on October 1, 1911. She's buried in Morton Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Walnut Grove, Etowah County, Alabama. I want to know why she died so young.

Do you know Beatrice Brown Beard's family?

#52Ancestors #genealogy #census #Beard #Brown

Bizzie Lee [Beard] Brock

This is my grandmother, Bizzie Lee Beard/Brock with 5 of her 7 children. I have often wondered about her name. Bizzie. If you google it, you get only her. In early census records she is listed as Busy L. and Lee B. If she was born with Elizabeth or another eveyday name, she took the secret to her grave. I often heard people address her as Miss Bizzilee, running it all together like one name. My father, Rufus Lee, is the tallest young man in the back. He died in 2006, completely breaking my heart.

Bizzie Lee Beard was born May 28, 1909 in Atalla, Etowah Co., Alabama. She died January 8, 1989 in Seymour, Indiana. She was the daughter of Charles Pinkney Beard and Beatrice Brown, both of Alabama, and she married Rufus Marion Brock. She attended the Calvary Baptist Church all her life. She was a Sunday School Teacher when I was young. Her mother, Beatrice, died when she was a baby.

I remember her getting up every morning and making biscuits from scratch. Melt in your mouth biscuits. I have asked everyone for the recipe and no one was able to achieve them. The how to was never written down. Something lost in time, I am sorry to say.
My dad always said it was hard when his dad died, but he could hardly stand being without his mom.
I have not been able to get a lead on the Browns. Beatrice was born May 29, 1890 and died October 1, 1911. She possibly had a brother or nephew named Robert Brown in Alabama. The story is they moved away from the area. I do know that they were close to my grandma when she was growing up. I have heard that she lived with them for a while after her mother, Beatrice, died.
A story that Grandma told me was about her wedding day. She said that on the day her and my Grandfather wanted to get married they had to go looking for the preacher. They found him at the local filling station. He married them on the back of a buckboard wagon in the pouring rain. She told me this story herself when I was a young woman of about 13 or 14. So I believe it was true.
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