Genealogy Break Throughs

Genealogy has been a hobby of mine for about 35 years. It has given me the opportunity to incorporate a love of history with a love of family. My favorite movies and TV series were always westerns and I felt like I should have been born during that time. But of course, it was a good thing I wasn't because I like my creature comforts and technology way too much. (See, God was definitely looking out for me).

Anyway, as I was saying, genealogy gave me the ability to see my ancestors during a period of time that I would have at least wanted to visit. Over the years I have researched both my family and my husband's. His was actually easier to do as most of his family had resided here in Texas for many, many years. Texas is a big state but we could still make short trips to the various different counties a whole lot easier than to Nebraska or New York or England.

The internet has really opened up the research avenues for me. Family Search has uploaded images of the Texas Death Certificates for 1900-1976 and I decided to take advantage of that. I ran a report from my genealogy program to show everyone who died in Texas during that time period and I have been locating the death certificates and copying them to my hard drive. Death certificates can give you so much information, particularly names of parents. Which brings me to my breakthrough.

Dr. Charles Edward Hall and his wife Mabel Ora Stuart, my husband's great-grandparents, are buried in Lindale, Texas. Her parents, William Stuart and Laura Hill (Fatherree) Stuart are buried next to them. The headstones show birth and death dates for both William and Laura and the family Bible showed William as being born in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee. That had been the extent of the knowledge I have been able to gather on William Stuart.

While tracing down death certificates for a son of a son of a collateral line, I was taken to Rains County in Texas, where the death occurred. As I have found the death certificates, I have also checked each county to see if the cemeteries have been transcribed online (some have, some haven't yet). So while looking through one of the Rains County Genealogy web pages, I came across a 1913 transcribed newspaper article that said "Herbert Stuart from Lindale was here visiting his uncle S.J. Stuart earlier this week."

That stopped me in my tracks. Herbert Stuart was Mable Ora's brother, a son of William Stuart, and living in Lindale. This uncle S.J. Stuart was obviously a brother to William. A little more research in Rains County disclosed this to be Stephen James Stuart, a prominent settler to Rains County from Tennessee. Now with two children's names as a point of reference, I was able to find the right Stuart household in the 1850 census of Sumner County, Tennesse, which showed their mother Clarissa as a widow. Checking the online marriage transcriptions for Sumner County, I found a Clarissa Mitchenor married to a James Stuart. I also found the Texas death certificate for Stephen James Stuart that listed his parents as James and Clarissa. A death certificate for William (who died in 1902) has never been found.

So by following the death certificates on more current family way down through a collateral line, it took my direct line another generation back. That's what I love about genealogy. You never know when or where you will find that piece of elusive information that fits your puzzle.