Having been relatively silent on my blog recently, I just wanted to throw something out there, not only to avoid having an empty month, but to help myself toorganize my mind. Rest assured, that just because I have not blogged recently, except for a brief trip down memory lane while missing my parents and grandparents as the holidays roll around once again.

What I have been busy with is a great deal of a waiting game. My most recent project is an attempt for about the third time, this time using DNA, to break down one of my many brick walls.  

John Falkner (or Faulkner) was born between 1807 and 1812, depending on which census record you use. He was married first to a woman named Patience (or Patia or Pashy for short), whom I believe was Patience Flowers, daughter of a Michael Flowers, by whom he had 4 or 5 children. He then married Susan Webster, my third great grandmother, daughter of Erasmus Preslar and Nancy Webster. She had a son, James Coleman Webster, already, who would assume the Falkner name, and they would have 11 more children together. That was a crazy number of mouths to feed. John had gone in debt early on and was wounded by that debt financially. He is not found after the 1870 census, and I believe he died in 1877, due to a newspaper article that mentioned a Faulkner passing away, first name omitted, simply by the process of elimination. The Faulkner family in Anson County at that time was relatively small, only consisting of  John's own and that of Susan Myers Falkner, widow of  Asa. I believe the two branches connected a generation or so back. 

Some family trees have John living until the 1890's, and I know Susan Webster Falkners was alive, at least until 1886 and 1887, as she was very much alive when her younger daughters, Fannie (my line) and Ella, were married, even though none of them were enumerated in the 1880 census. 

The Falkner/Faulkner name derived from a profession name, like Carpenter or Butcher, that profession being the one of Falconer, a person who trained falcons for hunting, most times in the employ of a Lord, King, or other nobleman.

The surname would evolve into Falkner, Faulkner, and even Fortner, depending on who was writing it down and which version the family would take with them when they migrated from here to there, usually southward and westward, but always on the move. 

As the paper trail grows cold, I turn to DNA, looking for answers. In doing so, I have found two direct male descendants of my John Falkner, one who has agreed to take the Y-Dna test for me, for which I have paid, a descendant of my Fannie's full brother Constatine or "Tine" and, one who already has, a descendant of their half-brother, Azariah, who already has. 

And there he is in family Group 2 - a descendant of John Faulkner 1812-1890. The group is so far small, only John and an unnamed Falkner, and a James, 1800 - 1840,  oddly born in England. As our line of Faulkners, or whom I believe is our line of Faulkners based entirely on a very large pool of genetic matches to myself and other descendants of John, were in Anson County, NC long before 1802.

I've had mixed results with Y-dna testing, and that is to be expected. It's based almost entirely on whom else has taken the test. The more individuals who take the test, the better results one can get. Some families have had testing projects for quite sometime now. Others are just getting started or haven't started at all. From what I can tell, getting an unbroken line of 7 to 10 generations of the same surname can be a miraculous occurrence on its own, knowing human nature. 

So now it is a waiting game to see if this test is going to offer up any answers, or just more questions.

Another project I am working on, that will eventually equate to a blog post subject, is finding the connection between certain dna matches and my own family tree. This can sometimes be a challenge, as some have very short trees. These matches are distant, as anything less than 4 generations are connecting them to links I already know about. What I am hoping to do is find genetic matches that can lead me another generation back, or to prove a possible line I am not certain about. Unfortunately, I've found over the years that some folks have just jumped the gun and assumed connections with little or no proof. Let me correct that, with no proof. Sometimes, circumstantial is about all that is left to find, especially among those who left no wills, or were not socially prominent. 

Like what I ran into in my Starkey (Stark) Ramsey line. One would think, with a first name as unusual as Starkey, I could find his origins before coming to Anson County. I haven't. Very early on, he was not the only Ramsey in Anson, then after a decade or so, he was. My best clue was that he recieved a land grant that bordered that of a John Ramsey.  This is mentioned on the Land Grant. In the 1790 census of Anson County, only John appears. He actually appears twice. There are 6 people in both records, 4 males and 2 females, so I believe the same household was counted twice instead of there being 2 Johns. Stark is not listed, yet, anywhere. In 1800, Stark, (incorrectly transposed as 'Mark'), and a Samuel pops up. John is now living in Richmond County and shows one male and two females in the home. A Richard also pops up in records and land grants. What it is appears to be is that John was the originator of this line in Anson. In 1790, his three sons Starky, Samuel and Richard, along with an unknown daughter, are still in the home. By 1800, the sons have established their own households and in 1803, Starky recieves a land grant on the East side of Little Creek, adjoining John Ramsey and Abecrombie. Little Creek is not that far from the PeeDee River and the Richmond County side of it. 

In 1814, Stark recieves another grant of 150 acres adjoining Wilkerson lands and in 1818, he records a grant of land adjoining Ludwell Carpenter, another of my ancestors. 

From there on, its only Stark as far as Anson County Ramsey's go, and he maintains a home around Burnsville. Then his sons began popping up. Samuel, my line, moves up into Stanly County, and Robert, moves over into Union, but a DNA project and my own research has pretty much nailed all the younger Ramsey's to Starks tree as sons or grandsons. I just can't get past him. 

This one clue may be all there ever is. As far as the older Samuel, who might be Starks brother and could be the namesake of his son, Samuel, there was no shortage of Ramsey's, even Samuel Ramseys, even in those early years, so who knows? DNA may be the only way to connect and group of Ramseys to another. 

A third aspect of my current projects stemmed from my Falkner research and has gotten pretty sticky, not to me, but to third parties. 

Why do people tend to look back through rose-colored glasses? The past was not all gumdrops and daffodils, quite the opposite. It was hard, hard work, hard scrabble, hard times. Yet, we most often speak of simpler times in idyllic terms and ancestors in heroic terms, placing them on pedestals. But the truth is about as far from that filtered view as we can get. 

The past was dirty, unforgiving and cruel and we can not judge the citizens of those times on today's standards. Mores are projectorial. Our ancestors and their neighbors would view todays values as ascue as we would see theirs as today. 

What I am saying is that right and wrong is in the eyes of the viewer and the markers of the times. In all that, humans, all, are perfectly flawed individuals, colored by their era on earth. No how many rules you make,  lines you draw, or fences you build, individuals will break them, cross over them and go around them.

The past is simply that, the past. You can't change it by blocking it out or trying to hide it. All you can change is the future. 

Truth does not judge. It simply exists.

John L. Falkner of Anson County had 15 children , 7  of which were daughters. He was my 3rd Great Grandfather, and one of my brickwall ancestors. In order to find out more about him, and possibly his origins, I am, one by one, taking a closer look at his children, where sometimes clues can be found. 

His oldest daughter was Martha, born about 1834, and the only daughter that we know of by his first wife, Patience. I blogged on Marta's unusual life in my post:

The Scent of a Black Dragon Cedar

His younger two were  daughters, Sarah Frances, aka Fanny and Ella Elizabeth. Fanny was my second great grandmother, and her life was not as interesting as that of Martha and Ella, but as she was mine, she was the subject of my recent post titled Fannie. 

Fannie

Ella, the youngest, however, had a more brisk and interesting life and I covered her in my recent post, The Black Widow.

ck Widow

Two other daughters, Luanna (1850) and Silvia (1866), seem to have passed away as children, as often happened in those days. That leaves Barbara and Ellen, the two who led more ordinary lives,  had lived to see adulthood,and pass on the family genes. They deserve a mention.

Ellen was the older of the two, being born in 1855, but they were subsequent sisters, Barbara coming next, being three years younger. In the 1860 and 1870 census records, Ellen is shown in her parents Lanesboro home, at 5 and 15, respectively.. 

Enter Michael Hoke Hartsell. Mike was a Union County boy, born to a Cabarrus County family. Born in 1853, he was the son of Aaron and Caroline Dunn Hartsell. At 17 in 1870, he was already independently working on his own as farm labor. On August 6, 1872, Mike had married Martha Falkner, the oldest daughter of John and Susan Webster Falkner.

Martha had a ten year old daughter at the time, but must have kept her hidden from Mike Hartsell, possibly by keeping her among her father's people. In 1873, a year, or less, after the wedding, Martha gave birth to another daughter, Margaret Alice.. Mike Hartsell could look at the child and tell she was not his. Mike and Martha were both white and the child was of mixed race. So was Martha's older daughter, Princess Ann and so was her son, Robert, born two years later.

Mike quietly 'put Martha away ', and on August 1, 1876, four years after he married Martha, he married her younger sister, Ellen. This one would stick.

The couple originally lived in Goose Creek, in Union County, where Mike was from, but they soon moved to Clear Creek in Mecklenburg County, NC, not far, where they would settle. 

They were simple yeoman farmers, as most people to were in those days, surviving on what they grew, and growing a large family to help on the farm.

Mike and Ellen were obviously a healthy match. In a time with high infant mortality and ferocious childhood maladies, they lost not one of their nine children before adulthood. Ellen is seen in 1900 and 1910 as being the mother of 9 children, with all 9 living. 

In 1918, Mike Hartsell would pass away from heart trouble at 65. Ellen would live for nearly another twenty years. She would take up residence with their son, Roy Lee Hartsell, in Dulins Grove, Mecklenburg County, and would die of heart trouble as well, but at the age of 81.

Ellen Faulkner Hartsell passed away on January 25, 1937. She and Michael Hoke Hartsell are buried at Dulins Grove Advent Christian Church Cemetery in the Clear Creek Community of Mecklenburg County, very near it's border with both Union and Cabarrus Counties. They had settled in, and raised their family, in the little community of Allen. 

It was studying the records of Mike and Ellen's children that I discovered she also bore two Christian names, like that of most of her siblings. Her full name was Eve Ellen Falkner Hartsell. 

The nine healthy children of Lucky Ellen and Mike Hartsell were:

1) Ada Elizabeth Hartsell (1877-1950) Married John Ellis Kiker. Lived in Clear Creek, Mecklenburg.

2) James Franklin Hartsell (1879-1938) Married Hattie Minerva Helms. Lived in various places at times, settled in Locust, in Stanly County. Was Postmaster there in 1905.

James and Ada were the two children shown with Mike and Ellen in 1880.

3) Bedie Lou Harstell (1881-1950) Married * John T. Burnette, son of Harvey A. and Elizabeth Burnette. Lived in the Bethel Church/ Midland area.

4) Susan Frances Hartsell ( 1884-1950) Married Wilson Thomas Eudy. Settled in the Clear Creek area. Not to be confused with a Sarah Elizabeth Hartsell who married an Eudy that some people keep getting her mixed up with. Sarah Elizabeth was not the daughter of Mike and Ellen.

5) Cora Adeline Hartsell (1887-1970). Married William Jackson Howell. Moved around a bit between Marshville, Monroe and Concord, North Carolina.

6) Cyrus Michael Hartsell (1889- 1920) Married Mary E. Coley. Had three children : Viola Estelle, Altha Mae and John W. Hartsell. Served in WWI, and died in 1920, of influenza.

7) Charles W. Hartsell (1891-1917) 

Charlie was the Hartsell family's sacrifice to WWI. He died of Bronchio Pnuemonia while in service.

8) Roy Lee Hartsell ( 1894-1953) Married Ada Belle Whitley and settled in Clear Creek, Mecklenburg County. Took care of his mother until her death in 1937.

9) Marcenia Estelle Hartsell Burnette (1897-1957) Married * William Mack Burnette, Sr., son of William Henry and Molly Crump Burnette. Moved from Clear Creek to Charlotte. 

* Although two sisters, Beadie and Marcenia, married Burnettes, the Burnettes were not brothers.

The one that was and the one that wasn't. There's a crack in several family trees that people fall through. That crack is the 20 year gap between the 1880 and 1900 census records. Seriously, there are more records than the census that connects a family together, and those can be misleading. Every child that lived with a family was not necessarily their own, and children who were born soon after the 1880 census, were sometimes out on their own, and even married before 1900. Such was the case in Mike and Ellen's family.

In seems nearly every family tree has given them an extra son, William Henry or Walter Henry Hartsell. This man existed. He was born in Cabarrus County in 1881 and died in Mecklenburg in 1930. It would make sense for this to have been their son, but he wasn't. 

Walter married Ruby Auten and was the son of Michael G. and Serena Isabell Hartsell, not Michael H. and Ellen. 

On the flipside, their missing child who made up the actual total of 9 Ellen claimed in both 1900 and 1910, was Beady Hartsell Burnette. She was born in 1881 and died in 1935. Not a single family tree has her as one of Mike and Ellens children, except mine. And she was.

Beady was born after the 1880 census and married before the 1900 one, and had fallen through the cracks. In fact, she had been born, married and became a mother, all within those 20 years, as her daughter, Annie Bell, had been born in 1898, and her son David Alexander, had came along in 1900.

Each of John and Susan Webster Falkner's children informed something about them. Ella had told us John's middle initial was "L". Ellen let me know that John had died by her August 1st wedding in 1876. 

Barbara let us know, probably, where her living mother, Susan, was living in 1880, although she was not listed in the census. 

Barbara Allen Faulkner was born about 1858.

She claimed to be 17 when she married James W Covington on May 17, 1875. Again, John was reported as dead and Susan, alive. The couple married at the home of a Mr. Hasty.

In the 1880 census, their first, James and Barbara were still living in Lanesboro, where she grew up. Their first son, Tilden had arrived. Barbara was living very near her brother, Azariah Falkner, indicating that this was probably the area John Falkner had raised his children. An interesting neighbor was William Hildreth and his family. This William was the son of David Hildreth Jr. and this property is where the old Hildreth cemetery remains, and on land still in the Hildreth family not far from White's Store. This proximity to the Hildreth family may be a key to the Hildreth genetic connections I've been exploring. 

Another thing about Barbara was her name, Barbara Allen, clearly repeated by her children at several junctures. Allen was not a common name for a woman, unless it was replayed in it's entirety, as "Barbara Allen", like "Jane Smith", or "Hannah Bushrod", suggesting the girl was named in full course, for one of her female predecessors. There is even a history of the Covington family who lists Barbara only as Barbara Allen, not 'Barbara Allen Faulkner', but just Barbara Allen. As there was a pretty exspansive Allen family who had settled in the area where the Rocky River met the Pee Dee and spread out over the effected counties thereabouts, I wondered if Barbara Falkners name could have been a 'cookie crumb' leading to an ancestor, or just another girl, like me, named for a song, like the old English folksong. "Barbara Allen", a tale of unrequitted love.

Unlike the ancient Ballad, however, this Aunt 'Barbary' found a love that lasted a lifetime, although her livetime wasnt' that long by today's standards.

In 1900, Jim and Barbara are still found in Lanesboro, with most of their large family intact. They were a farm family still, as was most in this era. Jim was also an agent for a company that sold 'guano', as a fertilization aide for farmers. Barbara claimed to be the mother of 10 children, with 9 living, however, there are only 7 listed here, and the only one missing that I know of was the oldest son, Dock Tillman or Tilden, who was already married and on his own. 

Dock and his wife, Sallie, were living in Ansonville and were already parents of two little girls, Ollie Virginia and Onie Elizabeth  Covingotn. Dock had married Sarah Chanise "Sallie" Turner, a sister of William Alexander Turner and James Stevenson Turner, whom Baraba's younger sisters, Fannie and Ella had married. As William Alexander Turner and Fannie Falkner Turner were my second Great Grandparents, I have a doubled relation to descendants of Dock and Sallie, sharing Faulkner dna through Dock and Turner dna through Sallie.

By 1910, James Washington Covington had moved his family to Wolf Pit, in neighboring Richmond County. I don't know the reasons behinde the move, but the 1910 census gives us the following information.

James owned his own home, free and clear without a mortgage. He was 58, and working as a Farm Laborer, but his oldest three children at home, Nona, Hollie and Annie, were working in a Cotton Mill. Barbara, now 50, was a housewife and Blanch, 12, was attending school. Barbara, again, reported to be the mother of 10 children, with 9 living, although she had added two, Henry Clay and Ila, since the last census. The couple had been married for 34 years. Everyone could read and write except the youngest two, which is a little puzzling since they were 9 and 6 already.

So there were 6 children in the home. Two had been added, but four were missing. That adds up to 10. The math wasn't working, as 10 years prior, she'd given the same numbers. The four missing were now adults, staring with oldest son, Dock Tilden Covington.

Dock and Sallie had grown their family to 8 children and the George Turner who was living with them was the son of  Barbara's sister, Ella.

Oldest daughter, Hattie O. Covington was born in 1880 and on December 23, 1903, she had married William Hardy Kelly, from Rockingham, Richmond county, son of George and Flora Kelly. There's a sad story to follow.

Tombstone of Hattie Covington Kelly

Hattie died just two years later, on January 17, 1905, at the age of 24. She was buried at Northam Cemetery in Rockingham, Richmond County, NC.  William would remarry a couple of years later to a girl named Minnie Lee Guin and have two daughter, Hattie Viringia and Wilma. I'm not sure if the oldest, Hattie Virginia, was Hattie's daughter, or just named for her. In 1910, William, Minnie and little Hattie are in Wolf Pit, Richmond County, but City Directories find him and Minnie in Charlotte, where he is working as a machinist. Then Minnie passes away at 34, in 1918, after the time death certificates have stareted being issued of 'Acute intestinal auto intoxication', which isn't even a practical prognosis anymore, and was based on an ancient fallacy. She probably had some type of toxemia.

Minnie had a nice obituary, which explain her illness had lasted a few weeks. What it didn't tell, and what the cemetery would reveal, was that W. H. Kelly and Minnie had also had two sons. Boyd had been born September 3, 1912, and had died on Feb. 3, 1914 at the age of  17 months old of bronchial pnuemonia. William P Kelly was born on January 21, 1915, about a year after his brother's death, and died on May 8th, 1917, just a month shy of his second birthday, of Lobar pnuemonia. Their mother, Minnie, would pass away just 9 months later. In the description of the anitquated cause of death, 'autointoxication', it was stated that drug addictions and intentional overdoses were sometimes also heaped under this diagnosis, so I wonder if the loss of her sons may have led Minnie to an addiction that had led to her toxic gut condtion.

The third missing Covington in 1910 was third born John Thomas, born in 1883 and married in 1909 to Lula Mae Smith of  Union County. I like how he identified his maother as "Barbee". 

The last missing Covington was fourth born, Minnie Elizabeth. She married Eugene Mason Smith, not a sibling of Lula, on February 23, 1908. in 1910, the young couple were living in Rockingham, working in the cotton mills, and had given birth to thier first daughter, Flora.

Taken by Junious, Find-a-Grave

1910 was a focal point for me because it was the last census for both Jim and Barbara. Barbara was the first to go, just a year later on November 4, 1911. Death Certificates were only beginning to be issued, and she did not have one, so the cause is unknown. So many plagues were going around in those days. She was only 52 and still had a number of young children at home.

Jim followed four years later on June 24, 1915. He didn't have a death certificate, either, but he did have an estate record. Oldest son, D. T. Covington (Dock Tilden), was named executor and the following heirs were named: D. T. Covington, John Covington, Minnie Covington Smith, Nona Covington Gay, Annie Covinton Manness, Hollie Mae Covington (minor) [inserted at that point], Blanche Covington, Clay Covington and Ila Covington.

The living nine, only Hattie, who died in 1905, was missing.

The Ten known children of Barabara Allen Falkner and Jim Covington were as follows:

1) Dock Tilden Covington (1877-1943) Married Sarah Chanise "Sallie" Turner. The lived equally in Anson, and then, Richomnd Counties. He died in Moore County. Because both Barbara and Sallie  were Great Great Aunts of mine, this family appears in my family tree twice. 

Due to the double relationship, I'm listing their children;

 A) Ollie Virginia Covington Carter 1897-1961, 

B) Onie Elizabeth Covington Myers 1899-1973

C) Dovie Allen Covington Kelly 1900-1941

D) Walter James Covington 1902-1990

E) Hattie Byrd Covington Watson 1904-1970

F) Lassiter Tilden Covington 1906-1966

G) Bennett Mallie Covington 1908-1996

H) Annie Mae Covington Cole 1910-1954

I) Sallie Pauline Covington Cole 1913-1985

J) Beulah Hazel Covington Long 1915-1987

K) Nelllie J. Covington Jurney 1917-1989

2) Hattie Odessa Covington Kelly (1880-1905) Married Walter Hardy Kelly. Died in Rockingham.

3) John Thomas Covington (1883-1945) Married Lula Smith. Lived in Hamlet, Richomnd County.

Labeled 'Luther , Clay and John Covington

4) Minnie Elizabeth Covingotn Smith (1887-1925) Married Eugen Mason Smith. Lived in Rockingham.

Minnie C. Smith

5)  Nona Faye Covington Gay (1889-1992) Married James Starling Gay,Jr. Lived in Richmond and Moore Counties before settling in Alamance.

6) Hollie F. Covington (1892-1914) Married Betha J Smith. Hollie died in Richmond County at age 22 of Thyphoid Fever on December 12, 1914. His young bride was pregnant with their first child when he passed away. It was a little girl that Bertha named Hollie Mae Covington, who was born just 4 months later on April 19, 1915.  As luck would have it, Bertha's very own mother,  Maggie Gray Smith, was also pregnant, at age 39, and gave birth to a daughter, Maggie Ledonia Smith, on May 29, 1915, one month after Hollie's birth.

Tragedy would not end there. Bertha seems to have leaned on her parents after her husbands death, which only makes sense, especially given how very young she was. On March 24, 1919, Bertha Jean Smith Covington died of TB. Having been born on Christmas day, 1900, she was only 18 years old.

Little Hollie went to live with her Grandparents Smith. Her Aunt Maggie, only a month younger than she, must have been like a sister to her. Just a year after her mother's death, Hollie was listed as a daughter in her grandparents household. Henry and his brother, Nathan, supported the household by working in the Cotton Mills of Rockingham. It's amazing to see how many families had switched from the farm life to a mill in this era for a livlihood.

Only 5 years later, with the girls only about 9 yers old, their beautiful grandmother, Maggie Grey Smith, woud die of apoplexy on September 3, 1925, after about a week in the hospital. She was 48.

The girls would remain with William, Henry Smith, and were found with him in 1930, their relationships to him correct. Henry would live another 5 years, also dying young, at age 59. By then, both of the girls were married. Hollie married Hillard Bill Brigman and her sister/aunt Maggie married his brother, Conley Thomas Brigman. Hilliard and Conley were sons of  John and Maggie Brigman. Hollie and Bill would experience another major tragedy when their firstborn daughter, Billie Jean, died of Scarlett Fever. they would go on to have two more daughters, one named for her grandmother, Barbara. Maggie and Conley also had two daughters, one named for her sister, Bertha.

7) Anna Eliza "Annie" Covington Manness (1895- 1983) Married Eli Carson Maness. Annie married a Methodist Minister, whose profession took the family on various moves around the state, including, Moore, Chatham, Wake,Person and Gaston Counties.

Anna Eliza Covington Manesss

8) Desda Blanche Covington Maness (1899-1965) Married Dewey Roscoe Maness. Settled in Robeson County. Lost both children tragically young. No descendants.

9) Henry Clay Covington (1900-1970). Married Bertie Lathan. Settled in Whiteville, Columbus County, N.C.