New Finds

It's a funny thing how I can work on one line of my ancestry and come up completely dry and then I'll have something bug me and I'll wonder and wonder and still come up dry or with the same old stuff that doesn't fit... And then, I have this window open up and I see things differently.
That is what has happened in the last few days.
And it's not exactly a direct line, but sort of, so bear with me.
Below are some photos of my Great-Grandpa's cousin, Dorothy Matthews (Hallford). She was the youngest child born to Susan Sullivan and James E. Matthews. (Sometimes it's Matthews, sometimes Mathews, Mathis, Mathes, depends on who's writing, I guess) She was born in 1915, and her father died in 1916.




This photo is of Dorothy, I think her husband Millington "Mig" Elzie Hallford, and the girl is probably the child that they raised. I do not know her name, but she was Mig's niece and my Grandma did not like the way they treated the little girl. That sums up the story with this branch of the family and all that I have discovered in the past few days.
Well, Aunt Sue (Dorothy's mother), had 11 children. Jane (also known on records as Jennie and Emma D), Bertha, Pearl, Julia, Everett, Arlie (Orlie), Edd, Addie, and Dorothy. There are two born in the 1890's whose names I do not know, as they died before the 1900 census.
Julia and Edd passed away before 1920, as did James E. Matthews, their father. Pearl married Burt Blunt, but I cannot find them after their marriage in 1920.
While I cannot find the family as a unit in 1930, I did find Arlie working for a family in Clay County, Arkansas as a hired hand.
In 1932, Dorothy married Mig Hallford in Muskogee, Oklahoma. That is where Aunt Sue's brother (my great-great Grandpa George was on the 1930 census as head of household including my Grandma, Aunt Darlene, and Uncle Ray; as well as others of Grandpa George's children and grandchildren) was living.
About 1933, Aunt Sue came out to Arizona with Grandpa George and the other Sullivan kindred. At that time, it was likely only Dorothy and Everett left with Aunt Sue. Everett was disabled in some fashion, though my dad told me that he worked very hard. Everett trusted my Grandma to help him with keeping his bills and money - he worked for a well known citrus grove here in Mesa - and lived in a shack on the citrus grove.
In 1946, Aunt Sue passed away. I had a few pictures of Dorothy. I think these probably came from Everett's things after he passed away in 1971 and my Grandma held onto them. But what about the other children? What happened to them?
But I kept thinking about Jane/Jennie, the oldest of the children. I have a marriage record for her, a census record for her, and then... ?
She was born in January 1891, Arkansas. She was on the 1900 Census with her parents as Jane, 1910 Census with her parents as Emma D. and new husband, John Cantrell. She married John Cantrell 31 July 1909 as Jennie Matthews.
So, I went digging. In 1920 I found John Cantrell with his wife Delia and 2 children Edna Cantrell b. 1912 and Thurman Cantrell b. 1915. Well, those all sounded reasonable to me. I chalked it up to Jane was going by yet another name, now Emma D was Delia.
But it kept bothering me. For months it's been bothering me.
I went through marriage records again. I discovered there was a Delia Taylor who married a John Cantwell. Do not trust indexes, my friends. Go to the source if you can. So, I looked at familysearch.org at the actual films of the marriage records and I still think that W looks like a W, but I also think that it should look more like an R and someone was just being lazy at the recorder's office that day.
Why? Why would I make such a pronouncement upon the good, kindly folk of 1912 at the county recorder's office in Randolph County, Arkansas?
Because of what else I've read on marriage licenses.
In 1927, Mrs. Delia Cantrell married Mr. George W. Barnett. I believe John Cantrell had passed away. In 1930, Delia lived with George Barnett and her son Thurman Cantrell. That is reasonable, right? And at first I thought, well, Edna probably was married and left home, that's why she wasn't living there, too.
Until I went looking for a marriage record for Edna Cantrell.
I did find that Edna Cantrell married Troy Miller 25 May 1928 in Clay County, Arkansas. What struck me was the note of permission to marry written by Troy Miller's father:

"I hereby signify my consent to the marriage of my son, Troy Miller, age 20, to above named Edna Cantrell, who has no living parent or legal guardian and now lives with me. S.M. Miller"

She was sixteen years old and had no living parent or legal guardian?
Then, today it hit me.
YES! Her mother died when she was an infant - thus the reason that her father married (a 16 year old) Delia Taylor in November 1912. When her father died, probably in early 1927, she lost her only living parent. I felt very sad for Edna Cantrell today. Her mother gone when she was an infant. Her father gone when she was only a teenager - basically the age my oldest daughter is right now - and her step mother, the only mother she has ever known, taking her brother and going off to live with another man.
Truly I do not know the circumstances of their life in 1927/1928.
And I think of Aunt Sue. Did she know what was happening to her granddaughter, Edna? Her own daughter Jane, Edna's mother, had died many years before. Perhaps there were already too many mouths to feed and not enough food to go around?
I do not know.

From what little I am gleaning from reading posts online about Thurman Cantrell, it seems as though no one knows much about his parentage, if he had siblings (which he had one sister, to be sure), and so forth. I am finding the ancestry for John Cantrell in my digging. I hope that someday I will find a descendant of Jane "Jennie" Emma D. Matthews and John Cantrell and be able to share what I've found on the Sullivan line and maybe some about the other lines around, too. The trick is finding the descendants. I know that Edna Cantrell Miller had descendants as they put markers on her grave and her husband's grave. I hope they will be receptive to finding their ancestry.

So, what do we do with these sad stories? I know most people just want a chart to put on the wall, but I want the volumes of the tales... I want to know what made them tick... I want to know what made people smile, how they handled the trials of life, what they made for dinner and what they dreamed for the future.

But now, I have to get back to being the Mom to this generation instead of the genealogist digging up the past. :-)

Dece