Throwing in my two southern cents on the Confederate flag

My grandparent's farm in Haywood County
in the mid-1990s.

I'm a Southerner and I love all things related to West Tennessee. If you ask me what symbols represent home, my mind immediately goes to family, cotton fields, cicadas on a miserably hot summer afternoon, the blues, the smell of watermelon on my grandparent's back porch and yes, Elvis.

One thing that never really entered my consciousness in a significant way until now is the Confederate flag.



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Of course, I've seen it many times, but rather than associate it with my Confederate ancestors, or anything “Southern,” to me it was an element from a cartoon. Like the Roadrunner's Acme sign or giant stick of dynamite, it was just a sign of silliness. I would have most quickly associated it with Granny on the "Beverly Hillbillies," the car in the "Dukes of Hazard" or a stereotypical gang of leather-clad bad guys who are supposed to represent a threat to the good guys in a movie I would probably never have time to watch.

After the senseless massacre in Charleston last Wednesday, the hateful images of the cowardly young man who committed the murders could be held up against the remarkable display of forgiveness by the church members and families of the victims. The flag is no longer funny to me.

I've read a lot about the pre and post-Civil War period in Tennessee and I admit, I am the guy who has a hard time passing a historical marker on either side of the Mason-Dixon line without stopping. Just ask my family.

Obviously, I'm fascinated by my southern heritage; otherwise I wouldn't have a blog and website about genealogy to begin with. And of course, I find the concept of slavery and all the cruelties associated with it to be repugnant, just like everyone else with half a brain.

I feel your pain, Ben Affleck. I too have always been perplexed and embarrassed by my slave-owning ancestors. Despite the old adage "it was a different time," I still would love to know how anyone could have participated in something so horrific.

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The Confederate flag debate feels especially relevant to me. In addition to having a blog where I frequently post about my southern ancestors, I spend my days working for an organization that champions the five freedoms of The First Amendment.

About 100 feet from my office is a display (right between Bart Simpson and school prayer) in the Newseum featuring Kentucky high school senior Jacqueline Duty, who sued her high school district when she was bared from her senior prom because she wanted to wear a sequined Confederate flag-inspired dress.

The water cooler talk and hallway chatter this week has included a lot of interesting discussion and dialog around the issue and how it relates to our First Amendment rights.

The Newseum Institute’s David L. Hudson Jr. posted a great article about this week’s Supreme Court showdown in Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, in which the court ruled that Texas could deny requests from a group that wanted to create specialty license plates displaying the Confederate battle flag.

Newseum Institute chief executive officer Gene Policinski wrote that although the Walker decision seems rooted in the court of public opinion, it’s not good news for the First Amendment.

I believe good and evil exist in the world. And now I associate the forgiveness displayed by those in Charleston with good and the Confederate flag with evil. Period.

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I believe it's time to take down the flag from public places, pull the statue (and body) of Nathan Bedford Forrest out of the city park and place items that represent the evils of slavery and racism in museums and history books where they can be remembered and discussed but not celebrated.

Full disclosure: Nathan Bedford Forrest was possibly a cousin of my 4th great-grandfather, Samuel Forrest, so at least you don't have to deal with that, Ben Affleck. 

If you choose to display the Confederate flag on your bumper, at your home or wear it on your clothing, that's certainly your right.

However, I won't be swimming in your cement pond, riding in your 1969 Dodge Charger or joining your motorcycle gang, so you'll have to celebrate that part of our heritage without me.

If anyone needs any positive images or symbols of all the things that I think make the South great, just ask me. I can come up with a whole list for you. The first thing on that list would be the mind-blowing forgiveness shown by the members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church this week.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website. 

The Newseum Institute’s David L. Hudson Jr. provides analysis of this week’s Supreme Court decision in Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, in which the court ruled that Texas could deny requests from a group that wanted to create specialty license plates displaying the Confederate battle flag. Newseum Institute chief executive officer Gene Policinski writes that although the Walker decision seems rooted in the court of public opinion, it’s not good news for the First Amendment. - See more at: http://www.newseum.org/2015/06/24/the-confederate-flag-and-the-first-amendment/#sthash.CFx9RZ69.dpuf

a special section on students’ rights tells the story of Kentucky high school senior Jacqueline Duty, who sued her school district when she was barred from senior prom because of her dress — a sequined representation of the Confederate flag. - See more at: http://www.newseum.org/2015/06/24/the-confederate-flag-and-the-first-amendment/#sthash.CFx9RZ69.dpuf

a special section on students’ rights tells the story of Kentucky high school senior Jacqueline Duty, who sued her school district when she was barred from senior prom because of her dress — a sequined representation of the Confederate flag. - See more at: http://www.newseum.org/2015/06/24/the-confederate-flag-and-the-first-amendment/#sthash.CFx9RZ69.dpuf

a special section on students’ rights tells the story of Kentucky high school senior Jacqueline Duty, who sued her school district when she was barred from senior prom because of her dress — a sequined representation of the Confederate flag. - See more at: http://www.newseum.org/2015/06/24/the-confederate-flag-and-the-first-amendment/#sthash.CFx9RZ69.dpuf

special section on students’ rights tells the story of Kentucky high school senior Jacqueline Duty, who sued her school district when she was barred from senior prom because of her dress — a sequined representation of the Confederate flag. - See more at: http://www.newseum.org/2015/06/24/the-confederate-flag-and-the-first-amendment/#sthash.CFx9RZ69.dpuf

special section on students’ rights tells the story of Kentucky high school senior Jacqueline Duty, who sued her school district when she was barred from senior prom because of her dress — a sequined representation of the Confederate flag. - See more at: http://www.newseum.org/2015/06/24/the-confederate-flag-and-the-first-amendment/#sthash.CFx9RZ69.dpuf

Photo of Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw and Jack Pender Castellaw

Photo/Lynn J. Graves

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Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw with her grandchildren

Lynn Graves is one of my many Castellaw cousins that descend from my third great-grandparents, Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Castellaw (1808 - 1878) and Mary Elizabeth Cole (1809 - 1875). He recently found this photo of one of his Castellaw ancestors in some of his mother's belongings.

The older lady in the photo, Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw, was born Feb. 22, 1848 in Virginia. 

By Oct. 5, 1865 she was in Haywood County, Tennessee where she married Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw, one of T.J. and Mary Castelaw's sons. He was one of the brothers of my second great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson "Tom" Castellaw, Jr.

In 1900, Jeremiah and Mary donated the land west of the Holly Grove Baptist Church in Haywood County, Tennessee to be used as the cemetery. It's still in use today and many of relatives are buried there.

Jeremiah and Mary were the parents of nine children; Lucy Albina "Bina", Egbert O., Thomas Jefferson "Tom," Jack Coleman, Charles, Authur Fletcher, Myrtle, Jelks F. and Jessie Beatrice. 

Immediately to Mary's left in the above photo is Lynn's mother and directly behind her is her grandson, Jack Pender Castellaw, from her son, Jack Coleman Castellaw.

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Jack Pender Castellaw

Sadly, Jack Pender Castellaw was one of ten Baylor University basketball players who lost his life in a bus accident in 1927. The players are now referred to as "The Immortal Ten."

On Jan. 22, 1927, coach Ralph Wolf was taking his first Baylor basketball team to play a game in Austin against the University of Texas. 

Rain hampered the vision of the chartered bus driver as debris from the road sprayed the windshield of the bus. In Round Rock, Texas, just miles from the team's arrival in Austin, a speeding train from the I&GA Railroad Company rammed into the side of the bus at a railway crossing near the center of the city. 

Ten of the 21 players, coaches and fans in the Baylor party that traveled on the bus that day were killed. Source

At the first student assembly each fall at Baylor, they still set out empty chairs for each of the Immortal Ten and the university dedicated a large memorial to them in 2007.

Mary Castellaw died on May 30, 1933 in Haywood County. 

You can read much more about Jeremiah and Mary Castellaw and their family in the Castellaw section of my website.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website.  

The Brantley DNA test results are in and the father is...

Random Photo from Pinterest

Thanks to my cousin Betsy’s detective work, we were recently able to take part in a DNA project that confirmed our Brantley lineage goes back to Edward Brantley, an early immigrant to America from England in 1638.

The project, initiated and managed by Ken Brantley, founder of The Brantley Association, tests and catalogs the Y-DNA of Brantley males using Family Tree DNA.

Y-DNA testing examines the DNA in the Y-chromosome. If you paid more attention than I did in science class, you remember that all males have one Y-chromosome in each cell and copies are passed down unchanged from father to son.

Using a Y-DNA test, you can confirm your direct paternal lineage from your father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on. By looking at the Y-DNA you can verify whether two individuals are descendants of the same distant paternal ancestor.

Because neither Betsy nor I are "a male with the Brantley surname," as required for this particular DNA test, Betsy tracked down one of our distant relatives who generously agreed to participate in the research on our behalf. Like most of those in the Brantley Y-DNA program, we were able to confirm that we descended from Edward Brantley who was born around 1615 and immigrated to Isle of Wight County around 1638 as an indentured servant for John Seward.

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Mention of Edward Brantley
in "Cavaliers and Pioneers"

The first English plantations had been established in the area just 10 years earlier and, by the time Brantley arrived, the new residents in the area had completed St. Luke’s Church, the first church of British North American construction.

They also had just changed the name of their town from Warrosquyoake Shire to Isle of Wight. Today, that area is called Southampton County, Virginia and is only about 180 miles from where I sit typing this.

Edward Brantley, the immigrant, died in Isle of Wight around 1688 after becoming a wealthy planter and father of four children. His son Phillip (abt. 1651 - abt. 1725) had a son named Edward (abt. 1672 - 1737) after his grandfather. According to the research done by Ken Brantley and the Brantley Association, 80% of Caucasians with the last name of Brantley descend from that Edward Brantley.

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Early Brantley Migration from Virginia to North Carolina

Three of Edward Brantley's sons, Lewis, Joseph and John, were among the first to make North Carolina their home when they migrated to Edgecombe County (soon after changed to Granville County) in 1745. It appears from the records that Joseph made that his home until his death, but ten years later, brothers Lewis and John continued migrating southwest to Chatham County, North Carolina.

Although the specific paternal connection is not confirmed, we do know for certain a Brantley man in Bertie County, North Carolina fathered an Edward Brantley in 1760.

By this time of the 1790 census, this Edward Brantley was still in Bertie County with a wife and five children. On May 12, 1832, he married his second wife, Clarissa Cole, and then died five years later.

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Brantley North Carolina to Tennessee Migration

Only two children were included in Brantley’s will: Augustus Brantley (1811 – 1876) and Margaret Brantley Sorrell. Augustus, my fourth great-grandfather, would leave Bertie County and travel more than 800 miles west to become one of the first settlers of Haywood County, Tennessee in the early 1830s.

By the time of the 1840 census, 28-year-old Augustus was living in Haywood County and in his home were six people. Five were “free white persons” while one was a slave who was a female between the ages of 10 – 23. Augustus was married first to Martha White (1812 - 1852) then to Zilpha King (1823 - 1893).

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Some of the heads of families in the 1840 census

Many other heads of families who show up in my genealogy were living around the Brantley family including Bemberry White, William Watridge, Edward Steele, George Thomas (minister at Zion Baptist Church), Dempsy Nowell, and John Dawson Castellaw. It was Castellaw who led many of the wagon trains from Bertie County to Haywood County around 1832. Another neighbor, Robert W. Duckworth, was the grandfather of Confederate Civil War captain Alexander Duckworth.

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l to r: Henry Day Brantley, Henry Preston Brantley,
William "Willie" Day Brantley, Virginia Brantley Lovelace

Augustus was the father of Henry Day Brantley (1845 – 1918), who was the father of Henry Preston Brantley (1872 – 1956), who was the father of William "Willie" Day Brantley (1897 – 1969), who was the father of my maternal grandmother, Virginia Brantley Lovelace (1917 – 2007) and Betsy's mother, Betty Brantley Sullivan.

Now that I've seen Y-DNA connect our Brantley line back to Edward Brantley, I next plan to personally participate in a Family Tree DNA Williams Y-DNA study to see if I can get that line back further than George Williams.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, including the Brantley family, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website. 

Never-before-seen photos of Hiram Bradford family cemetery

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Likely descendants of Hiram Bradford taken at
"The Old Bradford Place," Sept. 1924 

I love it when technology allows complete strangers to work together to solve puzzles relating to individuals who died decades ago.

I recently wrote about the above photo which was likely taken in 1924 at the home of Haywood County's first entrepreneur, Hiram Bradford, long after his death in 1862. I noted in the blog that nothing I could find anywhere online included the exact location of the cemetery in which Bradford and other members of his family were buried.

This week I received a phone call from Jered Olds who had stumbled across what ended up being the Bradford Family Cemetery. Covered in weeds and vines, it has obviously remained well-hidden for many years.

Photo/Jered Olds

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Bradford Family Cemetery

Olds and his cousin, Rodney Reynolds, were turkey hunting about four miles west of Brownsville, off Highway 54, when they came across a heavily wooded area concealing a number of headstones. 

Photo/Jered Olds

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Headstone of Hiram Bradford

They pulled away the weeds and debris and Olds used his phone to snap a few photos so he could look up the names when he returned home.

Photo/Jered Olds

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Headstone of Alsey Bradford

His online search led him to my original blog entry where he learned more about the identity of some of the individuals buried in this long-forgotten family cemetery. 

Photo/Jered Olds

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On a genealogy message board, I found an old post from 2001 that listed the individuals thought to be buried here:

Hiram Bradford, b. 2 Jan 1797 - d. 27 Aug. 1862
Alsey Bradford, b. 1855 - d. 1864, son of H.S. and M.J.
Bascom Bradford, b. 1851 - d. 1852 - son of Alsey H. and Mary E.
Emily Allen Bradford, b. 1854 - d. 1855 - dau. of A.H. and M.E. Wilson Bradford
Mary Tillman Bradford, b. 1850 - d. 1852 - dau. of Alsey H. and Mary E.
Millie Bradford, b. 1797 - d. 1867 - wife of Major H. Bradford
Susan J. Bradford, d. 14 Sept. 1852 - wife of Hiram Scott, age 19 years
Willie Bradford, b. 1857 - d. 1861 - son of H.S. and M.J.
Bradford, inf. son of H.S. & M.J., one day old
Bradford, 1859 - 1859 - 1 day old

Unless there any unmarked graves, it appears these members of the Bradford family all died from 1852 to 1867.

In 1852, the first three Bradfords were laid to rest here. Included were one-year-olds Bascom Bradford and Mary Tillman Bradford, both children of Colonel Alsey High Bradford (1822 - 1906) and his wife Mary E. Wilson Bradford. This couple would bury another child here in 1855 when their one-year-old daughter, Emily Allen Bradford, died.

Colonel Bradford, a young farmer when he buried his three small children, later became well known for his Civil War service. In 1861 he was Captain and then Colonel of Company D, 31st Tennessee Regiment. 

By 1862 he was Chief of Staff to General John Porter McCown and a Commander of Hilliard’s Tennessee Legion. After the war, he returned to Haywood County where he farmed and held city and county leadership positions until his death in 1906. Bradford is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Brownsville, Tenn. A historic marker on College Street in Brownsville commemorates Colonel Bradford's life.

His younger brother also suffered a great deal of loss reflected here. Hiram Scott Bradford's (1830 - 1873) young wife, Susan J. Bradford, was the third person to die and be buried in the cemetery in 1852. She was only 19 and her headstone is the most ornate.

Bradford then married Mary Jane Stephens (1832 - 1916) and they would bury at least two children here. Sadly, they lost a one-day-old son and then their four-year-old son, Willie, who died in 1861.

Another additional infant buried here was likely the child of either Hiram Scott Bradford or Colonel High Bradford.

The last to be buried in the cemetery was the family matriarch, Emily “Millie” Allen Bradford. The wife of Hiram Bradford, she was born in 1797 in Kentucky and died in 1867 in Brownsville. In addition to the two sons mentioned here, she and Hiram were the parents of Phredonia Bradford Mann (1815 - 1866), Sarah Elizabeth Bradford Young (1831 - 1890) and George Bradford (1836 - 1812).

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Tennessee Historic Marker for Bradford's Landing

As it turns out, there is one other place that commemorates the life of Hiram Bradford. At the intersection of U.S. 70 and River Bend Road in Brownsville is a Tennessee Historic Marker that notes Bradford's contribution to the growth of the town. You can check it out the next time you're headed to Brownsville.

I'm very grateful that Jered Olds shared the photos and allowed me to post them here. I'm sure they'll be especially interesting for those researching the Bradford family line or Civil War buffs.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website.

Book: A Year in the Life of the South 1865

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I've long been fascinated by the the years immediately following the Civil War and how it impacted the lives of my West Tennessee ancestors.

In just a few days, on April 9, 2015, it will have been 150 years since Lee surrendered the Confederate Army to Grant at the Appomattox Court House. In commemorating the end of the Civil War and the upcoming anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, there has been much written about the war, the horror that was slavery and the events surrounding Lincoln's death.

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"President Lincoln is Dead: The New York Herald Reports the Assassination"

The museum where I get to work every day, the Newseum, is marking the anniversary with an amazing exhibit of a collection of New York Herald special editions from April 15, 1865. If you get to Washington before Jan. 10, 2016, you really need to check it out.

Slavery is certainly a topic with implications to my personal genealogy. Looking at my four primary lines: Williams, Lovelace, Castellaw and Brantley, I know all four families migrated to Haywood County, Tennessee from Bertie County, North Carolina in the early 1830s with their slaves along to help them carve out farms in this previously-unsettled land. When the Civil War began, all four families were still neighbors and farming the same land using slave labor.

Because the known details on my lines are available on HaywoodCountyLine.com, I've even been contacted a couple of times by individuals who are likely descendants of the slaves of my ancestors.

Close family ties to such a horrible institution frequently makes me wonder what they were thinking at the time.

Until someone in my family unearths a hidden chest containing a Civil War diary no one knew about, I'll have to make do with what others in the area were thinking at the time. 

During a recent 15-hour plane ride, I finally had time to read one book I've had on my list for a while, A Year in the South, 1865: The True Story of Four Ordinary People Who Lived Through the Most Tumultuous Twelve Months in American History.

Written by Stephen V. Ash, Professor Emeritus of the Department of History at the University of Tennessee, the book was originally published back in 2004. I purchased it based on the title alone so was pleasantly surprised to discover it did include quite a bit about West Tennessee.

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Cover image from "A Year in the South, 1865"

The "four ordinary people" referenced in the title all left behind diaries and journals that Ash used to explore the implications slavery and the war on his subject's lives.

Stories in the the book are from a formerly well-off Confederate widow who is reduced to living a life of extreme poverty for herself and her seven children, an enterprising slave who teaches himself to read and launches numerous business endeavors when not attempting to escape, a farmer dealing with issues of faith and a young soldier struggling with the world changing around him.

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Memphis river front at the time of the Civil War, from
Harper's Weekly, July 5, 1862
From A Year in the South, 1865

Especially relevant to my interests were the frequent references to my hometown of Memphis. One in particular took place shortly after the end of the war. Former slave Louis Hughes escaped the plantation on which he lived and headed to Memphis to seek help rescuing other former slaves who were still being held against their will.

"It was almost sunset when the car pulled into Memphis. Lou looked around in wonder. The city had grown and changed so much in the three years since he had left that it was hardly recognizable. Black people were everywhere, for the city had become a mecca for fugitives from the plantations of northern Mississippi, western Tennessee, and eastern Arkansas. Lou saw some he knew, earlier escapees from Panola or Bolivar. Like him, they were slaves no longer...Memphis has drawn not only hordes of blacks but also white refugees in great numbers, not to mention Yankee soldiers and citizens. The city was now home to 40,000 people, maybe 60,000--nobody knew for sure." (pg. 130)

The book is divided into seasons and offers insight into the subject's lives both before, during and after the Civil War.

While the oppression and cruelty they all experience (and in some cases, attempt to justify) is clearly evident, there are also glimpses of hope, compassion and seeds being planted for significant cultural changes ahead.

If you're at all interested in the southern experience of the Civil War, I highly recommend you purchase this book and add it to your collection.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website.

Will and Eva Overton Williams of Haywood County, Tennessee

Photo/Mary S. Williams

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Will and Eva Williams

I never knew my paternal great-grandfather, William Lafayette "Will" Williams (Feb. 13, 1888 - April 1, 1962) because he died the year before I was born.

Although I've seen several photos of him, one of my first cousins, Donna Williams Taylor, recently posted several photos to Facebook that belonged to one of his daughter-in-laws, Mary Shealy Williams.

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Will Williams and his son, Bo Williams, around the same age
and looking remarkably similar.

Will Williams was born in Haywood County, Tennessee on Feb. 13, 1888 to George D. Williams and his wife, Martha Jane Watridge.

Martha Jane died when her young son was only around 10 months old so Will never got to know his mother.

In the 1900 census, 12-year-old Will was living with his maternal aunt and uncle, George W. Castellaw and Mary E. Watridge Castellaw (Martha Jane Watridge Williams and Mary E. Watridge Castellaw were sisters). However, his father wasn't far away.

He was living right next door with his third wife, Virginia Estelle "Essie" Cobb Williams and their 15-year-old daughter, Elberta. Essie was a daughter of John Charles Warren Cobb and Penelope Trottman White.

Living next door to George and Estelle Williams were George's brother and his wife, John Nowell Williams and Mollie Cobb Williams

The Williams, Castellaw, Watridge, Cobb and White families were all early Haywood County settlers from Bertie County, North Carolina.

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Janie Williamson (upper left) and family

Will married Janie Elizabeth Williamson and on Nov. 27, 1910 they had their first child, Lloyd "Bo" Williams (my grandfather). 

Sadly, Janie died in 1914, along with their second child, a little girl named Janie Ruth. I remember looking at the photo above when I was a young boy and feeling sorry for Janie because she was the only one of my eight great-grandparents who died an early death.

According to family stories, Will had initially been so distraught over the death of his young wife that he was having a hard time getting over it. It was only when Janie's family threatened to take my grandfather away that he managed to pull it together. 

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Will and Eva Williams with their children
l to r: Bo, Ladonia and Blue Eyes

On Feb. 28, 1915, Will married 18-year-old Eva Iris Overton (Oct. 29, 1896 - Sept 5, 1970). By marrying Eva, he provided not only a stable home and a mother for Bo, but eventually, eight stepbrothers and sisters: Ladonia, Mary "Blue Eyes," W.L., Douglas, Dempsey, Betty and twins, Billy and Bobby.

Photo/Mary S. Williams

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Will Williams (upper left) with Billy Chandler

Douglas, Dempsey, Jesse, Bob (my father),

Billy and Bobby Williams

Although my grandfather was close to his stepmother, he never forgot his mother. There's a theory that you don't truly depart from the earth until the last person who has you in their memory dies. For Janie, that person would have been my grandfather. 

Photo/Mary S. Williams

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Will and Eva Williams

One of the last times we were at his house, my wife began asking him questions to find out what he remembered about his mother. He said, "I told my father I would never forget my mother so I would call his new wife, Mrs. Eva. All these years later, I never forgot my mother and still think about her from time to time."

Sharing these photos also provided a good opportunity to look at Eva's family tree.

Photo/Mary S. Williams

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Will and Eva Williams

She was the daughter of Robert Hardy Overton (July 22, 1872 - July 3, 1931) and Ladonia Jones (Oct. 1, 1874 - Jan. 31, 1899). 

Eva's paternal grandparents were John M. Overton (Jan. 27, 1842 - March 8, 1905) and Parthenia Ann Chambers (Apr. 18, 1842 - Aug. 1, 1907).

Her maternal grandparents were Joseph D. Jones (born 1850) and Zenobia Caroline Stanfield (Oct. 8, 1853 - July 10, 1891). 

It appears both parents and all four of her grandparents were born, lived and died in either Haywood or Madison Counties.

Photo/Mary S. Overton

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Will Williams in his den. I was quickly drawn to the photo
of my father and uncle in the upper right.

Eva's Overton line can be traced back to William De Overton who was born in 1270 in Cheshire, England and died in the same town in 1355.

Eva's eighth great-grandfather was Major-General Robert Overton (1609 - Dec. 22, 1679), a soldier of the Parliamentary Wars. Overton was married to Anne Gardiner.

Overton was a prominent English soldier and scholar, who supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War (1642 - 1651) and was imprisoned a number of times for his views. More

In the second Civil War (1648 - 1649), Overton's regiment supported Cromwell in Wales and in 1650, accompanied Cromwell to Scotland where he commanded troops in the battle of Dunbar and was subsequently made governor of Edinburgh. On May 14, 1652, Parliament voted him 400 pounds a year and Scottish lands in return for his services. More

Her seventh great-grandfather was Robert Overton's son, William Overton. William migrated to Virginia from the family estate at Easington in England in 1669 and received a land grant of 4,600 acres on the south side of the Pamunkey River in Hanover County, Virginia for bringing 92 people to America. 

Soon after arriving in England, William Overton sent for Mary Elizabeth Waters and they were married on board her ship on November 24, 1670.

William Overton died in Jamestown in 1697. More about William Overton

On Eva's maternal family tree, her second great-grandfather, Ephraim Alpheus Stanfield, was the first of that family to migrate to Madison County, Tennessee.

The obituary from another settler, Alfred B. Joyner, from July 20, 1899 includes a mention of Stanfield.

"Another family from Bedford County, Middle Tennessee preceded the Joyners, coming in the winter of 1824-25. This was the Stanfield family. Ephraim A. Stanfield, Esq. and his wife Sarah, who brought a large family of children, all of whom, except for Dr. C.A. Stanfield of Toledo, Ark. have with the Joyners, passed over the river to rest under the shadow of the trees. This family settled north of Wellwood and were noted in many respects. Ten sons and three daughters; the boys grew to manhood, remarkable for their unusual physical and mental development, above medium size, erect, strong, active, healthy and intelligent, all except one lived to raise families, many of whose descendants are filling positions of trust and honor in Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky, etc. these two families were among the first settlers of this section."

I love how the obituary writer referred to their deaths as "passed over the river to rest under the shadow of the trees." I assume both the writer and those who read the obit had spent much time in the cotton fields of the Delta so resting in the shadow of the trees had strong meaning for them.

Stanfield and his wife, Sarah Priscilla Powell, had thirteen children and many of the members of this family are buried at Providence Methodist Church Cemetery.

Photo/Mary S. Overton

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Will and Eva Williams

As I mentioned earlier, Will died before I was born. Eva lived until Sept. 5, 1970. I was seven years old and at my grandparent's house when my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams, received the call letting her know Eva had passed away. Her reaction made a strong impression on me at the time and is something I never forgot.

I've since heard from many people what a generous and kind-hearted woman Eva Overton was and I do think that comes through in the photos.

Eva Overton Williams Obituary 

The States-Graphic, Brownsville, Tennessee 9/11/1970
Funeral services were held at 5 p. m. Tuesday for Mrs. W. L. Williams.
Mrs. Williams, the former Eva Overton, was 74 and died suddenly Saturday at her home after suffering a heart attack.
Services were held at Brownsville Funeral Home with the Rev. H. K. Sorrell officiating. Burial was in Haywood County Memorial Gardens.
She leaves five sons, Lloyd Williams, Douglass Williams and Dempsey Williams, all of Brownsville, Billy Williams of Miami, Fla., and Bobby Williams, of Orlando, Fla.; three daughters, Mrs. Sidney Hudgings and Mrs. Ray Robinson, both of Memphis, and Mrs. Billy Chandler of Brownsville; a brother, Marshall Overton of Florida, and sister, Mrs. Eunice Campbell, of Bells; 20 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website.

The Brantley Family: Preachers, Planters and Pioneers of the South

I was grateful last week to open the mailbox and find my copy of "The Brantley Family: Preachers, Planters and Pioneers of the South" by Ken Brantley.

As big as a phonebook and weighing in at what feels like about 25 pounds, it's the largest, most comprehensive ancestry book dedicated to one surname I've ever seen.

According to his introduction, Brantley began his research back in 1963 the old-fashioned way; he used copy machines, letters to strangers and conversations with distant relatives with whom he connected through his research.

In 1987, he established The Brantley Association of which I am proud member #647. 

It's a meaningful branch of my family tree to me because I was close to my maternal grandmother, Virginia Brantley Lovelace (Oct. 10, 1917 - Dec. 8, 2007) and we used "Brantley" as my oldest daughter's middle name.

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Henry Preston Brantley and Mary Etta Cobb
and family

As a member, I provided some details about my own Brantley line and even got my picture in the book along with Henry Day Brantley (April 1845 - Nov. 5, 1918), my third great-grandfather, and Henry Preston Brantley (Oct. 11, 1872 - May 15, 1956), my second great-grandfather.

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Henry Day Brantley and Margaret Rebecca Steele,
my third great-grandparents

Most of the Brantley families in the United States today come from the sons of Edward Brantley who, according to the book, died in 1736 in Southampton County, Virginia. 

The first of my Brantley line to live in Haywood County was Augustus Brantley (1811 - Sept. 14, 1876) who was born in Bertie County, North Carolina and migrated along with many of my other ancestors to Haywood County, Tennessee in the early 1830s.

A little side note: Augustus' son, Solomon Normon Brantley (1848 - Feb. 12, 1927), filled out one of the Tennessee Civil War Veteran's Questionnaires. While his answers reveal only a little about life on his father's Haywood County farm and the culture of the area around the time of the Civil War, it's more than I have on many of my other ancestors so I'm glad to have it.

I've already spent hours looking through this new Brantley book. In addition to more than 25,000 names and genealogical details, the book also includes maps, migration patterns, charts and lots of photos. If you're researching the Brantley family line, I highly recommend you get a copy of your own to add to your library.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website.