trying to figure out an ancestor's name

[lazarus]

The records from my family are muddled. Some refer to an Eliza A Tidwell, some to an Elizabeth A Garret. I found a newspaper column referring to Eliza (Garret) Tidwell.

Thing is, she married my grandfather (5 gens back, I think), and I can't find any reference to their marriage with either name. The newspaper column did refer to it's being the second marriage for both, with no children from the first marriages. Again, I can't figure out if it's Tidwell or Garret.

Some trees on Genealogy.com say it's Tidwell, and list her parents, and that's all I've got to go on. Any tips would help. I'm stuck on the other side of the continent, so I can't go digging up courthouse records, and I don't know if antebellum records even exist.

[proudohioan]

1. What state? n/t

[lazarus]

2. she ended up in Alabama

Covington County. There's a possibility some of this occurred in Georgia, though, as Ira Washington Rabren, her husband, was from there. The record is kinda spotty until he gets to Alabama.

Cool fact: He got a land grant in Alabama for being part of the Georgia Militia fighting the Indian wars pre-Civil War, then fought in the Civil War and was a POW for a couple of months. He's also the ancestor, most likely, of one of my best friends in high school.

[proudohioan]

3. Alabama? Excellent!

Try this site:

FamilySearch.org

It's the LDS site and it's free. When you get to the home page, there is a drop down menu under 'search records'. Click onto the 'record search pilot' tab. This will open up another window.

They have recently started this program, and volunteers transcribe records, and in some cases, you can even view the actual document!

Alabama is where my SO's paternal line is from, and just a few weeks ago, I stumbled onto this record search pilot site, and low and behold, a lot of transcribing was done for Alabama, and came up with a plethora of info for his family name! We were even able to view the handwritten page of the record of marriages!

Please let me know what you find; I am a genealogy nut, and don't much care whose family it is!

Good luck,

Theresa

Edit; my apologies, the link doesn't seem to work??? However, the website is valid.

[lazarus]

4. the record is, of course

spotty and confusing, but as best I can tell:

she was born Eliza A Tidwell, then married a Garrett, then married my ancestor Ira Washington Rabren(with multiple spellings of that name).

On the distaff side, I found a Lord of the Privy Council and several knights, and have gone back to Henry Webb, born 1350. This is fun stuff. At one point, we were supposedly tied into the Norman conquest, but someone made a mistake on some genealogies that Haele caught, and the record ends at 1350.

On edit: Thanks for that site, it's a big help.

[proudohioan]

5. Wow, that's fascinating....

How did you ever manage to go back as far as 1350?

I am impressed!

Yes, this is really fun stuff, better (but more frustrating) than a jigsaw puzzle.

t.

[lazarus]

8. Ancestry.com had it

through a bunch of other genealogies. But I was careful, as they tied into the Thackeray tree tying the Webbs into the de Richmonds at the wrong generation.

A de Richmond changed his name to Webb when he married into the family in the mid 15th century, but the genealogies I saw had it in the mid 14th, which isn't right.

I was careful to make sure all the dates added up, and there were multiple sources all along the way. I was really surprised I was able to go that far back, as I only paid for a national membership, not a world membership.

[proudohioan]

6. I did find an Eliza A. Tidwell.....

born circa 1835 in Alabama, residing in De Soto Parish, Louisiana in 1850.......
Could that be the right one?

t.

[lazarus]

7. the date I have for birth

is 8 May 1825, in Covington County, Alabama. There are several Eliza Tidwells floating around for some reason.

I was also told that the Census can be misleading. Apparently, back in the day they would Census you wherever you were, and it took months, so if you were visiting somewhere, you'd get counted again, possibly.

[proudohioan]

14. Yes, and also whoever transcribed the census..

might have gotten it wrong.

I knew that my ggparents lived in Akron, OH in 1930, but could not find them on the Ancestry.com census. So I went to the LDS research center had them order a microfich of the Akron City Directory from 1930. Then I knew the address, and from their, found the census record. Their name had been transcribed as Kulen rather than Kuhar!

Such frustration!

[lazarus]

9. More confusion

Eliza's mother, Mariam Ward, was supposedly married to both a Henry Tidwell and a Henry Garrett. Aargh! More research.

Edit: Using your new source, I can't find a record of a Henry Tidwell, but can find a Henry Garrett with the same birth place and date. So my earlier find of Eliza's being a Tidwell, then a Garrett, is backwards. She's a Garrett, then a Tidwell, I think.

Sheesh. Of course, we also have the fun of people changing their name and spelling on a whim. Just to make things interesting.

[proudohioan]

12. Aargh is right!

Must have been a small town!

I'll start with Tidwell, it's less common.

T.

[lazarus]

15. this is all very rural

even more so back then. Even now, the county only has about 30,000 residents, if that. Maybe 20k.

I'm thinking Garrett is the way to go here.

[proudohioan]

17. It was probably pretty common.

Yes, Garrett should be the maiden name, unless the children were unaware of the first marriage?

[lazarus]

18. the first marriage

seems common knowledge, as the researcher for the newspaper had it back in 97. The kicker, to me, is that Henry Tidwell's father is listed as being a Garrett. That means someone got sloppy with the Tidwell/Garrett issue when setting up Eliza's spouse, I think.

[dgibby]

30. Another tidbit to add to the confusion.

There was a practice of naming a child after a child that died. For instance, two Elizas in the same family, but with different birthdates. Arrrrgh!

[proudohioan]

10. I find death records for

A Daniel Rabren and a Caralina (Rabren) Brown, both in Alabama, but different cities/counties.

Both have listed as Ira Rabren and Eliza Garritt as their parents.

No photo of the actual death certificate ;(

Name: Caralina Brown
Titles & Terms (Original):
Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Death Date: 22 Sep 1935
Death Place: Andalusia, Covington, Alabama
Gender: Female
Race (Original): W
Race (Standardized): White
Age at Death: 81y 1m 14d
Estimated Birth Date:
Birth Date: 09 Aug 1854
Birthplace: Covington Co, Al
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Tom J. Brown
Spouse's Titles & Terms (Original):
Spouse's Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Father's Name: Ira Rabern
Father's Titles & Terms (Original):
Father's Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Father's Birthplace:
Mother's Name: Eliza Garrett
Mother's Titles & Terms (Original):
Mother's Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Mother's Birthplace:
Occupation:
Street Address:
Residence:
Cemetery:
Burial Place:
Burial Date:
Funeral Home:
Informant:
Additional Relatives:
Film Number: 1908533
Reference Number: cn 19051
Collection: Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974


Sorry this came out so awkward. I will send you the record of Daniel Rabren.

[Rosie1223]

26. Thanks for the link!

sometimes it really pays to go back and review sites you thought you had exhausted. Found some new info!

:hi:

[proudohioan]

27. You are very welcome...

and good luck with your research.

I found valuable info on that new addition, and was actually able to view the record of one set of ggparents marriage (turns out it was in Michigan, and not in WV like I had been told), and a different set of ggparents actual death certificates.

Hope you find info that is just as exciting!

t.:hi:

[proudohioan]

11. Here is Daniel..

Name: Daniel Rabren
Titles & Terms (Original):
Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Death Date: 02 Jul 1940
Death Place: Evergreen, Conecuh, Alabama
Gender: Male
Race (Original):
Race (Standardized):
Age at Death: 76y
Estimated Birth Date: 1864
Birth Date:
Birthplace:
Marital Status:
Spouse's Name: Mary M. Rabren
Spouse's Titles & Terms (Original):
Spouse's Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Father's Name: Ira Rabren
Father's Titles & Terms (Original):
Father's Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Father's Birthplace:
Mother's Name: Eliza Garritt
Mother's Titles & Terms (Original):
Mother's Titles & Terms (Standardized):
Mother's Birthplace:
Occupation:
Street Address:
Residence:
Cemetery:
Burial Place:
Burial Date:
Funeral Home:
Informant:
Additional Relatives:
Film Number: 1908590
Reference Number: cn 15534
Collection: Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974

[lazarus]

13. I think Daniel

is an uncle. Yes, Caroline Elizabeth married Thomas Jefferson Brown, and then had Olive Savannah Brown. That's my lineage there.

[proudohioan]

16. Good, we're on the right track....

where to go from here?

[lazarus]

19. I've got so damned many branches right now

I almost don't know where to go from here. I guess I'll go with the Garrett family name and see how far back I can track it.

I've got Richard Garrett, born 1755, with a father Richard born 1733 in England and a mother Elizabeth Gall, also born 1733 in England. that's probably where it will stop.

Edit:

Okay, something's not adding up. Richard the younger was born in Georgia. Richard the elder was born in England, and died in England. Did he and Elizabeth travel to the US, have kids, then go back to England? :shrug:

[proudohioan]

20. That doesn't sound right to me, either. n/t

[lazarus]

21. found it with the LDS site

Richard Garrett wasn't born in Georgia, he was born 05 Nov 1755 St. James, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England.

I think.

Unless he's the Richard Garrett born 14 Oct 1755 in Melton, Suffolk, England.

Oy vey.

The Richard Garrett (elder) listed on Ancestry.com was born in Suffolk, but I don't know that I can trust that at all, as it has a different spouse listed that disagrees with the LDS site.

[proudohioan]

22. Oy vey is right!

And why is his mothers maiden name not listed, I wonder?

[lazarus]

23. I find that a lot, actually

Several of my female ancestors don't have a maiden name, but that's only the earliest records. I guess women didn't matter as much back then or something.

[proudohioan]

24. I do to.

I'm stuck on a Sarah unknown myself on my maternal side. And her married name is Mead (of course, something so common). To make matters worse, her daughter was born in an area of NY that is just on the border of both CT and MA, and the borders of the counties were changing considerably at that time. Where to even look?

Genalogy is something that's fun to hate at times. But I love it anyway.

[Spider Jerusalem]

31. LDS is kind of unreliable.

At least where user-submitted information is concerned. The International Genealogical Index can be a very valuable source, though (especially for its records of baptisms, marriages and deaths from English parish records going back in some instances to the 16th century). Something that's useful to look for in the parish records is a correlation of known family names (for instance, if your Richard Garrett named children William and Edward, and you find other Garretts with those names in a given parish register with the same father, there's a higher chance that you have the right person than if it's someone whose siblings/father/mother had names that don't match the names of any of his known children).

[lazarus]

25. more fun

I have an ancestor, George Washington Sexton. According to the sources I have, he married Emily Roseanna McCartey and Louisa Hartin, both on 08 Jan 1861 in Butler County, Alabama.

I don't think he was Mormon, so I have no idea which one to go with. :shrug:

[lazarus]

28. okay, someone got sloppy, as usual

he married Louisa first (my line) in 1861, then Emily second. I can't find a date for the second wedding, though.

My mother somehow remembers hearing about a great-grandmother Louisa, which is how I know it's her. Amazing how much info my family has that they don't know they have.

[lazarus]

29. okay, I'm stuck

hoping y'all have better sources. I'm looking for traces of three ancestors:

Nancy Jane Knight, 1847 - 1919. Born in Germany, died in Covington County, Alabama.
Ed Patterson, born sometime around 1885. No idea where, but he died in Alabama. No year.
Flossie Patterson, born sometime around 1893. Also need her maiden name.

I have family looking for more info on the Pattersons.