Mam-ma's Southern Family

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1) Which of your ancestors or relatives have you NOT found in the Census records and what have you done or are doing to try to find that person? Can AI help? 2)  Identify one or more of your ancestors that are inexplicably missing from one or more census collections.  Why do you think they were not enumerated? Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea. Here's mine: In 1900, I should be able to locate my great-grandfather, George Warren Lancaster, and my 2x-great-grandparents, William Carlton “Carl” & Martha Jane “Dollie” Lancaster, in Erath County, Texas. George would have been 7 years old. His brother, Willie, 5, and sister, Josephine, 3, would also be in the household. The next daughter, Margaret, was born in August 1900. I have searched using all kinds of name variations. I have searched l...

Martha Jane Coor was born 10 May 1873 in Copiah County, Mississippi, to James Madison Coor and Melissa Ann Welch. [1] After her mother died, she moved to Erath County, Texas, with her father in the early 1880s. [2] She was nicknamed “Doll.” The story I got from my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster, who was her granddaughter, was her grandfather called her that because she was so beautiful, like a doll. [3] Another researcher also told a similar story to me: “My dad, Ivey Coor, [nephew of Martha Jane, his father was James Rufus, brother of Martha], talked about Dolly numerous times. He said that the reason her nickname was Dolly was because she was so beautiful and looked like a Doll.” [4] Did her husband name her Doll or was she already called Doll before they were married? William Carl Lancaster and Mattie Coor were married on 9 March 1892 by minister, C.G. Kiker. [5] She was not named Doll in this document, but rather “Mattie,” a nickname for Martha. In 1880, she was name...

This month, I spent a lot of time researching the Lancaster family, particularly these three gentlemen: George Warren Lancaster (1893-1964), his father William Carlton Lancaster (1873-1946), and his grandfather, George Wilson Lancaster (1839-1919). I searched at FamilySearch using full-text search for William C. and George Wilson Lancaster. See 12 for ’26: Full-text Search for William C. Lancaster (1873-1946) and Searching for George W. Lancaster (1839-1919) in Full-text Search . I also searched for newspaper articles at the Portal to Texas History for all three men: 12 for ’26: George Warren Lancaster in Newspaper Articles 12 for ’26: Newspaper Search at Portal to Texas History for William C. Lancaster 12 for ’26 Locating George Wilson Lancaster at the Portal for Texas History Newspaper Collection I have also written up the full-text search for George Wilson Lancaster in records of Rockwall County that are locked, but the task is not completed, as I ran out of time at th...

George W. Lancaster (1839-1919) lived in Kaufman County, Rockwall County, Dallas County, Erath County, and Johnson counties during his lifetime. His grandson, George Warren Lancaster lived in Erath County at the same time and it was sometimes confusing as to which person the G.W. Lancaster is referring to. However, he has also been found as “Grandpa” Lancaster, Geo. W. Lancaster, and George W. Lancaster. Many of the early dated articles refer to the towns of Lancaster in other states. There is even a town called that in Texas. What I Learned I did not find many articles; all are from Erath County. I learned he had a letter waiting for him in 1893, and I speculated that it could have been from the Arizona Territory court where his wife filed for divorce. He sold land to the Baptist preacher, R. L. Smallwood, with whom he also spent time. He made visits to Howell Springs in his later years. He died on 14 January 1919 and was buried at Greens Creek Cemetery. One death notice clarified h...

George Wilson Lancaster, born 3 April 1839 in Missouri, likely Lewis County, and died 14 Jan 1919 in Erath County. He also lived in Kaufman County as he married Martha Jane Polly there on 25 October 1871. He is my 3x-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. This session of research is using full-text search at FamilySearch . My methodology is to search for the each of the variations of George’s name: “George W. Lancaster,” “Geo. W. Lancaster,” and “G. W. Lancaster.” I began by filtering the results to Texas, and selecting the counties of Erath, Rockwall, and Kaufman. I later conducted the same search in Arizona, as he lived there shortly in the late 1880s. The results brought up lots of negative hits, i.e., records that were not him. Many were Texas Death Certificates state-wide or documents dated after his death in 1919. The record of findings lists the results I believe pertain to him. Summary of results From this targeted search for G.W. Lancaster in the various spellings, I fou...