52 Ancestors: Favorite Photos - (not) Lucy Frazier

The theme for this week’s 52 Ancestors challenge is favorite photo. While this photo of Nancy Frances Shiflett Morris is NOT REALLY my favorite, 

Nancy Frances Shiflett Morris
photo courtesy of Olen Morris

it is the one photo that might possibly reveal what the subject of this week’s post might have looked like. Nancy Frances was a granddaughter of Lucy Frazier, wife of last week’s subject, John Frazier. Did Lucy have that wide mouth and thin lips like Nancy Frances? Did she have a wide forehead too? Did she need glasses? There is no way to know exactly which parts of Lucy’s DNA shook out into Nancy Frances, but when I try to visualize my 4X great-grandmother, I have no choice but to see her granddaughter.

Lucy’s appearance is just one of a million things I do not know about her. When and where was she born? When did she die? Who were her parents? Did she dote on her children? Was she a good cook? Lucy appeared by name in only one census: 1850 Greene County, Virginia. 

from 1850 Greene County, VA Federal Census

At that time she was a widow and head of household. She claimed to be 72, putting her year of birth at about 1778. She was born in Virginia. She could neither read nor write. The value of her property was $150. In her household were one son and one grandson. Since she did not appear in the 1860 census, she probably died after 1850 and before 1860.

A marriage record confirms that Lucy Shiflett (or Shiplett as spelled in a transcription) and John Frazier married 20 January 1811 in Albemarle County, Virginia. But was this a first, second, or even third marriage for Lucy?

There are two reasons to think Lucy had been married before. First, her oldest child Leland was born about 1805, at least five years ahead of that marriage record. While family researchers are accustomed to errors in dates as well as errors in ancestors’ judgment, there is the matter of the second reason to suspect Lucy had married previously. Son Leland throughout his life flip-flopped going by the names Leland Frazier and Leland Shiflett.

My theory is that “Shiflett” was a first husband and father of Leland. But who was Lucy before then? I believe she was Lucy Hardin. Why? Because Leland’s middle name was Hardin. He was known as Leland Hardin Shiflett OR Leland Hardin Frazier, depending on how he introduced himself on any given day.

There is no evidence to support my theory, but I am not alone in my thinking. Family trees on Ancestry.com also show Lucy with the maiden name Hardin. Some even name a father:  Isaac Hardin. Most offer no documentation. Those that offer “proof” point to documentation that actually negates the argument that the Lucy who married John Frazier was daughter of Isaac Hardin of Albemarle County.

Marriage record for Lucy Hardin and William Scott
from Ancestry.com

A red flag went up when I saw that some researchers say Lucy was married to William Scott, but I recognized that it was possible she had been married 3 times. A marriage record confirms that Lucy Hardin married William Scott in 1808 in Albemarle County. It had to have been a short marriage though for her to then marry someone named Shiflett and then John Frazier in 1811.

Scouting around the internet further, I found a will for Isaac Hardin. He spelled out his desires for which children got what. To his daughter “Lucinda Scott” he left all the slaves that he had already loaned her, and he further stipulated that at her death, the slaves and their increase should be divided among Lucy’s heirs. The problem with this will, however, is that it is dated 1820. Obviously a different Lucy Hardin. By 1820, Lucy had been married to John Frazier 9 years and had 7 little Fraziers to care for, and not a slave in sight.

The Fraziers:

John FRAZIER (ca 1770 - before 1850 Greene Co, VA) and LUCY SHIFLETT (ca 1778 - before 1860 Greene Co, VA)

1. Leland Hardin Shiflett/Frazier (ca 1805 - about 1892 Greene Co, VA) & m1) Ann Smith Mallory (1806 - 1833 Orange Co, VA) ; m2) America Mallory (1810 - 1854 Greene Co, VA) ; m3) Artemissa Shiflett (1813 - 1890 Greene Co, VA)
2. Nancy Elizabeth Frazier (14 Feb 1811 Albemarle Co, VA - 22 Jan 1895 Rockingham Co, VA) & Burton Shiflett (1814 Orange Co, VA - 6 Sep 1860 Greene Co, VA) m. 1 Dec 1834 Albemarle Co, VA
3. Keziah Frazier (1812 Albemarle Co, VA - 8 Oct 1855 Greene Co, VA) & Lively Morris (1812 - ca 1890 Greene Co, VA) m. 27 Nov 1838 Greene Co, VA
4. Michael “Miley” Frazier (1814 - before 1910 Albemarle Co, VA) & Virenda Jane Shiflett (1821 Orange Co, VA - before 1900 Greene Co, VA) m. 14 Jul 1844 Greene Co, VA
5. John Harris Frazier (1815 - after 1880) & Mary J. Morris (1817 - before 1860) m. 5 Apr 1836 Albemarle Co, VA
6. William Thomas Frazier (1817 - 16 Dec 1860 Page Co, VA) & Ardena Morris (26 Jan 1817 Orange Co, VA - after 1880 Page Co, VA) m. 1 Jan 1841 Greene Co, VA
7. Shadrack Frazier (1820 - after 1880 Page Co, VA) & Naomi Deane (1828 - 24 Oct 1860 Page Co, VA) m. 13 Sep 1847 Albemarle Co, VA
8. Susan Frances Frazier (1824 Albemarle Co, VA - 1880 Page Co, VA) & Pleasant Morris (1823 - 1865 Page Co, VA) m. 2 Dec 1845 Greene Co, VA
9. Merry / Murrey Walker Frazier (1827 Albemarle Co, VA - Aug 1887 Greene Co, VA) & Mariah Keaton (1845 Albemarle Co, VA - May 1890 Greene Co, VA) m. 31 Oct 1881 Greene Co, VA

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors: START with Frazier

Amy Johnson Crow has presented another challenge for 2018 – to research and write about 1 ancestor each week, 52 ancestors in 52 weeks. This year she has included a weekly theme or prompt. Week 1 is appropriately titled “START.” So let’s START with one of my lines that has been neglected for quite some time: Frazier.

My oldest known Frazier is my 4X great-grandfather John Frazier of Albemarle and Greene counties in Virginia. Census records suggest he was born in Virginia about 1770 and died before 1850. So far Frazier researchers have not been able to pin down any specifics on those important dates, nor have they been able to prove conclusively, absolutely, without doubt and once and for all who his parents were and from where the Fraziers of Virginia came.

Like many folks, I enjoy checking the family trees on Ancestry and FamilySearch to see what others have found in their research. I use the information and MISinformation for clues. Genealogy nerds will find the Frazier research to be very amusing. In reality, though, it is not funny because innocent novices will be fooled into taking the family trees as gospel.

Take for example the trees naming John Frazier’s parents as Thomas Frazier and Agnes Johnston. According to those “family historians” (and I use that term loosely), John Frazier was from Inverness, Scotland and was naturalized in 1807 in South Carolina where he worked as a merchant. The father Thomas was supposedly born in either the Netherlands or Scott County, Virginia. He married Agnes Johnston in 1770 in Guilford, North Carolina and then married her again in 1799 in Patrick County, Virginia. Makes perfect sense – Thomas and Agnes were so in love, they married twice. And they were so in love, they took a honeymoon trip to Scotland were little baby John was born before zipping back home to North Carolina or Virginia or South Carolina or wherever. Yeah, that’s a good story. Totally believable – NOT!

Or maybe other researchers got it right when they claimed John was son of Thomas N. Frazier and Sarah Joyce. These researchers follow Thomas’s line back to Robert Frazier of Ireland who sailed from home to Philadelphia and then on to Orange County, Virginia where he took the Oath of Allegiance in 1740. He married Clara Frances Graham and together they had 9 or more children. Sons Thomas, William, and Micajah left enough paper trail to place them in the geographic vicinity that makes sense, Orange and Albemarle Counties, but eventually they all moved to Campbell County. Micajah went on to Amherst County. Some of them wound up in Kentucky and Missouri. Therefore, there are still many question marks with this family constellation even though it feels like we are close to determining the STARTing point for my Fraziers.

One Frazier cousin whose research I admire is Kevin who grew up in Page County surrounded by his Frazier family who could trace their roots to John Frazier of Greene County without question. Like me, Kevin cannot push back further with any certainty, but he has the good sense to post his tree with parents “unknown.” 

Kevin’s family lore includes a story that the early Fraziers came to Virginia from debtor’s prison in England. They supposedly participated in Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 before moving westward into Orange County.

If that story is true, it puts our family here in Virginia well ahead of the big influx of Scotch-Irish around 1730 when Governor Gooch was freely doling out land in the Shenandoah Valley.

 

Reconstructed Irish farm at Frontier Culture Museum
Staunton, Augusta Co, VA
(image from flickr under Creative Commons license)

It is certainly possible that our John Frazier descends from one of those early Scotch-Irish settlers. There is a will for a John Frazier in Rockingham County dated 1788, not Kevin’s and my John Frazier but maybe a relative. Since he was a man with land, farm equipment, clothing, and rifles to divide among his heirs, he was not a young man, but likely born in the early 1700s. He mentioned a wife Jennet but no children. He named brothers Joseph, George, and William, and a sister Mary Galloway. Maybe our John was son of one of them.

An 1809 will in nearby Augusta County offers another possible link. In this one, John Frazier apparently did not marry or did not have children because he left his sizeable plantation and mansion to a brother James and to 2 nephews named Samuel Frazier and John W. Frazier. I have never seen MY John Frazier with a middle initial, so this is probably a different John Frazier.  

This is not to say I believe John’s father was also named John. The vast number of Frazier trees say his father was Thomas, and although the research is very shaky, Thomas is a good bet as suggested by the many descendants named Thomas.

John Frazier was such a common name that efforts to push back another generation have been difficult, even for the most astute and dedicated researcher. Maybe one of these days a family bible or colonial record will surface like the Rosetta Stone to reveal the history of the Fraziers in Virginia.

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Year in Review

Gracious mercy me. I blogged less in all of 2017 than I did in 2011 when I started my blog in AUGUST! What can I say?  A number of home improvement projects and travel certainly took up a lot of time, but the worst offender was completing my Jollett book. What a peculiar paradox - a genealogy project taking me away from genealogy. Still there are some good things to celebrate. Let’s look back.

Top 5 Blog Posts

When I went through my stats, I was SHOCKED to see the high numbers on some of my blogs. It would be nice to think my little stories were attracting interested readers, but I suspect the high number of page views is not from legitimate traffic but instead a sign of bot or spider behavior. Oh well, here they are nonetheless:

• Man Shoots Kids
• One Thing Leads to Another
• *A TIE * Jolletts in the News and Mary Alice
• On the Steps of Chambers
• Another Eliza Jollett

Top 5 Personal Connections

1. My dad’s side of the family rose to the top this year. My sister and I enjoyed a lovely lunch with our second cousin Gayle, daughter of one of Daddy’s cousins. We had met many years ago but were never close; in fact, we probably could not recognize each other in the grocery store. Apparently Gayle and her daughter Jacquie have been reading my blog and finally decided to get in touch. It was fun comparing notes on the Sheehan-Killeen-Walsh lines. They shared stories we had never heard and we told ones they had not heard. The best part of the visit is that through sharing what mysteries we would love to solve, we might have actually solved one. However, since people involved are still living, I’ll save that story for another time.
2. My dad’s sister gave me a photo of Aunt Helen Parker’s husband Herbert as a young boy with his father. On the back was written “Ephraim Dick Parker and Herbert.” Captain Dick! Photos of “Captain Dick” and letters making reference to “Captain Dick” had always been a mystery. Who was Captain Dick? Now we knew. But we still wanted to know the story behind the nickname. I like to check the family trees on Ancestry for the family member who seems most knowledgeable about a particular line. I found Joe Parker of Maryland who is the self-proclaimed expert on all Parkers of Portsmouth. While he was quite familiar with Ephraim Parker and family, Joe had never heard the nickname. In multiple emails, we shared quite a bit of information, but the mystery behind the nickname remains just that - a mystery.
3. When I stopped by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham County Historical Society to donate a copy of my Jollett book, I was greeted by the volunteer. He looked at the title and said, “Oh, Wendy Mathias has written another book.” What? Did he actually remember the first one? Then he asked if I were “Wendy Mathias.” OK, so I had to confess, yes, I am. He introduced himself: Kevin Frazier. We had never met but have emailed one another for years and collaborated on Frazier research.  Our 4X great-grandfather was John Frazier of Greene County, Virginia. It was a thrill to meet in person. Kevin gave me the grand tour, introduced me to the head genealogist of the historical society, and introduced me to a couple other volunteers who told me they follow my blog. Please, don’t make me blush. (I guess they are the REAL readers, not those bots and spiders skewing my page views.)
4. Two more interesting connections are both women who were adopted. Sadly, one has been rejected by her new-found family, so she is searching for more information through my blog. The other was given information by her birth-grandfather, and she too is comparing her information with what I have.

Top 5 Genealogy-Related Activities

1. I completed a project for Greene County Historical Society in which I transcribed and indexed 4 volumes of Joseph Hamm’s day books dated from 1856-1871. He was a tailor. It was a thrill when I came across one of my family members placing an order.
2. I participated in several Photo-a-Day Challenges on Instagram (but I ran out of steam when I got busy with other things). I hope to be a better participant in 2018 because the challenges are fun and visiting others has been as well.
3. When GeneaBloggers Tribe stepped in to fill the void when Thomas MacEntee shut down GeneaBloggers, I assisted with the transition. Along with the others who comprised the former “May I Introduce to You” team, I helped update the roster of blogs.
4. As Registrar of my DAR chapter, I have stayed busy assisting women with their applications for membership. That means I often conduct research to prove their lineage.
5. I finished my book, Jollett Reunion, a collection of stories and photos about the children and families of my great-great grandfather James Franklin Jollett. I donated copies to several historical societies and libraries.

Top 5 Discoveries

1. While working on my Jollett book, I took the time to update information, fill in missing dates, and generally just scout around the internet to see if there was anything new. My GenealogyBank subscription paid for itself when a simple search for “Jollett” in the state of Virginia resulted in learning that Charles M. Jollett had a wife and child BEFORE the wife and children I knew about. The first wife was Eliza Watson.
2. Learning about Eliza Watson lead me to their child Mary Alice. That was my saddest discovery ever. Mary Alice was institutionalized as a child. She lived the rest of her life in a place that began with noble intentions but deteriorated over time.
3. One of my paternal grandmother’s cousins became a nun. I used photos of Sadie Byrnes in her habit to learn more about her life but I did not make much headway until I found her obituary. It was just a snippet; if I wanted to read the whole thing, I would have to buy a subscription to the Journal News of White Plains, New York. Not wanting to pay the $60, I turned to the New York City Genealogy group on Facebook to ask if there were another way to see the obituary. In minutes a genie angel posted the full obituary which included details of her teaching career in the Dominican order.
4. A Sepia Saturday photo prompt made me take a closer look at my granduncle Woody Woodring. He played professional baseball in the early years of professional baseball, but he had a card. I noticed the word “Portland” printed below his name. That did not fit with what I knew of his career in Shenandoah and Martinsburg. My newspaper subscriptions paid off again with a few articles about his strength as a catcher for the Portland Beavers, a farm team for the Philadelphia Athletics. 
5. An email requesting more information about Fannie Jollett prompted me to look again at a chancery cause that I had saved years ago but did not read fully. Fannie was being sued for non-payment on property she bought near McGaheysville in Rockingham County, Virginia. Included in the file were depositions of both Fannie and her cousin Columbia King Marsh. What a thrill to read their very own words. 

Top 5 Best Money Spent

• Fold3
• Ancestry
• Newspaper Archive
• GenealogyBank
• Blurb for my book, Jollett Reunion

2017 kicked my derriere. Come on, 2018, be nice to me!

Wendy

© 2017, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Christmas Greetings

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

I wish all my fellow HomoSepians, blogging buddies, family and followers the Merriest Christmas!

Find more holiday greetings at Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2017, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Blog Caroling: "Mary, Did You Know?"

Apparently there are many family historians who want to have a little fun, especially here at Christmastime.  So I’m joining FootnoteMaven and others for a little Blog Caroling. 

One of my favorite songs is “Mary, Did You Know?” by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene. There are over 400 recordings of the song, so if you don’t love the acapella performance by Pentatonix, head on over to YouTube and pick out another one. Peter Hollens does a beautiful version with himself as backup. 

The lyrics grew out of a monologue Mark Lowry wrote for his church Christmas play in 1984. He wanted to put into words the very things we can’t understand about the birth of Jesus. He began thinking of questions he would like to ask Mary if he could sit down and have coffee with her. Lowry knew the words would become a song one day, but it took seven years before he found the right music. Ironically, Buddy Greene came up with a winning tune in just 30 minutes.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am.

What is YOUR favorite carol? 

Merry Christmas!

Wendy

© 2017, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Tricks and Treats

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo celebrates Halloween. As much as I enjoyed dressing as a gypsy for Halloween as a child (year after year, I might add), there are no photos to remind me of the fun I had Trick-or-Treating. Soaping windows and pulling pranks were not part of my youth. The emphasis was always on the TREATS. A full evening of walking the streets and ringing doorbells was rewarded with a bag full of candy corn, Mary Janes, cheap lollipops, jawbreakers, and Tootsie Roll pops if we were lucky.

When I was too old to go Trick-or-Treating, I manned the front door and dispensed sugary goodness to the neighborhood ghosts, witches, and clowns. In the 1960s, teens were fairly obedient regarding the Halloween no-one-over-12 rule. Oh, a few might have squeaked by at 13, but those of us manning the doors were not often taken for fools by an over-aged ghoul or hobo. So I knew to be suspicious when these two came to the door.

 

Halloween 1966

Hmm, they are awfully tall, I thought to myself as I looked at them at eye-level. Must be their last year of trick-or-treating. But they lingered at the door much too long -- just long enough for me to notice the dress the girl on the right was wearing. 

I had seen that dress before.

It was my grandmother’s dress!

 

My grandparents Lucille Rucker Davis and Orvin Davis
My baby sister Mary Jollette and me
August 1959

The trick-or-treaters were none other than my grandmother Lucille Rucker Davis and my cousin Bobbie who was living with her while attending college. The two of them were quite proud of themselves for fooling a few of our close neighbors before trying this stunt on me. I had to admit, those masks were really good!

(By the way, the trick-or-treaters left to right were my grandmother and my cousin wearing Grandma's dress.)

For more tricks and treats, please make your way to Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2017, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: A Penchant for Poetry

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

The dark colored dress on the young lady in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt made me think of a photo of my maternal grandfather’s cousin, Alda Beatrice Clift.

 

Alda - year unknown
but she appears to be 8 to 12 years old
so about 1913-1917

The photo always gives me a start. I gasp at the sight of what appears to be an amputated arm. However, because I have seen photos of her in later years with two healthy arms, I know she was standing with her arm behind her back.  

Alda was the fifth and last child of Sallie Jollett Clift and George Clift. What a beautiful baby she was. 

Alda Clift
Look at that sweet bracelet!
1905 or 1906

Her brothers Leonard and Raymond were hard-working and respectable young men. 

Leonard and Raymond Clift

They deserved a better childhood than the one they experienced. At the ages of 14, 13, and 8, respectively, the Clift children testified against their father in their parents’ divorce case.

The shocking details of Sallie and George’s marriage have been the subject of this blog several times. If you are new to the party, you can read accounts HERE and HERE.

The testimony of 8-year old Alda is heart-wrenching.

 

Testimony of Alda Clift
Divorce Case of Sallie Clift v George T. Clift
Chancery Cause 1913-07

Lawyer: Just tell me what happened when your father came to the house.

Alda:  When he come in, Mama said she was not expecting him home, and he said I come home when you are not expecting me.  Mama asked him if he wanted his supper and he said yesem, and he said what do you have for meals, and Mama said 25 cents, and he gave her 25 cents and she laid it up on the shelf.  Mama cooked his supper and he set down and he eat and he pulled out a pass out of his pocket and said Sallie I got a pass for Luray.  I am going to Luray and get me a divorce, and Mama went into the kitchen to wash the dishes and he got up and came out there, and Mama came back in the dining room and Papa pulled out his gun and held it up that away, and said I am going to kill you, and then me and Mama commenced to scream and I said Papa put your gun back in your pocket and then me and Mama went out doors, and he followed us out and when we got out to the gate he got his gun out again and then he said I dare you to come back in here, I will shoot your G__ D__ brains out; you or any other man.  Me and Mama went on down street and then we went hunting for Mr. Whiteside, and Eddie Bricker come to me and Mama first, and we found Mr. Whiteside and he went on up home.

Lawyer:  Where did you and your Mama stay that night?

Alda: Down to Aunt Vick’s (meaning Mrs. Decatur Breeden)

Lawyer:  Do you want to stay with your mother or would you rather go live with your father?

Alda:  I want to stay with my Mama.

Lawyer:  Why would you not want to live with your father?

Alda:  Because he is too mean to me.

No doubt Alda had to grow up fast, which might explain why she married at age 15 to Leon Dewey Monger. Two daughters and ten years later, they divorced. Three days after the divorce was final, Alda married Wilson Suite, a barber from Washington D.C. Fortunately, they lived happily ever after until Wilson’s death in 1960. Alda outlived him by 22 years.

If I ever met Alda, I do not remember. What I know of her is from public records - census, marriage, divorce, chancery lawsuits - and from photos. Like her Jollett relatives, she was ever-present at reunions. 

Alda is 4th from left on back row standing between her
cousins Russell Coleman and Violetta Davis
1919 - Alda was 14

1934 Reunion
Lewis Lloyd Jollett (nephew of Sallie Clift), Sallie Clift,
Alda Clift Monger Suite and Wilson Suite

She was obviously loved by her cousins.

Violetta Davis Ryan with Alda Clift Suite
That's Alda's daughter in the middle,
but is it Janice or Gwen?

What amuses me, however, is the Clift penchant for poetry. Her father George penned 18 stanzas while incarcerated for that gun incident of 1914 that Alda described. Her mother Sallie published a poem in memory of her brother-in-law Walter Davis.

 

The newspaper clipping of this poem
is glued to the inside back cover
of Mary Frances Jollett Davis's photo album.

When Sallie died, Alda wrote a poem about her dear mother and best friend and had it published in the local newspaper. Her daughters likewise wrote poems expressing their love for their grandmother Sallie.

 

Alda wrote another poem on her mother's birthday.

The Clift poems are not polished. They are sappy and sentimental. The rhyme and rhythm are often uneven. Yet, they succeed in showing heart, devotion, gratitude, loyalty, admiration, regret - qualities lacking in those public records.

I like to think Alda carried on the tradition of writing poems in her mother’s memory; however, I have not found any others. I wonder if daughters Gwen and Janice wrote poems at Alda’s death in 1982.

To read more stories of girls in dark dresses, open the gate to Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2017, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.