I just got back from my 4 day research trip to southern Illinois. I spent time in White, Wayne and Jefferson Counties. Spent about half my time at the libraries and court houses and the other half talking with members of my families and trying to capture their information and memories. I can back with enough stuff to keep me busy for a few weeks.
Over the next week or so, I will be posting what I have found out once I have it analyzed.
Last Wednesday, I headed over to Anderson Indiana to try and tie up a few loose ends. A couple of things that I did not know where:
I headed over to the Health Department first. Unfortunately, they didn’t let me look at the original documents. They found death certificates for Herman, Charlotte, and Theodore. One wasn’t there for Stella.
Nothing was new on Herman’s Death Certificate. Charlotte’s gave me her date of birth and her fathers last name: Bridgeman. Theodore’s gave me a few details as well. Gave me his birth date as 12-15-1946. It also listed his parents as Samuel Wallace and Eliza Douglas. But the interesting thing was his last name was listed as McWallace instead of just Wallace.
After getting the documents, I headed down the street to the library. I found Herman and Charlotte on a number of phone directories. The first one I found them on was the 1927 city directory. I have concluded that they were married between 1924 and 1927. But according to the marriage records, they did not get married in Madison County.
I did manage to retrieve Theodore’s obituary from 1946. This gave me another nugget of information that I did not have before. Before going there, I knew of only one child, Gilbert. But on Theodore’s obit, it also listed: Rosa, Samuel, Ernest and Otho in addition to Gilbert. I then tried to find some obituaries of his children. I found Samuel’s obit in the Anderson newspaper (12/22/1970). In this obit, it states that he was the son of Theodore and Elizabeth Wallace. It also states that he was born in Frisco, IN.
As a side note, Anderson’s Public Library is wonderful. They have a lot of resources. Compare this to libraries in Hamilton County which are flat out horrible. (At least the Noblesville, Carmel, and Westfield libraries).
I have updated the Clemmons/Clements Family DNA Project. We have over 53 different people that have submitted their dna and have recieved their results. We have a number of people that are in the process of submitting thier information.
Patricia Griffith has been the driving force behind this DNA Project. She has devoted alot of her time, energy and money in getting this project moving and I am very thankful that she has done this work.
I received a few more items late last month. Among the items that I got were Amanda Hawkins’ Death Certificate and Obituary. Amanda was the second wife of John Hawkins. On the 1850 census of Washington County, Indiana, she is shown as the daughter of Jacob and June Bowers. She was born on March 12, 1842 according to her death certificate. According to the census of 1850, she was listed as 10 years old. She lived 81 years 4 months and 19 days. She died on August 1st, 1923.
For some reason, on the obituary, they printed her maiden name as Powers and not Bowers. But her parents were listed correctly.
Its been a while since I have posted anything, although I did alot of research in the past month. One of the things that I received via the mail was the marriage certificate for Thomas Franklin Clifton and Janie Eskew. One of the odd things is that her last name was written slightly different than her fathers. I think this would be more due to the person writing it. What is more odd is how she signed her name. She signed it S. E. J. Askew which is the third different way that it is written on the document. You can click on the image to the right and see it.
Marriage took place on October 19th, 1879 at the brides residence.
I have put out the pdf version of the Clemmons 2005 Newsletter. This was published for the Clemmons family reunion held in July. If anyone has anything that they would like to submit, please send me the information and I will get it included for the 2006 newsletter.
I think I might have found them on the 1900 Census in Vanderburgh County, Indiana.
Harris, William T – Head
Harris, Emma – Wife
Harris, William J. – Son
Harris, Ettie – Daughter
Harris, Maggie N. – Daughter
Harris, ? – Daughter
Harris, Lilliam – Daughter
Harris, John – Son
Williams and Emma’s birth places (and parents) appear to be correct. This is also where William was from. It also appears that they moved back from Illinois sometime between October 1889 and November 1892.
Wanted to put in a link to make it easier to get to my Puckett lines. Some have traced the Puckett line back further than Edward Roland Puckett, but I think most of it is speculation and I haven’t had time to investigate.
You can view the Puckett Lines here: My Puckett Lines
I received the marriage certificates today in the mail from the White County Courthouse. I requested two certificates to see if the two women in them were the daughters of William Carter and the sisters of Joseph Edgar Carter. They were:
RUSH, ANDREW F CARTER, MARY 09/06/1889
HARRIS, WILLIAM THOMAS CARTER, EMMA VIOLA 08/19/1883
Well, I hit on one of them, Emma. Emma is the daughter of William and Elizabeth Carter. She was 17 at the time of marriage.
William Thomas Harris was born in Vandenburg County, Indiana to Samuel Perry Harris and ???? (maiden name was Tompkins). Mothers name wasn’t listed, just her maiden name. He was 24 at the time of marriage. They were married at the home of Berry Rose (Emma’s Step-Father).
This does provide me some clues and it also opens a door for another avenue to explore so that I can find out what happened to William Carter and to Joseph Edgar Carter.
I know need to find out what happened to William and Emma Harris. Finding an obituary for Emma. Finding them on Census records for 1900 thru 1930. And I can only hope that someone in that line is also into genealogy.
I have posted the carter family group sheets for those that want to know a little more. You can view the group sheets here: Carter Family Group Sheets.
I will be updating them with notes and sources in the coming days and weeks.
Clemmons Family History 
