Birthday Kids - Miles Arthur Johns and Gina Bernardi

November 30 

Miles Arthur Johns was a pretty interesting relative to research. I had nothing on him, except for his name and birthdate. I didn’t even recognize the surname “Johns.” But he was in my database because he was a grandson of Mary Elizabeth Power (Hall), a sister of Holloway Lee Power, my third great grandfather who was one of the leaders of wagon trains to Texas. This makes Miles my third cousin, twice removed. I didn't find all that much about his life, but chasing his parents and his wife's parents had me jumping hoops.

Miles was born November 30, 1891 in Luling, Caldwell County, Texas to Perry C Johns and Martha Eliza Hall (daughter of Mary E Power).

In 1900 they were living in Guadalupe County and about four houses down there was a family named Smith with a young daughter named Berta, Miles’s future wife, who was just about a year old. Miles, or Arthur as he seems to have been called, was eight years old when the census was taken.

One odd thing about this census for the Smith’s is that the wife and mother (presumably) of the children is listed as Nettie (Talitha Antoinette Holland), born 1877, age 22 and married 5 years. The oldest child is listed as born 1879 also age 22. I haven’t figured out what went wrong there. And Husband Clifton Smith is listed as 52. Oddly enough, that seems to be correct. I can't find any record of Clif having another wife before Nettie. 

In 1910 the Johns are still living there, but I couldn’t find the Smiths anywhere.

Arthur was living in Galveston County in 1918 when he was enlisted into WWI. He only served a year and was honorably discharged in February of 1919. The war ended on November 11, 1918.

Soon after,  Arthur and Berta found each other and married.

In 1920 they were living in Harris County, probably Humble. In 1930 they were in Humble with two children, Arthur’s brother Carl and Nettie, Berta’s mother, living with them.

In 1842 he registered for the “Old Man’s Draft” in WWII. He was 50 years old and wouldn’t be required to fight, but records were kept to record the availability of manpower and resources.

Miles died in 1961 and is buried in Rosewood Park in Humble Texas. Berta applied for, and received a military plaque for his grave.

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Gina Bernardi is familiar to many of you, but for those of you who don't know, she's my grandmother, my nonna, on my mother's side.

Born Georgina Sardini 30 Nov 1899 in Villlimpenta, Mantova, Italy to Antonio and Maria Adele Elena Sardini, she married my grandfather, Pietro Bernardi in Verona, Italy. Pietro worked in the printing trade. They had four children in Verona before relocating to Rome.

I was told that my grandfather liked to put on sporting events, particularly bicycle races. Rumor has it that they had to leave town rather suddenly.

My grandparents separated but never divorced. He came every week and gave my grandmother money to support them.

During Mussolini's reign during WWII, my grandmother was chatting with some neighbors on the street and she made a joke about Mussolini. It wasn't a particularly outrageous joke. But not long after, some men came to the door and arrested her leaving her four children alone in the apartment. She was sent to a work camp up north. My mother recalls it as a really bad time. The neighbors wouldn't help them or even speak to them. Everyone was afraid.

But Gina wasn't away too long. Mussolini gave a pardon to some prisoners and Gina came home.

After the war, my mother married and moved to the United States. Gina came to visit on more than one occasion. She had a real flair for comedy. She could have the most serious poker face and crack the funniest joke. She could sing like an angel as well. She had always wanted to sing in the opera in Italy but wasn't able to.

Gina singing accompanied by son-in-law, Jesse Pettey on flute.

Gina died 31 March 1983 in Marina Italy. She's buried in Grottaferratta, Italy. I think all my relatives who knew her would agree that we all miss her very much.

[If I have any of this wrong, please let me know and I'll correct it.]

Happy Birthday, William T Petty

William Thornton Pettey/Petty,  my third great-great uncle, brother to John Wright Pettey (my third great grandfather) is one of those relatives who just didn’t leave many records. I’ve found more about his wife than about him, but there are clues there.

An old family bible that belonged to William Eli and Lucretia (Lucy) Wright Pettey lists the date of birth of son William Thornton Pettey as November 29, 1789 along with the birthdays of 12 other children. Most researchers think all the children were born in Wilkes County, NC. The family moved to Madison County Alabama around 1817. William met and married Abigail Bayless on December 6, 1821. They had six children between 1826 and 1833.

As with a lot of history there are conflicting stories. One source has William born in Alabama; others claim he was married to Bethany Bagley in December of 1821. But after reading as much on the subject as I can find, I’m sticking with the facts given above.

More Genealogy pages on William Thornton Pettey

William is mentioned in the wills of Abigail’s parents. A letter from her father mentions that she was living with them in 1834. In 1850 she is living with three of her children in Paris Texas. I would guess that William had died before 1834 but can’t find any record of his death. I haven’t given up looking for him, but it may take some time to find more clues.

Where did you go, William? Happy Birth Month.

I've written about my great grandfather William M. Pettey before, but it's his birth month!

William's older sister, Mary, was born in Arkansas in 1851. But before he was born, in 1852, the family had moved to Texas. He's on the 1860 census, age 8, for Prairie Lea, in Caldwell County and Texas is given as his birthplace.
In 1870 he is on the census, age 18, for Crockett, Houston County with parents Jeremiah C and Minerva Franks Jeffrey and six brothers and sisters. Mary is is missing, but she was old enough to have been married.  Without knowing her married name, she has been impossible to trace.
In the 1880 Census for Crockett, Minerva is still living there but she had married a neighbor, George Forest. The assumption is that Jeremiah C had died during those 10 years. With Minerva are three remaining children but William is gone.
There is a William Jeffrey in Milam County, living with the Harvey family and the relationship is listed as Laborer. This William is also from Texas and his age is given as 28, the correct age for our William. It's quite possible that this is the same William Jeffrey and that he was at an age where he could easily be working and living somewhere other than in the house with his mother, especially since she had remarried.

There are no 1890 censuses due to a courthouse fire. But William is on the Tax Rolls for Leon County from 1883 to 1897. He didn't own much land, or livestock. I'd guess times were pretty hard for him. In 14 Oct 1894 he married Ellen Crane.  In 1900 they were living in Montgomery County with four daughters and William is on the tax rolls for that year and the census taken in June. This is the last record we can find for him.

We can only guess that William died since Ellen married Albert Moore May 4, 1902 in Walker County, Texas and I've found no record of a divorce or for his death either. I suspect that, out of necessity, she had moved in with some of William's plentiful number of relatives living in and around Huntsville where she met Albert.

This has become a brick wall that we just can't seem to get over. What happened to William and where is he buried?

William and Ellen are my great-grandparents, parents of Maud Jeffrey Pettey, my grandmother.

Happy Birth Month Mathias!

Mathias A Myers has been a tough one to find. There just don't seem to be many records out there.
According to later censuses, he was born November of 1854.

He was the son of Perry Myers from Mississippi and Perry's first wife, Sarah Price. The first 3 sons were born in Mississippi, but by 1854 they had moved to Nacogdoches, Texas where Mathias was born. His mother, Sarah, died in 1860 in Nacogdoches. I haven't been able to find where she was buried.
Perry remarried to Susan A. Spivey and had more children.

Mathias married Sarah Francis (Fannie) Welch, our Eliza Jane Welch's half sister. By 1900 Eliza Jane had moved in with them and later met and married my great grandfather, William Holloway Pettey.
Mathias and Sarah Francis moved to Shelby County, Texas where they lived out the rest of their lives.

While searching for clues to the Welch-Willis line, I discovered that there was a gentleman named David Myers who had come to the same point in his research. I gave him a call and had a great conversation with him. He knew about Mathias and Fannie, but didn't realize that Fannie had a sister (listed on the 1890 census) - Eliza Jane Welch.
He did tell me, however, what he knew about the Myers.

He told me that he placed the combined stone on Fannie's grave so that his father, who wanted to visit it, could see them together - although they were not actually buried together.
Fannie is buried in the Ramah Cemetery in Teneha, Shelby County, TX. Mathias's name is on the same stone, but below it are the words, "buried North Jericho Cem." which is located in Center, Texas.  I can't find any record of his burial.

According to my genealogy program, Mathias was the husband of my "half great great aunt."

Nov 26 Happy Birthday Anna Belle!

Sometimes it's easy to find a female ancestor, and sometimes not so much.

Anna Belle Robinson Pettey had been a bit tricky to locate, but I found a few things about her. She was the wife of my great uncle Leonard Dewey Pettey.

She appears on the 1920 census as 18 years of age with parents J. S.  and Jessie Lynch Robinson along with 3 brothers. She was born 26 Nov 1902 in Jewett, Leon County, Texas. In 1930 the census notes that she was married to Leonard Dewey Pettey and they had a 5-year-old son, Leonard Dewy Jr "Dub" and a nephew, Herbert G Robinson, age 7, living with them.

Dewey Sr. and Anna Belle later divorced and she never remarried.

She was the sole publisher of the Jewett Messenger which she took over after her father's death.  She had started helping out with the paper when she was 18 and after taking it over she ran it until her death in 1964.

Happy Birthday Claude!

We haven't heard much about the Brumbalow family, but apparently they were pretty close to the Jeffreys for a time. CLAUDE BETHEL BRUMBALOW was born November 25, 1916 in Hamilton county, Texas to Joe B. and Ruby May Jeffrey Brumbalow. Ruby was a daughter of Andrew Bethel Jeffrey - brother to William M. Jeffrey - my great grandfather. Claude is my second cousin (once removed).
As a child Claude is on the 1930 census and the 1940 Hamilton County census with his family and a couple of Jeffreys. In 1930, Claude was 14 and living with them was Jerry Jeffrey, listed as uncle to head of household (Claude's father, Joe) and Frank Jeffrey listed as brother-in-law.  Coincidentally, I had been looking for Jerry on the censuses but had never found him until now.
In 1940 Frank Jeffrey is gone but Jerry is still there at age 74. Claude was 24 and working with the Soil Erosion Corp.
He later married Annie Bell Anthony and they had at least five children.

I almost cried when I found the death certificate of the oldest daughter. At age 7, Patsy Fay died of extensive burns caused by her clothes catching on fire from the stove. She was in the hospital 45 days before she died. I can't imagine....

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Another sad birth and death.
Infant Petty

Happy Anniversary

On 24 November 1853, Eldridge Franks married his second wife, Minerva A Ross in Marshall County, Mississippi. (another researcher says they were married in Caldwell County, TX. I have to look into this more.)
Minerva had been living with them at least since 1850 while Eldredge's first wife, Julia Ann, was still alive. She was listed on the 1850 census for Mississippi as 13 years of age. No relationship was given on the censuses for that year.

In 1954 Eldridge was on the tax rolls for Caldwell County, Texas and is listed as owning one slave.

Agriculture developed rapidly in antebellum Texas, as evidenced by a steady expansion in the number of farms, the amount of improved acreage, the value of livestock, and the size of crops produced. Slave labor contributed heavily to that growth.
Only a minority of antebellum Texans, however, actually owned slaves and participated directly in the cash-crop economy. Only one family in four held so much as a single slave, and more than half of those had fewer than five slaves. Small and large planters, defined respectively as those owning ten to nineteen and twenty or more slaves, held well over half of the state's slaves in both 1850 and 1860.
From Texas State History Online
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/npa01

Eldridge and Minerva had one son named Marcus L. Franks.

What I find particularly interesting about this couple are her name and her son's name. I have a 2X great-grandmother whose maiden name was Minerva M Franks. She also was from Mississippi. She named her second son William MARCUS. She and her husband also lived for a time in Caldwell County.
I'm pretty convinced that there is a relationship between this Minerva Franks and the other Franks who lived in Caldwell County, but I have yet to find the link.

After Minerva Ross Franks died, Eldridge Franks married Martha Elizabeth Fleming, granddaughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Jeffrey. This made Eldridge the husband of my 1st cousin (4X removed).

Happy Birth Month

I just realized that I have some ancestors in my database with month and year for important dates, but no day. So I'm wishing my second great-great uncle, WESLEY A. WILLIS, a happy birth month.

Wesley was the oldest of about nine children of William Franklin and Ann J. Stanley Willis. He was born in Georgia in November of 1832. By 1850 the family was living in Alabama. In 1852 he married Agnes Kent. In 1855 they were moving westward and had their second child in Louisiana. They were in Panola County, Texas in 1857 where Wesley was appointed Postmaster. He and his family are enumerated on the 1860 census for McMillan, Panola County where he is listed as a teamster.
From what I've been able to find, during the civil war it seems he was enlisted in Company F, Griffon's Battalion Texas Infantry around 1863. In Jan 1864 he was on daily duty for "having no shoes." On March 20, 1864 his card reads that at Vermillion, LA he deserted from furlough.

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/David%20Carr_0.pdf

In 1870 the family was living in Marlin, Falls County, Texas next door to his parents and family. Sometime between 1870 and 1875 his wife, Agnes died.

In 1875 Wesley married Mary A Stevenson in Louisiana. She was one of three sisters who married a Willis man. One husband was Robert, Wesley's brother and the other was Berry K. Willis, Wesley's cousin.

In 1880 they were living in Wise County, TX. In 1890 they had an 18 year old nephew and a 21 year old son in law living with them. I've not been able to find out who these boys were.

Wesley was a brother of my 2X great grandmother, Martha Willis WELCH, mother of Eliza Jane Welch PETTEY.

Birth Dates and Others

I've committed myself to posting more in the upcoming year. I've printed out a report from my database of a calendar with important dates on it. I will be sharing what I know about ancestors who were born or married or died on those days.

Starting today! Nov. 22 Birthdays!

GABRIEL A PETTY was born on this day in 1773. I don't have a lot of information on him but he was the grandson of Thomas Petty, the only known child of Hubert Petty. (Hubert was the first Petty to land on US soil as an indentured servant).
Gabriel was born in Warren, N Carolina to James and Martha Clanton Petty. He was the last of 12 children. He married Sarah Darwin (1) and Nancy Sarah (2). He had a large family of about 14 children and died in 1848.

LEONARD DALE PETTEY SR.  was born in 1937 in Nacogdoches, Texas, the son of  Leonard Dewey Pettey. (There's a question in my database as to who his mother was. Dewey was married twice, once to Anna Belle Robinson and to Edith (?). Since this family was relatively recent, records are not yet available.) Dale lived in Pasadena in later years and was a Harris County Sheriff officer for 10 years, employed by Texaco for 33 years.  He was married to Sylvia Ann Meadows. He died in 2009.
I never met him but we did communicate by email about family history.