Mam-ma's Southern Family

This month, I’m working on the Hutson/Selman family, one of my sixteen 2x-great-grandparents, P. H. Hutson and his wife, Sarah “Sallie” H. Selman. What I Know Sallie died on 26 September 1916 in Throckmorton County, Texas, though her residence was likely in Comanche County. [1] The Texas death certificate has no information about a person’s residence, only about the place of death. She was married but her husband is not listed (no line for it) and he was not the informant. Other documents point to her residence. On 28 January 1915, P.H. Hutson and his wife, S. H. H. Hutson, of Comanche County, sold land to N. E. Palmer, pointing to their residence in Comanche County. [2] She is buried at Union Cemetery, located in Gustine, Comanche County. [3] P. H. Hudson and Miss S. H. S. Selman married in Hood County, Texas, on 11 September 1879. [4] The surname of Hudson is a minor conflict as the two names sound similar. The index at FamilySearch listed his name as R. H. Hudson, the image do...

The Texas State Genealogical Society has a series of Heritage Certificates honoring our ancestors who settled in Texas. The Texas First Families Certificate is awarded to individuals who have ancestors who settled in Texas before 19 February 1946, which is the date Texas “relinquished its sovereignty to the United States government.” So, I wondered if I had any ancestors who came to Texas before it was admitted to statehood. I have several who were listed on the 1850 census: Benjamin F. Selman (1795-1873), his wife, Sarah (1798-1868), and children Greenlee B (1820-1888) and Sarah (1818- ) were living in Cherokee County. [1] Their son, Willis F. Selman , married Margaret Rebecca Evans on 29 November 1849 in Cherokee County. [2] Their daughter, Mary Ann Selman , married Calvin C. Scott on 12 September 1848 in Cherokee County. [3] A biography about Benjamin stated he settled in Cherokee County circa 1845. [4] I learned that Cherokee County was formed in 1846 after statehood and ...

I had not yet had time to search at the National Archives 1950 census website for my ancestors and decided to locate the families who lived in Erath County, Texas. When I heard that Ancestry had completed their indexing project, similar to NARA’s, using optical character recognition of the handwriting, I decided to make a comparison. I searched first for my grandmother's father, George W. Lancaster, in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas at Ancestry . The first entry came right up with the correct spelling and correct wife, Lela A. [1] Searching at the NARA 1950 census website, the first return was also George Lancaster with the next person being Lela a. [2] Stephenville, Erath Co, Texas; 888 W. McNeill Next, I searched for my grandmother's father-in-law, Thomas N. Johnston, first at Ancestry and he came right up at the first entry. [3] At the NARA site, he came up as the second entry. The handwriting on these sheets is very legible, so that is likely a reason the OCR work...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by  Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either  Mam-ma’s Southern Family  or at  My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. This week I’m writing about an ancestor I’d like to invite to dinner. I actually have quite a few ideas. I would love to have dinner with my grandmother, Anna Hork and her sister, Loretta Patterson, and recreate the meals we had together back in 1969 when we visited. They told such fantastic stories about their childhood. Of course, I wasn’t a genealogist then. We didn’t have access to recording devices either. I don’t remember much about their stories except they made me laugh every evening! But to invite one person to dinner! That would be my 3X-great-grandfather, Samuel Johnston. I would love to know about his life in South Carolina where he was born, his life in Alabama where m...

E. Loveless Death Certificate, 1929, Rotan Co, Texas The last known information about Ebenezer Loveless, the father of Lela Ann Loveless (my great grandmother & Mam-ma’s mother), he was living on a farm in Precinct 1 of Erath County, Texas in 1920 with his second wife named, Malissa. [2]   I began by searching the 1930 census for his children, thinking he could be enumerated with them.  No luck.  So my initial assumption was he died before the 1930 census.  I could not find Ebenezer in Erath county death records.  Where had he gone?  It was a mystery. When the "Texas Deaths 1890-1976" database was put online at FamilySearch , I was in seventh heaven.  This database includes images of the death certificates.  Most of my mother’s family lived in Texas for a few generations so I was able to find a lot of records.  Finding Ebenezer in this state-wide database saved me a lot of time.  Do you know how many counties are in Texas?...