"Open" State Vital Records: The Bad and the Ugly

One of Several Posts about Open Government Laws and Genealogy

Previously, we spotlighted several states that are particularly "genealogy-friendly" concerning access to state vital records. Now we wade into the swamp of vital records-access horribles.

At the edge of the swamp are states that have unreasonably long (100 years or more for birth records; more than fifty years for death records; or any period for ordinary marriages and divorces) confidentiality periods. These states include:

• Alabama: 125 years for birth records!

• Alaska: 100 years for birth records; fifty years for marriage records

• Arkansas: 100 years for birth records

• Delaware: 100 years for birth records

• Hawaii: 75 years for death and marriage records

• Idaho: 100 years for birth records; 50 years for marriage and divorce records

• Iowa: 75 years for death, marriage and divorce records; even then, records are simply open for inspection and copying; no copies issued by the state except to persons of a certain relationship.

• Louisiana: 100 years for birth records

• Michigan: 100 years for birth records (on the other hand, anyone can have access to Michigan death records).

• New Jersey: 50 years for marriage records

• New Mexico: 100 years for birth records, but not prior to individual's death (but see below).
  

• New York: 50 years for marriage records AND both husband and wife are known to be deceased.

• Oregon: 100 years for birth records

• Rhode Island: 100 years for birth records

• Wyoming: 50 years for marriages and divorces

Vital Records Access Hell

• Georgia: Birth certificates appear to be available only to (1) the person whose record of birth is registered; (2) either parent, guardian, or temporary guardian of the person whose record of birth or death is registered; (3) the living legal spouse or next of kin or the legal representative of the person whose record of birth or death is registered; (4) a court of competent jurisdiction upon its order or subpoena; or (5) any governmental agency, state or federal, provided that such certificate shall be needed for official purposes. This is my reading of Georgia Code section 31-10-26(a) & (e). The law appears to prohibit the issuance of informational or uncertified copies of birth certificates and even abstracts or indices of birth records. If I'm reading this incorrectly, will some Georgia genealogist or lawyer please set me straight.

• Indiana: Birth and death records are closed to the public and may be disclosed only (1) to an applicant having a direct interest in the matter recorded; (2) when the information is necessary for the determination of personal or property rights or for compliance with state or federal law; or (3) in any extraordinary case that the state registrar determines is a direct tangible and legitimate public interest. That's my interpretation of Indiana Code section 16-37-1-10. If I'm reading this incorrectly, will some Indiana genealogist or lawyer please set me straight.
  

• Kansas: One of the worst! "Currently, the Office of Vital Statistics does allow requests for genealogical research. Pre-1940 records may be requested by an individual related as at least a cousin. Post 1940 records must be requested by an immediate family member." Kansas Department of Health and Environment vital statistics website (viewed 3/27/2008)
  

• Mississippi: "Vital Records are not considered public access documents. Certified copies of records in the custody of the Department of Health may be obtained by persons having a legitimate and tangible interest in such records." Mississippi State Department of Health Vital Records Rules and Regulations (viewed 3/27/2008). The statute says:
• Records in the possession of the Mississippi Department of Health, bureau of vital statistics, which would be of no legitimate and tangible interest to a person making a request for access to such records, shall be exempt from the provisions of the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983; provided, however, nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any person with a legitimate and tangible interest in such records from having access thereto. Miss.Code 1972, 41-57-2 (1983).
  

• New Mexico: "New Mexico Vital Records are restricted access records and are only issued to immediate family members or individuals who demonstrate tangible legal interest," so says the New Mexico Department of Health's website. But, that seems to contradict the statute, which says that records may be disclosed 100 years after birth (but not before person's death) and 50 years after death. See N.M.Stat. 24-14-27. So the Land of Enchantment makes the hell list not only for being unreasonable, but for confusing people as well.

• Pennsylvania: Vital records are not open to the public. Eligible requestors are (1) person named on a birth record; (2) legal representative of decedent's estate; (3) immediate family members; (4) extended family members who indicate a direct relationship to the decedent. Pennsylvania Department of Health vital records website (viewed 3/27/2008).
  

• South Carolina: Entitled recipients: (1) the person named on a birth certificate (if eighteen (18) years of age); (2) the parent(s) named on the birth certificate; or the guardian, or a legal representative of one of these persons. On the other hand, any applicant may be provided a statement that a death occurred, including the date and county of death. South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control vital records website (viewed 3/27/2008).

There are several states (some listed here, some not) that say that records are open to persons with "a direct and tangible interest," or a "legitimate interest," or words to that effect. Without some mitigating factors, this should be enough to consign a state to Vital Records Access Hell. These phrases frequently have no definition, leaving a requestor to the whims of a vital records clerk. It certainly seems to me that genealogical research is a "legitimate," "direct," or "tangible" interest!

Special Place in Hell for Online Records Sites

This series has not been focused on online records. A state can earn kudos without having online acess to its records. But if a jurisdiction is going to have on-line access, it should be convenient and affordable. Alas, such is not the case with the Caddo Parish (La.) Clerk of Court's office, so they are awarded this year's SPIHFORS. The Caddo clerk's online marriage records search function frequently doesn't work properly. And then there's the matter of fees for the other databases: a $100 "setup" fee and $30.00 a month to view images! Outrageous! Just about fifty miles west of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish, in Gregg County, Texas (much smaller in population than Caddo Parish), the County Clerk provides free online access to some of the same types of documents for which Caddo wants exorbitant fees.

Black Catholics In America: Who Was The First African-American Priest?

The answer is . . . it depends on who you ask. And sometimes the same person will give two different answers!

The contenders are Father James Healy (1830-1900), ordained 1854; and Father Augustine Tolton (1854-1897), ordained 1886.

The simple genealogical data would seem conclusive: James Healy was the first African-American priest. But it's not quite that simple.

The 1830 census of Jones County, Georgia, helps tell part of the story. That census shows a household that consists of a single white man and a number of slaves. Despite the characterization on the census, the slaves are in fact Michael Healy's wife and children. According to Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience, co-authored by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Michael Healy had been an Irish soldier in the British Army who deserted in the War of 1812. He eventually made his way to Georgia where he acquired land and slaves. He began a relationship with a slave named Mary Eliza Smith and had children with her. Some reports claim that Healy and Mary Eliza were married by an itinerant preacher. Such a marriage would have been illegal under Georgia law at the time.

Michael Healy acknowledged his children and was concerned for their welfare and education. He arranged for Mary Eliza and three of their sons, Hugh, Patrick, and James, to be sent north so that the boys could be educated.

The Healy sons were enrolled in a Quaker school in New York State. Sometime later, they transferred to Holy Cross College in Massachusetts. James was the valedictorian of the 1849 graduating class. While at Holy Cross, James felt the call to the priesthood.

Blacks were not admitted to American seminaries at the time, so James went first to a Canadian seminary in Montreal and then to the Sulpician seminary in Paris. In 1854 in Paris, he was ordained a priest of the Boston diocese. Healy spent some time as secretary to the bishop and then as an assistant pastor. In 1866, he became pastor of St James Church, the largest parish in Boston.

Father Healy was a strong spokesman for Catholics in what was then a hostile environment. His work at St James led to his being selected as bishop of Portland, Maine, in 1875.

Many parishioners apparently did not realize that the light skinned Father Healy was of African descent. He did not particularly make that fact known. For several years, he declined to attend the Congress of Colored Catholics, expressing the view that, "We are of that Church where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor freeman, but Christ is all and in all."

Father Augustine Tolton was born in 1854, the same year Bishop Healy was ordained. He was born in Ralls County, Missouri, the son of slaves. Some reports say that his father left the family to join the Union Army, but my cursory search found no evidence of that. In any event, during the Civil War, the family escaped slavery and moved to Illinois, a free state. One report claims that the slaveowner, a man named Elliott, actually freed the Tolton family. An extension of that story and likely apochryphal, says that upon being freed, young Augustine was baptized in the waters of Brush Creek, with Mrs. Elliott as his godmother.

The family ended up in Quincy, Illinois. Augustine attended Catholic schools in Quincy and heard the call to Holy Orders. But black men still were not permitted to attend American seminaries. In 1880, he went to Rome to attend seminary. He was ordained in 1886 and returned to the diocese of Alton, Illinois.

Father Tolton became well known in Illinois and was either loved or hated. At some point, he was transferred to Chicago. Some say this move can as the result of the antipathy of a white priest in the diocese.

In Chicago, Father Tolton initially was assigned to a basement church that later became known as St Monica's. His reputation grew and he did not hesitate to travel and speak to various groups of Catholics. Unlike Bishop Healy, Father Tolton attended and spoke at the 1890 Congress of Colored Catholics.

Father Tolton died of heat stroke in 1897, at the age of 43.

So who is considered the first black priest in America? Some say it can't be Bishop Healy, because he never "proclaimed" himself black. Less charitable folks say that Healy was "passing." But by the racial rules in place then and now (although different "rules" now) Bishop Healy is properly considered the first man of African-American ancestry to be ordained a priest. Father Tolton is properly considered to be the first man with two slave parents to be ordained a priest.

Two Heroes: WIlson and Shadrach of Andrews' Raiders

Note: This is the last in a series of four posts about heroic soldiers who were denied or overlooked for the Medal of Honor at the time of their extraordinary acts. Less than ten days ago, Congress authorized the award of the Medal to five of these men.

One of the most daring events of the Civil War took place in northern Georgia in April 1862. For their part in the affair, nineteen members of the Ohio volunteer infantry were awarded the nation's first Medals of Honor by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Unfortunately, two men, George D. Wilson, and Phillip G. Shadrach, were left out of the wards. Now, 146 years later, Congress has passed legislation to award them the highest military honor.

Major General D.C. Buell, in command of the Department of Tennessee, had employed a sometimes spy and contraband runner named James J. Andrews from Kentucky. Andrews conceived a plan to execute Buell's desire to disrupt communications and transportation between Chattanooga and Atlanta.

With twenty-two handpicked men from the Ohio Infantry dressed as civilians, Andrews walked from a rendezvous point near Chattanooga to Marietta, Georgia. They reached Marietta at about midnight on April 11, 1862. At that Marietta, they boarded a train for a station called Big Shanty not far from the Great Kennesaw Mountain.

While the engineer, conductor, and other passengers were eating breakfast, Andrews and his men uncoupled the locomotive called The General, its coal tender and three box cars from the rest of the train, all without arousing the suspicion of the soldiers at nearby Camp McDonald. Sixteen raiders secreted themselves in the boxcars. Andrews and Privates Wilson Brown and William Knight, both locomotive engineers, entered the cabin. Another soldier acted as fireman. The legitimate crew of The General looked up from their breakfast to the sight of the train teaming out of Big Shanty without them.

The raiders cut telegraph lines, removed rails, and burned bridges. According to the railroad schedule which Andrews had with him, they should have met only one other train, but for some reason they met three. The raiders told inquirers where they were compelled to stop that they were conveying powder to Beauregard's army. The first train that came to a broken spot had its engine reversed and became a pursuer of the raiders. About an hour was lost in waiting to allow these trains to pass, which enabled their pursuers to press closely upon them. Despite their best efforts, the time lost could not be regained. After having run about one hundred miles, they found their supply of wood, water, and oil exhausted, while the rebel locomotive which had been chasing them was in sight. Under these circumstances, they had no alternative but to abandon their cars and flee into the woods on Chickamauga Creek, some15 miles from Chattanooga.

Thousands of Confederate soldiers scoured the country in all directions and eventually captured Andrews and his companions.

The report of the Judge Advocate General about this incident to the Secretary of War included the following:

The twenty-two captives, when secured, were thrust into the negro jail of Chattanooga. They occupied a single room, half under ground, and but thirteen feet square, so that there was not space enough for them all to lie down together, and a part of them were, in consequence, obliged to sleep sitting and leaning against the walls. The only entrance was through a trap-door in the ceiling, that was raised twice a day to let down their scanty meals, which were lowered in a bucket.

They had no other light or ventilation than that which came through two small, triple-grated windows. They were covered with swarming vermin, and the heat was so oppressive that they were often obliged to strip themselves entirely of their clothes to bear it. Add to this, they were all handcuffed, and, with trace chains secured by padlocks around their necks, were fastened to each other in companies of twos and threes. Their food, which was doled out to them twice a day, consisted of a little flour, wet with water and baked in the form of bread, and spoiled pickled beef. They had no opportunity of procuring any supplies from the outside, nor had they any means of doing so; their pockets having been rifled of their last cent by the Confederate authorities, prominent among whom was an officer wearing the rebel uniform of a major. No part of the money thus basely taken was ever returned.

While the group was imprisoned at Chattanooga, Anderws was tried as a spy, convicted, and hanged at Atlanta on June 7, 1862. Following his execution, twelve others were transferred from Chattanooga to Knoxville, where seven of them were put on trial for spying. All seven were convicted and sentenced to death.

The Judge Advocate General's Report continued:

Among those who thus perished was Private Geo. D. Wilson, Company C, 21st Ohio Volunteers. He was a mechanic from Cincinnati, who, in the exercise of his trade, had travelled much through the States North and South, and who had a greatness of soul which sympathized intensely with our struggle for national life, and was in that dark hour filled with joyous convictions of our final triumph. Though surrounded by a scowling crowd, impatient for his sacrifice, he did not hesitate, while standing under the gallows, to make them a brief address. He told them that, though they were all wrong, he had no hostile feelings toward the Southern people, believing that not they but their leaders were responsible for the Rebellion; that he was no spy, as charged, but a soldier regularly detailed for military duty; that he did not regret to die for his country, but only regretted the manner of his death; and he added, for their admonition, that they would yet see the time when the old Union would be restored, and when its flag would wave over them again. And with these words the brave man died. He, like his comrades, calmly met the ignominious doom of a felon—but, happily, ignominious for him and for them only so far as the martyrdom of the patriot and the hero can be degraded by the hands of ruffians and traitors.

The fourteen remaining raiders were taken to Atlanta where they were confined. In October, 1862, all fourteen escaped from prison. Six made it back to Federal lines, six were recaptured, and the fate of two others has remained unknown.

On March 25, 1863, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton presented the very first Medals of Honor to the six remaining Ohio infantrymen, and gave them brevet commissions as lieutenants. Eventually all the raiders would be awarded the Medal of honor, save four: James Andrews, who was not eligible as a civilian, another civilian, and George Davenport Wilson and Phillip Gephart Shadrach.

It's not clear why Wilson and Shadrach were left out of the award of the Medal of Honor. Some reports say that Shadrach was disqualified because he had enlisted under a false name.

George Davenport Wilson was the son of George and Elizabeth Clark Wilson of Belmonmt County, Ohio. According to one source, he was married once, but divorced in 1861, before enlisting. He had a daughter and a son.

Phillip Gephart Shadrach (if that was his name) is listed on the military rolls as Charles Perry Shadrach. A source says he was the son of Robert and Elizabeth Shadrack of Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Information about him is difficult to come by and even more difficult to verify.

Congress on January 28, 2008 authorized the award of the Medal of Honor to these two heroic soldiers.

History Comes to Dinner

Actually I'm going to dinner at the home of my great-great grandmother, Matilda Manson, in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas, on a day in 1900. Grandma Mattie has been kind enough, at my suggestion, to invite her son Otis, and his wife Bettie Sanford, as well as Bettie's 90 year old father, Billie Sanford. Bettie is pregnant with their fourth child, my great aunt Julia Mattie Manson. They'd left at home their three sons, seven-year-old Carl, six-year-old Otis Preston, and three-year-old Silas Leroy. I wonder who's babysitting.

But most interestingly of all, Grandma Mattie has invited Otis's father, 59 year old George Preston Birdsong, and his 55-year-old brother Albert Hamill Birdsong. Preston and his brother live in the nearby town of Cameron which is the Milam County seat.

To recap what will make this an interesting dinner, George Preston Birdsong is the son of the late George Lawrence Forsyth Birdsong and his wife Susan Thweatt. The Birdsongs were a prominent landowning and slaveowning family in Upson County, Georgia, through most of the 19th century. Larry Birdsong in fact was a deputy sheriff of Upson County and served as a captain in the local militia which was called to duty with the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The Birdsongs owned a number of slaves, but Matilda Manson was not among them. Matilda was a free woman of color who had been born in neighboring Talbot County. At some time during the 1870s, soon after Larry Birdsong had died in 1869, Matilda Manson and George Preston Birdsong found themselves living next door to each other. Preston appears to perhaps have been estranged from the rest of his family, who lived some distance away. In 1884, Preston, Matilda, her son Otis, and Preston's brother Albert all took off for Texas.

The family lore about Matilda and Otis's absconding to Texas is told here. That story is not true. Family lore also has it that every Sunday Otis would take his family down to the train station in Rockdale Texas where they would await a train from a neighboring town. When the train arrived a white man would get off the train visit with them and give them money. Then he would get on the next train going back until the following week. This appears to be true.

Preston and Albert worked in Cameron. Preston lived with a couple of brothers from what is now the Czech Republic. (At that time it was known as Bohemia). One brother was a bartender, and the other was a salesman, according to the 1900 census. Preston worked as a night watchman.

Dinner this evening should be very interesting. I don't think Preston has ever met Otis's wife Bettie. Likewise I don't think Bettie's father Billie knows anything about Preston. And I'm eager to hear some stories from all the parties concerned. For example, I want to know what it was like when Preston and Matilda got together in Georgia. I want to know exactly why they left Georgia. Where they run out of town as I suspect? Or did they leave of their own volition? Why did Albert come along? And why of all the places in Texas did they choose Rockdale? How did they get to Rockdale from Upson County, Georgia? According to the book, A Frontier Link with the World: Upson County's Railroad, by historian David E. Paterson, Preston had been for a short while an engineer on the railroad in Georgia. Did they take a train from Georgia to Texas? What did it cost? How long did it take? What was their relationship like as they traveled and once they got to Texas? And what was Preston's relationship with his family like after he left Georgia? Did he receive letters from them? Did he write to his mother? His mother died in 1892 while he and Albert were in Texas. Did they know of their mother's death at the time? Did they return to Georgia for her funeral? And since this dinner takes place in 1900, I obviously know some things that are about to happen that they don't know. I won't tell them but Preston returns to Georgia in just a few more years, and he dies there in 1905. Albert also returns to Georgia but he lives until 1921.

And as for Matilda, I'm curious what became of her mother Jane. And what became of her sister Mary? Did Matilda and Mary know their grandmother, a Scots-Irish woman named Charlotte? What exactly was it like to be a so-called "free woman of color" in Georgia in the 19th century? What did Matilda and Mary and Jane do during the Civil War? Where were they during the Civil War? And for Billie Sanford, how did the Sanford family of Virginia into which he was born in slavery, treat their slaves? Billie followed the Sanford's from Virginia to Tennessee to Texas. Where did he meet his wife Emily? Had he been married before? What did he think of Otis marrying his daughter Bettie? Who were his brothers and sisters? Did he remember his parents from Virginia? To what did he ascribe his long life? (Here in 1900, Billie doesn't know that he will live another 16 years in die at the age of 106).

I'm interested in seeing Matilda's dwelling. I'm wondering what she's going to serve for dinner. Will it be a recipe from Georgia? Or perhaps it will be something she's learned since she moved to Texas 16 years ago. What ever, I'm sure it will be delicious. After dinner if it's not too late, maybe we'll walk over to Otis and Bettie's house. Perhaps they'll invite Bettie's sister Addie and her husband Abe White over for coffee.

Tomorrow if the weather's good, I'll do something really daring. I'll stroll over to the home of Reuben Henry Sanford, the son of the woman who brought Billie Sanford as a slave to Texas from Tennessee. Now that will be interesting!

The other things that I know but can't tell Otis and Bettie tonight are that their son Otis Preston and their daughter yet unborn Julia Mattie both will die of tuberculosis in 1912. So it will be an interesting joyous yet bittersweet evening.

Whatever Happened to Mary Manson?

My great-great-grandmother, Matilda Manson, had a sister, Mary, born in about 1846. [See 1850 US Census, Talbot County, Georgia]. The 1850 census is the only one in which Matilda, Mary, and their mother, Jane, appear together in the same household. In fact, it may be the only census in which Mary appears at all.

Mary next appears in a record in 1853. In that year, she was the donee of a parcel of land conveyed "with love and affection" by one Nathaniel Brown, a 60 year old white man in Taylor County, Georgia. Thereafter, Mary Manson disappears from recorded history. What happened to her?

She may have gotten married; she may have died; she may have left the state. But this is a tremendous challenge. I really want to know what happened to Mary Manson. I'm checking tax records and land records. Georgia vital records are sparse in this period.

Now there is a Mary Manson living on the large plantation at Turkey Creek in Wilkinson County. I doubt that this is the same person. Those at Turkey Creek were all slaves--Mary was a free woman of color.

So this is Mystery #1: what became of Mary Manson? I hope I can solve it!

Debunking A Family Myth

I've written about this before, but it fits this topic exactly, so I've reached into the archives and dusted this one off.

Matilda Manson is listed in the 1850 census of Talbot County, Georgia, with her mother, Jane Manson and her sister, Mary Manson. Matilda's age is given as 6 years old; Mary is reported to be 4, and their mother Jane's age is listed as 24. All three are described as "mulatto." Matilda next appears in federal census records in 1880 in nearby Upson County as 30 year old "Mat" Manson with a 9 year old son, Otis. They are both described as "mulatto." Sometime during the 1880's, Matilda and young Otis relocated from Georgia to Milam County, Texas. Otis married Bettie Sanford (1872-1955) and they had seven children. Matilda Manson was my great-great-grandmother.

I asked my father why Matilda and Otis left Georgia for Texas and he said:

She was Spanish. And he [Otis] was the only Spanish boy in school in Georgia at that time. So I think he was being picked on . . . and she decided they had to leave . . . That's what I heard--that she was Spanish.

No doubt they had to leave when somebody realized that she wasn't Spanish.

So Matilda Manson and her son Otis had to leave Georgia . . . .okay, but why did they chose little ole Rockdale in Milam County, Texas? Well, maybe they knew somebody there.

For months, I stared at the 1880 census of Hootenville, Georgia, until I saw it. Right there on the first page it says:

1 1 BIRDSONG, GEO. P. M W S 38 Farmer

2 2 MANSON, MAT F Mu S 30 Servant, House
- - ---------, OTIS M Mu S 9 At Home
- - McCRARY, ELIZA F B S 18 Farm Laborer

3 3 DAWSON, ELLEN F B S 22 Farm Laborer
- - ---------, JOHNSON M Mu S 5 At Home
- - ---------, HORACE M B S 3 At Home
- - ---------, FANNIE F B S 20 Farm Laborer
- - --------, MAT F B S 3 At Home


To decipher that: At the second household in the neighborhood (2), which was also the second household visited by the enumerator (2), the enumerator recorded that he found "Mat" (Matilda) Manson, a female (F), mulatto (Mu), who was unmarried (S) and thirty years old (30). [Age in the 19th century censuses is often an estimate or a guess. With no government records, limited literacy, and few compelling reasons to know one's exact age, enumerators and citizens sometimes missed the mark by as much as a decade. In this case for example, we know that Matilda was older than thirty in 1880, because she is listed as six years old on the 1850 census of Talbot County]. She was a household servant.

"Next door" to Matilda (that is, in the next household in the neighborhood), lived Ellen Dawson, a 22 year old farm worker, and her two sons, Johnson and Horace. Also in that house were Ellen's 20 year old sister, Fannie, and her young daughter, Matilda.

If Matilda was a household servant, whose household was she serving? If her teenaged ward Eliza McCrary was a farm laborer, just whose farm was she laboring on? And who were the Dawson sisters working for? Well, it's not as if they were commuting anywhere in 1880 in Hootenville, Georgia. What about the farmer who lived "next door" to Matilda and Otis? Maybe they worked for him . . .hmmmm. . . .

"The Farmer Next Door" was George Preston Birdsong, born May 25, 1841, died 1905. (The Birdsong Family website is a useful). He wass the eldest son of George Lawrence Forsyth Birdsong and Susan Francis Thweatt Birdsong. Several interesting and unusual facts about George Preston Birdsong can be gleaned from available sources. First, according to information on the Birdsong family site, he was one of twelve children, nine of whom were boys. Apparently, three of the boys did not survive into adulthood. Of the six surviving sons, George and his brother Albert are the only ones for whom there appear to be no record of marriage. As shown above, even as late as age 38, George remained single.

George Preston Birdsong lived with his mother and brothers at least until he was nearly thirty (see 1870 census of Upson County, Georgia) on property his mother had homesteaded in 1868.The Birdsongs were collectively and individually well-off after the Civil War. Mrs. Birdsong's real estate was valued at $3,000, while George's personal property was worth $350--not insignificant sums for the Reconstruction Era. Before the War, the Birdsongs had one of the top-valued farms in the county. George was a veteran of the War, having served with his brother in Company K, 5th Georgia Regiment, which unit surrendered to Federal forces at Greensboro, North Carolina, in April 1865.

So in 1880, when he appears to be living alone, George P. Birdsong (a) has survived the deadliest war in American history; (b) is accustomed to family living; (c) seems to be a successful farmer. In other words, he would seem to be a highly desirable marriage prospect and being a man of his time, would seem naturally to gravitate toward marriage and a family of his own. And yet, approaching 40, elderly in relative terms, George Preston Birdsong remained unmarried, without a family of his own, or . . .so . . . it . . . would . . . seem . . . .

As has been noted, Matilda Manson and her son Otis left Georgia for Milam County, Texas, sometime between 1880 and 1890. By 1890, Otis had married Bettie Sanford. By 1900, the year of the next available census, Otis and Bettie had three sons and Matilda lived nearby in Rockdale.

Rockdale, Texas, is about 15 miles from Cameron, the seat of Milam County. The 1900 census shows George P. Birdsong living in Cameron.

The second son of Otis and Bettie Manson is named Preston, which is George Birdsong's middle name.

So now we start to get a picture of why Matilda and Otis went to Texas. That picture is rounded out by another family legend. According to this family legend, Otis and Bettie would take their children to the train station in Rockdale occasionally. They would wait for the train coming from Cameron. A white man would get off that train, visit with the family and give them money, then leave on the next train back to Cameron.

I wonder what the Birdsong family legend is about why George Preston Birdsong went to Texas? Maybe because he was involved with a "Spanish" lady?

Confirming & Debunking Family Myths, Legends and Lore

I have a host of family legends that I have not been able to entirely confirm or debunk.

Legend #1: My gg-grandmother, Sarah Gilbert Johnson, was an Indian. I haven't found any evidence that she was, mainly because I've found no evidence of her except an entry in the Clay County (Mo.) marriage records and one census record. Family members say that her daughter, Mary Elizabeth Johnson, who died in 1946, said her mother was an Indian. Living family members who knew Mary Elizabeth Johnson say she had "Native American features" and wore her hair in two long braids until the day she died.

The "Grandma Was An Indian" legend exists in many families for many complicated reasons. It turns out to be false more often than true. But who knows in the case of Sarah Gilbert Johnson?

Legend #2: Somebody named "Carl" in my father's Georgia family tree was Jewish. I've found no evidence of this, though my father keeps asking if I have. One of my father's uncles was named Carl. He was not Jewish to the best of my knowledge,. In one version of the story, this person came to Georgia from Florida. Now, I am missing at least two male ancestors in that branch of the family, both of whom were likely Caucasian.

The "Grandpa Was A Jew" legend crops up rarely, but occasionally in ostensibly non-Jewish families. Slightly more frequently, for complicated reasons, the fact that Grandpa was Jewish may be hidden.

Legend #3: My great-grand father, Richard Gines, was French, or spoke French. Although I've found no evidence of this, there is a plausible reason that people believe this. He was born in Louisiana and he married Sylvia LeJay, whose surname is French. Curiously, no one ever says that she was French, though this might make some sense.

Legend #4: I'm related to Sir Patrick Manson(1844-1922), the Scottish physician who was the first specialist in tropical medicine. While possible, I doubt that this is true. I started this "legend" myself when I was in high school. Why? I don't know.

Legend #5: One of my father's aunts left Texas to return to Georgia to find "the rest" (i.e., "the white people") of her family. When she got to Georgia, she found the "family," knocked on their door, and was rudely dismissed. She went to Atlanta and was never heard from again. Not true. The aunt in question likely was Julia Matilda Manson (1900-1912). She died of tuberculosis at age twelve. [Citation: Milam County Death Records, Vol. I, Milam County Genealogical Society, 1998]. This may have gotten started as a way to explain to her siblings and other folks her untimely death ("she ran away to Georgia and we never heard from her again").

Legend #6: One of my mother's aunts, Mary Beatrice Long, died when she fell into a lake and drowned while on a church picnic. Not true. Mary B. Long died on May 6, 1921, of tuberculosis. She was sixteen years old. [Citation: Death Certificate No. 12145, Mary Beatrice Long, Missouri State Board of Health, 1921; available from Missouri State Archives website at
http://sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/]. Again, the far-fetched story may have been a tale to explain an untimely death. The several family members from whom I first heard this story now claim they don't remember telling it.

The biggest myth in the family is one I've written about before. I've dressed it up again for the next post.