You never know what shocking information you are going to find when you start researching your family. I should be accustomed to this by now when it comes to my mom's side of the family. It has been one surprise after another. First, my great grandparents left the state to get married in secret because they got pregnant out of wedlock. Then my 2nd great-grandma was married many times in different states. My Great-grandpa Ilg was a scoundrel. And then my 3rd great-grandma has lied many times about her life to hide some past things. You've seen me mention her in many blog posts: Maggie Helfrich aka Maggie Molten, aka Mary Dennis, aka Maggie Dennis... should I go on?
She has been my brickwall ancestor since I began research in 2012. While I do have quite a bit of a paper trail in St. Louis, Missouri for her life. it's her life in Tennessee that has been a big mystery. For years, I've been pouring over records and possible leads trying to track down information on Maggie and her family. I've slowly gathered information from different repositories to start piecing together her life.
Recently I came across some record sets on FamilySearch.org that include the areas Maggie lived in. I started with Jackson County and found some great information. But it's when I started looking in Davidson County that I got the surprise of a lifetime. If you have read other posts of mine, you will know that I learned that Maggie had no natural-born children at the time of her divorce from her first husband. The only child she had was Oma who she said was not her natural-born daughter. This led me to believe that Logan had a child out of wedlock with another woman. I never expected to find what I did.
See Image Below:
 |
| Source: County Court minutes, 1783-1929,
Minutes, v. V 1885-1886 FamilySearch.org |
So my assumption was wrong! Oma is not biologically related to EITHER parent. They both adopted her when she was just about 10 months old from the Bedford County Asylum in Tennessee. I NEVER saw that coming. What's really amazing is they list Oma's original last name! Her last name was Collins! I might be able to find something on this. How exciting! And the truth is, I don't believe ANYONE in the family ever knew this. Probably not even Oma since she was just an infant. Everyone assumed Maggie was her birth mother.
Now while this didn't give me any more information about Maggie per se, but it did give me a lead on where to look for Oma's birth parents. I have joined a Facebook group for Bedford County, Tennessee in hopes of finding more information about the area and getting some more leads. Time to start a new research plan!
No comments:
Post a Comment