I have made a lot of great connections with cousins and other researchers over the years when they start searching online for my families and find my blog, Find A Grave information, or other places where I can be linked to my forebears so as to be available to exchange information. I have felt for a while that if I don't put "out there" (on the internet) more of my family information that I could miss some of these connections in the future. In particular, I worry that I'll miss the chance to break down a brick wall if no one knows I am trying to knock it down.
So I've decided to list my 10 biggest brick walls (in two parts), both what I know and what I hope to know, in hopes that in the future someone else with information that could help will be Google-searching (or whatever future search engine we're using) for my family and find my blog and reach out to me. So here they are, the conundrums in my family I have been unable to overcome (in no particular order of difficulty or importance):
6. THE WALLER BRICK WALL
My Waller family is full of headaches. From missing Census records to disappearing aunts and uncles, my problems with piecing together my Waller family are numerous. My closest Waller ancestor is my grandfather's grandmother, Leona Aden Waller. She married John Lafayette Vaughan. Her sister Mary Waller also married John's brother Thomas Kirk Vaughan. They lived in adjacent counties in eastern Oklahoma pre-statehood.
A third sister, Fannie, eventually also came to Eastern Oklahoma, where after she died, her children were taken in by John Vaughan for a time, even though by that time Leona had died. So he took the kids in despite no biological connection to them other than them being 1st cousins of his children, and I always thought that said a lot about what type of person her was. Anyway, Leona also had two brothers, John R. and Benjamin, whom we have no idea what became of them. Another sister, Matilda, died in 1880 per the 1880 Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index. The father of these children was James Henry Waller.
James is also frustrating for me. The family rumor for years was that he was buried at Muddy Water Cemetery in Hanna, an old Indian burial ground. But having scoured the graveyard top to bottom, I found no evidence of him or any of the Wallers being buried there. If he died in the area--not a given as there is no proof of him coming to Oklahoma--he is more likely to have been buried at Choate Prairie or possibly the Turner-McElhaney (formerly Thurman) Cemetery, Indianola Cemetery, or the Hanna Cemetery. Unfortunately, James is an enigma for me and he is "half" of this Waller brick wall.
James last appears in a Census in 1880 in Leake County, MS. He then pays taxes in Grant County, Arkansas in 1881 and has appeared in other Arkansas tax and land records after that time, primarily in Grant County. James's wife, Mary Ann Frances "Frank" Mooney, presumably accompanied him and the children to Arkansas, though there is no direct evidence of that. Her eldest brother William Jasper Mooney also migrated from Leake County, MS to Grant County, AR.
It is not known when James or Frank died. It appears that Frank likely died first and is buried at the Jacobs Cemetery in Grant County where her brother William is buried. There are numerous graves there marked only by fieldstones. Land records indicate James was still living in 1904 when he sold his land in Grant County, and what's more that record indicates he had remarried to a woman named Julia. There is a 14 Jan 1903 marriage record in Jefferson County, Arkansas of a J___ Waller to a Julia Lemons, and the Waller groom fits James's age, but it is by no means definitive that this is our James.
If after selling his land in Grant County, James moved to where Leona and Mary were living (and later Fannie moved) to the area around northern Pittsburg County and southern McIntosh County, then as I stated earlier, he would most likely be buried at Choate Prairie, though the other listed cemeteries remain feasible options--but again, only IF he moved to Oklahoma. We have no proof either way, which makes James one of my most frustrating brick walls as he and Frank are 2 of only 6/32 third great grandparents I don't have documented dates of death for and are 2 of 10/32 third great grandparents I don't have documented burial locations for.
Another frustrating brick wall for James concerns the Civil War. In 1860, James is in Neshoba County, MS, and a few months after Mississippi's secession from the United States, he marries Frank in Leake County in Aug, 1861. Mississippi was one of the few Confederate states in which military service for the Civil War was compulsory. Given that James was 19-20 years old by 1861 and married, he certainly fell in the target demographic for Civil War service. Unless there are some unknown extraordinary circumstances we are unaware of (even my over-40 ancestor Elisha R. Sain was obligated to serve because he resided in Mississippi at the time), then James Henry Waller certainly served in the Civil War in some capacity. But to this day I have failed to find any record of his service much to my chagrin because that is one of my primary areas of research. I know he must have served somewhere at some point, but I have never been able to find record of it which has been extremely frustrating.
But the lack of information on James and Frank Mooney Waller's deaths and burials plus James's Civil War service information are only half of this brick wall. The other half is James's Waller origins.
We know James's parents were Benjamin Waller and Celia Crimean/Carmine/Carmean who married in Hancock County, Georgia in 1820. James is in the widowed Benjamin's household in 1860 in Neshoba County which is adjacent to Leake County where James married in 1861. In 1850, James is enumerated as Henry Waller in Benjamin's household in Hancock County, Georgia where his wife Celia and his apparent mother Elizabeth also resided; both appear to have pre-deceased the 1860 Census.
Elizabeth's maiden name is not known. She was born about 1770 in Maryland per the 1850 Census. She can be found in the Census for Hancock County from 1820-1840 in her own household; the 1820 Census shows her to be the mother of a 10-15 year old male, a 16-25 year old male (presumably Benjamin), and a 10-15 year old female. Based on the ages of these children, I have presumed she was widowed between 1800-1810, and most likely between 1805-1810, though without knowing the names and actual ages of the other two children this is only an educated guess.
The 1805 Land Lottery for Georgia included a drawing entry from the orphans of Benjamin Waller, residents of Hancock County. I can't say definitively that this my family because orphans were only supposed to receive an entry if both of their parents were deceased, and clearly my Benjamin's mother Elizabeth was still living UNLESS she is not his mother but rather a step-mother or even an aunt. Unfortunately, I have no documentation that can align my Benjamin to the elder Benjamin Waller or any of the other numerous Benjamin Wallers in Hancock County, nor can I establish Elizabeth's relationship to the other Wallers of Hancock County. Ultimately, most if not all of these Wallers came from the same family in Maryland, but I have at least a couple of generations to fill in after Benjamin in order to connect with the larger Waller family. I'm hopeful that one day evidence of our connection to the larger Waller family will come to light.
7. THE ELIZABETH MARTIN BRICK WALL
I have documented the maiden names and parentage of all my 4th great grandparents with two exceptions: the mother of my 3rd great grandfather, Stephen Clinton Vaughan, whose mother may have been named Mary and who I discussed in my first "Brick Wall" post, and Elizabeth, mother of my 3rd great grandfather Thomas D. Martin.
According to the 1850 Census, Elizabeth was born about 1787 in North Carolina. Then in 1860, that changed to about 1793 in Tennessee. In both years, she was residing in Overton County, Tennessee as the widow of Menan M. Martin, also called Menan Mills Martin and M. M. Martin. Her origins are not known. Many (and by many, I mean DOZENS) of family trees on Ancestry and elsewhere give her maiden name as Brown, but not a single one offers a shred of evidence for that assertion. As far as maiden names go, Brown falls into the same category of Smith, Johnson, and Williams--that is to say "good luck finding any proof!" Even her married name being Martin complicates the issue because Martin is also an extremely common surname.
So what can I possibly do to figure this out? Well fortunately, her only being my 4th great grandmother and not my 8th, there's still a very good chance I have inherited some of her DNA, and a 100% chance that my grandmother, her brother, and their first cousin--being 2nd great grandchildren of Elizabeth--inherited as much as 6.25% of their DNA from this woman, greatly increasing the chances of finding a DNA match to her family. But in order to even to start attempting to sift through tens of thousands of DNA matches looking for connections to Elizabeth's family I need a surname to search, right? And the name Brown is not going to help me.
Some earlier Martin genealogies give her maiden name as China. That is a more unique surname and I do think it may tie in to the final answer, but like with Brown, there is no real evidence or documentation to support this "Elizabeth China" name any more than there is to support "Elizabeth Brown".
Fortunately, I have pieced together a pretty decent hypothesis. It is by no means proven as of yet, but I do think I will eventually find enough genetic evidence to strongly bolster the theory, and hopefully I will eventually uncover some sort of hard documentation.
I think it's best to start with the name "China". When looking for documentation on Menan M. and Elizabeth Martin, I found a couple of curious connections to a very similar name: Chaney. The Revolutionary War pension of John Chaney mentions three witnesses to the documentation of his honorable discharge from military service. Two of the witnesses were dead: his brother, Francis, and his sister, Margaret, who married an Allred (the same Allred family to which Barack Obama's wife belongs, incidentally). The third was still living: a Menan Martin of Overton County, TN. Interesting that his first two witnesses were his siblings. That indicates to me that Menan was also possibly a relative to him. (Side note, per Allred family expert Dawnell Griffin, the Allred who was married to Margaret Chaney was Theophilus Allred, son of Solomon.)
This brother of John he names as a witness, Francis Chaney Jr., had a son of his own, Francis Chaney (technically the III, but he often went by Jr. and his father, Sr., even though the father of Francis "Sr." and the aforementioned John Chaney was also named Francis). This son named one of his sons...Menan Martin Chaney.
Coincidence? Perhaps. But I believe Menan Martin was the husband of John Chaney's niece, and that Francis "Sr." of Overton County was actually the father of Elizabeth, wife of Menan Martin. "Chaney" and "China" are a little too close for it to be a coincidence. Combine that with John Chaney's pension and Francis's grandson being named Menan Martin Chaney, and I think this is a solid foundation for the theory that Elizabeth is Elizabeth Chaney rather than Brown or China.
I have found a few solid DNA matches that potentially lend credence to a connection to the Chaney family, but nothing concrete yet. So until DNA or documentation firmly proves a connection, this remains a brick wall for me. But of all the brick walls in my top 10, this may be the first one that eventually crumbles apart.
8. THE EPPS BRICK WALL
I descend from Francis Dewitt "F. D." Epps, a native of Lincoln County, Tennessee. His wife, Sarah Frances Moon, divorced and deserted him in the late 1880s after his poor treatment of her; most of her family wound up in eastern Oklahoma. Even my ancestress, his eldest daughter, who from her earliest records appears to have been named Frances Elizabeth Epps, appears to have distanced herself from her father by late in life going by the name Sarah Elizabeth. Most accounts now refer to her as Sarah Frances Elizabeth Epps although there is no proof beyond her headstone that she ever formally changed her name.
The story went that after F. D. was left in Tennessee, he later came to Oklahoma in an attempt to reconcile with his family but was rejected. No one knew what became of him other than the oral history was that he died in Missouri. Well in the last couple years, the "brick wall" of figuring out what became of F. D. Epps came crumbling down when an obituary and Find A Grave memorial for him were discovered in Ripley County, Missouri. This led to my acquiring an extensive number of probate records for F. D. and other relatives there and finally gave us the answers of what became of abusive old cuss.
The main brick wall in the Epps family, however, still stands strong. We know Francis's parents were Franklin and Elizabeth Epps. But we know nothing of either of his parents' origins. We do not know the Epps line from which Franklin originated, nor do we know Elizabeth's maiden name or family. I have hoped DNA would answer some of these questions; the last two known remaining great grandchildren of F. D. Epps, namely Ralph Johnson and Clyde Auston, have had their autosomal DNA tested, but we have yet to come up with any solid leads. There are some distant matches to some Virginia Epps families, but they are all far from concrete.
Elizabeth was born about 1800 in North Carolina. MANY people have attributed the maiden name Elizabeth Harless to her--that is completely and unequivocally false. The origin of the name Harless comes from the funeral record of William Epps, son of F. D. Epps, who died in 1943 in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. The record says his mother's maiden name was Harless--but it was not, it was Moon, as proven by both the marriage record between F. D. Epps and Sarah Frances Moon AND DNA which firmly ties us to the Moon family. But someone at some point decided that the informant for William's funeral record, his son, "must have" put his GRANDMOTHER'S maiden name on the record.
That's quite a leap if you know anything about genealogy. As a reminder, here are the most trustworthy sources for things like parents' names and maiden names.
1. The person's parents
2. The person themselves
3. The person's siblings
4. The person's spouse
5. The person's children
So we're supposed to assume because the LEAST trustworthy source for this person's information put the name "Harless" for his father's mother's maiden name--a grandmother he probably never met as she appears to have died between 1900-1910--he must have "accidentally" put his grandmother's maiden name. No. Just no. That is so beyond ridiculous there is no point in continuing to harp on about it. I will not beat the dead horse; suffice to say if you have Harless as Elizabeth's last name, and if you did not know the source of where that name came from and now you do but you STILL want to apply that name to her--may God of Genealogy have mercy on your soul and may future generations be merciful when they laugh out loud at you. Suffice to say, Elizabeth was not a Harless--I don't know what family she belonged to, but it was not the Harless family.
Now we know Franklin, who appears in some records as Francis, was born in Virginia about 1799. And there was another Epps family nearby our's in Lincoln County, but no connection to them has been established, and despite confirming that several descendants of this "other" Epps family have had their DNA tested on Ancestry, none of our Epps descendants have matched up with them to this point, indicating that their mutual Virginian origins and Lincoln County, Tennessee residences appears to have been a coincidence.
While one wouldn't think Epps is a terribly common surname, if you look in the 1810 Census for Virginia you'll find an alarmingly high number of Epps/Eppes/Epes households. Too many to comb through one by one. But the hope is that eventually records will come to light naming Franklin/Francis an heir to a particular Epps family, or else sufficient DNA evidence will be uncovered as to link us to one family or another. But for now, the brick walls representing the parentage of Franklin Epps and his wife Elizabeth remain steadfast and impenetrable.
9. THE MANNING & WILLIFORD BRICK WALLS
Is it cheating to cluster two families into one brick wall? Perhaps, but I make the rules on this blog, and because these families are so closely tied together, I typically work on both brick walls at once and so the two are intrinsically linked in my mind.
One of my 4th great grandmothers on my Marks line was Sidney Manning, wife of William Hardy Bennett. She was the daughter of Redrick Manning and Sarah Williford. Both the Manning and Williford families are brick walls, as the parentage of Sarah's father Charles Williford of Fayette County, Georgia and the parentage of Redrick's father Mark Manning are both both unknown.
Mark Manning first definitively appears in 1816 when he purchased land in Madison County, GA. He subsequently appears in the 1820 Census of Madison County and the 1830 Census of Fayette County. I believe he likely pre-deceased the 1840 Census.
The 1820 Census indicates he had at least six sons and four daughters by that time, not counting any children that had already married and left the home. Those I have identified so far include:
1. William Manning, who was likely either the oldest son or possibly a much younger brother
2. Mary "Polly" Manning, who married in 1817 and was likely the oldest daughter
3. Redrick Manning, born circa 1800
4. Henry Manniny, born circa 1804
5. Anna Manning, born circa 1803
6. Lucy Manning, born circa 1810
7. Martha Manning, born circa 1815
All of these children fit Mark's household in 1820 except Mary who had already married and left the home. I have not identified any of the remaining children, including the three males under 10 and one of the females under 10 in the 1820 Census. I have not been able to identify Mark's wife's name either, so it is possible the youngest sons and/or the widow appear in the 1840 Census but apparently not in the area around Fayette and Madison counties.
The biggest problem with researching Mark is that so many people mix his records up with Marcum Lott Manning, also listed as "Markham", a son of Moses Manning and Keziah Lott. They are very clearly different men as they have their own independent households in the 1820 and 1830 Censuses, but as many "Ancestry tree absorbing" researchers will do, people just blindly tie records to people with similar names without first confirming they have the right person. Mark was not the son of Moses Manning and he did not die in Texas in 1850; those details apply to Marcum Lott Manning. I think it's possible if not likely the pair were 1st or 2nd cousins but I have yet to find any definitive proof of that theory.
Charles Williford lived in the exact same region as Mark Manning and was closely tied to him, for good reason--at least two of his children married Mark Manning's children. Sarah Williford and King H. Williford were the spouses of Redrick Manning and Lucy Manning, respectively.
Charles appears in the 1820 Census for Madison County, and like Mark is in Fayette County for the 1830 Census. Unlike Mark, Charles goes on to live for a good long time, appearing in the 1840, 1850, and 1860 censuses, all in Fayette County. I have identified 10 children for him, which I believe are all of his children with the slim possibility that there was one additional daughter.
1. Sarah Williford, born circa 1805 (1/2 females 10-15 in 1820 Census)
2. Mary Williford, born circa 1807 (1/2 females 10-15 in 1820 Census and the female 20-29 in 1830)
3. Minerva Williford, born circa 1810 (1/3 females under 10 in 1820 Census)
4. King H. Williford, born 1811 (1 male under 10 in 1820 Census)
5. Martha Ruth Williford, born 1814 (1/3 females under 10 in 1820, 1/2 females between 10-14 in 1830, Female 20-29 in 1840)
6. Rebecca A. Williford, born circa 1815 (1/3 females under 10 in 1820, 1/2 females between 10-14 in 1830)
7. James T. Williford, born 1820 (Male 10-14 in 1830 Census)
8. Elizabeth W. Williford, born about 1821 (1/2 females 5-9 in 1830 Census)
9. Nancy Naomi Williford, born about 1823 (1/2 females 5-9 in 1830, Female 15-19 in 1840)
10. Charles Westley Williford, born 1825 (Male under 5 in 1830, Male 15-19 in 1840)
In the 1830 Census for Charles, there is an unknown 15-19 year old female. There is no space for her in Charles's 1820 household so I doubt she is an additional child, but it is possible. The female 5-9 in his household in 1840 is likely his granddaughter Elizabeth, daughter of Charles's daughter Martha Ruth and whose father, Wilson, was deceased by this time. Martha Ruth's marriage, I think, could eventually be the key to breaking down this Williford brick wall.
There are several Williford families in this same region of Georgia at the same time as our's. They are clearly of some relation to Charles, but the question is how. A big clue that needs to be unraveled is the parentage of one Wilson P. Williford, who was the first husband of Martha Ruth Williford. It would be unusual at this time for two people with the same surname to be married if they weren't fairly close relations, probably 1st or 2nd cousins. I think if I can find Wilson's parentage, I may find a sibling of Charles; likewise, if I can find Charles's parentage, it will likely lead to Wilson's. Wilson died in 1834 (https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/spradlin/1040/) leaving two children with Martha Ruth, who remarried in 1837 to Elisha Whatley.
This family has a number of good clues to go by, including some good early published Williford genealogies and the fact that there were only so many possible families that Charles could belong to. Eventually using logical deduction to rule out families and seek out documents on the remaining candidates, I think Charles's parentage will be discovered.
Until then, both of these brick walls--for the Manning and Williford families--will remained intertwined in my mind, and hopefully I can bring them both down in time. Of the all my Top 10 Brick Walls, this is one of the ones I think I have the best odds of working out eventually.
10. THE PATTON BRICK WALL
My Patton family research is another one with some frustrating holes that end at a big 'ol brick wall. My 4th great grandfather, Samuel Cleveland Patton, died 15 Nov 1877 in Collin County, Texas according to his wife's Confederate Pension application. That record is also the only one we have recording the pair's marriage as "1864-65 in Fort Smith" since for whatever reason (partial record loss, it is believed) there is no record for their marriage in Benton County, Arkansas.
Further frustrating me is half of the now-widowed Sarah Jane Todd Patton family's absence from the 1880 Census. She is enumerated along with her two children from her first marriage and one of her Patton children, but the remaining six youngest Patton children are conspicuously missing and I have never determined why. At that time they ranged in ages from 2-14 and for whatever reason they were all left off the Census, including my 3rd great grandmother, Martha Evelyn "Evie" Patton. Were they all at school when the Census-taker came by and they just decided to leave them off the enumeration? I have no idea, but that has always bugged me because that Census COULD have possibly included additional children I don't know about for Sarah Jane. I know of 10, including the 8 she says are still living in the 1900 Census, but she says she had 13 children total and I have no idea who the remaining 3 are.
And while Sarah Jane's Todd and Russell families have question marks of their own, their brick walls do no loom as large as the Patton wall.
We know Samuel was the son of Edith "Eady" Patton who was born about 1795 in North Carolina. Her maiden name is NOT known. A ridiculous number of online (mostly Ancestry) trees have her maiden name as Smallwood with absolutely ZERO proof/documentation. I don't know where the surname originated as far as being attached to Edith, but I know there has been ZERO factual documentation of any sort that has come to light to verify it.
Family oral history indicates that Eady was the widow of a Thomas Patton. He reportedly died before 1840 in Craighead County, Arkansas. There is documentation of Thomas Patton in Craighead County that appears to corroborate the oral history. Eight children have been tied to this couple, with a ninth less likely child also attached:
1. Isaac J. Patton, born circa 1815
2. Mary "Polly" Patton, born circa 1822
3. Rhoda Carolina Patton, born circa 1824
4. Samuel Cleveland Patton, born circa 1826
5. Thomas Anderson Patton, born 1829
6. Nancy Ann Patton, born circa 1830
7. Martha M. Patton, born circa 1836
8. Minerva Patton, born circa 1838
A 6-year old Elizabeth Patton also appears in Edith's 1850 household. Some people say Thomas Patton died closer to 1844 just so they can include Elizabeth as his child, but the 1840 Census naming Edith head of household indicates he deceased by that time. So Elizabeth was either an illegitimate child of Edith--who would age 49 at the time of her birth--or a grandchild. Since despite what many online genealogies lead you to believe it was NOT common for a 49-year old woman to give birth at that time--any more common that it is today--Elizabeth was most likely a granddaughter, possibly a daughter of Isaac J. Patton.
Thomas's origins are unclear. In 1880, three of his children are still living--two say he was born in Alabama and one says he was born in Tennessee. No records have been identified giving him the middle initial A. People want to call him "Thomas Anderson Patton Sr." because it's convenient, but there is no proof he had a middle name or initial or what that name or initial might have been, so anyone that concludes he was "Thomas Anderson Patton Sr." based solely on the fact his son was named Thomas Anderson Patton is probably not a great genealogist.
Further, countless trees apply him as the son of a John Thomas and Sarah Jane Cunningham Patton. The family was primarily from Buncombe County, North Carolina and later migrated to Tennessee. A family bible record proves that family did indeed have a son named Thomas. And based on Eady Patton's age, it is probable that both Eady's husband and John Thomas Patton's son were roughly the same age. But there is NOT--I repeat NOT--one single solitary shred of evidence linking Thomas Patton, husband of Eady, to John Thomas Patton's family.
John Thomas's son Thomas would have been born in North Carolina, and none of Eady's husband Thomas's children reported their father as a native of North Carolina. Could they have been wrong? Absolutely. But are we--modern researchers looking at Thomas more than 170 years after his death going to presume we know him better than his children? Come on now. Facts are facts and guesses are guesses and what we have in this Patton genealogy are a bunch of guesses--and not really even very educated guesses, mostly lazy ones. You found a Patton family with a Thomas in it approximately the right age as your Thomas? Congratulations! That doesn't mean diddly squat!
Unfortunately, Thomas Patton is a rather common name. You'll find a number of them in early Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi records and our Thomas could be any number of them. It is going to take some serious genetic genealogy to at least help narrow down which Thomas Patton could be our's and then which family he belongs to, but blindly following baseless research is nonsensical. It's almost as nonsensical as this family continuously applying the maiden name Smallwood to Eady despite the complete absence of anything even remotely resembling proof.
And then there's the fact that numerous confirmed descendants of Samuel C. Patton have had their DNA tested, and the connections to confirmed descendants of John Thomas Patton are scant and can largely be attributed to alternate familial connections. Patton is not an uncommon name after all. It is in the top 500 most common surnames in the United States. As of 2014, more than 85,000 people in the United States had the last name Patton. So one really has to be careful when trying to make genetic connections with a common surname like that because much of the time it really is just a coincidence.
Along with genetic genealogy, the next best route to take in knocking down this Patton brick wall definitively will be looking into some of the other Patton families with geographic and military ties to our Patton family. There were a large number of Pattons in Benton County, Arkansas where Samuel was living in the 1860s, and several of them ended up not just in the same regiment but the same COMPANY as Samuel. It could just be a coincidence, but I do believe that is a better lead to pursue than "Oh LoOk! A pAtToN fAmIlY hAs A tHoMaS tHe SaMe AgE aS oUr'S! hE mUsT bE oUr ThOmAs!" The dedication it took me to write that should illustrate just how firm I am in the belief that the guesswork and bad genealogy in this Patton family has gotten out of hand and needs to not just be re-evaluated but started over from scratch. No more guesswork, no more assumptions, just some real genealogy.
Maybe then this brick wall will fall.
And so that's it, folks. The remaining 5 (or 6--who's counting?) brick walls in my Top 10 Genealogy Brick Walls. If you come across this page and can help me out, I'd love to hear from you. If you think I can help you in some way, by all means, feel free to reach out.
If and when I take any of these walls down you can bet there will be a new blog post for it.
