A New Tool - One Tiny Step.

 This is a post from my new blog on WordPress. I am moving. Here is a link to the post there. 

 

I tried FamilySearch Full Text Search for the first time. I really wasn't sure it could help me, or with what. I've been looking and listening to video and print articles about AI, not at all sure I wanted to even try to do anything with it. The Full Text Search seemed safe to start with. I am glad I tried!

I have been looking for the marriage record for Charles Pinkney Beard and Beatrice Brown for so long. Years ago someone replied to me on a message board that they had been in Etowah County, Alabama looking for something and ran across this document. All they could remember was that the note attached was signed by her father who was R. F. Brown. That was all I knew about her family. 
The note:
Judge J. W. Penn - Judge of probate.
You are hereby authorized and permitted to issue marriage license for the marriage of my daughter Beatrice to C. P.  Beard. My daughter is between sixteen and seventeen years of age - under the legal age - but any consent to the marriage is hereby given and you are authorized to issue the license there for - This Aug. 24-1907
attest E.G. Hanner[?]
           L.E. Harris[?]
Attalla Ala
Aug. 24-1907                                    R. F. Brown

There are two names I am having trouble with. They use initials so often in the south, it drives me nuts. Someone wrote the note for her father, but that would most likely be his signature.

Charles and Beatrice were married at the residence of Judge J.W. Penn. 

Beatrice gave birth to my grandmother, Bizzie Lee in 1909, and she died on October 1, 1911. There simply isn't a lot of information about the Brown family. Charles married again and had several children.

So, I have been looking for an R.F. Brown for years to no avail. My only other information about the family came from family. They have said the Brown family moved from Georgia to Alabama, and after Beatrice died they moved to St. Clair County, Alabama. There was a son named Robert or that was her fathers name, which is not very helpful. I did learn something though. Her mother, I hope, went with her and is listed as P.L. Brown. Again with the initials!  So it seems I am looking for a R. F. Brown married to a P. It's really sad that P is so big to me!

Now, if only I could find her death certificate. :(

I tried FamilySearch Full Text Search for the first time. I really wasn't sure it could help me, or with what. I've been looking and listening to video and print articles about AI, not at all sure I wanted to even try to do anything with it. The Full Text Search seemed safe to start with. I am glad I tried!

I have been looking for the marriage record for Charles Pinkney Beard and Beatrice Brown for so long. Years ago someone replied to me on a message board that they had been in Etowah County, Alabama looking for something and ran across this document. All they could remember was that the note attached was signed by her father who was R. F. Brown. That was all I knew about her family. 

The note:

Judge J. W. Penn - Judge of probate.
You are hereby authorized and permitted to issue marriage license for the marriage of my daughter Beatrice to C. P.  Beard. My daughter is between sixteen and seventeen years of age - under the legal age - but any consent to the marriage is hereby given and you are authorized to issue the license there for - This Aug. 24-1907
attest E.G. Hanner[?]
           L.E. Harris[?]
Attalla Ala
Aug. 24-1907                                    R. F. Brown

There are two names I am having trouble with. They use initials so often in the south, it drives me nuts. Someone wrote the note for her father, but that would most likely be his signature.

Charles and Beatrice were married at the residence of Judge J.W. Penn. 

Beatrice gave birth to my grandmother, Bizzie Lee in 1909, and she died on October 1, 1911. There simply isn't a lot of information about the Brown family. Charles married again and had several children.

So, I have been looking for an R.F. Brown for years to no avail. My only other information about the family came from family. They have said the Brown family moved from Georgia to Alabama, and after Beatrice died they moved to St. Clair County, Alabama. There was a son named Robert or that was her fathers name, which is not very helpful. I did learn something though. Her mother, I hope, went with her and is listed as P.L. Brown. Again with the initials!  So it seems I am looking for a R. F. Brown married to a P. It's really sad that P is so big to me!

Now, if only I could find her death certificate. :(

The Five Wives of James C. Bohall

 I've been adding source material to the Bohall line in my tree. I love this line of my family. They are fascinating, full of great people, sad people, people that are strong and caring, criminals, strange people and people of joy and tragedy. You know, normal life stuff. Being in a rural type of area their lives end up in the newspapers. For me, this is great. 

I found an article about the death of Malinda Bohall that was interesting. She was born Malinda Hart. Now, on Find-A-Grave and FamilySearch she is listed as Malinda Hedrick.  This is simply not true. Mary Jane Hedrick married James Seth Bohall, and that is the only Hedrick in the Bohall family. Since she married a James Bohall, I feel like that is where it all went wrong for the other family researcher. I have attempted to "fix" profiles on FamilySearch before, which were so much worse than this one, only to have my "fix" that I added with sources to prove it, undone by the same researcher. I may give it a try on Find-A-Grave, but judging by the comments on the page it has been attempted before.  This wrong information is cloning itself as I write this. Over and over again. Researching over 40 years you would think I would not feel so frustrated about this, but I do. I will be calm.

On August 16, 1856 Malinda married Frederick Miller, born September 25, 1804 and died on December 31, 1862. On November 23, 1864 she married James C. Bohall in Jackson County, Indiana. Malinda was born in 1823 and died on April 9, 1881 in Jackson County. Her cause of death is here in the article:

Death of Mrs. Malinda Bohall.

Mrs. Malinda Bohall, wife of James Bohall, of this place, died on Saturday last under circumstances which should serve as a fearful warning to people against carelessness in the administration of medicines. Mrs. Bohall had been suffering from an attack of pneumonia, combined with neuralgic pains. She was in great agony on the Sunday preceding her death, and among the prescriptions was one containing chloral. The instructions of her physician were explicit, but either through carelessness of the nurse or ignorance of the danger attending the medicine when given excessively, the chloral was administered too frequently, the result of which was that she was thrown into convulsions, while her whole body assumed a dark purplish hue. But for the speedy arrival of her physician, Dr. Stilwell, she undoubtedly would have died at the time. She remained in critical condition through the week until Saturday, at 11 o'clock a.m., when her spirit took its flight for the summer land. Indirectly, at least, the chloral was the cause of her death, aided somewhat by the other ailments with which she was afflicted. She was about 58 years of age. Formerly she was the wife of Frederick Miller, a well-known citizen of this vicinity, who died nearly 20 years ago. some years after his demise she was united in marriage to James Bohall, who survives her. She has three children by her former husband living, namely, Mrs. David H. Lubker, Mrs. Solomon Perrin, and Cyrus L. Miller. The funeral took place on Sunday afternoon and was largely attended. An appropriate discourse was preached by Elder Washington Hogg, after which the remains were deposited in the Burrell burying ground, below town, where her former husband was buried.

Poor James. He was a widower 3 times before he married Malinda. She was wife 4 of 5.  He waited until January 31, 1882 to marry his 5th and final wife, Emily Cornett. She had been married to a William Goble until his death in 1858. James died in 1886. So Emily outlived him. She died in 1903. 

I'm going to he** for the place my brain went when I read the article. But, really??! How could you not wonder? Maybe James was just unlucky in marriage? Indiana did not require death certificates until 1907, though some counties did issue them around 1882. My only hope in finding out how the other wives expired, is finding an article in the newspapers.  So far, my luck equals James, I haven't found anything.

For the record, wife one; Perlina J. Hobbs, married 1841, wife two; Amanda Garrett, married 1857, wife three; Eliza Jane Newby, married 1860, wife four; Malinda Hart Miller, married 1864, wife five; Emily M. Cornett Goble, married 1882.

Sources:

Article: Jackson County Banner; Brownstown, Indiana; Thursday, April 14, 1881; Page 4.See original newspaper clip here at my GooglePhotos:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/t9tdd23nHFUMqrr38

"Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZQT-64M), Entry for James Bohall and Pelina J Hobbs, 22 Oct 1841.

"Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZQR-FRM), Entry for James Bohall and Amanda Garr*Tt, 29 Oct 1857.

"Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZQR-X95), Entry for James Boholl and Eliza Jane Newby, 20 Nov 1860.

"Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZQY-867), Entry for Frederick Miller and Malinda Hart, 16 Aug 1856.

"Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZQB-Q5W), Entry for James Bohall and Malinda Miller, 23 Nov 1864.

"Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZQB-HY3), Entry for James Bohall and Emily Goble, 31 Jan 1882.

Anna Clara Alexander Part 1

A Productive Weekend!

This past weekend I had a lot of success on several fronts! The one I am going to talk about today is my grandmothers favorite aunt, Annie Alexander. She was reported to be very sweet and funny. I did not know her middle name until this weekend. She was actually Anna Clara Alexander.

I knew she had been married more than once, I knew that. I thought she married a Lane and when he died, a man named Fish  I found that she was married 4 times! Surprise! This was a really big surprise to me. I have checked and rechecked her birth date with every source I can find and the outcome of that is horrible to me. If her birth date is truly March 12, 1879, which every source except a census says, she was first married at 12. Even my program screams at that one. This kind of thing makes me crazy.

Husband number one was David Lane, who was 20 when he married Anna. He and Anna married on December 12, 1891. He died November 4, 1920. He left 6 children and widow. But all is not as it seems.

I can't find one of the six children. Perhaps that one I can't find was a second marriage on his part?

Husband number 2 was James A. Wright. I had heard of husband number one and three. Not this guy. I have little on him so far. But he and Anna married on the 11th of April, 1905. You know what that means? She was divorced from David Lane. What?

Number 3 was Ryan Fish. I knew that she was married to him. They married in 1921. My grandmother always called her Anna Fish. Simple, right? Not so much. Very confusing actually. I don't know when Mr. Fish died. I must find that date.

Husband number 4 was Alonzo Borders, also known as Lon. They married on August 28, 1947. Anna was 68 when married this time. Sad fact about this is it didn't last long. Alonzo died in 1953 in Indianapolis. He listed Anna as his wife, who died 2 years previously.

Now, Anna died at her daughter Fern's house in Indianapolis in 1950. Mr. Borders died in Pike Nursing Home in Indianapolis in 1953. Her obit says her survivors are her children (5), and Lon Borders. They both listed their home address as rural Jackson County, Indiana. Anna was 70 when she died and Lon Borders was 75. They had went to live with Fern, Anna's daughter, in their last years.

I'll flesh these people out more and write the story with sources then. I even have a photo of her I will add then. What a surprise this has been! And another reminder that what we call pedophilia now, they simply thought of as normal. I hate this. But I keep running onto it.