Monday's Mystery: Matt White And The Great Grandmother

I've been searching for info on my slavery Blakey / White Family Connections for years. And through the years, I have found some info. I believe that there's more waiting to be discovered.

 In the beginning of my search,  I knew just little about my family connections.  Back in the mid 1970's, I became interested in my family history after reading an article. It was entitle: Slavery Descendants To Have First Reunion.  

The above sections of the article is speaking of the family living in Forest Green, Missouri.
The family surname was WHITE. One of the children took the BLAKEY surname.

 Who was Matt White?  Matt was my Great Grandfather's Isaac Blakey's sister.  Her real name was Martha White.  Matt or Mattie was her nickname. The article stated that Matt White never married. I haven't found any record of her marrying.

Who was the Great Grandmother? I'm not for sure who the writer of the article was speaking of. The person or people being interviewed could have been speaking of their Great Grandmother. The mother's name wasn't mentioned in this article dated circa 1970.

 In 2015, I made the discovery the mother mentioned in this article was  my Great Grandfather's mother, Julia (Finney) White. She would have been the Great Grandmother who was buried in Forest Green, Missouri.

Monday's Mystery:
I can't locate Mattie White's death record. There were two relatives stating that she passed in Forest Green, Missouri in the 1940's.. I though maybe Mattie passed on in another state. Or perhaps Mattie or Martha wasn't her first name. Also she could have married.

I did make a lot of discoveries on Mattie. She did have off springs.  I have spoken with someone who knew her. He doesn't recall Mattie being married. But knew she had a daughter named Bob Ella Bentley.

If you like to read what I have discovered on Mattie, click on The Julia White Connection: The Assumption Of The Life Of Mattie White    I need to update some of Martha White Family Connections. I hope some of Mattie's descendants will come across this blog.

Thanks for reading.
S.A. Blakley

Piecing Some Things Together: The 1940 Census

It's been about a year since the 1940 census came out. I was excited when the census was released on April 2, 2012. I've been going back over my list of relatives on the 1940 census. I saw some new leads and trying to follow up on them.

On the 1940 census, I came across more people than I though I would have. As I added the names to the family tree, I searched other records and came up with more leads. It made me what to search more.

I found some death records on relatives' from Missouri and California. I'm adding more names to the family tree. There were many connects in California. It tied up some loose ends on the BLAKEY and WHITE connections.

I need to update some  info and add some corrections. There have been some new info that has left me with some questions. For example. I came across info on Pleas CARR. I was surprise to discover this.

Pleas CARR was married to Ella (BENTLEY) CARR. Ella passed away about 1923. Ella's mother Mattie WHITE was listed with Pleas' and  Ella's son, Willard CARR on the 1930 and 1940 censuses.  I wonder, why Willard wasn't with his father, Pleas?

I came across the names of Pleas' parents  on ancestry.com. It wasn't until March of 2013 I came across more leads on Pleas. I discovered that Pleas remarried in 1928. He died in 1960.  

My search continues.... I hope to find more on what leads that I have. Who knows, I might come across more mysteries to the family history. I hope to discover more to add to the family tree.

Thanks for reading.
Susan

Article Reflections: Slavery Descendants To Have First Reunion: Part 12

Article written about 1971 or so.

Some final thoughts on this article.

As I was going thought each sentence of this article, I wasn't aware of some things.
As I was going blog to blog, I noticed that I added more and more as I went along.

I was trying to see what the writer was trying to share. There were some generation gaps in the beginning of this article. There could have been a generation that came from Africa who were shipped to New Orleans in 1843.

I have no leads on that. I have found out the  family came from through corresponds with a cousin. One of the Yankton, South Dakota descendant said the family came from off the coast of Nigeria.

As for the mother and 5 children, they could have been a family in 1843. But not the one that matches up with the Isaac that ran off to join the Civil War.

I wasn't for sure about some things until I came across the slave ad that lead to more discoveries. And what a discovery that was. I was seeing the names of my 2nd Great Grand parents' names with some of their children. How aweful to be a slave and be sold.

1858 Ad

Andrew White was believed to have been the father of Julia's children.
Andrew or Julia may have had a mulatto child.

Here is a list the children that I have come up with.
Unknown child who had a child named Rebbecca
Mary WHITE,
Linda WHITE,
Lydia WHITE
Isaac BLAKEY who married Martha SCOTTt and Rachel LEPHRIDGE
Andrew WHITE
Ben (Benjamin) WHITE
Spencer WHITE who married Melinda BANKS and Lou
Josh (Joshua) WHTIE who had 3 daughters and a son named John BLAKE
David WHITE
Martha WHITE who was a widow
Mattie WHITE who was a widow with 5 children
Richard "Dick" WHITE who married Jane FERGUSON and Mary Belle BROOKS

Isaac was the only one who carried the BLAKEY surname.  There are many unanswered questions that we will never find. But the descendants of this union have some history to past down to the next generations.

I hope others will pass down what they know and or heard of on their family history. Each family has a history to share. May we learn to record what we know.

Thanks for reading,
Susan

My search continues....

Project: Julia WHITE Connections

Empolyment , Homeland And Surnames ~ Part 6

They found worked on farms. And lived in Forest Green Missouri area.
They kept their own names. White And Blakey

 More clues and a mystery. 

They were employed and made their homes in Forest Green, MO.
Where did they work? As farmer or as farm hands?

What names did each family member take?
The mother in this article was unknown.
But later I came across her name in 1989.

What names did each one take?
The mother, WHITE
Isaac BLAKEY
John WHITE
Spencer WHITE
Matt WHITE
Dick WHITE

It appears that Isaac was the only one in his group that took the surname of BLAKEY. Don't know why Isaac kept the BLAKEY surname. Perhaps he was with the BLAKEYs for a long time. They may have helped him to his freedom. Two of the former slave owners gave affidavit of who Isaac was. Isaac applied for his pension records in 1890's.

Also for the mother, Did she have other children? Yes. She had about 12 or 13 children. Some of the children may have passed away before the turn of the century. Some of the family members may not have know about them.

The article states that Matt WHITE never married. As I searched for Mattie White, I came up with her as a widow with about 5 children. I don't know how this information got lost.


The big mystery to this part of the article: Who was the great grand mother? Was the writer in this article speaking of Ted Blakey's great grand mother? The mother of the slaves  or the mother's husband's mother?

The mother was believe to have passed away and was buried in Forest Green, MO. Most those who passed away in this family were buried in Forest Green, MO and area.
There are some descendants who still live in the Forest Green Area.

Blog continues

Isaac Blakey Reunites With Family ~ Part 5

Here are some more clues: Some time after Isaac was discharged from the army, he started to look for his family. Wonder how long it took him to find them? Note: Isaac was wounded in the War.

Isaac didn't know where his family was... But found out that they were shipped MS. Isaac had to have had some connections to where the where a bout of his family. Perhaps the info was from his former slave owners.

Isaac did located his family easily because he was familiar with the area where his family was. The article mentions the names of Isaac's other siblings. Spencer, Dick and sister, Matt.. 

The article states that Isaac's siblings were shipped to Natchez, MS. I wondered if they were ever in MO? Also if this Spencer, Dick and sister, Matt White were other relatives on the other generation? It was just a thought. However, Isaac did have siblings named Spencer, Dick and Matty White.

As for Isaac Blakey, he was born in Roanoak , Fayette or Shannondale Missouri between 1845 - 1847. The slave owner, John BLAKEY passed away in 1844. Most of the slaves where born after John BLAKEY passed.

John's widow, Frances (WHITE) BLAKEY and her children were the slave owners to Isaac, his mother and her children. The father of the slaves weren't mentioned in the article. I wonder why? Nor was the name of the mother.

 As for Spencer, Dick and Matty, they choose the WHITE surname. According to this article, John carried the BLAKEY surname. But through searching, John carried the WHITE surname.

Isaac somehow convinced the family to move back to MO. I think that other relatives may have been there. Why would some one what to move back to the area where they were once held captive as slaves? I think that there was some family connections in Chariton and Howard County Missouri area.
Blog continues....

Part 2: Blakey - White Families: The Year 1843

The first two sentences of this article:  

The introduction of the article gives some good information: the families surnames, a year, a name and the place; Riverside Park. The date of the article was not listed or the State where the reunion took place. I later found out the reunion was held in Iowa around 1971.  

According to one of the descendants, Ted Blakey from Yankton, South; a mother, and her four sons and a daughter came to New Orleans on a ship in 1843. I don't know where Ted Blakey got this info -

Ted could have been oral history from his father, Henry Blakey who passed down what he heard and or what others said about the family history. After researching, I came across the list of some of the slaves' names and the Blakey slave owners' names.

The article mention the year 1843 and a place. I can trace back to the year 1843 through information that I came across. But the article raises some questions about when the family came to New Orleans.
This article states that the mother and her children can on a ship from some where to New Orleans. That somewhere was perhaps Africa or from another State in America?  

Question: Did the mother and 5 children remain in New Orleans for a while before they were moved to MS? (There were some things in these two sentences that didn't match up with the other records that I have come across.)

By this article, the reader can assume that the mother and her children weren't born in America. Over the years, I wondered. Could there have been another generation that came from Africa? After researching, I did discovered that the mother of Isaac (and the other children) was born in VA. One of the mother's or father's children was born in VA. The mother's other children were born in MO.

I'm not trying to disprove any thing stated in the article: Slavery Descendants to Have First Reunion. I see some things in the article that brings questions. The reporter could have wrote down  incorrect information. Still there was a lot of information in this article. (That was what inspired me to began to search out what I could find.)

Blog Continues:

The Julia White Connection:The Assumption Of The Life Of Mattie White

Who was Mattie White?

From what I've read and researched, she was the daughter of Julia White.  I can assume that her father was Andrew White. The year of Mattie's birth is not for sure.

Mattie White was to have been born in to slavery. I've been searching information about her. I have come up with different years of her birth. 1856, 1865 1867, 1877. I assume that she was born in the 1860's. However, oral history states that she was born in 1856.

I have been trying to solve this mystery for some time. It was in May of 2010 when I had some kind of breakthrough. I came across a 1930 Missouri census in Chariton County.

What information do I have on Mattie White? She had a daughter named, (Bob) Ella BENTLEY CARR. Ella's had a son named Willard Carr. This information came from a family history reunion booklets.

Well, on the 1930 census, I came across a Mattie White. She was a widow. She had a daughter named, Oressisa Hereford. There was a grandson, named William Carr. I see some connection here. Family history records state that Ella Bentley Carr passed away in 1923.

On the 1910 and 1920 census, Oressia was listed as Mattie's daughter. I found out that Oressia was born in 1902 and died in 1976. That's how I see that Mattie could have been born around 1862 or so.

That would have made Mattie about 40 when she gave birth to Oressia. I thought Oressia might have been Mattie's granddaughter. Ella White or Ella Bentley was born around 1886 in Missouri.

Here is what I found on the census of a Mattie White living near Andrew J. White in Chariton County MO. The years 1900 - 1930.

Head of house: Mattie White, a widow
Children on 1900 Missouri Census

Patrick White born about 1882
Alice    White born about 1884
Ella      White born about 1886
Jane     White born about 1889

On the 1910 Missouri Census: One of Mattie's children had died. Also, I've not located Patrick, Alice or Jane White. I don't know which child of Mattie died before 1910.

On the 1920 Missouri Census
                    Ella  White born about1882
                    Oressia White born about 1902

On the 1930 Missouri Census
                   Oressia Hereford was born about 1904
                   Grandson William Carr was born about 1923

There are a lot of questions that remind.
Were Martha and Mattie WHITE the same person?
Did Mattie or  Martha marry a man with the WHITE surname?
Did their children carry the WHITE surname?
Were the WHITE's that lived in the same area related?

Andrew J. White had a daughter names, Cornelia WHITE WOODS.
Did she have a son named Todd WOODS?
Could this be the link to the family tree?

There was a Todd Woods was listed a cousin to this union on my WHITE family.
How was Andrew J. WHITE related to the BLAKEYs and the WHITEs?

I believe that there was some connection with Andrew White's father Isaac White and  Julia White's husband Andrew White. Perhaps Isaac who lived next door was Andrew's brother. I do see some similarities.

There are many many other questions. Answers left unknown. Yet still there are mysteries. And there always will be mysteries in the family tree.

Staying On The Family History Journey,
Susan

It's Been A Year

I started this family history site a year ago on June 30, 2009. It's coming along OK. I've posted dated a lot of blogs through the year 2012. I'm working on 2013.

Most of what I have posted, I wrote before on another site. I post about 2 to 5 blogs a month. I never thought to have a site just for my family history information.

I'm glad that I started this site. I can return to my site and see what I have written. As I've been looking back over some things, I see that there were some ancestors that I have not written about.

I've been future posing all my blogs. This year's blogs for my family history are already set. This is a bonus blog. Just an update.

On An Adventure

I made some new found discoveries last year about my 2nd Great Aunt Mattie WHITE. She was one of my Great Grandpa Isaac BLAKEY's sisters. I'm trying to piece the puzzle together with what's known.

Oral history states that Mattie never married and had one daughter named Bob Ella BENTLEY CARR. I came across a Mattie WHITE on the census records. She was listed with two daughters. One is named Ella WHITE and the other Oressia WHITE.

The Mystery...
Did Mattie have 5 children?
What about Ella White?
What about Oressia White?
Who were the other 3 children?
Was Mattie a widow?
Who did Mattie marry?
Did her husband have to same last name of WHITE?

There some much that I've come across.
Continuing on my family history quest.

Still On My Journey
On An Adventure

Susan

New Found Discoveries

When I was searching for my ancestors this summer, I came across things that I wasn't aware of. It brought amazement to me. There were some things that were recorded incorrectly.

Oral history states one things while the records state another. Mattie Mae White was one of my Great Grandpa Isaac Blakey's sister. There was little know about her.

She was stated to have never married. She has a daughter named. Bob Ella Bentley Carr 1882 -1923. She was married to Plez Willam Carr. They had a son Williard Carr. That's what I got from family reunion information.

As I began to search for Bob Ella, I had no luck. So I searched for her mother Mattie White. I had trouble locating her too. But something come to me.

On the 1910 Census there is a Mattie White born 1856 in MO. She had two daughters. One was ELLA White born 1886. The other daughter was Oressia born about 1902 in Mo.

There was another think That I didn't check when I first found this census record. Mattie was a widow. She had 5 children and 4 were living in 1910.

I assume that Mattie married a man with the surname of WHITE or she keep her maiden name. I have been searching for ELLA White who married Plez / William Carr. The surname BENTLEY is there too. Perhaps Ella married twice.

It's a mystery. How oral history can be changed as time comes along. I did find a Martha White listed on the 1880 census. She was listed with her mother, Julia WHITE.

Martha was listed with her siblings and some of their children. This Martha was born in 1862. She was a widow. Wonder if this was Mattie?

On The Journey: New Found Discoveries