Three Birthdays!

Since I was away for the weekend, I got a bit behind. So today you get a three-for-one birthday bash!

December 3 - Jerry Jeffrey

Jerry is another shadowy relative. He was the son of Jeremiah C and Minerva Franks Jeffrey, and a younger brother of my great-grandfather, William Marcus Jeffrey and he would be my great, great uncle.

According to his death certificate, he was born 3 Dec 1867 in Caldwell County, Texas. He first appears on a 1870 census in Crockett, Texas with his family.

I suspect his birth date on the death certificate may be incorrect by a couple of years. Either that, or every census gives an incorrect age. He would have been two on this census but he’s listed as six. In 1880 he’s listed on the census with his mother and step-father, George Forrest. He’s listed as age 15 but his calculated age would have been 12. In 1900 there is a Jerry Jeffrey living as a boarder with the Sheldon family and age given as 21. He would have been 33 if born in 1867. It’s possible that this isn’t him.

Next we find him in 1930 with his niece and her husband, Joe and Ruby Brumbalow in Hamilton County, TX widowed, with age as 60. The calculated age would be 62. In 1940 he is still living with them in Coryell County age given as 74. Calculated age would have been 72.

The real puzzler is that the death certificate gives the correct father, and the informant was BF Jeffrey who could have been his nephew, Frank Jeffrey and while the birth date could be wrong, it would be strange to find the death date wrong. But the certificate gives the place of burial as Center Valley Cemetery in Hamilton, TX. The only Jerry Jeffrey I could find there was on FindAGrave and shows clearly a picture of the stone with the dates 1869-1944. His Death Certificate clearly states he died 3/5/1945.  If the date of birth on the death certificate is correct, he would have been 77 when he died, as stated on the death certificate. According to the tombstone, he would have been 75.

So is the tombstone for another Jerry Jeffrey? There is almost no information given with the memorial so it’s impossible to tell.

In searching for a marriage for him, it gets even worse. Both the later censuses and his death record list him as widowed. But there are several Jerry and JC Jeffreys in Texas married to different women. Trying to find one that matches has been impossible so far.

Jerry is another brick wall at this time. Perhaps more information will come to light later on. Records are constantly being transcribed, indexed and put online. Maybe we’ll find out who his wife was and whether they had any children. But, for now, Happy Birthday, Uncle Jerry. Hope to learn more about you.

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December 4 - Joseph Baker Jeffrey 

Joseph was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama December 4, 1940 the son of James Bishop Jeffrey and Mary Ann Hellums Jeffrey. He was a brother to my second great grandfather, Jeremiah C. Jeffrey, making him my second great-great uncle.

In 1847 the family was in Caldwell County Texas. The 1850 census states that Joseph was 10.

He married Eliza Long in 1857 when he was only 17 and she was 15.

In 1860 they were living in Caldwell County with one son. Joseph enlisted in the Confederate army in May of 1862. In January and February of 1863 he was captured and held by “the enemy.”  Now it gets confusing since his papers say the prisoners were recaptured in 1862. He is listed as having been a prisoner of war. According to his pension application he served until the end of the war.

 In 1870 Joseph and his family were in Williamson, Texas and his son Nathan had married and was living next door. In 1880 they have six children

In 1899 he applied for and received a pension for his service in the civil war. He was indigent and disabled. His doctor signed an affidavit that he was almost blind.

June 21, 1910 he died of dropsicle iffusion, or as otherwise known, a secondary affection of Scarlet Fever in Pontotoc, Mason County Texas.

He was buried at Salem Cemetery in Llano County, Texas.

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December 5 - James Andrew Jeffrey

James was Jerry Jeffrey’s nephew, son of Andrew Bethel and Minnie Koehl Jeffrey born 5 Dec 1894 in Huntsville, Texas. He was an older brother to Benjamin “Frank” Jeffrey and my first cousin, twice removed.

He was five years old when the census was taken in Huntsville, in 1900.  He was 15 in 1910 and working on the family farm.

In 1917 he was drafted by the Harris County draft board at age 22. Information was given that he was single, living at Goose Creek in Baytown, Texas. He was working in the oil fields and had dark hair, brown eyes and was tall and slender.

By 1930 he was living in Hamilton County as a farmer, had married Alta Virginia Willis and had four children. (and yes, I did try to find a connection with our Willises, but no luck.)

In 1940 he is still in Hamilton with Alta and now six children and still farming.

He registered for the draft in WWII. I assume it was the “old men’s draft” which just was a list of resources, not that they would be sent to fight. There is no date on the document but as his age was listed as 47, it would have been around 1941.

The 1940 census was the last one available until 2022.  His death certificate states that he was living in Fort Worth, Texas when he died of cancer in August 22, 1966. He was working in the Civil Service and his son, Jimmy Dewain signed the death certificate. He was buried in the Memory Gardens in Weatherford, Texas.