Over the course of the last two years, I have written a number of blogs about genealogy. This quest for family history knowledge was sparked by the release of the 1940 census in the spring of 2012.
A couple of the pieces I have written has focused on my search for my great grandmother, Mary Valentine Carpenter. This Saturday will be the 100th anniversary of her death. So in remembrance of that date, if you will forgive me, I'd like to re-post something I wrote about this quest. I posted this blog in August 2012.
________________________________________________________________
Lisa says that focusing on a family history/genealogy project is somewhat like working a jigsaw puzzle. You put it together one piece at a time.
Over the weekend, I found two fairly significant pieces.
You might recall from back in the spring, I made a visit to the Magnolia Cemetery in Collierville to pay my respects to my great grandfather, Pittman Carpenter, and his second wife – who was known in the family as ‘Miz Mary.’ I happened to be in Collierville serving as a chaperone when the FHS forensics team went to state competition. It just happened to be held a few miles away from Pittman’s home.
I was not able to pay my respects to Pittman’s first wife – my great grandmother, also named Mary. Her maiden name was Valentine (or Vollentine – we’ve seen it both ways). We had some anecdotal information that she was buried in Marshall County, MS – just south of Collierville - but we didn’t know much more than that.
I had sort of let things drop and then, one night, I had a dream about Mary. In the dream I am asking about her and someone says, “Well, you’ll have to ask Pittman about that.” Obviously, that’s not plausible. But, when I awoke, I decided I needed to do the next best thing. I started to dig.
During the mid-part of summer, thanks to other genealogy buffs on Ancestry.com, I was able to trace the Gary line all the way back to England. I was still struggling to find out anything on Mary.
Then, over the weekend, I ran across the 1900 census and I found the Valentines. They were, in fact, in Marshall County. I was able to plug in information about Mary, her folks, and her seven siblings. She was third out of eight.
Then, I started looking around on the census page and guess who I found living next door? The Carpenters. Living with his dad, an aunt and two older brothers was Silvaneous Pittman Carpenter (listed on the 1900 census as “Sill”).
Now, the picture becomes more and more clear.
In an era when communication was limited, especially in rural areas, and transportation was primitive, this young couple met, quite simply, because they were neighbors.
Within five years they were married. Later, my grandmother was born and this line of the family tree continued to branch out…all the way down to me (and now to my kids).
I still wanted to find where my great grandmother is buried.
Lisa suggested I do a search on Find-a-Grave.com and, eureka, I found her. On the Find-a-Grave page that mentions her, there is a link to my great grandfather. There is also a mention that Mary is buried in an unmarked grave.
Interestingly, if what I found is true, she is buried in the Pittman Cemetery. You can’t make this stuff up!
So, now that I’ve found her, I’m working on confirming this fact. And once I am able to confirm, I want to work on providing Mary a marker. Considering all we owe this courageous lady for all she did – and for her place in our family tree – it seems like this is the least we can do to pay our tribute.
JG
Originally posted 10/2/2014
No comments:
Post a Comment