175 years ago today . . . on the 23rd day of March in the year 1843 . . . the following news clipping appeared in a Louisiana newspaper . . .
One of the passengers on "the French brig Amanda" was Alexander Lemaire, who is a 3rd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . the Amanda was never heard from again after leaving Bermuda . . .
P.S. Please do contact me if you happen across a passenger list for this ship. benotforgot at gmail dot com
On Easter Sunday in the year 1931, our Grandma Elizabeth was at Goldfish Pond with her baby boy . . . a baby girl would join the family the following January . . . that baby girl grew up to be our Mom . . .
On that long ago Sunday, Elizabeth captured the above snapshot of one of the goldfish, saying that it was "partly out of the pond after a piece of popcorn" . . . this Goldfish Pond was apparently a favorite place for an outing for this little family . . . a few years later the following snapshot was taken . . .
This is our Mom and her brother, sitting on the edge of Goldfish Pond . . . this would have been mid-1930s . . . mayhaps on another Easter Sunday . . .
More than three hundred years before the above images were captured on film, that little body of water was known by another name . . . Ingalls Pond . . .
Near this pond was the home of Edmund Ingalls, one of the founders of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts . . . this pond can be seen on the following map . . . towards the right . . . and in the bottom third of the image . . .
On an unspecified day in the month of March in the year 1648 . . . Edmund Ingalls would meet a watery death when the horse he was riding fell through a faulty bridge while crossing the Saugus River on a journey to Boston from his home near Ingalls Pond . . . this Boston Street crossing can be seen in the bottom third of the above map . . . to the far left . . .
This Edmund Ingalls is said to be the 5th great-grandpa of President James Garfield . . . he is the 7th great-grandpa of American author, Laura Ingalls Wilder . . . and as a result of on-going research regarding the ancestors of our Mom, just this past week this same Edmund Ingalls was revealed to be the 10th great-grandpa of the Mom of the Keeper of this family history blog . . .
Other blogposts regarding the same Edmund Ingalls . . .
Today (16 March 2011) marks the 3rd anniversary of the day I started blogging here on blogger as benotforgot . . . two years ago, on my 2nd blogiversary, I wrote about some of my blog firsts in THIS post . . . but . . . if you go by the following definition of a blog, I guess you could say I've been blogging since 1999 . . .
blog - website that allows users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal while readers may comment on posts. . . . Entries typically appear in reverse chronological order.
1999 is the year I started setting up various free surname-specific sites at myfamily . com* . . . and I was basically doing there exactly what I do now . . . when myfamily . com* started charging for their sites a few years later, most of my individual blogs were allowed to sort of fade away . . . sponsors did step forward for a few of those sites . . . and the links below show which of my surname-specific blogs at myfamily . com* are still [as of 2011] alive and well . . . [*myfamily . com is defunct as of 2014]
- rockdale . myfamily . com
27 April 1999
posted 1st news item
- robertsgill . myfamily . com
15 June 1999
posted 1st news item
- nettleswest . myfamily . com
26 June 1999
posted 1st news item
- usmississippians . myfamily . com
28 June 1999
posted 1st news item
- benotforgot . myfamily . com
04 January 2000
posted 1st news item
- rhs1970 . myfamily . com
30 July 2000
posted 1st history item
- journal . myfamily . com
08 January 2001
posted 1st news item
- gonetotexas . myfamily . com
11 September 2001
posted 1st news item
- bencoracing . proboards . com
August 2003 is when I started "blogging" at proboards to keep track of my late husband's racing results [retired]
- benotforgot . proboards . com
January 2004 [retired]
- gonetotexas.proboards.com
October 2004 is when I set up a proboards site for the purpose of posting about my genealogy on a site that was NOT password-protected . . .
- benotforgot.blogspot.com
aka benotforgot.com
16 March 2008 is when I started posting on this blog about some of my ancestors . . .
- benotforgot-calendar.blogspot.com
14 March 2009
- rockdale-myhometown.blogspot.com
24 April 2009
- benotforgot-journal.blogspot.com
16 January 2010
- benotforgot-photos.blogspot.com
07 January 2011
So . . . while I've only been here on blogger for four years now . . . by the definition given above, I've actually been blogging for 13 years . . . with no plans to stop any time soon . . . e-y'all later . . . Vickie E. . . .
Seventy-five years ago today . . . on this date in Texas history . . . the 2nd day of March . . . in the year 1936 . . . celebrations are being held across the state in honor of the 100th anniversary of Texas Independence.
My Mom . . . the daughter of a long line of Texans on her father's side, and an even longer line of Mainers on her mother's side . . . was four years old . . . and living in Massachusetts with her widowed father and maternal grandma . . . her paternal grandparents were living in Runnels County, Texas . . . she had no living great-grandparents . . . Mom would take up permanent residence in Texas sometime before 1940.
My father . . . whose ancestors had started arriving in Texas ca. 1860 . . . was an eight-year-old living in Lee County, Texas . . . with his parents and one sister and a brand-new baby brother . . . his widowed maternal grandma and his paternal grandparents were living in the same area, as well as one great-grandma . . . a great-grandpa was living in Coke County, Texas at the time . . .
FYI . . . the background image is a free blogger template . . . the Centennial banner is scanned from a 1936 Centennial newsletter in my private collection . . . the postage stamps were issued in 1936 (Centennial) and 1945 (statehood) . . . the postcard caption for the lighted night scene says . . . The lagoon and fountain at night, Texas Centennial Exposition, Dallas . . . the back of the same card says . . . The Lagoon and Fountain at Night, all artificially built, with its ever-changing colors and reflections, shows what can be accomplished by mere man with just a little effort. . . . the card was printed by the Dallas Post Card Co., Dallas, Texas . . .
On this date in our extended family history . . . the 18th day of March . . . in the year 1841 . . . Felix Grundy Roberts (1818-1901) visits in the home of Nicholas Adolphus Sterne (ca. 1801 - 1852) in Nacogdoches, Texas . . . this Felix is the younger brother of our Mahala Lee Sharp Hall nee Roberts (1816-1885) . . . who is a 3rd great-grandma of the Keeper of this family history blog . . .
Thursday the 18th March [1841] very fine weather saw Mr J. S. Roberts, nothing new from Galvezton many goods no monay to pay for them ! confirms the report of the total wreck of the San Jacinto, saw Mr True, who went to Douglass on Business, returned in the Evening, heard from the Comrs who are dividing the Loco Land, intend to finish the Survey to day, (if it is so, ails right) Felix Grundy Roberts a Son of Elisha Roberts stopped with me this Evening, he is returning from the Trinity, knew him as a little Boy— Major George A. Nixon in Town to day with Mr Tom Garner, tried to get a negro, who Nixon claims as his own, but who has been for the last year in possession of J. S. Mayfield Esqr negro run away Garner after him but no go— no Catch em—
From September 28, 1840, to November 18, 1851, Nicholas Adolphus Sterne kept a diary of his daily activities, which is a valuable source of information on the period of the republic . . . the names of some of our kith 'n kin are scattered through these pages . . . see Volume 031, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online . . .
FYI . . . each link opens in a new window
On this date in our family history . . . the 16th day of March . . . in the year 1559 . . . Sir Anthony St. Leger dies . . . and on the same date . . . in the year 1583 . . . Daniel Horsmanden is baptized in England . . . and on the same date . . . in the year 1655 . . . Nathaniel Merrill dies in Essex County, Massachusetts . . . each of these gentlemen is currently believed to be a great-grandpa of the Keeper of this family history blog . . . and each of them individually was featured in a separate blogpost on the 16th day of March . . . in the year 2008 . . . the day this blog went live . . . most of the blogposts from the first year consisted of excerpts from various publications available for viewing online at Google Books . . . which were posted on the anniversaries of a variety of significant dates in the lives of our kith 'n kin . . .
- Almost exactly one year later . . . on the 10th day of March . . . in the year 2009 . . . They Were There for Each Other was compiled and posted as my very first entry for footnoteMaven's Smile for the Camera . . .
- A few days later . . . on the 13th day of March 2009 . . . Ripples in the Pool of Life became my Tribute to Women for my first entry in Jasia's Carnival of Genealogy . . .
- After almost one year of blogging here at benotforgot . . . on the 14th day of March 2009 . . . I decided to set up another blog . . . benotforgot-calendar.blogspot.com . . . where I began posting a daily listing of all of the births (deceased only) and deaths and wedding anniversaries of all of the people hanging out in my family tree . . .
- On the 16th day of March 2009 . . . the 1st blogiversary of benotforgot . . . I blogged about my first year of blogging . . .
- On the 18th day of March 2009 . . . a very young version of my Uncle Bob . . . running on the beach in Lynn, Massachusetts . . . was highlighted in my very first Wordless Wednesday post . . .
- On the 24th day of March 2009 . . . Texas wildflowers in a country cemetery were featured in my very first Tombstone Tuesday post . . .
- On the 18th day of April 2009 . . . I ventured into the world of Randy Seaver's weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with a quickly composed poem entitled Begotten & Never Forgotten . . . as it turns out, Randy is a distant cousin . . . Randy's 8th great-grandparents, Aquila Chase and Anne Wheeler, are also my 10th great-grandparents . . . and they are the 7th great-grandparents of the poet, e.e. Cummings . . . and the 6th great-grandparents of 1st Lady, Mrs. Grover (Frances) Cleveland . . .
- On the 24th day of April 2009 . . . I posted my first entry for Marie Reed's Postcard Friendship Friday . . .
- And then on the 20th day of May 2009 I composed an entry for the very first Postcard Festival . . . hosted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault at her Canadian Family blog . . .
- On the 5th day of November 2009 . . . the premier issue of Shades the Magazine hit the digital stands . . . artfully conceived and compiled by the infamous footnoteMaven . . . and included was my very first Captured Moments column . . .
- On the 16th day of January . . . in the year 2010 . . . another benotforgot blog went live . . . benotforgot-journal.blogspot.com . . . highlighting the daily entries from a 150 year old journal that talks for almost seven years about an assortment of the kith 'n kin from our family tree . . .
- On the 17th day of January 2010 . . . I made my first Sentimetal Sunday post . . . about Missing My Dad . . .
- On the 22nd day of February 2010 . . . I was humbled and honored when notified that benotforgot had made the final cut for Family Tree Magazine's Top 40 Genealogy Blogs . . .
- On the 12th day of March 2010 . . . I submitted my entry for the very first Carnival of African American Genealogy . . . and . . .
- Also on the 12th day of March 2010 . . . I drove to Austin and my Mom and our cousin, Grace, and myself spent several hours with the real live original of the Journal (referenced on the 16th of January) at the Center for American History . . . and then we sat outdoors under the trees at Central Market . . . and we dined on apricot chicken salad sandwiches with a pile of fresh fruit on the side . . . and we drank peach mint tea . . . and we people-watched . . . and listened to the birds . . . and we chatted . . . and I made the comment that, "If I didn't have all these ancestors, I wouldn't have anything to blog about." . . . and Mom quipped right back with, "If you didn't have all these ancestors, you wouldn't be here!" . . . cute, Mom!!!
Soooo . . . that's a blog in March of 2008 . . . and another blog in March of 2009 . . . and yet another blog in January of 2010 . . . wonder what else I can blog about?
2011 update . . . FYI . . . I did indeed find something else to blog about . . . started a photo-a-day blog in January of this year . . . with the first post appearing on the 7th day of January 2011 . . .
Oh yeah . . . I'm also now blogging about the history of the small town near Austin, Texas where I grew up . . . and where assorted kith 'n kin have resided since before Rockdale actually became Rockdale in 1874 . . .
See also . . . Blogging since 1999 . . .
FYI . . . if you are unable to view Shades of the Departed while using Firefox (as is the case for the Keeper of this family history blog), please try viewing this page in Chrome . . .
Below you will find the Captured Moments column from the March 2010 issue of Shades the Magazine . . . celebratiing those women in our trees who . . . like my Aunt Laura . . . left this earth with no descendants of their own to remember their names . . .
because we care, because we can,
because we live, we speak their names . . .
One hundred fifty years ago yesterday . . . on Monday, the 12th day of March . . . in the year 1860 . . . James Madison Hall (1819-1866) penned the following words in his daily journal . . .
To day I purchased in Crockett 2 hoes, 1 rake and some other articles which I sent home by Dick. In the evening I purchased my bay horse Mustapha at public out cry on a 12 months credit for the sum of $124.75 for which I executed my note with W.A. STEWART as my security payable to S.A. MILLER who sold the horse. At home still planting corn, with 2 plows running. I also gave my note to Isaac ADAIR for the sum of $120 for costs in sundry cases. Weather clear and pleasant.
. . . and yesterday morning . . . before hitting the road for a three-hour drive to Austin, Texas . . . I typed the above words and made a new blog post at The Journal . . . where I plan to continue posting on a daily basis (for the next seven years!) each and every one of the 150-year-old entries made by J.M. Hall during the entire time period from the 16th of January 1860 until two days before he died on the 12th day of September 1866.
Nothing especially significant about that journal entry . . . except for the fact that it was written exactly 150 years . . . to the day . . . before I first laid eyes . . . and hands . . . on the actual 150-year-old pages of that Journal . . . and held in my hands tax receipts from the 1840s that were written to my 3rd great-grandma, Mahala . . . that means that my hands were touching papers that were once touched by her hands . . .
My trip to Austin yesterday was an unplanned one . . . until I received a private message on Facebook Thursday night . . . from cousin Grace who was letting me know that she was in Austin . . . and planned a Friday visit to the Center for American History . . . for the express purpose of spending some quality time with the original of the James Madison Hall Journal!
I responded with an I wish I could be there with you . . . promptly followed by I'll probably see you in the morning! I sent her my phone number, and got her phone number, and called my Mom and told her I planned to be in Austin on Friday . . . and proceeded to stay awake all night long 'cause I was so excited about the pending trip (shh, Mom doesn't know I drove all the way to Austin and back after not sleeping all night!).
Cousin Grace is actually a half 3rd cousin once removed. We both descend from Mahala Lee Sharp Hall nee Roberts (1816-1885) . . . me from Mahala's first marriage to the mysterious John M. Sharp . . . and Grace from Mahala's second marriage to Col. Joshua James Hall.
Mom met me in Round Rock, and then we stopped by Grace's hotel to meet her for the very first time (and felt like we had known each other forever) . . . and off we went to find the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History on the campus of the University of Texas.
Grace had called ahead to talk to the staff about what we were wanting to look at. Once inside, all three of us had to show a photo ID and fill out their required paperwork. We also had to fill out separate request slips for each box we wanted to see. We also were given a paper that had to be taken back out to the parking lot for display on the dashboard . . . something about it being the ONLY free parking lot in the area . . .
Lockers were available for anything we had with us that is NOT allowed in the Reading Room, e.g., purses, cameras, notepads and writing instruments . . . AND BASEBALL CAPS (and yes, I was wearing one . . . it was very windy in Austin yesterday . . . and no, I was not allowed to wear it in to the reading room!). They do provide their own paper and #2 pencils for taking notes.
They had multiple smaller tables, and one really big table, but if we all sat at it, we were only allowed one box at a time . . . one box per table . . . so we sat at three different tables . . . so we could have three different boxes at one time. When we were ready for a 4th box, one of our boxes was removed before the 4th box was brought out. And the request slip for each box had to actually be signed by the person sitting at that table.
We left multiple requests for copies . . . no copying was done while we were there. We were instructed to fill out a request form listing each box # and folder # and a brief description of the item . . . and to insert a START and a STOP paper (provided by them) inside each folder . . . which was to be returned to its box . . . and taken back to the desk when we were through with it. They will copy the requested items and mail them to us, along with an invoice. I believe they said that requests for a lot of copies require credit card information for prepayment, but I'm not sure . . . we did not have to do that. They said to expect to receive our copies within one or two weeks.
The J.M. Hall who penned the thousands of words that make up the 1860-1866 Hall Journal is a half great-grand-uncle to Cousin Grace . . . and he is only related to me because he is the stepson of my 3rd great-grandma, Mahala . . . as well as being her son-in-law . . . 'cause he married her daughter / his step-sister, Margaret Annot Hall Stewart nee Sharp (1840 - ca. 1878) in 1859, which was eight years after his father married the widowed Mahala.
But this 19th century gentleman personally knew some of my kith 'n kin . . . and interacted with them on a sometimes daily basis . . . and wrote about those people in his daily ramblings. He introduced me to those folk in a manner that would have never been possible if not for him and his Journal . . .
If I were to feel inclined to keep a daily journal that might possibly be useful as a book of reference and may hereafter be profitable to those who have an interest in my affairs (that's a quote from the Journal), the following is what I might record about yesterday's adventure . . .
Friday March 12th 2010. To day in the morning Grace, Roberta and myself went to Austin for the purpose of perusing old family papers. Studied Republic of Texas tax receipts for the widow Mahala L. Sharp before she married J.J. Hall. Confirmed the shooting of Sam Sharp on November 27th 1851. Laid my hands on the journal page containing the record of the marriage of the said Sam and Nellie on July 11th 1861. Dined outdoors on a meal of apricot chicken salad with fresh fruit. Drank ginger peach tea with ice. A good time was had by all. Returned home from Austin in time to watch Emmit Smith discover his roots on NBC. Traffic on the highway heavy and congested. Weather clear and pleasant with a brisk wind.
Hmmm . . . wonder what someone would think upon reading the above 150 years from now . . . FYI . . . Box #3S41 was not located while we were there . . . really curious about the photos . . . there is no known original likeness of James Madison Hall in existence . . . only a photocopy of a photo in a book . . . we suspect this listing is a typo because it is known that there IS a photo of Mahala and her second husband, Joshua James Hall . . . we await word from the staff on the status of the missing box . . . and its contents.
I would, of course, love to have a copy of every single piece of paper in those boxes . . . but I don't expect that will happen . . . would love to have digital images of some of them in particular . . . terrific collage subjects on their own . . . even without the family connection . . .
The following list of information from the folder containing the Center's finding aid was emailed to us by one of the staff members. There was more information in the folder but it was not available in the file on her computer, so she will include copies of those pages when the copies we requested are mailed to us in a week or so.
HALL (JAMES MADISON) FAMILY PAPERS, 1807, 1813, 1840-1980. (1 ft.) Unrestricted access. [AR 81-131; 84-22; 88-95]:
- Box #2B78
- Joshua James Hall:
- Diary, 1848-1857
- Financial records, 1850-1872, undated
- Mahala L. Hall:
- Financial records, 1844-1897
- Legal records, land deeds, 1876-1881
- A.M. [sic] Hall, financial records, 1868
- James Madison Hall: Diaries: June-December 1862
- Box #3S200a
- 1860-1866 (with index) [FYI . . . this is the actual Journal]
- Box #2B78
- Financial records, 1840-1864
- Military records, 1846
- Nannie Burton Hall, autograph book, 1857-1888
- Horace Oscar Hall:
- Correspondence, 1887-1903, 1934, undated
- Financial records:
- Box #2.325/D1b
- Oversized, 1865-1869, 1910, 1922-1925
- Box #2B78
- Legal records, land deeds, 1878-1924, undated
- Box #2B109
- J.F. Hall, legal and financial records, 1932-1933
- Felix Roberts Hall:
- Financial records, 1918, 1924
- Military records, 1909-1922
- Susie Loring Hall:
- Correspondence, 1947, 1950
- Financial records, 1926
- Legal records, 1927, 1942, 1952
- Clipping, 1961
- Robert Loring Hall:
- Correspondence, 1939-1947, 1978, 1980
- Printed material, 1947
- Callie MaGee Hall, financial records, 1921-1945
- Sam Sharp and Florine Hall, account books [with some family history], 1869-1889
- Florine Hall, correspondence, 1889
- John Marshall Sharp and M.L. Hall, notebooks, undated
- General correspondence, 1882-1899, undated
- General financial records, 1869-1908
- General Legal records, land deeds, 1807, 1813, 1923, undated
- General printed material, 1975, undated
- Box #3S41
- Photographs:
- Mahala L. (Roberts Sharp) Hall, undated
- James Madison Hall, undated
- Box #OD1273 Plat map, undated [Houston County?]
CENTER FOR AMERICAN HISTORY Archives and Manuscripts Separation Sheet Accession no. 88-95 Collection title: HALL (JAMES MADISON) FAMILY PAPERS To be routed to: Center for American History Unit 2.325/D1b The following items have been routed to the above unit for more appropriate disposition: Hall, Horace Oscar Financial documents, 1865-1869, 1910, 1922, 1925
19 March 2010 ... UPDATE ...The 1st CoAAG has been posted ... click here to read!
The 19th-century hand-written page featured in this collage is from a Bible thought to have belonged to the family of Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis (1842-1899). The column on the left has a hand-written heading -- Negroes Births.
On another website, I have posted what information I have accumulated that may pertain to this page of names and dates of birth. Included on that website is information from the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules that pertains to the 19th Century family members known to be connected in some way to the names mentioned in this Bible.
While I have posted information about this list on various websites in the past, it never hurts to mention it one more time, just in case it might help somebody make a connection with their own past. This list was first made available online back in October of 1998 on the DAVIS-L Rootsweb List. Since that time, it has also become viewable at --
And just an FYI . . . I have not yet (after more than 11 years) received a single query generated by the availability of these records.
The copies I have are photocopies of Bible pages that are said to come from a Davis family Bible. I have never seen that Bible, or the actual Bible pages, but the copies I have were given to me by a cousin, Georgia Faye Kaseberg nee Henry (1925-2001), probably 25 or 30 years ago. It is believed that Georgia probably acquired the photocopies from another cousin and family genealogist, Miss Laura Hamilton (1898-1987).
This post was prepared for the very 1st edition of a Carnival of African-American Genealogy, enthusiastically hosted by Top 40 Geneablogger, Luckie Daniels, at OurGeorgiaRoots.com
Hello to the 21st Century! We were found in a 19th century photo album in Rockdale, Texas. The album belonged to Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp (1873-1955). Nothing is written on the back of our photos. We may be from Milam or Houston Co. Related surnames may be Sharp or Halyard or Hall. Who are we? [pssttt . . . if you click on our collage you will be able to view an enlarged version of us in a new window . . . ]
The lovely ladies pictured above are looking for their identities. They once lived in a late 19th-century photo album that belonged to my great-grandma, but I never met them until many years after she was gone [I was four when she died]. If the granddaughter who was the last keeper of this album ever knew who they were, she had forgotten by the time she shared these images with me shortly before her death. Most of the photos in the album are family members who are identified on the back of each image, but there are several that have absolutely nothing written on them.
The photo in the upper left shows it was taken by a Traveling Photographer by the name of J.A. Morris. I do not know if this is the same man, but a Google search turned up the following newsclipping from Oklahoma --
James Morris
Will Disinter Body
The Choctaw Herald January 26, 1911
transcribed by Ron Henson
Friday afternoon a dead stranger was found in the bed of Dumpling creek south of Antlers by Garney Polk who reported his find to the county officers at Antlers. An examination of the man was made and it is believed that the stranger was James Morris, as an envelope bearing that name was found in his coat pocket.
Monday afternoon two men giving the name of Morris came up from Hugo, to investigate and they gave such an accurate description of the man that it is believed he was a brother of theirs. They stated Morris was a traveling photographer and usually carried several letters for identification, a pocketbook and his camera and was always well dressed. The body when found was poorly dressed and had no means of identification other than the envelope. Sometime about Christmas Morris was put off the night southbound train at Hamden, south of Antlers, and at that time had no camera and was dressed as he was when found. He bought a box of ginger snaps at Hamden the next day and left town. That was the last time he was seen alive.
The parties from Hugo will disinter the body and move it to Hugo where it will be reburied. – Antlers American.
The other photo has the words Texas Photo Company below the image. I have found no information on this photographer.
In celebration of Women's History Month, the theme for the March 2010 version of footnoteMaven's Smile For The Camera is Give Their Face A Place. For this 21st Edition, we were asked to picture women back into history . . . the unknown, known and unsung women who are often the foundation of our family history.
FYI . . . the "prim" background for this collage is actually a free blogger background from Daisy Gray Design . . .
On the 22nd day of March . . . in the year 1838 . . . in San Augustine County, Texas . . . 21-year-old Mahala Lee Roberts becomes the bride of John M. Sharp. John and Mahala will become the parents of a son and a daughter whose exact birth dates are still unknown . . . and then, before 1850, John's existence will simply slip away . . . into an oblivion still hidden from this branch of his descendants.
My connection to Mahala and John is as a great-granddaughter of their granddaughter, Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp (1873-1955) . . . who is a daughter of their son, Samuel Houston Sharp . . . which makes John and Mahala my 3rd great-grandparents. Click on the following link to view a . . .
(click above)
Our family had rather vague tidbits of information about Sam for many years, but Mahala's very existence was completely unknown to us . . . other than being the anonymous (faceless and nameless) mother of our Sam . . . until a little over eleven years ago.
Being a person who has been sort of doing genealogy for most of her life (me), the relatively recent introduction to our Mahala came as a complete surprise. How, you may ask, did we finally connect after so many years of never meeting each other? Well, it went kinda like this. . . .
In January of 1895 in Crockett, Houston County, Texas, the above mentioned Berta Mary (my great-grandma) became the bride of Edgar Henry (1872-1950) of Milam County, Texas. This Edgar is a son of William Paschal Henry (1836-1912) and Josephine Wingfield Davis (1842-1899), my 2nd great-grandparents. . . .
A little over a century later . . . in September of 1998 . . . descendants of Josephine and William were receiving a newsletter containing final details for a Henry Family Reunion to be held in October. Among those descendants was one of their great-grandsons, Stuart Arlington Leaverton (1908-2001) of Oklahoma, who was kind enough to call me upon receipt of the newsletter, expressing his regret in not being able to attend.
FYI . . . Stuart's maternal grandparents were both siblings to my maternal great-grandparents, i.e. . . . his grandma, Emma Sharp nee Henry (1872-1944), was a twin sister to my great-grandpa, Edgar Henry . . . and his grandpa, Samuel Houston Sharp, Jr. (1867-1921), was an older brother of my great-grandma (and Edgar's wife), Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp.
Stuart's mother, Alice Alexandria Leaverton Reynolds Campbell nee Sharp (1889-1966), was a daughter of Emma and Sam, and was actually a double first cousin to my maternal grandpa, Robert E. Henry (1905-1976) . . . which made Stuart my double 2nd cousin once removed. Anyway . . .
In the course of our telephone conversation, Stuart asked me if I knew about a 1962 legal document that actually contained answers to some of the questions I had posed in the newsletter. I did not! We hung up with him agreeing to put a copy in the mail.
The anxiously awaited packet arrived on Thursday, October 8th, 1998 . . . containing, among other items, a copy of a 1962 Deposition of Ida Mae Halyard nee Sharp (1871-1964), an older sister of Berta Mary . . . and thus began my introduction to our Mahala and her extended family.
Not long after receiving that packet of information, I posted the entire deposition on a genealogy message board for Houston County, Texas. More than six months later, I received a response from a lady in Lake Jackson, Texas, letting me know that we were kinfolk. We struck up a correspondence, and in January of 2000 arrangements were made for me to visit her in her home. Besides meeting a perfectly delightful and generous and knowledgeable half 2nd cousin twice removed, I was also introduced to the photo you see here of our Mahala, as well as a mid-19th century journal which frequently mentions our kith 'n kin. And I now know that . . .
Mahala Lee Roberts was born on the 3rd of November 1816 in Washington Parish, Louisiana. Her father was Elisha Roberts, born ca. 1774 at Watauga Settlement in Hawkins County, Tennessee. Her mother, Martha Gill aka Patsy, was born ca. 1781 in Bedford County, Virginia. Elisha and Patsy married in Green County, Kentucky in 1800, and were in Washington Parish, Louisiana before the birth of their son, Noel, in 1813. This family was living in the Redlands of East Texas by 1826 . . .
We now have an amazing amount of detail on the lives of this family unknown to us before the autumn of 1998. A detailed timeline of the decades of Mahala's life is posted > HERE <. Directly below, you will find links to previous blogposts about Mahala, arranged in chronological order.
FYI . . . all links will open in a new window . . .
- 1816 -- November 3rd -- Happy Birthday, Mahala
- 1836 -- July 4th -- Sam Houston in the Republic of Texas
- 1838 -- March 22nd -- Mahala marries John M. Sharp
- 1842 -- August 2nd -- Mahala most likely did not attend the Kentucky wedding of her brother, Felix Grundy Roberts, when he married Elizabeth K. Layton
- 1846 -- February 19th -- Mahala is living in San Augustine when the flag of the Republic of Texas is lowered, and the flag of the United States is raised in Austin.
- 1850 -- Mahala is enumerated in San Augustine . . . click the link to see the house next door to where she is living.
- 1850 -- July 30th -- wonder what our Mahala thought about her older sister, Matilda, giving away 120 acres of prime Texas real estate?
- 1861 -- January 29th -- Mahala is living in Houston County when Texas votes to secede from the Union
- 1861 -- July 11th -- Mahala's son, Samuel Houston Sharp, marries Mary Alexandrien "Nellie" Lemaire
- 1862 -- December 24th -- Mahala enjoys Christmas Eve
- 1863 & 1864 - January 1st -- Mahala enjoys New Year's Day
- 1863 - January 25th -- Mahala is present at the birth of her grandson, James Hall "Major" Sharp
- 1863 -- December 15th -- Mahala is present at the birth of her granddaughter, Josephine Martha Hall
- 1863 & 1864 -- December 25th -- Mahala enjoys Christmas Day
- 1863 -- December 31st -- Mahala enjoys New Year's Eve
- 1866 -- July 16th -- Mahala is not mentioned as being present at the death of her two-year-old granddaughter, Josephine Martha Hall
- 1873 -- November 10th -- Mahala is most likely present at the birth of her granddaughter, Berta Mary Sharp [my great-grandma]
- 1876 -- October 10th -- Mahala is most likely present at the death of her daughter-in-law, Nellie Sharp [my 2nd great-grandma]
- 1885 -- June 27th -- Mahala dies at the Hall Plantation and is buried in the Hall Cemetery
The topic for this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: A Tribute to Women! March is women's history month and a great time to honor the women on our family trees. This is the 4th annual edition on this topic so we're going to change it up just a bit to keep it fresh. Write a biography about a woman on your family tree starting with a timeline of their life. The timeline can be a separate post that you link to from your biography (which can itself be a series of articles) but please just submit one post to the COG. If you haven't written from a timeline before you may find it a great learning / research experience! Since this topic will likely require more research and writing time you'll have a full month till the deadline. There will be no March 1st edition of the COG. The deadline for submissions will be March 15th. Thirty submissions will be accepted. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and / or write a brief description / introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. Thanks for the posters, fM!
The collage at the top of this post ... created in Picasa ... features a photo of our Mahala ... with a backdrop of a page from a 19th century issue of Godey's Lady's Book ... accented by vintage calendars for the years ... 1816 (when Mahala was born) ... 1838 (when Mahala married John) ... 1851 (when Mahala married Joshua) ... 1885 (when Mahala died).
(click above)
Hello to the 21st Century! We were found in a 19th century photo album in Rockdale, Texas. The album belonged to Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp (1873-1955). Nothing is written on the back of our photos. We may be from Milam or Houston Co. Related surnames may be Sharp or Halyard or Hall. Who are we? [pssttt . . . if you click on our collage you will be able to view an enlarged version of us in a new window . . . ]
On the 22nd day of March . . . in the year 1838 . . . in San Augustine County, Texas . . . 21-year-old Mahala Lee Roberts becomes the bride of John M. Sharp. John and Mahala will become the parents of a son and a daughter whose exact birth dates are still unknown . . . and then, before 1850, John's existence will simply slip away . . . into an oblivion still hidden from this branch of his descendants.
