Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Family Has Taken Over my Life

I know I haven't been writing much lately. I've been obsessed with family history. It's like a puzzle that won't let go. Some days I wake up, eat and sleep the mystery. Sometimes I discover something that only leads to more questions. Here's an example.
I thought I had everything I could find on my great-great grandmother Eliza Jane Welch Pettey. I knew when she was born and when she died. I knew who her parents where, although I didn't know too much about them. I knew who she married and who her children were. I even knew where she was buried and had even visited her grave. What I didn't know, surprised me.
During a visit to my dad's I happened to pick up a book of our family history. I scanned through it and just by chance started reading about Eliza Jane meeting William H. Pettey, my g-g-grandfather. But what startled me was the comment that she was living with her sister, Fannie, in Nacogdoches. I didn't even know she had a sister.
Fannie was married to Mathias Myers so off to search for census records. Sure enough, I found Mathias Myers, Sarah F. (Frances "Fannie") a couple of children and "sister-in-law" Eliza Jane Welch at 16 years of age. The sisters both gave their father's birth place as Ireland. I already had found that Eliza's father was a James Welch from Dublin Ireland, born in 1830. And she listed her mother as Martha Willis from Georgia. I had even found a record of their marriage in 1854 in Lawrence County Alabama.

Where did Martha go?


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