family research – Ancestral Pathways LLC

All FRANKs are Kin! Part One

August 15, 2016February 22, 2019 iyatee1 Comment

When I was growing up in Ville Platte, it was common knowledge among my elders that, “all FRANKS are kin.”

This was especially interesting to me because my grandmother, Joanna DENTON, had married three different FRANK men: first, she married my grandfather, Chester FRANK, with whom she had two children—Felton and my father Welton. She then entered a common-law marriage with Orise ARDOIN, (whose mother was a FRANK, making him a part of the FRANK clan); together, my grandmother Joanna and Orise had seven children: Ophelia aka Toot, Preston aka Goo-lie, .Horace aka Poule, twins Mattie and Ethel (aka Toe-Toe), Albert, and Maryann aka Pinky.

Continue reading “All FRANKs are Kin! Part One” →

Another Brick wall Breakthrough

December 30, 2015June 19, 2017 iyatee4 Comments

In my last two posts, I asked for additional help in locating information about my maternal grandmother’s mother’s family. Though I recently discovered that that family’s last name is Laughtin, I still haven’t found any additional information on my grandmother’s maternal family. However, I did find that the brick wall of slavery has been broken for our Ruben family!

For me, genealogy is like a mystery game or puzzle, and as a genealogist, I spend my spare time trying to connect the puzzle pieces of my family together. If you are researching in Southwest Louisiana and you are familiar with the towns in the area, you typically can locate at least some of your relatives. If you use standard research methods—such as looking for multiple spellings of known surnames, looking in census records for neighbors of known relatives, or doing searches on usual given names—you’re bound to find some family connections.

When I first started researching, I really had no clue what I was doing and I didn’t have any person that was guiding me on this journey. I just knew that I wanted to research my family history and I would do that by any means necessary.

Since the first time I’ve gone to the archives in Opelousas and what I’ve done on every trip, I always look up the marriage records from known surnames of my family. If I recognized a person’s given name, I would make a note and get a copy of the marriage license. At this point, if I were searching a specific family line, I may even get a copy of the marriage license, even if I don’t recognize the given name. Now, I sort of know that to make a family connection you first gather evidence, examine the evidence, and then put together the “story” that one gleans from the collected evidence.

Gabriel “Gabe” Ruben, I knew, was originally from the Ville Platte area, but he had lived most of his adult-life in Elton, LA. Elton is also where my maternal grandmother was raised and where my mother were born. My mother told me that a lot of the Ruben family lived in Washington, Louisiana, which I later corroborated with another Rubin elder cousin.

I first found Gabriel on the 1870 census, living in Saint Landry Parish with his father Lastie, his mother Ellen, and siblings Louisa and Lovenia.

gabe rubin 1880

For Southwest Louisiana researchers, there’s a useful reference source called the Southwest Louisiana Records (SWLR) by Father Donald Hebert. SWLR provides some vital records that’s derived from various parish archives and Catholic Church records. Often you can find family connections, such as parentage, date of birth and date of death.

At one point, my late mother and Uncle James Williams told me was that the Rubens were kin to the Skinners and also kin to the Collins. The story is that the Skinners were at one point Rubens, but due to slavery, their names had been changed. So, one motive of my research was to determine if any of this family lore was true.

I found, during one of my research trips, the marriage license of Frank Collins and Eva Reubin. They married on January 26, 1907 and interesting enough, Lastie Reubin provided the security bond for the marriage. The bond issuer would generally be a male relative such as a father, uncle, or an of age brother.

eva rubin marriage

In this case, Lastie was more than likely an uncle of the bride. Eva was the child of John Reubin fils (junior) and Ernestine Thomy (Thomas). John is either incapacitated or deceased at the time of Eva’s wedding. John’s brother, then, would be next in line to represent the family and sign the bond, Lastie did in this instance. So, part of the family lore, is true in that the Rubins are related to the Collins. I’ve not found the connection, yet to the Skinners.

On the 1900 US Census, Eva is living with her parents John and Ernestine:

eva rubin 1900 census

From the SWLR, I found that John’s mother was Jane and because fils means junior, his father is John Rubin.

REUBIN, John fils (Janes —) m. 6 Feb. 1869 Ernestine Zenon TOMY (Opel. Ct. Hse.: Mar. #5224)

eva rubin 1900 census original

On the 1880 census a widowed Jane Ruben is found living in the Latour household as a servant. According to the census Jane was born in Louisiana at about 1815. Below is a snippet from the 1880 census:

jane rubin 1880 census

So, with these records, I’ve connected Lastie and John fils who we believe are the children of Jane and John Ruben. Finding Jane living in the Latour family household will be a key to breaking through the brick wall of slavery for my Ruben family.

Recently, a fellow Saint Landry Parish researcher and relative, Alex Lee, posted on his Facebook ancestry page information on some slaves that were being sold out of an estate sale for the Rosemont Doucet. What follows is the sale notice from the Opelousas Courier January 14, 1854:

rosemont public estate sale2

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389/1854-01-14/ed-2/seq-1.pdf

One of these slaves turns out to be Jane along with several of her children, Nerieth, Caroline, John, Julienne, and Elizabeth.

https://www.facebook.com/Alexgenealogy/photos/a.782188565134511.1073741827.544570968896273/989464044406961/?type=1&theater

jane rubin and children slave

This was an important find in my slavery ancestry. Although, Lastie is not identified in this record, we already concluded that Jane was his mother.

A few months before Alex published this data, we discovered a DNA match to my mother through 23andMe, but we had no idea how we were kin. Turns out she is a descendant of Caroline. Here’s some additional information Alex gives about Caroline:

caroline rubin notes from Alex

As for the other children, I found this entry regarding Julienne: REUBEN, Julienne (Marie JANIS) m. 11 Jan. 1877 Simon GUILLORY, Jr. (VP Ch.: v. 2, p. 206)

Below, I found Julienne on the 1880 census along with her husband and children:

julienne rubin

Elizabeth Ruben went on to marry Elie Joseph as noted in the following marriage license:

Elizabeth Rubin marriage

I’m sure there are other points to research with the Rubin family. Do you have any other connections to the Rubens? I look forward to continuing this journey.

Happy Researching!

Jason Family of Ville Platte, LA – Brick wall knockdown

May 28, 2014September 6, 2017 iyatee32 Comments

The Jasons, like most of the families in Bayou Chicot and the surrounding area, were farmers, and each of the Jasons had a brood of children, ensuring their family’s presence in future generations. That’s how I was going to start part two of my Jason’s blog post. However, with my recent big find, that part of the story will have to wait!

I started doing family research hoping to learn more information about my ancestors, including finding out who held my ancestors as slaves. For several years now, I’ve been visiting the archives in both Opelousas and Ville Platte. Opelousas is the parish seat for Saint Landry, whereas Ville Platte is the seat for Evangeline Parish. Established in 1805 and, once, much larger Saint Landry Parish has since been carved up, forming separate parishes, including Evangeline Parish, which was established in 1901.

I remember how nervous I was going into the Opelousas archives for the first time. It was daunting, seemingly insurmountable. I was doing something that was important for my family, something that my ancestors were pushing me to do, but I didn’t even know where to start. And, I was alone. So, I took that step in. There were hundreds upon hundreds of huge books that weighed easily 25+ pounds spread across the room. No one offered to help me. No one pointed me to the starting place. I didn’t even know that I could do a search on the computer that was in the archive room. There were just these books, walls and walls of big books. Saw sections labeled marriage records, probate and succession records, notarial records’, conveyances, miscellaneous records. I ventured into reading one of the succession records – everything was in French. Okay, this is not going to work, I said to myself. I have to get some information. I took a deep breath and that’s when I decided just to start with the marriage licenses and see if I can pull licenses for the people I did know. I just started looking up surnames, and if I recognized a given name I would get a copy of the marriage license. Simple as that.

In discussing family ancestry with others, it has been my Jason family members who have had the most interest, and it’s with the Jasons that I also have the most passionate fellow family researchers. One of my researcher-cousins, Patricia, connected me to Moses Jason’s sister Hannah and their father Godfrey Jason. Patricia is a descendant of Hannah and she made me aware of the 1870 and 1880 census, which showed Moses and Hannah living as next-door neighbors.

Through the years, they were proud and close knit family, often living in clan clusters a rocks-throw from one another. That’s a tradition that’s persisted. When my family moved from Louisiana to California in the 1970s, for the first year, we lived with my uncle near the San Francisco Bay. The next year, we moved—right next door to my mother’s first cousin. Researching enslaved persons can be challenging – one reason being the propensity of slavery to split families and possibly sell family members to unknown or faraway plantations. Another reason is that ‘slaves’ had no surnames, so when do typical genealogy research you’re looking at both the given name and the surname. So if you don’t know the name of the slave ‘owner’ it can be difficult to find your ancestors under slavery.

Per the 1870 census, Godfrey Jason was born in South Carolina and this same researcher-cousin surmised that Godfrey Jason may be one and the same as ‘Old Uncle Godfrey’ mentioned in the book Old Families and Tales of Chicot; or Miss Emma’s Memoirs , where Godfrey is noted as a slave owned by the Griffith family. Using the censuses, I was able to find Moses’s and Hannah’s other likely siblings: Winifred, Phoebe, and Temperance, also known as Tempy. In this family, as in other enslaved families, it was common to name children after their grandparents and their parents siblings. This was used as a code. It helped implicitly connect families, even if they were sold and separated. Moses named two of his daughters, Winifred and Hannah; Winifred named one daughter Temperance; two of Tempy’s children were named after her sisters Phoebe and Winifred; Godfrey Tatman, found in the 1900 census, is potentially Hannah’s son—named him after her father, Old Uncle Godfrey Jason.

Three or four years after my researcher-cousin first mentioned Hannah to me, I pored through census records to find links to her brother, my direct ancestor. In 1900 and 1910, Moses Jason who was living in the same household with Tempy and her family. Then, I had no idea who Tempy was. In 1900, Tempy and Moses are living in the household of a John Brown and his wife Harriet. Tempy is listed as John’s mother-in-law, making her Harriet’s mother. Moses is listed as John’s brother, which I thought was a mistake. I wasn’t able to pinpoint the relationship between John and Moses until the 1910 census. On this census, Tempy King is listed as the head of household, living with several people, including her brother, Moses Jason. King was probably Harriet’s last name, too, I thought.

Using Rev. Donald J. Hebert’s Southwest Louisiana Records (SWLA) CD, a couple of significant marriage references, I found out a couple of things:

Temperance Jason [Jacena] married Warren King on April 2, 1870
Harriet King married John Brown March 30, 1891.

The Louisiana Death records on FamilySearch shows that Tempy passed on March 29, 1921, had a deceased spouse named Warren King… and that her father was Godfrey Jason! Unfortunately, no mother is listed.

Familysearch.org Louisiana Death Index entry for Tempy:

I traveled with my cousin Geraldine to the Opelousas court house, doing computer index searches and surveying marriage licenses. Then, I decided I wanted to look up sale records. MY ancestors were bought and sold. There may be a record of it. I remembered what Patricia said, about Old Uncle Godfrey and the Griffith family. So, we looked up in the vendor/vendee index several of the conveyance records for Griffiths slave transactions. Two of these references broke down the slavery brickwall.

Per the conveyance document recorded December 17, 1833, Daniel Ferguson received nine hundred dollars from Isaac Griffith in exchange for a negro male slave, age 36. The slave’s name was Godfrey. My great-great-great-grandfather!

My excitement continued when I found, in another document dated April 18, 1848. Marie Ann Ferguson [Furguson], wife of Isaac Griffith, is transferring ownership of several slaves to her daughter Hester Griffith, wife of C. D. Tatman. These slaves were a negro male named Warren, 28; a negro woman named Tempy, 23; children Bob, 6, Henry, 4; Louis, 2; and Rachel, infant. The children are listed as only Tempy’s children, but Warren may indeed be the father. Not only had a found a daughter of Godfrey, but it so happened to be the one daughter where I had proof per the death certificate that Godfrey was her father.

I did not have Bob, Henry, Davis, nor Rachel in my tree, prior to finding Godfrey and Tempy in the slave records. However, on the 1870 census in the domicile right next to Warren and Tempy, we find Henry [one of the children on the Tempy slave document] and his wife, Isabella, living with several of Henry’s siblings—including Harriett!

Henry King, wife and siblings living next to Mother and Father (Tempy and Warren)

Daniel Ferguson, born in South Carolina in 1774, was the fifth son of Moses Ferguson and Elizabeth Lively. In South Carolina, Daniel married Esther (Hester) Peak(e), where five of their eight children were born; the remaining being born in Bayou Chicot. Their daughter, Mary (Marie) Anne Ferguson, married Isaac Griffith in 1815 and their daughter, Hester, married Cornelius D. Tatman in 1842. More than likely, The Ferguson, Griffith, and Tatman family records may hold additional documentation on my enslaved family members. Information obtained using this link: http://dna.cfsna.net/GEN/USA/SC/Moses_Ferguson_and_Elizabeth_Lively.html. Here are a couple of entries on the family from Rev. Donald J. Hebert’s Southwest Louisiana Records entries:

CLARK, Elisabeth – native of this parish (major daughter of dec. John & Marie STEVENS) m. 13 July 1830 Daniel FERGUSON – native of South Carolina (major son of Moses & Elisabeth LIVELY) Wits: Francis D. SMITH, James MORGAN, Uriah FERGUSON, Edward FAHEY. Fr. Flavius Henri ROSSI (Opel.Ch.: v.1-B, p.558-B)
GRIFFITH, Hester m. 15 Dec. 1842 Cornelius D. TATMAN (Opel. Ct. Hse.: Mar. #5) W

With these findings, I expect that it will lead me to find other enslaved relatives. Recently, I’ve been in contact with a number of DNA cousins that have known ancestors only in South Carolina and are not aware of any connections of ancestors in Louisiana. Wouldn’t it be great if I would be I able to trace my Louisiana family to our long ago- separated South Carolina family members, once again uniting them? That’s a wonderful dream…and, dreams do come true.

Happy searching!

Jason Family of Ville Platte, LA – Part 1

April 12, 2014April 13, 2014 iyatee12 Comments

Back in 2011, I was the lead coordinator for the Jason Family reunion in Ville Platte. On July 9^th, 250 people from around the country converged in that small, southwestern Louisiana town. This event provided a unique opportunity; my family had lived in the area for at least 200 years.

The Jason clan’s patriarch and matriarch are Godfrey Jason (who was born in South Carolina around 1797) and his wife Laura, (who was born in Louisiana circa 1810). The Jasons made their home in the Bayou Chicot area of Saint Landry Parish.

Godfrey and Laura were legally married December 31, 1869, though Laura died of dropsy (edema) a short time later, in April 1870. It’s unfortunate that she did not live to be counted on the 1870 census. That year is monumental for those of us that conduct African American genealogical research because the 1870 U.S. census is the first on which formerly enslaved persons would have been mentioned by name.

Godfrey and Laura Jason Marriage License pg 1

Godfrey and Laura Jason Marriage License pg 2

Godfrey and Laura Jason Marriag Licence pg. 3

Although, Laura wasn’t on this census, we’re able to glean a little information about her from the Federal Mortality schedule. At the time of her death, Laura was sixty years old.

Laura Jason 1870 Federal Mortality Schedule

I often wondered how Godfrey made his way from South Carolina to Louisiana. I’m sure it was an advent of slavery, but did he get sold with his parents? How old was he when he left? Did he leave any of his close relatives tolling in South Carolina? Or, was he sold as a slave alone, without any family? At least I know, after his wife’s death, Godfrey, a Southern farmer, wasn’t living alone. According to the 1870 census, eight other people are living in the household from 31-year old Phebe Jason to one-year old Robert Jason. All members of the household have the surname Jason, but the 1870 census doesn’t clarify any relationships.

What we do know is that Godfrey had at least four children: Winifred (1827), Moses (1830), Hannah (1832), and Temperance (1839). Laura isn’t definitively the mother of all, if any, of the children, but it’s feasible.

I’m a descendant of Moses Jason. My first cousin’s research had substantiated our connection to Moses and we kept busy finding our fellow Moses’ descendants. With information from my first cousin’s research, he had traced our family to our two times great-grandfather, Moses Jason (abt. 1830). However, in 2009, I started collaborating with descendants of Hannah and I learned she was the Moses’ sister and I was told that Godfrey more than likely was the father of both Moses and Hannah. Making this connection was my first breakthrough for tracing family to the 1700s.

I want to continue in the next few posts talking about the Jasons and some of the genealogical finds.

Happy searching!

My Grandmother’s Name?

February 23, 2014January 8, 2017 iyatee17 Comments

Momí Joanna, my paternal grandmother, moved to our house when her youngest son threatened to kill her. This son, my uncle Albert, had two daughters he named Judy and a liked to drink. He was known to some as a fighter, always in trouble. One day, he was picking on a much smaller man with the last name of Doucet. Doucet slashed at him with a razor. Uncle Albert had to be rushed to the hospital with long cuts across his entire body and suffered significant blood loss. His body rejected the blood transfusion. He had been given the wrong blood type.

This all happened in the 60s. My mother Ella, along with my father and Momí Joanna went to visit him when he was in the hospital. Only my mother was allowed to see him. Although Ella begged him to see his mother and brother, he refused.

He always blamed Momí. For everything: for the drinking, the fighting, and the hospital bed. When he was growing up, Momí was too soft. He’d get into trouble, with neighbors or with the law, and she’d just give him a pass. “I know that wasn’t my Albert,” she’d say after he was caught with another boy stealing a bike. “I’m not going to touch him. I know that wasn’t him.”

On some level, Uncle Albert wished she had scolded or hit him when he was young. Maybe he thought if she had, he would have turned out in a better way.

“No,” he told my mother. “I don’t want to see her. I hate her.”

Shortly after, Uncle Albert died.

That was not my experience with Uncle Albert. He was to me a comforting soul. He would watch me and my youngest sister while my mother, his sister-in-law, worked in her beauty shop. I remember him lifting me and sister up into the tree and we would jump into his waiting arms laughing and giggling. He was my protector and with him I had no fears.

There is one image that comes to mind when I think of Momí Joanna. I must have been about 4 years old when she came to live with us. I picture her in our house. She is matter-of-factly squeezing my mother’s breast.

“Oh, no, girl, that’s drying up. That is drying up.”

My grandmother had nine kids. She was a breastfeeding expert. Everyone called her Masistah. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned the reason why she was living with us. Her youngest son had threatened to kill her.

Momí Joanna was born November 18, 1906 and passed away September 20, 1973. [Per Social Security she was born November 18, 1907.] In her obituary, she’s listed as the daughter of a Mr. and Mrs. Silas Daniel [1]. At first, I took the obituary at its face value. Then, one day, my mother mentioned in passing that she did not think Daniel was my grandmother’s true last name.

Over the years, I had heard many names that were said to be my grandmother’s surname: Danner, Daniel, Dante, even Fontenot. I was intrigued. What was my grandmother’s full name?

This research started about 2003. My father, Welton Frank, had already died. So, first, I asked my father’s eldest brother Felton. He suggested Daniel and Dante, but he didn’t really know. I followed up to ask my father’s other siblings: they offered their ideas, but they, too, were unsure. I even asked if they would look at their birth certificates. I had no takers. Reading this, I would imagine you’re thinking, “How can a child not know their mother’s full name?” Well, that was my thought, also.

Uncle Felton did give me a hint on my grandmother’s paternal side: he told me about Uncle Charlie, who was a paternal uncle of my grandmother. Both my mother and my older sister also mentioned an Uncle Charlie. His face was disfigured after being burned badly in a cooking fire accident. He lived primitively, in a log cabin in the woods, possibly in the Bayou Chicot area.

I created a list of known facts about Momí so that I could get to her last name:

Father’s name was Silas.
Mother’s name was Victoria Leday (Lede).
Race would probably be listed as Colored, Negro, or Black.
Silas had a brother named Charlie (Charles).
Last name may start with a “D”, possibly a “Dan?”.
Family most likely lived in and around Saint Landry Parish.
Her birth was November 18 in the year 1906 or 1907.
She was born, lived, and died in Ville Platte, Louisiana.
She had very little schooling.
She was married at least 3 times, maybe 4 times: Chester Frank (my grandfather), Horace Ardoin (not sure they married), WC Frank, and Alcide Brown.

So, next I started searching the census the 1910 for a Joanna Daniel, Silas Daniel, and Charles Daniel; this yielded no results. I also looked at the 1900 census to see if I could find anything on Charles or Silas. Still, I could not find anyone who could be my family members.

In March 2008, when I visited the archives in Ville Platte, Louisiana, and obtained copies of two of my grandmother’s marriage certificates, for her marriages to Willie C. Frank [2] and to Alcide Brown [3]. On the license for her marriage to Frank, my grandmother’s typewritten name is listed as Joe Anna Dantan. On the other license, her type written name was listed as Joanna Dantan. However, in both cases, the actual signatures look different from the typewritten names. On the first license the signature looks like Deonton and it looks like Danton on the second license. The first license listed Charlie Denton as a witness.

I took another look at the 1900 census, concentrating on Silas and Charles. I still didn’t get any results using the surname Deonton, Dantan, or Danton. I then narrowed the focus on Uncle Charlie and began using search wildcard “*”, I searched for “Charles Dan*”, “Charles Din*” and “Charles Don*”. Still nothing.

Then, I entered “Charles Den*”. Across the screen was the name “Charles Denton.” I selected the record.

In 1900, Charles was the 15-year old son of Samuel and Virginia Denton. He had several siblings: Junis, William, Richard, Caroline, Corinne, and most interestingly a 20-year old brother by the name of Cylus Denton [4]. There was no doubt. I had found my great-grandfather and therefore my grandmother’s surname—Denton.

From, this 1900 census find, I was led to other censuses and found more information on Silas, his siblings, his parents, and grandparents. Silas and Charles were the sons of Samuel and Virginia Denton. I traced back to the 1880 [5] and 1870 census [6], I found that Samuel was the son of Moses and Maria Denton. Samuel had typhoid fever and passed away on September 28, 1926. Virginia Denton passed away October 16, 1929 of acute indigestion [7]. Her death certificate lists Charlie Denton as the informant (the person who provides information on the deceased, which may include the name, date and place of birth, and address.)

In 2010, I found the marriage license of my paternal grandparents. [See previous post.] The names were spelled, let’s say, differently. Also, obtained a copy of Silas’ death certificate where I learned that additional information on Silas. His nickname was ‘Buster’. He had remarried and was living in St. Mary Parish.

I took a DNA test recently and matched with an unfamiliar cousin. Together, we are now exploring the possibility of our connection through Samuel Denton. Just think, if I had not followed the call of my ancestors, I would not have looked into identifying my grandmother’s ancestors and her name may have forever been lost.

With this research effort, may my grandmother’s name always be remembered: Joanna Denton.

Notes:

[1] Obsequies of Mrs. Joanna Brown for services September 24, 1973, Dr. M.L. Thomas, Pastor.

[2] Louisiana State Department of Health Certificate of Marriage File No. 22-476. Groom: Willie C. Frank; Bride: Joe Anna Dantan, December 17, 1953.

[3] State of Louisiana Certificate of Marriage State File No. 117. Groom: Alcide Brown; Bride: Joanna Dantan, February 25, 1969.

[4] 1900 U. S. Census, Census Place: Ward 5, St Landry, Louisiana; Roll: 581; Page: 28A: Enumeration District: 59; FHL microfilm: 1240581. Charles Denton and Cylus [Silas] Denton.

[5] 1880 U. S. Census, Census Place: 5^th Ward, St Landry, Louisiana; Roll: 470; Family History Film: 1254470; Page: 325C; enumeration District: 043: Image: Samuel Denton, head of household.

[6] 1870 U. S. Census, Census Place: Ward 3, St Landry, Louisiana; Roll: M593_530; Page: 110A; Image: 225; Family History Library Film: 552029. Image: Samuel Denton.

[7] Louisiana State Board of Health Certificate of Death of Virginia Denton, October 16, 1929.

No part of this document can be reproduced without the written authorization of the author.