Merging Branches

Every so often I will go to add a new-found parent for someone in my tree and will think, "that name sounds familiar."  So, I search and find that person is already in my tree on a wholly different and unexpected branch.  I guess that scenario is to be expected to some degree but it catches me by surprise each time.

It happened last night.  I was researching the family of Olympia Muse Melton, born about 1805. She married my third great grandfather, John McBride, after the death of his wife (my third great grandmother), Louisa Street in 1857.  My goal is to find the burial place of John and Louisa and possibly Olympia.  I assume they are buried at their Holmes County farm as that is the last place they are indicated to be living but I'd like to be sure.  After exhausting records on John and Louisa, I'm now focusing on Olympia.

I haven't found a record of Olympia's marriage to John but we know about her because she is mentioned in John's will probated in 1868 and she is found living with him in the 1860 census in Holmes County, Mississippi along with a Sidney McRaney age 11.  From this census we also learn she was born in Georgia around 1805.

I believe I found Olympia in the 1850 census in Jackson Parish, Louisiana.  She is listed as head of household, born in Georgia about 1805.  Her last name is listed as Walton but the clincher is we also find little Sidney McRanie age 2 living with her.  There is also an Elizabeth Walton in the house- age 17.  This census offers a couple plausible assumptions about Olympia.  She is the widow of a man named Walton.  Elizabeth is their daughter.  At seventeen in 1850, Elizabeth Walton's birth puts Olympia's marriage with Elizabeth's father sometime before 1833 and after 1819 when Olympia came of marrying age.

In an effort to find out more about Olympia, I searched for her first husband.  I found a marriage record for "Olympia Muse Melton" and George Walton in Dallas County, Alabama dated 30 November, 1818.  John McBride's will calls her Olympha M McBride.  Maybe the "M" is for Muse or Melton?  She would have been a little young at this 1818 wedding in Alabama, but I think it is her because this George Walton, I discovered, had a sister named Mary, who married a man named Malcom McCranie in 1837.  Mary and Malcom had two sons named Sidney and George William McCranie.  Sound familiar?  Sidney is our little buddy found in the 1850 and 1860 census living with Olympia.  His parents were both dead by 1850.  Sidney spent his youngest years on the McBride farm in Holmes County, Mississippi being raised by his Aunt Olympia.  His brother, GW became a leading newspaper man in Monroe, Louisiana.  Here is a write up regarding Sidney's death...

The Weekly Shreveport Times, 6 Feb 1890

Another reason I believe George Walton is likely Olympia's first husband falls again in the circumstantial but compelling category.  John McBride, in his will where I first found Olympia, nominates his friend "HS Boatright" as his executor.  Through land records of Holmes County, I found that this is Hickerson Stinson "Deck" Boatright, a next-door neighbor of the John McBride family on Black Creek.  In 1845, the year of George Walton's death, Deck named a son "George Walton Boatright."  This intimates a connection between John McBride's next door neighbor and a George Walton.  

Coincidentally, Deck's mother was a Stinson (hence his middle name). This is the same Stinson family that marries into the McGinty line at the 1858 marriage of Mary Catherine Stinson and Elisha King McGinty, the parents of Medora McGinty who married John Sherwood McBride, a grandson of John and Louisa McBride who started out this blog post!  Sometimes all the connections hurt my brain.

Getting back to the merging branches alluded to in the beginning of this post...  It turns out George Walton, who technically should be no relation to me at all (in that he is the first husband of my third great grandfather's second wife) is, in fact, related to me.  He and his sister Mary (Sidney's mom) had a mother named Elizabeth Cleveland born in 1744.  The Cleveland name being familiar-- I searched my tree for Elizabeth Cleveland born in 1744.  There she was; a daughter of Larkin Cleveland, the brother of my Reverend John Cleveland, the patriot I used to join the Sons of the American Revolution. She is a 1st cousin 6 times removed.  She was already in my tree, as was her husband, William Walker Walton and his son, George Walton!  All I had to do was join by marriage George Walton to Olympia Muse Melton who was also already in my tree.

You just shake your head and keep going.

George Walton is my 2nd cousin 5 times removed on my mother's side of the family.  After his death, his widow married my third great grandfather on my father's side.  Pretty near useless information, but interesting to me nonetheless.

Interesting Family Facts

For my siblings:

• Our most recent foreign-born Ancestor is third great grandfather, Eugene Amedee Sherburne (1802, L'Orient, France).  Born to a French mother and an American diplomat father (who was originally from New Hampshire).  He came to the US (Baton Rouge area) some time between 1811 and 1818. 

• Our next closest foreign born Ancestor is fourth great grandmother, Phoebe Carle (b. 1796, Ontario, Canada).  Born to loyalist parents from New York and Pennsylvania who escaped America after the Revolutionary War.  The family is first listed in the US in the St. Louis District of Missouri (New Madrid) in the 1810 Census.  They later settled in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

• Our most recent “traditional immigrant” ancestor is fourth great grandfather, William Dickson Sr. born 1762 in County Down, Northern Ireland.  He arrived in South Carolina at age 5 (1767) with his parents, Margaret and Nicholas Dickson.

• Of 64 fourth great grandparents, 26 were born in Virginia, 12 in North Carolina, 8 in South Carolina, 2 each in Georgia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Maryland, 1 each in Tennessee, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Illinois and Delaware.  Four are foreign born... one each from England, France, Ireland and Canada.

• The first direct ancestor born in Louisiana is 4^th great grandmother, Nancy Palmer, born 1790 in St. Francisville.  Her granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Doles, married Nathan Wesley Sentell, a great great grandfather.

• Our McBride family first bought property in Louisiana in 1858.  2nd Great Grandfather, Rev. William McBride and his brother James Louis McBride moved from their father's home near Lexington, Mississippi after buying adjoining properties between Jonesboro and Weston, Louisiana. 

• Daniel Boone is a first cousin.  Technically, he is a first cousin 7 times removed.  His mother, Sarah Morgan Boone, was the sister of our 6th great grandfather, John Morgan (1697-1747).  Daniel Boone's grandfather and our 7th great grandfather was Edward Morgan a Welsh immigrant.  Edward's home can be visited today at Lansdale, PA.  This family line comes down to us through the Keller family.

• At least 2 grandfathers fought at the Battle of New Orleans.  Isaac Townsend was a Captain with the Louisiana Militia.  Joseph Street was a Tennessee Militia member who passed away of illness on the return trip from the battle.  He is buried near Natchez, Mississippi.

• At least 3 direct ancestors were killed by Indians.  Fifth great grandfather, Thomas Jackson, was murdered in his field outside the Quaker settlement of Wrightsboro, Georgia in August of 1770.  Eighth great grandmother, Phebe Littlefield Heard was famously killed at Ambush Rock in Maine in 1697.  And finally, William Coleman, a fifth great grandfather, was killed near Natchez in the territory of Mississippi in 1781.

• Speaking of Wrightsboro, President Jimmy Carter wrote an historic novel, The Hornet's Nest, about some of his ancestors who were part of that settlement.  Making an appearance in the novel is the founder of that southernmost Quaker settlement, Joseph Maddock (1720-1794) who is our 6th great grandfather.  As far as I can tell we are not related to President Jimmy Carter.

• 10th great grandfather Dr. James Beall (1603-1646) is buried at St. Andrews Cemetery in Fife, Scotland within a half mile of the famous golf course of the same name.  

• Beall's son, 9th great grandfather Ninian Beall (pronounced "Bell") an ardent Presbyterian, fought alongside his fellow Scots against Cromwell's forces at the Battle of Dunbar.  The Scots were defeated and Ninian consequently served 5 years servitude in Barbados, West Indies.  After his release, Beall was granted 50 acres in the colony of Maryland.  He eventually amassed about 4,000 acres encompassing much of what we know as Georgetown today.  The following is inscribed on a stone in front of St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown...

"Colonel Ninian Beall, born Scotland, 1625, died Maryland 1717, patentee of the Rock of Dumbarton; Member of the House of Burgesses; Commander in Chief of the Provincial Forces of Maryland. In grateful recognition of his services "upon all Incursions and Disturbances of Neighboring Indians" the Maryland Assembly of 1699 passed an "Act of Gratitude." This memorial erected by the Society of Colonial Wars in the District of Columbia, 1910.

• We have a cousin, (John Henry Sherburne Jr 1815-1849), in our tree who shot and killed the oldest son of Frances Scott Key in an 1836 duel at Bladensburg, Maryland.  Our cousin, purportedly, was not the aggressor.  

• The duelist cousin's father (another cousin) attempted twice to locate and repatriate the body of John Paul Jones who he knew to be buried somewhere in Paris.  He was unsuccessful both times, but he did write several books on Jones.  A signed copy of one was sent to James Madison and now sits in the Madison Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division in the Library of Congress.

• We are direct descendants of 4 people who came over on the Mayflower- Edward Doty, Samuel Fuller and his parents Ann and Edward Fuller.  This line comes down to us through Ann Amelia Scarborough who married 2x great grandfather Rev. William McBride.

• We have 14 relatives who fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain, a pivotal battle of the Revolutionary War, including 4 great-grandfathers.  Read about them at this blog post...  https://onelongtwoshort.blogspot.com/2019/10/

• Third great uncle, Joseph Townsend was shot dead at a Sunday School meeting in Ascension Parish, Louisiana in July of 1880.  He was one of two people killed in the desperate fight of which he was not a party.

• The only full Asian currently in our tree is Shoji Tabuchi, the famous Japanese violinist who had his own theater in Branson, Missouri.  Tabuchi's second wife, Dorothy Bailey Lingo was once married to 2nd Cousin once removed, Michael Lingo, a great grandson of Willis Claud Keller (the brother of grandfather William Harrison Keller).  Dorothy and Michael's daughter, Christina (2nd cousin twice removed) often appeared on stage with Shoji during his shows.

• John Wesley Hardin, the notorious Western outlaw, is a second cousin four times removed. His great grandfather, and our 4th great grandfather was Joseph Hardin (1734-1801) a statesman and Revolutionary War veteran.
•