LoGenWriMo #3: A Photo Moment

I'm cheating tonight. I intended to write a sketch of an ancestor--and I hope to catch up on that one later in the month. I spent the day researching in Knoxville, and by the time I got home, it was too late to attempt to compose an entry for today. The sketch was intended to be an update of a post written in 2012 on Ashley Aldridge.

Instead, today's post focuses on a photograph, taken about 1947, which is one of the earliest of my brother Jim with our parents. My first cousin Linda appears to be in the background.

J.T. Thornton, Jim Thornton, Dorothy (Lantz) Thornton, Linda Feuerhelm
Home of I. L. Lantz, Blackcat Bottom, Amory, Mississippi

Memories

Yesterday, one of my friends from high school posted on Facebook that she had the song "Rhinestone Cowboy" stuck in her head. Most of us from that era know how difficult it is to remove that one from "auto-play."

I replied back that now it was stuck in the heads of all her friends except that I was singing a slightly different variation.

My brother's wife died, leaving behind an 18-month old son. For several years, I picked up my nephew from the babysitter's house after school let out and kept him until my brother returned home from work at Walmart, which was often late since he received a promotion to assistant manager and transferred to a store about 45 miles away. I would often play the radio, and sometimes it would be on as we were eating. I can still picture my nephew, sitting in his booster seat singing along with that song. He really only sang one phrase -- the phrase that was repeated often throughout the song and bore the title words. The problem was his vocabulary did not include the word "rhinestone" so he sang what he thought he heard. Yes, that song will forever be etched in my brain as "Macaroni on a Cowboy."

Civil War Weapons

Springfield Model 1842. Photograph provided by "Older Firearms." Flickr Creative Commons (https://www.flickr.com/photos/35513864@N05/3292174456 : accessed 9 Jun 2016). Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Last week my nephew asked a question on my Facebook page about my second great grandfather's military service in the Union Army during the Civil War. A third cousin once removed from the line private messaged me about the post. Her father left her the muzzle loader that was said to belong to James M. Thornton. She knew the gun was manufactured in 1850, but she knew little else about it.

I'm not exactly an expert on firearms, but my nephew knows much more about them. He served with the Army National Guard for two tours of duty in Iraq and is much more interested in them than I am. I put the "fourth cousins" in touch with one another in such a manner that I was copied on the messages.

After what seemed like a live Internet version of Antiques Roadshow, it was concluded that the gun was a Springfield Model 1842 and that it was one of the guns used in the war and issued with a modification that was present on the one in the family. When Union soldiers mustered out, they were given an option of purchasing their weapon. While we cannot guarantee this was the rifle issued to James M. Thornton, it seems likely that it was.

Thou Shalt Not Accept Shaky Leaf Hints Without Reviewing Them

In the last week or so, I began reviewing additional shaky leaf hints at Ancestry for some of my more recent ancestors. I was appalled when I looked at the family trees that included my ancestor James M. Thornton.

Let's look at some of the erroneous information I found.

Erroneous information: James M. was born in Georgia. 

Fact: James M's Civil War (Union) pension file gave his birthplace as Jefferson County, Alabama. Censuses consistently listed James M.'s birthplace as Alabama.

Erroneous information: James M. was in the 1880 Lincoln County, Tennessee census.

Fact: James M. was enumerated in Franklin County, Alabama in 1880. [See 1880 United States Federal Census, Franklin County, Alabama, population schedule, Newburgh, Beat 8, SD 1, ED 95, p. 627B, family 35, lines 9-15, Jas. M. Thornton family; digital image, Family Search (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4JJ-N64 : accessed 23 Apr 2016); citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 13.] Those who accepted the Lincoln County, Tennessee census are likely accepting it because James M.'s first wife's name was Lucinda. However, she died in childbirth in 1855, and their son Cape was reared by his maternal grandparents. The James enumerated in Lincoln County was born in Virginia instead of Alabama.

Erroneous information: James M. Thornton descends from the Dozier/Mark/Luke Thornton line of Virginia. These trees list James M.'s paternal grandparents as William Thornton and Clarissa Vice.
Fact: Y-DNA testing of descendants shows James M. Thornton's descendants are from the South Carolina E group whose common ancestors appear to be Thomas Thornton and Martha Boykin of North Carolina. (Dozier is part of the Virginia A group.)

Other mistakes were also found. For example, one person said he died in the Armory in Splunge, Mississippi. As a native of Monroe County, I got a big chuckle out of that one. Splunge does not and has never had an armory. The person obviously meant the town of Amory which is in that part of the county. However, James M. lived in the community of Splunge which was really a bit of a distance from Amory. Persons living in Splunge would have traveled to Amory when they needed to travel by railroad or when they needed items they could not get in the local community.

I never accept the tree hints. I do, however, review them for hints AFTER I've worked through the hints given and made certain I have all the census records and checked other sources for key pieces that might be missing such as marriage records, birth and death records, cemetery records, etc. I then take any hints I find to see if those can be documented. Most of the time my own research and documentation has already uncovered the hints, or I can easily disregard hints because someone has added something that is very obviously erroneous, such as the parents being born after the child.

Always check shaky leaf record hints also to make sure they apply to your ancestor. Recently I was reviewing shaky leafs on a different line on which I was working. I got 3 hints on this particular person. None of the hints were records for the individual on whom I was working. I searched and found the right records rather than accepting the ones given. In fact, I had to switch from Ancestry to Family Search to give me two critical records proved my own research was on the right track.

My Sanborn Connection

Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy posted about her connection to John Sanborn of New Hampshire. On her Facebook post, she asked if her Facebook friends were descended from John, and my reply was "yes."

I thought it might be fun to include my line from John here. It would take "forever" to write a documented post so I'll leave documentation of the individuals and their parentage for future posts. I have not done extensive work on the Sanborn line, and I did learn the exact location in England where John was born from Heather's post! It's a post I've "pinned" for future reference.

Generation 1.
John Sanborn (son of John Sanborn and Ann Batchelder): born abt 1620 Brimpton, Berkshire, England; died 10 Oct 1692 Hampton, New Hampshire. I'm descended from his first wife Mary Tuck, daughter of Robert Tuck and his wife Joanna.

Generation 2.
Joseph Sanborn: born 13 Mar 1659; married Mary Gove 28 Dec 1682; died abt 1722, Hampton, New Hampshire.

Generation 3.
Abigail Sanborn: born 1 Apr 1686 Hampton, New Hampshire; married Ebenezer Dearborn 7 Oct 1703 Hampton, New Hampshire; died 26 Feb 1768 Hampton, New Hampshire.

Generation 4.
Benjamin Dearborn: born 13 Aug 1713 probably Chester, New Hampshire; married Susanna Colcord 31 Oct 1735; died 15 May 1772 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire. (County was formed in 1771.)

Generation 5.
Samuel Dearborn: born 15 Apr 1745 Chester, New Hampshire; married Abigail Ward, daughter of Rev. Nathan Ward and Tamasin Ireland Ward, 22 Jul 1777 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire; died 22 Jul 1833 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire.

Generation 6.
Nathan Dearborn: born 4 Sep 1785 Plymouth, Grafton County, New Hampshire; married 1 - Sarah Seeley 6 Feb 1812 Washington County, Ohio; married 2 - Lucy Perkins 26 Sep 1813 (probably in New Hampshire - there's a story about their wedding trip by horseback that is widely circulated); died 22 Feb 1847 Malta, Morgan County, Ohio. (I'm descended from Lucy.)

Generation 7.
Betsey Dearborn: born 4 Sep 1818 Malta, Morgan County, Ohio; married Stephen Taylor 8 Mar 1837 Morgan County, Ohio; died 12 Mar 1899 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Territory.

Betsey Dearborn Taylor, abt 1881

Generation 8.
Laura Lucy Taylor: born 25 Apr 1854 McLean County, Illinois; married Abraham Lowden Lantz 15 Feb 1874 McLean County, Illinois; died 25 Sep 1922 Monroe County, Mississippi.

Generation 9.
Irving Lee Lantz: born 19 Nov 1885 Oak Grove, McLean County, Illinois; married Gillie Mae Hester 5 Aug 1917 Monroe County, Mississippi; died 5 Sep 1971 Amory, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Generation 10.
Dorothy Ann Lantz: born 30 Aug 1924 Monroe County, Mississippi; married James Thomas Thornton, Jr. 17 Mar 1946 Amory, Monroe County, Mississippi; died 22 Mar 2010 Amory, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Generation 11.
Me!

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is one of the holidays I remember from childhood. I was always confused because most of my family members still referred to it as Armistice Day.

An armistice was signed November 11, 1918 which put a stop to action in World War I until the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year. The first celebration of Armistice Day was held in 1919. Congress adopted a resolution in 1926 to make it annual, but it did not become a federal holiday until 1938. Its name was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954. (As I pointed out earlier, many in my family still referred to it as Armistice Day more than a decade later.)

In the early 1970s, they tried to observe it the 4th Sunday of October. I lived in Mississippi which continued to observe it on November 11. Many other states followed suit and soon Congress was forced to return the holiday to the day on which the Armistice was signed.

"Pappaw," my paternal grandfather, was a World War I veteran, fighting in France, where he earned a purple heart.

William Terrance “Terry” Thornton (1939-2010)

We have lost a beloved educator, storyteller, and blogger. Terry was my second cousin once removed. His parents were Garfus Sherman Thornton and Letha Doris Hollingsworth Thornton. He was born and grew up in the Parham Community of Monroe County, Mississippi. He has immortalized this area through his blog, “Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi” and through his columns in the Monroe Journal bearing the same title. He graduated from Hatley High School and the University of Mississippi. He served as principal of Amory Middle School at one time and later went on to be a professor at Troy State University in Alabama. He retired to Rinnie, Tennessee, near Crossville. (He always did like those hills.) He later returned to Mississippi to be nearer his family, residing in Fulton in Itawamba County, just north of his beloved Monroe County. Terry’s wife Betty, sons Teb and Jim, and brother Sherman survive him.

Terry was a born storyteller. He loved to relate stories of the family. Several years ago, he started a newsletter for family members called “The Thornton News.” It was sent to all descendants of Richard Thornton and his elusive wife Agnes. [We’ve since determined that Agnes’ surname was Branum or Barnum.] In one of the earlier issues of that newsletter, he related why Monk Thornton had to move to Georgia. It was very entertaining. He also related the story of the “worm” (a moonshining term) that he later shared on his blog. We all looked forward to his contributions.

After the demise of the newsletter, he eventually turned to blogging to share his stories – not just with his own family, but with others as well. His gift of relating a story made his blog a favorite of many. He had a following, not only in the blogging community, but also in the “Hill Country” area. He was asked to share his stories with the readers of the Monroe Journal (a merger of the Amory Advertiser and Aberdeen Examiner). He did so in a biweekly column as long as he was able to continue.

Visitation will be Wednesday, 11 August 2010 from 5-7 p.m. (CDT) at E. E. Pickle Funeral Home in Amory, Mississippi. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, 12 August 2010 at the funeral home with burial in Lann Cemetery following. [Terry shared a photo of his pre-need marker on his blog (complete with a bagpiper).]

Memorial gifts may be made to the Itawamba Historical Society of which he was a member. Address is P.O. Box 7, Mantachie, MS 38855.

His obituary and online guest book for those wishing to express condlences to the family are available here: http://www.legacy.com/funerals/eepicklefuneralhome-amory-smithville/obituary.aspx?n=william-terrance-thornton-terry&pid=144608502.

One more quick memory: Terry loved his catfish from Pickles on the Hill in Amory! He would have to stop there every chance he got!

Quick Update on Terry

William Terrance "Terry" Thornton died last night. E. E. Pickle Funeral Home in Amory, Mississippi is in charge of arrangements. There will be an online guest book for folks to send their condolences to the family. More later.

Pray for Terry

Many people in the genealogy community have appreciated Terry Thornton's Hill Country of Monroe County (and the predecessor). I've been struggling with whether or not to say anything or not, but I feel compelled to ask everyone to add Terry and his family to their prayer list. He's terminally ill and has only a short time to live. Terry & I have a common ancestor in James M. Thornton (1825-1913).

SNGF: Ancestors I Met

Randy has challenged us to name the ancestors we had an opportunity to meet in tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Since I don't want to name living ancestors, I will omit my parents, but that is 2.

The only others I met were my 4 grandparents. That's what I get for being born so long after my brothers!

Paternal Grandparents:

James Thomas "Tom" Thornton (1893-1977). He lived in Monroe County, Mississippi his entire life.

Nona Josiah "Jodie" Fowlkes (1894-1974). She lived in Monroe County, Mississippi her entire life as well. Interesting story of how she got her middle name. Her father died the night before she was born so she was named for him.

Maternal Grandparents:

Irving Lee Lantz (1885-1971). He was born in McLean County, Illinois and moved to Monroe County, Mississippi in late 1896. He actually did not have a "real name" but the family just called him "Mose" or "Moses." Before he moved to Mississippi, he named himself after a traveling salesman who came by his father's dry goods store in Carlock.

Gillie Mae Hester (1893-1993). She lived in Monroe County, Mississippi her entire life. She was a twin, but her twin Lillie Faye died at nine months of age. "Nanny" as all of us grandkids called her had been kicked in the eye by a horse as a child, and there was noticeable damage around her eye area from that childhood injury. She lived a long life, but she didn't quite make it long enough for Willard Scott to recognize her.

So - I met a total of 6 of my ancestors. That's fewer than Randy. My older brothers only met one of their great grandparents, but both were probably too young to remember the encounter as they would have been aged 2 years 5 months and aged 5 months respectively.

I'm glad Randy's genealogy fun was quick and easy tonight because I've got to finish the laundry and get started packing. My presentations for FGS are all finalized. I hope to meet some of you. I'll be the one running around most of the time.

Alabama State Census at Ancestry

I learned that the Alabama State Census was now available for searching at Ancestry.com for the years 1820-1866. I decided that I would search for my ancestor James M. Thornton. I searched for the surname Thornton in Fayette County. All of my hits were from the year 1866 although the collection description states that 1820, 1850, 1855, and 1866 are available. I found James in township 14, range 10 west in Fayette County. There were 2 males under 10 (William Walter and John Sherman) and one male over 20 (James) and 1 female under 10 (Alice) and one over 20 (second wife Nancy). All of the children were from the second marriage. [The source information provided by Ancestry is: Ancestry.com. Alabama State Census, 1820-1866 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Original data: Alabama State Census, 1820, 1850, 1855 and 1866. Montgomery, Alabama: Alabama Department of Archives & History. Rolls M2004.0008-M2004.0012, M2004.0036-M2004.0050, and M2008.0124. His record was on page 5 or image 3 for Fayette County. There was no individual roll number given for the Fayette County images. That's going to make it difficult to cite Mills' style if it cannot be found on the ADAH site.]

I'm going to have to spend a little more time with it to locate the household in which James' son by his first wife was residing. He was reared by his maternal grandparents, Ashley and Celia Aldridge. We know that Ashley was living in 1860 but deceased by 1870. Celia was still living in 1870. I have been unable to locate either of them in the 1866 variation, but if, after browsing the township in which they resided (and it's too late to tackle that job tonight), I don't find Ashley under a misspelled name (and do find Celia), then I can narrow down his date of death a bit more!

Wasn't it nice of Ancestry.com to give me some Saturday night genealogy fun? And that after an afternoon of research at the North Carolina State Library & Archives!

By the way, late this afternoon there was a really horrible storm that popped in and out of downtown Raleigh. It was so quick that if it had not made such a "commotion" that I might not have known it occurred at all. However, I got to watch orange and white construction barriers that were being used to block off a nearby street flying through the air. They didn't fly far -- but they did fly a bit after being lifted off the ground. There was a lot of paper flying high in the air as well. (I'm glad they weren't the copies I made earlier!)

Dear Genea-Santa

I hear that you look a lot like Randy Seaver. If you live in San Diego like he does, you might want to shed that red suit you always wear. It might be a little warm in such a warm climate. You will, however, need it for your trip to East Tennessee if the weather is like today's which included some snow. Our weather seems a little colder than usual, so I just want to make sure that you are prepared for it!

I think this is where I'm supposed to say that I've been a good girl this year. However, since the song says that "he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake," that seems a bit redundant. I'll let you make your own assessment!

Here is my list of 3 wishes for Christmas. I understand that you only grant heirlooms and not clues to genealogy or current things like journal subscriptions. I have arranged them in order of priority for your convenience.

Richard & Agnes Thornton family Bible . I just know that if you'll send this along to me that it will hold the answers to the parentage of both Richard and Agnes among many other important family dates that would have been recorded.

Quilt made by Lucy Perkins Dearborn. I would love to have a quilt made by this 3rd great-grandmother. She's one of my New England ancestors that moved to the Midwest. I think an old quilt would be a wonderful heirloom.

Medical implements that belonged to Elizabeth "Betsy" Murry Mosely. I think it would be interesting to have some mid-19th century medical implements that belonged to my 3rd great-grandmother. There weren't that many females practicing medicine back then, but the family tradition that she practiced medicine is backed up by census records so I want these implements to treasure.

This concludes my wish list for Christmas 2008. I'll skip the part about the snack for Santa. Some would say that you need to go on a diet, but I think you really feed most of those snacks to the reindeer or you'd be gaining far more weight than your pictures reveal.

Sincerely,
Lori

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

When Jasia first announced the topic for this edition’s Carnival of Genealogy, I thought, “that will be easy.” The more I thought about the topic (inviting 4 ancestors for dinner), the more challenging it was to decide which four to invite. As I’ve read all the responses from other bloggers, I’ve realized that a lot of their thoughts are along the same lines as mine . . . “which 4 will be able to get me past that brick wall?” However, I also have some very interesting and colorful characters that I’d just like to ask a few questions.


I think that I’m going to choose Abraham Lantz, my great-great grandfather, as the first ancestor, and we’ll dine at his house because I’ve heard he always insisted on seven courses at each meal. I suspect his wife Laura was an excellent cook, having grown up on a farm in Illinois. I’d like to know what it was like for him when he, being an Amish man, chose to marry Laura, a Methodist woman. I’d like to hear him tell stories of moving around in his childhood, his days as postmaster, his store in Carlock, Illinois, and about his move to Monroe County, Mississippi. I’ve always been intrigued that he moved down with some of his Amish friends when they established the failed settlement at Gibson even though he was no longer one of them. While I realize that his Amish group was one of the more progressive ones of that faith, it just goes against everything you hear about shunning.


Next, I’d like to invite Rev. Stephen Bachiler (or Batchelder). If you don’t know about this colorful character, read a few of these articles at Lane Memorial Library in Hampton, New Hampshire. You will immediately know that our conversation will not be lacking that evening. I want to know all about his struggles with the church, about his time in Holland, about his trip to America, about his troubles in Lynn (and elsewhere) and his establishing the church in Hampton, about his return to England, and, for lack of a better way to state this, about his women, especially his third wife who appears to have been the inspiration for The Scarlet Letter. I’d also like to know whether or not he married the woman in England that Mary (wife #3) claimed he had.


As much as I’d like to invite a few of my other colonial New England ancestors who all have such fascinating stories, I think I’ll head south and pick up a few “loose ends” for the rest of my dinner party. My next dining companion will be Gabriel Fowlkes, the immigrant. He is supposed to have been born in Wales about 1696. However, no one can find a record over there, so I want to know if he was born in Wales or not, and where it was. I’d also like to hear why he chose to migrate to Virginia. I’d like to know about his life in the British Isles and then about his trip to America. I’d like for him to tell me what he knows about his family history.


My final invitation is issued to Richard Thornton. I know that will make my cousin Terry very happy! I want to know the exact date (instead of my present range of 1790-1795) for when he was born and exactly where he was born, who his parents were, what he knows about his family’s history, his moves, and why his family liked to hide from record takers or burn courthouses so much! I want him to tell me all about his wife Agnes and her family. There seems to be a gap between the date for their marriage and the first known child so I’d like to know if I’m missing some of his kids and who they are. I’d like to have him talk about all his children and what they were like growing up, especially his sons who died in the Civil War. I’d like to ask him if he’s related to the David Thornton in Fayette County, Alabama and if so, how.

My Version - Greatest Genealogical Find

Craig Manson has challenged geneabloggers to follow his lead in naming their greatest genealogical find. For my greatest find, it would be what I discovered when I ordered the mother's pension file described in this August post and in subsequent research Georgia records. It didn't get me much further back, but it had taken me so many years to find a record which gave her maiden name that I was thrilled to find that much. I discovered that I haven't blogged my subsequent research on that line so I've got to do that one day soon. I will state that most of the research focuses on researching two families with similar names in the county to determine from which Agnes was descended. One was wealthier; that's not her family. I concluded that her surname was probably Branham or Branum rather than Barnum.

I Resolve Not to Resolve

I am not a fan of New Year's Resolutions. Most of them are broken in the first week or so. I do sometimes set goals, but I learned a long time ago that my genealogy goals are long-term rather than short-term, and I've had so many unexpected obstacles that I'm even hesitant to make anything a one-year goal.

What did I accomplish last year? I uncovered Agnes Thornton's maiden name. That had been a dead-end for awhile. I've also found a marriage location for Richard Thornton to Agnes through this. I have a "date" the marriage is said to have occurred; however, I still need a better source for this date. I'm not stupid enough to think I'll find that source in one year when it took several years to find Agnes' maiden name! This family liked to burn courthouses to cover up their history (or at least it seems that way).

I indexed over 9000 10,000 records for FamilySearchIndexing.org. I'd hoped to do at least 10,000, but family health issues and the busyness of the holidays has kept me from doing as much the last couple of months as I'd wanted to do. I reached this "goal" on December 31.

I've made some progress in entering a backlog of previous research into my database; however, I keep adding to the pile! LOL Actually, I'm doing pretty good at keeping up with information on the lines I'm trying to focus on (my New England maternal lines); however, I have information collected on lines which are not my current research focus (primarily the Thornton line) that have some "backlog" building up. I actually accumulated a lot of the research myself because of contact with some of the lines with whom my brother's DNA matched. Most of what I collected was research in the county in which I work because a line that had lived in that county matched. Some of it was accumulated by a cousin who lives closer to where one of these lines settled. I'm less concerned with getting the North Carolina line that matched into the database because the individual who researched it was a historian who documented what he did and he sent me his self-published book on his research. It's not that I'm not interested in researching these lines -- I've just got to prepare for my New England trip, and getting those lines in the best shape possible will help me be more focused and productive when I get there.

I've made significant progress on many of my New England lines. This has largely been because of Google Books. I take what I find and search for more or note resources that I need to examine when I go to New England.

This brings me to my biggest genealogical plan for 2008. I have a library conference in Boston in June. It is my intention to go to Boston one week early and stay an extra day and a half (or maybe even two days) so that I'm in the area for at least two weeks. During the extra days, I want to do research at NEHGS and other repositories and visit some of the places my ancestors lived. I'd also like to do a few touristy things. I know that I don't have time to visit all the places my ancestors lived. (I plan to save Block Island for a separate trip.) I really want to make at least a day trip to Hampton, New Hampshire. I'd also like to go to the present town of Essex, Massachusetts which used to be Ipswich's Chebacco Parish. I've got several other places I want to be a tourist, some of which also figure into my family's heritage. I haven't worked out all my weekends yet. One of the reasons is because I know that the conference will be organizing some pre-conference and post-conference tours. If some of my destinations are on their list, I may go with a group of my friends instead of doing it alone.

I'm not going to plan any further than that because I know I'll be preparing for a couple of future conferences which may consume some of my normal research time; however, I know that I'll sneak some research in! I always manage somehow.

This article is submitted for the 39th Carnival of Genealogy hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.

Update (12/31): I thought of one more thing I researched last year. A new index to was available which allowed me to know some of the names in some of the probate files at the Monroe County, Mississippi Chancery Clerk's office. I spotted my elusive "W. D. Phillips" on some of the records. I was hoping that some of them would give me some insight into his father. What I discovered, however, after copying a rather huge file was that the file that would have given me the greatest insight into his identity was not him but another W.D. who apparently also lived in the area. The files pertaining to the estate of John E. Fowlkes were, of course, the correct W.D. because he is mentioned as the husband of John E.'s daughter Mary Elizabeth. My W.D. is William David Phillips. The W.D. in chancery case 3195 is William Dennis and was married to a P.J. and is younger than my W.D. There is also a David (or D.M.) Phillips in the county who appears in the Harmony Church records and appears to have married a Sallie from the tombstones in the Hatley Cemetery. There are two Sarah Phillips mentioned in the Harmony Church records. There is a female M.E. Phillips in the Harmony Church records who could be my Mary Elizabeth Fowlkes Phillips. I need to go to Jackson and get his Civil War file to see if it yields any clue to his identity. He just kind of "appears" in Monroe County in the 1860 Monroe County census residing in the household of his future father-in-law. I've seen him in records as late as 1866 or 1867 - and then he kind of disappears. I can't find him, Mary Elizabeth or daughter Jennie (aka Lucinda Virginia) in the 1870 census unless they are the W.H. and Mary listed as a couple without any children mentioned. (In the 1880 census, there is a W.H. the same age who is married to a Martha, slightly older.) Since Jennie was born in 1865, you wonder where she is if that is them. Jennie is enumerated in the George Tubb household in 1880.

Happy 120th Anniversary!

. . . to my great grandparents, Cape and Bennie Thornton.

Andrew Capus Thornton was born 4 Sep 1855 near Vernon, Fayette County, Alabama. (Vernon is now in Lamar County.) His parents were James M. Thornton and Lucinda Aldridge. His mother died at the time of or very soon after his birth, and he was reared by his maternal grandparents Ashley and Celia Aldridge.

Berniece Estelle Duke was born in July 1868 in or near Cotton Gin Port, Monroe County, Mississippi. Her parents were Thomas Duke and Nancy Malinda Allred.

Cape and Bennie were married 10 November 1887. It was Cape's third marriage although he had no children by his previous wives. The couple settled in Becker, Mississippi. They had twelve children. The house pictured below is the "old home place" shown shortly before it was demolished.

While the couple only lived to celebrate 47 years together, today marks the 120th anniversary of their marriage!