Dethroning Mary McDaniel, the Cherokee Princess

Like many families in the south, mine has its share of folklore. But the most pervasive story has been about Mary McDaniel Greene, "the full-blood Cherokee princess." The number of people in my family who believe this story is a significant factor in its pervasiveness. And we aren't alone.

Many families across the United States have perpetuated stories (without evidence) of the existence of Native American royalty, and their connection to it. This article goes into the pervasiveness of claiming Native American heritage you cannot prove. Similar to the camp of people who try to argue for benevolent slave owners of African Americans, those who claim Native American ancestry often do so from a combination of ignorance and racism. It's simply easier to legitimize the violent white expansion of the early Colonial and Antebellum periods if we can connect ourselves to the marginalized groups, and rewrite the story of their disenfranchisement. Controlling the narrative of occupation means we never have to confront the unpleasantness of the past. Claiming unproven Native American heritage is just another way of saying their land was really ours all along, and we have just as much claim to it now as they do anyway.

Addressing these perceptions not only as genealogists, but as recipients of Colonial heritage, is a much more relevant conversation to have before we try proving Native American heritage that may or may not exist. Until we do so, it's going to be impossible for us to be truly impartial about what we find. And I've already seen how true this is by the number of Mary McDaniel Greene descendants who are still trying to chase down that Cherokee connection, even if it means conflating her with someone else in the tribe with a completely different name.

Mary Greene/Jane Bird researchers, I'm looking at you.
Knock it off.

Proving and disproving Native American heritage happens on two fronts: exploring Native American records that exist, and using other existing records to construct or deconstruct the racial narrative. In trying to make any sort of connection to the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Chocktaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole), the Dawes Rolls become a valuable resource. So too do the Indian Census rolls, which cover a much larger collection of tribes. They're both available to search and view on Ancestry.com. The National Archives and FamilySearch also have some relevant researching guides.

I don't want to spend too much time talking about this in relation to Mary McDaniel Greene, because it's simple enough to say I didn't find anything. At some point, finding nothing in records connected to Native Americans has to mean there is nothing to find. Which means we move onto the second front: constructing the racial narrative in what records we do have, and having enough social consciousness to believe what they say.

For starters, let's lay out what we know about Mary McDaniel, her son Willis Greene (my 2x great grandfather), and her other children from census records. She passes away young, so the only census on which she appears during her married life is the 1900 population schedule from Grainger County, Tennessee.

1910 U.S. census, Grainger County, Tennessee, population schedule, Civil District 10, p. 1-B (written), dwelling 14, family 14, Henry Greene and Mary McDaniel family; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Mar 2017); citing NARA Microfilm Roll: T623_1572.

Here's my transcription of the information, since the handwriting is difficult to read:

1. Henry Greene, 24 (Married 8 years)
2. Mary Greene, 26
3. Carison, 8
4. Alice, 5
5. Rutha, 3
6. Willis, 2 (My 2x great grandfather)
7. Vestena, <1 year
8. According to her living/nonliving children information, one unknown sibling is missing.

The race of every person on this record is listed as White. If Mary or her children were Native American, the census takers were instructed to delineate them officially as "Indian." Grainger County census takers also used the unauthorized "Mulatto" designation for those of mixed race. This would apply equally to those whose heritage was mixed with some combination of African and/or Native American ancestry. Note that it has not been applied here. The same thing remains true for Mary and Henry's children on the 1910 census after his second marriage, relocation, and subsequent appearance on the 1910 census in Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

It's also important to note some other details about my 2x great grandfather, Willis Greene, because they're going to become relevant later on. He was married to Laura Clark, daughter of John Clark and Nancy Bray of Claiborne County, Tennessee. Their original marriage record was destroyed, but his death certificate is available on Ancestry. Note another instance of him being listed as white.

"Tennessee, Death Records, 1908-1958," database, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2376), entry for Willis Greene; citing Tennessee Department of Public Health, death certificate 55-20023 (1955), Willis Greene; Division of Vital Statistics, Nashville.

With a birth year of 1873, together with the missing 1890 census, Mary McDaniel would only appear with her parents on the 1880 census. For more than a decade, I've been stuck in that position. All efforts to unstick myself were never conclusive because I simply didn't have enough information about her family. I did eventually find a clue on the delayed birth certificate for Rutha Belle Greene. Note here a third independent piece of evidence that Mary McDaniel's children were recognized as white.

"Tennessee, Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909," database, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2282), entry for Rutha Greene; citing Tennessee Department of Public Health, delayed birth certificate no. D-515020 (1959), Rutha Belle Greene; Division of Vital Statistics, Nashville.

An affidavit for Rutha's birth was provided by her uncle, John McDaniel. It was the first clue I had that could positively connect Mary to her McDaniel family. But knowing that my Greene family appears pretty interchangeably between Claiborne, Grainger, and Hancock counties, I didn't want to make assumptions about where I might find them. Searching for all instances of John and Mary McDaniel as siblings on the 1880 census for all three counties was also inconclusive, especially since I didn't know John McDaniel's age. I did find a promising census record that at some point I put into my Ancestry Shoebox and forgot about.

The pieces of this puzzle didn't finally come together until I was searching through my cousin matches on AncestryDNA. Using the surname and location search feature, I was able to search through my matches' trees for anyone with the surname McDaniel who was also born in Tennessee. Eventually, I started seeing the same individuals repeating across multiple matches who were not yet connected to each other.

I started by looking at Thomas Jefferson McDaniel, and his descendants. No one matching Mary showed up among his daughters in any of the trees I looked at, so I went back another generation to his parents, James and Nancy McDaniel. Their names repeated across almost every tree I looked at. Systematically checking all of their sons, I found a likely match for Mary as a daughter of their son, Joel Joseph McDaniel. All of the supporting documentation I viewed in multiple trees listed all of these men and their families as white.

I was pretty sure I had the right family. Everything seemed to match up perfectly. And as I began looking more closely at his appearances on other census records, I saw it was his 1880 appearance in Claiborne County I had saved to my Shoebox. But the real kicker came when I was viewing his earlier appearances in the same county. Joel Joseph McDaniel appears within a 1 page range of John Clark in the 1860-1880 population schedules . On the 1870 and 1880 population schedules, he appears on the same pages as Elizabeth Manning, John Clark's former (unmarried) consort and mother to his Manning children.

Mary McDaniel's family were neighbors with Laura Clark's family for decades. I've had copies of these population schedules saved to my computer from my John Clark research for years without recognizing it. The answer about Willis Greene's mother and her origins have been in front of my face this entire time. But it took looking at my shared AncestryDNA matches to figure it out.

Piecing together what I've found for Joel McDaniel hasn't taken me very long, but for the sake of not making this post any longer than it already is, I'll be sure to follow up again, especially to confirm and fill in more details for his wife Jane, who I haven't yet mentioned. I'm also trying to determine the best way to outline the DNA matches I've found and their respective lines. Stay tuned for that, because I sense that it'll blow up several portions of my tree once I figure it out.

But the lesson for the day is one for anyone who claims Native American heritage. How many records have to appear, contradicting family myths and legends, before others will finally accept they might not be true? I don't have an answer to that. What I can say is Mary McDaniel, her children, her siblings, and her parents, her aunts and uncles, and grandparents, according to every document covering about a 100 year period, were all white. And if someone still thinks there's "an Indian in the woodshed" after that, no amount of evidence or logic was ever going to change their mind.

Burn their gedcom files to the ground!

Records, Reading, and a Healthy Dose of Skepticism

This timeline was one I previously posted here. It's a feature I love, and I need to make more use of it. Be sure to pass by Timeline JS to check out how you can use this timeline on your blog and website too!

Timelines are especially important in situations like that of John M. P. Clark. The man's life has been turned into the stuff of legend. You don't need to look any further than his FindAGrave.com page to see the testimonies to his greatness.

Civil War veteran, a magistrate and judge, a Freemason, even a member of the House of Representatives for the state of Tennessee. While these accomplishments would certainly make for an impressive life, it doesn't mean that all of them are true. It occurred to me some time ago that some myth busting on this man's life was probably necessary. But I had no idea the full scope of the situation until I found this page dedicated to John Clark on Rootsweb.

There is enough confusion in these two people's version of events, in direct contradiction to the evidence, that some serious correction is in order. So at the risk of being mad at people on the internet, I'm just gonna let it out.

His Parents

Rootsweb alleges that John Clark's parents were John and Susan Clark. The FindaGrave page lists Elisha Clark and Margaret Vandeventer. Since they can't both be right, I set out to figure out who was wrong.

Because Elisha Clark is documented to have lived in Lee County, Virginia on the 1820-1840 censuses, I began searching there for a marriage record between Elisha and Margaret. There is no record of a marriage for them in Lee County. Nor is there one to be found in any of the other counties in Virginia. Or Tennessee. In fact, no amount of searching on Ancestry.com or Google can even prove there WAS such a person as Margaret Vandeventer. Not from the time period in question, with a connection to Elisha, John, or Mildred Clark. It's like they just made up a person, slapped a name on her, and put her on the internet.

The page on FindaGrave mentions that this Margaret Vandeventer could have a connection to Sullivan County, Tennessee. In which case, the marriage records before 1863 do not exist. Birth records for Lee County, Virginia also do not begin until decades after both John and Mildred's births. Because no evidence of any kind can be presented to testify of Margaret Vandeventer's maternity to John or Mildred Clark, it is much more factually sound to say that their mother is unknown.

I can confirm with certainty that Susan Clark is not John's mother.

Elisha Clark was married to Phebe Jones on 29 October 1846 in Claiborne County, Tennessee. They're listed in the same household in the 1850 census, aged 52 and 50 respectively. John Clark and his sister Mildred are also listed in the household. You'll also see three Jones in their late teens and early twenties working there as laborers, no doubt connected to Phebe's family.

Susan Clark doesn't show up until the 1860 census, with her birthplace listed as North Carolina. If you observe all of the census record entries for John Clark from 1880 and beyond, he gives his mother's birthplace consistently as Tennessee. John and Mildred's mother is a women who predates both Susan and Phebe. And because women were counted as tally marks the US federal census before 1850, we may never know her name.

His Work

Both FindaGrave and the Rootsweb page perpetuate the myth that John Clark was a member of the General Assembly in Tennessee. The FindaGrave entry even gives the sessions to which he was supposedly elected, 1893-1895 and 1901-1902.  I hate this myth more than any of the others combined. I correct people on this one every chance I get.

Why? Because it was such an easy thing to fact check. I'm serious! One Google search. Two minutes. Two minutes to prove that people don't believe EVERYTHING they read on the internet. But instead, there are a lot of stubborn people that now have to be told the obvious in way that can only be highly embarrassing.

Why is it obvious? Because there was no session in the General Assembly from 1893-1895. That time period covers two entirely different sessions of the House. What this person is saying is literally impossible.

According to the official archive of Tennessee's House of Representatives, the 48th General Assembly was in session from 1893-1894. The 49th General Assembly was in session from 1895-1896. You will notice that John Clark's name is not on either list.

The 52nd General Assembly was in session from 1901-1902, but John Clark wasn't a representative then either. And before you get excited, I also checked this alphabetical list of all the Tennessee state Senators.

John Clark was never a member of the Tennessee General Assembly. For good measure, let's also rule out the federal government. As you can see, John Clark does not appear on either list of former members of the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. This myth is thoroughly and irrevocably busted.

However, the misinformation does have a grain of truth to it, as a lot of misinformation does. John Clark was never a part of the General Assembly. But the idea that he got a law passed in Nashville is true.



Available on Google Books is Acts of the State of Tennessee Passed by the Forty-Ninth General Assembly from 1895. And on pages 391-392 of that book is an act to change the boundary of Claiborne County to include all the property of John Clark, John Epperson, and William Farmer from Hancock County. And if you look at the page of the 1900 census where John Clark appears, one of his neighbors that appears on the same page is William Farmer.

So maybe someone got confused and decided that John Clark trying to change a county boundary automatically makes him a state representative. I don't know. What I do know is that a little critical reading would have avoided that mistake.

His Three Wives

John Clark was in a had relationships with three different women: Elizabeth Manning, Sarah Elrod, and Nancy Bray. In that order, and not concurrently. Not sure why people try to make John Clark into some kind of womanizer. Maybe they think it's funny. What I don't think they get is that womanizing in the form of bigamy wasn't cute to anyone at the turn of the century. It was a crime. You went to jail.

The Rootsweb page alleges that Elizabeth Manning was first, then Nancy Bray, then Sarah Elrod. But if we go to the census records (see timeline above) we can see that's a royal load of nonsense.

Elizabeth Manning came first. They were never married, and according to the census records they never actually lived together. In 1860, John Clark was living with his father Elisha (head), his stepmother Susan, and Sarah Elrod with her infant son, John Elrod. Sarah is listed in the household as a domestic, to delineate her as a servant. She will remain in the household in that position for the next 20 years.

Elizabeth Manning lives next door, and has three young sons; Henry (5), William (3), and Andrew (1). By 1870, she will add 5 more children to her brood: Mildred, Martha, James, Sarah, and Noah. If we can believe the transcription of John Clark's will on the Rootsweb page to be genuine, John Clark will eventually include Noah and William Manning in his will.

A closer inspection of these children's birth dates in comparison to John Clark's Civil War service record reveals an interesting set of circumstances. If John Clark is the father of some, most, or all of these Manning children, and he enlisted on 3 October 1862, then Elizabeth was 6-7 months pregnant with Martha Jane Manning at the time he enlisted.

FindaGrave lists four more children to this couple, born between 1871 and 1877: Andy, Elisha, George, and Albert. But when you compare the children listed in Elizabeth Manning's household in 1880, there is no child named Andy.

Several of the Manning children and their mother will eventually be buried in the Clark family burial plot with John Clark. Clearly he feels a duty and obligation to these children which would logically follow his being their father. But why he never married their mother is a mystery he appears to have taken to his grave.

By 1880, John Clark and Sarah Elrod are married. They appear on the census together, and Elizabeth Manning is no longer living next door. She took her children and moved about 10 doors down, as the census taker walks. John and Sarah appear on page 39, Elizabeth Manning appears on page 40. Considering these are farming families, the next page of the census could be anywhere from 1-10 miles away. According to headstone in the Clark Cemetery, Elizabeth Manning dies in 1882.

What happens between John and Sarah after 1880 is also a mystery. The Rootsweb user has a few more transcribed documents dated May and June of 1890, signed by John and Sarah as husband and wife. But she and her son are not included in the transcribed will, and the FindaGrave user suggests that Sarah Elrod dies in Missouri in 1929. By 1893, John Clark is married for the second time to Nancy Bray.

Nancy Bray already has 3 children at the time she marries John Clark: Mary, Joseph, and Madison Griffin. Josie, Tilimon, and Laura are also labeled as Griffin step children on the 1900 census. However, given that they were born after Nancy's marriage in 1893, it's safe to say they're John's natural born children. John Clark effectively adopts all of Nancy's children and raises them as his own after Nancy's death. A few of the older children keep Griffin as their last name.

On the 1910 census, we see that John and Nancy have two more sons--Hobert and General Clark. John Clark dies in 1912, and is buried in a cemetery which is presumably on his own land.

So the moral of the story is...

If your ancestor married a bunch of people and has larger than life accomplishments attributed to their name, be very skeptical. Especially on Rootsweb. In fact, don't believe anything that anyone ever tells you on the internet. Nope, not even me.

Because all of us are wrong sometimes. And you will be too if you don't check your facts.

Our Southern Journey: Vicksburg National Military Park

Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I recently had a very long road trip with my husband. We traveled from San Antonio, Texas to our home in the Dover, Delaware area--a trip which took us through 7 states and lasted 60 hours total.

It was a trip that began as a compromise and ended as a test of our ability to work together. Because the primary purpose of going to San Antonio was to pick up his truck, part of my condition for spending the money was that we would do genealogy stuff on the way home. We planned to stay the night in Vicksburg and visit the battlefield, stop at two cemeteries in Tennessee, stop at another cemetery in southern Virginia, then make our way home. Our anticipated arrival time at home was late Tuesday evening.

Allow me to break down our mistakes from the beginning:

Mistake #1--Budget enough drive time, especially when driving through Texas

Because of weather, we decided to drive through Austin and onto Dallas instead of Houston. This was our first mistake. Never, EVER drive through Austin. For any reason. The traffic was horrendous--entirely stop and go for absolutely no reason. There was no construction, no weather, it wasn't even rush hour. For lack of a better explanation, people in that area just don't know how to drive on a highway. We lost a lot of time driving through Texas in general.

Mistake #2--When you go to Vicksburg, don't forget to see it all

Vicksburg battlefield has over 1,300 monuments and markers throughout the park. We had no idea when we showed up that this meant that each of our ancestors' regiments were represented by different monuments, along with the monuments for the both states, monuments for the commanding officers, and monuments for the surrender. Not to mention a live artillery demonstration. And a gift shop. We only discovered all of this once we arrived, and still missed the Iowa monument and the live artillery demonstration. Had I not asked the park ranger at the help desk about all there was to see, we would have missed most of the things on this list.

View from the Confederate line over the Mississippi River at Vicksburg National Military Park

Confederate line marker for the 61st Tennessee Infantry Regiment

Me beside the monument for the 61st Tennessee Infantry monument at the Vicksburg National Military Park

The Tennessee memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park

Being able to stand on the very line where John M. P. Clark fought was a special experience for me. It was the very same feeling I had at Antietam and Gettysburg--like my ancestors who fought there were right beside me as I was walking through the place. My Civil War veterans have become special people to me, and I love them more now than I did before I made these trips. I feel a sense of kinship with them that simply having their names on paper or in a database didn't provide for me before. I needed to walk on the ground they hallowed and understand their suffering before I could appreciate them the way I do now. 

 One of the highlights from the museum was this fiber optic map, which helps to give a look into how the battle played out.

Vicksburg National Military Park was an amazing stop on our journey through the South. As far as national parks go, it left nothing to be desired and gave us exactly the insight we were seeking. But it was only the beginning to what became a very long trip.

To be continued...

Hallie Doyle

My wonderful husband and I are making a trip to San Antonio for a week to retrieve some affects of his from his best man. Because this is marriage and compromise is king, I agreed that we could afford to do this on the condition that we do some real genealogy on the way home.

We're stopping at Vicksburg National Battlefield, then head to the Brogan and Clark Cemeteries in Claiborne County, Tennessee, and finishing up with a trip to the McKenzie Cemetery in Galax, Virginia before we head home. I'll be taking pictures and using BillionGraves to index the cemeteries.

There is a stark difference between these cemeteries which I have found interesting in planning our visits. The hardest thing about planning the Tennessee visits has actually been locating the cemeteries on a map. Trying to travel on roads that Google Maps doesn't know, I have to admit, feels like striking out onto a new frontier. I've done the best I can to give us the most detailed instructions possible because I have no idea how rural this is about to become. But every time I try to explain to my husband where we're going, it's basically like:

It'll be a really special experience to go see John Clark's grave at the Clark Cemetery after going to Vicksburg. He fought with the 61st Tennessee for the Confederacy, and I will definitely want to pay my respects for his sacrifice. I'm excited to learn more about where he was throughout the battle, and to stand on the ground where he stood.

Planning for the McKenzie Cemetery was very different because the cemetery is much larger, and in a wide open, accessible place. Thanks to New River Notes, together with context clues in some of the pictures from FindAGrave.com, I was able to map out the McKenzie Cemetery pretty accurately. If we have the time, we'll map out the entire cemetery using BillionGraves. If not, we'll do my family members and hit the road. It was hard to be selective because I'm related to at least 1/3 of the cemetery, but we have our limitations on time. Sometimes we can't afford to do all the good we want to do, at least not in one sitting.

Planning for this trip has proved to be just as productive as actually going. As I was combing through the cemetery index on New River Notes, I found something surprising...

Hallie Doyle on the McKenzie Cemetery roster--available on New River Notes, 17 Jun 2013

Buried in this cemetery at an unmarked grave is a child of Glenn E. Doyle and Pearl May Bartlett. As far as I knew they had 10 children who were all accounted for--all raised in Cecil County, Maryland. But it never occurred to me to look in this part of Virginia where they met (and, I assume, married) to see if they lost any children there.

Hallie Doyle is their daughter. I'm assuming she was born and died in 1926. She is the only person with the last name Doyle buried in that cemetery. It is a special thing to think that my grandfather had another sister that I didn't know about, and I've found her after all this time. She isn't lost or forgotten anymore.

And while her short little life no doubt brought anguish into the lives of her young parents, I know they're together with her now. There simple is not hurt on earth that heaven cannot heal, and I'm so happy that I can be apart of uncovering and preserving the history.

Jackpot

Fold3.com is an excellent resource of military records who have done us all a great service by giving away Civil War records for the month of April.

I decided to take full advantage of the offer and downloaded probably close to 75 images for all of my Civil War veterans. Needless to say, I have quite a few men that fit that description.

One I have previously mentioned is John M. P. Clark. I was able to find all of the supporting documentation for his presence in the 61st Tennessee regiment, and as a Prisoner of War from the Battle of Vicksburg.

What was really nice to add to my information was his rank--a 2nd Lieutenant.

Included in the documents are several identical copies of several reports which give his status--whether absent, on furlough, sick, or present and accounted for. I've decided to include the items of greatest interest.

I can't really imagine what it would be like to go to war--let alone to have enemy officers forcing me to sign a paper to indicate my own surrender, after I've already suffered all manner of fatigue and starvation.

This last document was the last one included in his file. I don't know exactly what this meant for his military involvement, if it truly did end at this point in 1863. But it has been a real privilege to discover that I have a personal connection to someone who was a part of history like this.

I have veterans in my family from every major conflict the United States has ever fought. I look forward to exploring the documents I've gathered so far. I never imagined the rich story they could reveal about the lives and struggles of my ancestors. Names of battles and dates of conflict have never felt like such a part of me before, and I look forward to what else I can learn from studying these military records in-depth.

John M. P. Clark revisited

John M. P. Clark

John M. P. Clark has been on my mind the past few days. I have discovered quite a bit about him through my research, but only just realized I have never published nor polished those findings.

John was born 20 August 1835 in Virginia, and his life was long and full of objects of interest. As a Mason, judge/magistrate, and a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives (1893-1895, 1901-1902) his life was one of public service. However, my interest in his life brings me to his experiences as a Civil War veteran.

John enlisted in the Confederate 61st Tennessee regiment, Company H out of Claiborne County, Tennessee. His unit was assigned to General John C. Vaughn's Brigade, and remained there throughout the rest of the war.

This regiment participated in the Seige of Vicksburg in Mississippi, and the skirmishes leading up that battle. The Union advanced on Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge, culminating in the capture of over 29,000 of the Confederate forces. As a last ditch effort, Lt. General John C. Pemberton headed his remaining into the fort at Vicksburg to avoid capture and defeat.

Pemberton, trying to please Jefferson Davis, who insisted that Vicksburg and Port Hudson must be held, and to please Johnston, who thought both places worthless militarily, had been caught in the middle, a victim of a convoluted command system and his own indecisiveness. Too dispirited to think clearly, he chose to back his bedraggled army into Vicksburg rather than evacuate the city and head north where he might have escaped to campaign again. When he chose to take his army into Vicksburg, Pemberton sealed the fate of his troops and the city he had been determined to defend.
— Vicksburg, The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi, Michael B. Ballard

John Clark on Civil War POW roster

As the events of the Vicksburg siege unfolded, it becomes a horrible story of war--fighting and bloodshed during the middle of summer in the American South, insufficient rations and starvation, disease and sickness, where all while his comrades and commanding officers are either beside him in prison, or being starved out within the fort itself. My ancestor John was captured on July 4th, 1863, in circumstances so awful that I cannot begin to imagine them. Even though he was liberated the next day, all of the hardship leading up to that moment made it undeniable torture.

What went through his mind during this experience? Was he afraid for his life? Did the hunger become so powerful that the thought no longer crossed his mind? Did he suffer from malaria, dysentery, or scurvy like so many others in his ranks? How did this experience change him?

How did his perception of himself change when he actually survived it?

The battle ended with Pemberton's surrender on July 4th, 1863. John's life was spared, largely because General Grant didn't anticipate any of the men so damaged from their experience to continue fighting against them. But the 61st Tennessee regiment was reorganized to become mounted infantry and fought in the Knoxville campaign, action in the Valley of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia where it was disbanded.

John M. P. Clark headstone

Knowing this history and putting it into a fuller perspective, I can appreciate the sacrifice and story that existed for this man beneath being a politician or a Freemason. The Civil War takes on a new dimension when your ancestors are a part of it. The economics and politics finder deeper context as a good man goes to war to defend his home and family--not to mention the land on which they sat. Anyone who assumes that the heartbeat of the Confederacy was pure racism simply doesn't know history well enough. They don't understand the pain these men endured during the Civil War, and how pointless slavery had to seem during starvation, or watching your home go up in flames.

John Clark lived a long life, dying at the age of 77. He married 3 times and had a small army of children.

He won some. He lost some. He was an average man who was forever changed by extraordinary circumstances that came to define him.

I hope I get to meet him some day.

Breakthrough

So I had a recent breakthrough of which I am still tingling with excitement.

This is John Clark and Nancy Bray. They are my great great great grandparents. They lived from the 1830's and on through the turn of the century. I had no idea this picture even existed until I made the rounds, so to speak, at Thanksgiving with all of the older members of my family. My great great Aunt Josie told me about this picture, and I already knew I had to come back down to see her. But that wasn't even the most valuable piece of information I found when we did go back.

Entering a relative's home to do an interview/exploration (for lack of a better word) can sometimes feel awkward. But they are some of the most important work you can do because of the things you discover--both in terms of knowledge that would be otherwise unknown because only they remember it, and for all the accidental discoveries. This visit was an example of both.

After making digital copies of many of her pictures with my fiance's camera phone, I had some quality photo finds.

My great great grandmother Laura Clark

My great grandmother, Violet Nancy Greene

And don't get me wrong, I was really grateful to have the chance. The photo of John and Nancy was already worth the hour-long drive down to Baltimore for me. But I could just feel in my bones that there was more. There was something else I needed to find, there was another reason I was there.

What do you do in that moment? That was my question. I don't remember that I prayed consciously, but the prayer of course was there in my heart. I could feel that there were people there waiting to be found. It's a feeling I can't describe, but I'm sure many genealogists know.

"Aunt Josie, do you have any other photo albums I could look at?" I asked.

"Yeah, down in that cabinet. I don't know where it is, but it's a small one," she kindly obliged me. She promptly went back to talking to (and flirting with) my fiance. The women in my family are so cute and so funny when they're 80.

I hit the box, with all of its assorted envelopes and unassuming articles. Maybe that photo album was what I was needing. I wasn't sure. But I knew I couldn't leave until I figured it out.

As I removed layers of increasingly interesting strata from the small cardboard box, I can across two more photo albums. One was about the size of a small address book, full of black and white pictures. The other was a medium sized album with no cover. But those weren't the finds of the day.

Underneath the albums were dozens of funeral programs, obituaries, and pieces of personal histories. I nearly died of excitement.

My favorite find was this lovely little score. It was written by Mary Ethel Ferguson, sister of Violet Greene and Aunt Josie. I don't know the occasion, but it is a beautiful tribute to their mother Laura Clark.

It's hard for me to describe the personal significance of this heartfelt expression of love--not just for their mother, but for God Himself. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the only member in my family. The rest of my family have their own private views of God and the importance of faith, but it isn't an open subject or motivating factor in their lives. We don't really have a religious identity as a family. This leaves me feeling alone and misunderstood, and craving the companionship of at least one person who understands my motivations and priorities. Couldn't there be just ONE person in my family who could understand? I've asked myself that before.

And, as it turns out, there are. And there may be many. They just happen to be dead.

Mary Ethel Greene Ferguson

And the reality is, faith as a tradition doesn't appear to have ever been absent from my family, nor did it "die off," as it may have previously appeared to me. It was simply carried off by other branches of the family tree, in the hearts of men and women I have never met. Ethel's writing is evidence enough of that, and I look forward to meeting her someday.

The funeral programs of all these deceased members of my family were interesting. Even though these deaths are separated by many years, and even different parts of Tennessee where this part of my family is from, many of the programs are printed on the same paper--all of them with the 23rd Psalm on them. I know that is unremarkable for funeral materials, but these funeral programs are identical--same green cover and everything. I'm wondering if it's a tradition of whatever church to which they belonged--perhaps of the same pastor whose name appears in many of them.

One day, I hope to make a journey to Tennessee and to discover what is left of them there. Now that I have their burial information, the chance of doing this is becoming a more concrete possibility. 

All because of one visit to an aging relative, one question, one hunch unignored.