Saturday, March 12, 2011

Oklahoma footprints...

Pat and I signed up for Ancestry.com Saturday. I got to do some research with some of the NEW FEATURES that Ancestry.com has added since I last was a member of this genealogy organization. One of the nice new features, is that Ancestry.com almost does your genealogy FOR YOU! And new “hints” seem to pop up all over the place.

One of the newest “finds” is on my Great-Grandmother Harriett Keener (aka Carlton). I have found her in Hardeman Co, TX in the 1900 Federal Census:

1900 Fed Census – Hardeman Co, TX


I seem to have discovered here, that Grandma Wright’s first name could have been “Tempy” and Chrissie appears to have been her middle name. I am unsure

Thinkbabynames.com states that Tempie was a common girls name in 1880-1890, but currently Tempie is a somewhat less popular first name for women (#3759 out of 4276).

Another thing I noted, is that Grandma Keener was married within a couple of years after she broke up with Jerry Carlton. I am not confident of the family story that Grandpa Carlton “was hung as a horse thief.” Instead, I have found him to be still alive and living in Oklahoma in 1900 BEFORE it became a state (in 1907.) He lived in Tillman County, (Indian Territory) and Grandma Tempy Chrissie Carlton was living with her Mom, Grandma Harriett Kenner was a few miles away, across the border in Hardeman County, Texas.

(See map to right)

As best as I can determine, there was a terrible family tragedy that caused Grandma Harriett to split from Grandpa Jerry Carlton.

The new Carlton family has been documented to have started at the wedding of Jerry and Harriett in 1855 in Eastland County, Texas. The 1900 Federal Census shows that Jerry and Harriett were together in 1886 at the birth of Grandma (Tempy) Chrissie Carlton. Grandma Chrissie was born in Texas. However the family seems to have left Texas just prior to 1889 and moved to the Indian Territories (now Oklahoma). There Uncle Lee was born. They seem to have lived in the Indian Territories for another year of so. And then a baby girl was born. Some sort of a calamity happened and the baby died. Family stories seem to tell that Grandpa Jerry was responsible for the death. The story has been told that he bashed the baby’s head in “on a wagon wheel.” And then again, there is the family story that Grandpa Jerry was “hung as a horse thief.” This does not appear to be true…because Grandpa Jerry was alive and well in 1910.

But it was this death of the baby girl (about 1890) that seem to end the family unit. Baby Jessie Nealy is born in 1893 so that supports the theory that Grandma Harriett and Grandpa Jerry broke up a short time before that. Grandma still is wearing the NEALY name in the 1900 Census so Nealy must have died sometime between 1893 and 1899. He is not present in the 1900 Federal Census.

The 1910 Census is one of the most comprehensive and shows the most of the family genealogy of Grandma Keener.

And then in 1920 we find Great-Grandma gone…and Grandma and Grandpa Crissie and William living in Beckham Co, OK.


If you notice, they are living next to Rachel Pickens…which is part of Ima Jean’s family. The Picken’s household was resident #334 and our Wright family was in resident #335.

More later…

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