Ok guys, I might have a lead on my 2nd Great-Grandma's birth parents. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, but I'm thinking, "What are the odds?". To catch you up, here are the blog posts where I write about Oma being adopted:
Shocking Find Friday - Oma was ADOPTED!
The search for Maggie Molten continues *Huge Shock*
So as you can see, this was a huge shock to all of us. We had no idea she was not the natural-born child of Logan and Maggie Dennis. I don't even know if Oma knew. As the record states, she was taken in when she was just a couple months old in 1885. So unless Maggie told her, there would be no way for her to know. Records were not kept back in those days the same way they are today. Heck, it has taken me years to track down this information.
Yesterday, I was going through some court records for Bedford County, since that's where Oma was from according to the adoption record, to see if I could find any information about an infant being removed or taken, or if there was any information about a Collins (Oma's original last name) in the records. I did come across a Jerry Collins that was mentioned in the Circuit Court Records for Bedford County from 1885, the year Oma was born. I found the page that was listed in the index and began to read the information.
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| Circuit Court minute books, 1840-1851, 1853-1965 Dec. 1881 - Apr. 1886. Bedford County, Tennessee |
"This day the Grand Jury returned ... one indictment against Jerry Collins for Murder..."
This definitely got my attention. Reading down further, it appears Jerry Collins was indicted for the Murder of Martha Collins. I assume this is his wife, but it doesn't say. But since this is a murder case, it should be in the newspaper.
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| Shocking Tragedy The Pulaski Citizen Pulaski, Tennessee Thursday, March 05, 1885 |
This is horrible! What a senseless death! My gosh... This wasn't the only article I found. One had a more thorough explanation of the events. But this one mentioned the fact they had many children. Which was important.
Now, let's look at some facts here. Oma was born in January 1885. According to her adoption record, Oma's parents were dead. Maggie & Logan acquired her from authorities of the Bedford County Asylum. There are some facts that line up with some of these details: The right time period, one parent is indeed dead, and this occurred in Bedford County.
Is it a coincidence? What are the odds?
Honestly, I don't know at this point. I have no definitive proof of anything. But this is the first *possible* lead I have come across. I am reaching out to as many repositories as possible looking for records relating to the Bedford County Asylum/Poorhouse. The next step will be locating census records for this family (if I can find any before and after this event) and then trying to see where the other children ended up. So many questions. But yeah, I just had to share this with you guys.
Back to researching...
