Alice Lawrence--1/52

 The first prompt for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is "I'd Like to Meet".  

I would like to meet all of my ancestors honestly.  I'd like to meet every single one of them to understand each life, each circumstance, and each personality; but of course, that's not what this prompt is about.  I need to choose one.  I would choose to meet Alice Lawrence.   

Why Alice?  I just don't know much about her to start with.  I mean is Lawrence even her last name?  I'd want to know the circumstances around her mother.  Who is her father?  How did she meet John Ledbetter?  How did she end up with two kids with him but no record of her at all?  What was her life like?  Was she happy with John?  I know they weren't married and they were very young but did she feel loved by him?  We all know what young love can feel like.  How did she die?  There is family lore that she died of pneumonia in a rainstorm next to a water well.  I mean, that sounds pretty specific to be only a story.  Some part of that had to be true, right?  Why can't I find her grave?  Why can't I find anything other than a single entry on a census?  

What do I know for certain about Alice Lawrence often called Ledbetter? 

I believe she was born around 1852 in North Carolina.  She is found in the 1860 Census to be listed as 8 years old on 5 July 1860.  She is living with who we believe to be her mother Elizabeth Lawrence (Laurence), her sisters Ella, Florance, and Iola.  They are in the household of P. Bronson and Anna M. Bronson, whom we know to be Philo and Anna Marie Bronson nee Satterwhite. 

Year: 1860; Census Place: Valley, Rabun, Georgia; Roll: M653_134; Page: 528; Family History Library Film: 803134 

Description 

City: Valley 

Source Information 

Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. 
Original data:1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. accessed 11 March 2022 

This is it.  I have found no other contemporary records for Alice Lawrence.  

We know that she gave birth to Lou Ella Ledbetter 10 Dec 1872.  We also know that she gave birth to Eugene Bartow Ledbetter 7 Apr 1875.  We have been told she had these children with a John Ledbetter.  We have no documentation to prove any of this.  We know that Alice must have died sometime after Eugene’s birth because Eugene and Lou Ella are in the household of their grandmother, Elizabeth Lawrence in 1880, without their mother.  

 

One potential John Ledbetter that may be the father of Lou Ella and Eugene Ledbetter was born Mar 1858 making him about 6 years younger than Alice if the census data is correct.  He would have been 14 years old when Lou Ella was born.   

Here is a copy of a tintype photo that has who I've always been told is Alice holding a baby Luella.

Also, there is this charcoal drawing that is of the same woman, Alice Lawrence.

I know Alice Lawrence existed and she had two children. I would surely like to meet her and hear her story.

2022 Year in Review

2022 Review

 Here we are at the end of 2022.  Let's take a quick review of what I accomplished in my blog this past year.

I returned to blogging in October after a much too-long hiatus.  

I wondered if I wanted to join DAR. I do and will hopefully be working through that process this year. 

 I looked at all the veterans in my tree and identified potential Revolutionary War Soldiers.  

I did some research and showed you all how I did it.  

I made some progress on identifying Robert Wuerz while also not locating his death record as I had hoped.

What does 2023 hold?

I will be joining in on Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  I did the challenge back in  2015 and completed 39/52 so not too shabby.  My goal is to do all 52 weeks this year.  I want to share with you all the joys and challenges of genealogy.  It's my favorite hobby.  I do not excel at it but I do it for the fun of it.  

I'd love to have you join along and follow me as I climb the limbs and search the roots of my family tree.

Unable to locate..

 As you may recall from my last post, I am searching for the death information regarding Robert Wuerz.  I found a death notice in a newspaper.  I sent a request to Madison County, Illinois for a record search.  I received the reply today.  

"After searching all available records in our office we are unable to locate the death record for Robert Wuerz that you are requesting." 

Below is the letter.

Letter from Madison County Clerk regarding a death record search.

Now I must decide where to look next.  I may try another county in Illinois or possibly see if there is a record in the county in Missouri where the burial was to take place.  

And such is the nature of genealogical research. 

As always, I will keep on searching.

There you are Mr. Robert W. Wuerz...

 I finally found the correct Robert W. Wuerz.  Robert Wuerz is my husband's 2nd great-grandfather.  He is the birthfather of Conrad Francis Wuerz, my husband's great-grandfather.  We didn't have much information regarding him at all.  His Granddaughter, Marion Inez Wuerz Schaal, my husband's grandmother, didn't know anything about him.  Her father, Conrad, was raised by his step-father James Fraser and there was never any real mention of his birth father.  I have been searching for him for years.  I got distracted a few years ago by who I thought was him but it turned out to be the wrong Robert Wuerz.  Here's how I finally located him.

As I tend to do, I just randomly picked a person to work on.  A few months ago I was working on Robert Wuerz.  I did a search on Ancestry.com in the Missouri Wills database.  My husband's family lived in Illinois just across the river from St. Louis, MO so I often expand the search into that state.  I looked for "Wuerz" and came across a will for a Conrad Wuerz but it wasn't my husband's great-grandfather.  

Right there in the will it says, "I also give and bequeath to each and every one of the children of my deceased son Robert W. Wuerz, the sum of One Dollar"

Well, there we have him!  Robert W. Wuerz the son of Conrad Wuerz.  Robert had passed away by the time Conrad wrote this will in 1908.  This fits the information I already have.  Robert's wife Annie remarried in 1902.  We know that Robert was gone by this 1908 document, is it possible he died before 1902 when Annie remarried?  I decided to search Newspapers.com for any information, limiting the dates to 1901-1902 as I believe he had to have been alive in 1901 as Annie gave birth to a second son in 1902 before she remarried; however, I do know that it's possible that the second child was her new husband's.  

CLIPPED FROM

Daily News-Democrat

Festus, Missouri

09 Jan 1902, Thu  •  Page 2

There it is!  Robert Wuerz died the Friday before January 9, 1902.  I pop over to timeanddate.com and look at the calendar for 1902 and figure out that the Friday before was January 3, 1902.  I now have a supposed death date for Robert and can now look for more documentation for Robert.

I tried to search specifically for Alton, IL newspapers for an obit from there but came up empty.  I'm not sure that the papers for that time period for Alton are online yet.  I'm now requesting a search for a death record for Robert Wuerz from Madison, County, Illinois County Clerk.  And now we wait to see what information they may have.  

 I know I'm on the right track now.  Since I've added Conrad Wuerz as the father of Robert Wuerz, the DNA has been connecting appropriately with the descendants of Conrad.  

Apparently, Robert was less than truthful on his marriage license when he married Annie Lawless.  As far as I've seen, he was not born in Chicago, IL and his parents' names were incorrect as well.  

As always, I will keep on searching.