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Sinia Covey Guthrie, almost 200!

9/3/2015

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It was already raining lightly when we pulled into the small, gravel parking lot of the cemetery. Henderson county, Texas was about mid-week on the great genealogy trek of 2004, and Guthrie Cemetery was our main goal. Actually finding the grave of my 3rd great grandmother was our main goal: Sinia Covey Guthrie. Luckily the rain didn't pick up until after we found her headstone. It was relatively new having been replaced recently by a distant cousin. Because of that it was easy to read. Her husband, Ephraim W. Guthrie was supposedly buried next to her, but his headstone was not updated so we could only guess to his location. Guthrie cemetery is secluded and small, on a slight hill - the kind of place I would happily be buried.

Sinia was not a relative I knew much about, but this was an exciting moment none the less. Even when you've seen pictures of a grave, there's nothing like standing in the spot where your ancestor (at least their body) is spending eternity.  Mom and I got back in the car to head to our hotel home for the evening, satisfied with our find. Now, 11 years later, I am turning my attention back to Sinia. 

Sinia Covey Guthrie's headstone states that she died on April 21, 1871 at the age of 52 years, 6 months, and 24 days. So I've recorded her birthday as September 27, 1818. She would be 3 years shy of her 200th birthday this month! Sinia (likely a shortened form of Lucindia or a similar name) was born in Tennessee to John and Sarah Covey. The exact number of siblings is unknown to me, but the Covey's probably had 6+ children. I've not traced all the siblings, but other families record Virginia as the birthplace of several older siblings. 

Sinia's youngest sister, Elizabeth, was born in Tennessee in 1823, when she was 5. At some point in the next decade the family moved to Pulaski county, Arkansas. And that's were the Covey children decided to marry! Sinia and her sister Maria married on the same day. The Arkansas Gazette Index records L. Covey and E.W. Guthrie as well as Maria Covey and Joel Sanders marrying "one week before" the newspaper date of 8/23/1836. Sister Elizabeth married there in 1843, and brother Daniel in 1844. Sinia would have been not yet 18 at the time of her marriage, her husband was almost 30.

So the life of a married woman began for Sinia. In 1840 She and E. W. lived in White County, Arkansas. He farmed of course. They already had 2 young sons, John and James Guthrie, born in 1839 and 1840. James Thomas Guthrie, my great-great grandfather, would go on to live a very interesting life indeed, but that's for another time. There was one other male aged 30-40 who lived with the young family. I believe this was E. W.'s older brother Joseph. The couple would have 2 more children in Arkansas, Rachel in 1841 and Samuel in 1844. 

Most of the Covey family appeared to stay put in Arkansas, but not Sinia. She and E. W. moved to Henderson County, TX where they were farming by the 1850 census. They appear to be listed under the household of Lucy Landers and her children with no land of their own. E. W. must have been a decent farmer, because by 1860 he does own his own land. The federal census of that year shows the Guthrie (Guthery) family in Kaufman, Texas - which was formed out of Henderson county, so they may not have moved at all - with 3,000 value of land and 14,800 of personal estate. E. W. is also listed in the index of the Texas Land Title Abstracts as having 100 acres in the Nacogdoches district of Kaufman county. 

E. W. died before 1870, I have the year recorded as 1868, but haven't found much evidence to support that yet. Sinia, as we know, would live to see 1870, which means we get one more census with her. Still in Kaufman county, Sinia lived with her son Samuel and his family. She's listed as 60 on the census, but more likely she was 50. Death certificates were not kept in Texas prior to 1903. Sinia's death details remain a mystery, and probate records have not found anything for her or her husband...yet. Her sister, Maria, with whom she had to double wedding, would live until 1892. She is buried in Boone, Arkansas. 

Happy almost 200th Sinia!

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The Covey/Guthrie family trails from Virginia, to Tennessee, To Arkansas, to Texas: the reason I'm a Texan today!
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A contrast of wedding photos, Happy Wedding Wednesday!

4/23/2014

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I'm not sure you could find two wedding portraits more different than these two. I keep them displayed side by side in my dining room, just to revel in the comparison. On the left are Holly Guthrie and Howard Dunaway (my maternal grandparents) on May 10, 1934 in Austin, Texas. The faded photo measures a tiny 3x5 inches. On the right are Betty Tam and Floyd Bash Jr. (my paternal grandparents) on September 6, 1941 in DesMoines, Iowa. This is a crisp 8x10 inch photograph. 
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Holly & Howard Dunaway, 1934
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Betty & Floyd Bash, 1941
While the casual, smiling couple on the left seems an opposite to the formal, stiff couple on the right, they were more similar than what appears. Both men had long, distinguished careers in big industry (oil and insurance). The women raised children and pets, and volunteered. While Holly did work, Betty was never NOT busy! Both couples sent their kids to the same college and both loved to travel. The couples saved industriously for retirement and enjoyed a good many years of it! 

The photos represent more of a difference in time than personality. My mom's parents were fresh out of the depression, while my dad's parents were fresh into a war! The Dunaway's were a good 10 years older than the Bashes. Holly and Howard had finished college, waited (and waited...) for jobs to come along, then married. Floyd and Betty married as soon as Floyd knew he would enter the war and had their first child 3 years after this photo. Howard and Holly would wait 7 years for their first, moving constantly from town to town with Howard's oil job. 

I absolutely love these photos! And I love that my wedding was probably somewhere right in the middle: a lot of style (thanks Betty!) and a lot of fun (thanks Holly!)
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Copyright (c) 2014, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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Taking Family History One Ancestor at a Time

1/8/2014

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A few days ago was my great-grandmother's birthday. I had every intention of published this post about Elizabeth Ann Butts Dunaway on her actual birthday. I was taken aback by the amount of research I felt was necessary to do her life justice. While not someone I knew personally, Eliza was an ancestor I'd heard much about from my grandfather, and I felt I had a good grasp of who she was. Apparently not. Similar to not seeing the forest for the trees: I'd been so focused on the facts and evidence about her life that I had never really taken the time to consider the woman. 

This exercise has made me appreciate once again the importance looking at each individual in their own right. Eliza wasn't just a mother of four, a farmer's daughter, or anything else the census records and birth certificates might tell us. I was surprised at the "facts" I'd thought I'd known that had to be wiped clean. My reward was discovering a whole new, more real person. 

So read on if you're up for the story of Eliza Dunaway.
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Elizabeth Ann Butts Dunaway, circa 1940, Texas
To start with her birthday is questionable. Her death certificate claims she was born on January 5th, 1884. Her brother, Palo (according to his tombstone) was born July 3rd, 1884. I don't care how hard you try you can,'t give birth to one child in January, get pregnant and have another one (that lives) in July! Someone's fibbing about their age. Or maybe they were twins and someone got the J month wrong. Who knows. Palo's death certificate doesn't have a birthday; it states that he died on August 28th in 1905 and was 20, which would have had his birth in 1885 - more reasonable. But I've already digressed...let's just say they were close in age. 

Eliza was born on January 5th - let's just say 1884. She was the 2nd oldest child of George W. Butts and Sarah Clementine Taylor Butts. I was surprised to realize that I didn't know where in Texas she was born. Her family lived in Fort Worth for most of the census records I have her in, but no documentation will back up that she was born there. So for now, it's just Texas. Being born in the mid 1880's means the first census we meet her in is the 1900 census. She was 16 years old and listed as Annie. Another surprise, was this really her or a sister? I'd never known her to go by Annie but that doesn't mean she didn't. 

In 1900 the Butts family lived in Tarrant county, Texas (county where Fort Worth is.) Annie was 16, Palo was 13 (would give him a 1887 birthdate), Lillian was 8 and Valeria was not yet 1. Mom Sarah was said to have 5 living children, so someone's left home. All the children were born somewhere in Texas. Father George was a farmer. George and Sarah, by the way, were married in Tennessee. What brought them to Texas? A question for another time. 

The next clue in Elizabeth "Annie's" trail is the birth certificate of their first child George Alton Dunaway. He was born in Fort Worth, Arlington Heights in October of 1907. I've found no record of the Dunaway/Butts marriage, but can piece together from birth certificates of children and censuses recording length of marriage that Eliza Butts married George Washington Dunaway in either late 1906 or early 1907. Probably in Tarrant county given that's where she lived and where their children were born. Eliza would have been 22 or 23 at the time of her marriage. In 1900 Mr. Dunaway lived several hours away in Eastland county where he was a 22 year old school teacher. He may have come to Fort Worth for work. 
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George & Eliza Butts - wedding photo, circa 1907
But before Eliza and George began their married life, a series of events occurred that MUST have had a huge impact on the soon to be bride. In the space of 3 years (from 1904-1906) all the male members of her immediate family died. All of them, dad George, brother Palo who was 20 and closes to Eliza in age, and brother Rupert who was only 2. Rupert died first (of an ailment I can't read on the death certificate) in 1904. Palo died of hodgkins disease in 1905 and father George died of another unreadable cause in 1906. All died and are buried in May, Brown county, Texas. Why were they in May? Did the family move there? Did the women decide to go back to Tarrant county (which they all did) because May was apparently bad news for the Butts family? I can't say I would blame them. What impact must this have had on the women left behind? 

Sarah Taylor Butts never remarried. She lived in Fort Worth for the rest of her days and worked as a seamstress quite independently until her death in 1947 - 41 years after her husband had died. She is buried in Fort Worth. 

For Eliza, once married there was a quick trail of birth certificates after George: 2/25/1909 James Howard Dunaway (my grandfather), 9/12/1910 Anna Katherine Dunaway, and 5/4/1913 Lillian Dunaway - all in Fort Worth. The 1910 census shows George and Eliza with little George, Howard and Jack Dunaway, a brother of George's. George worked as a railway mail clerk. 

Before rushing on to the next census to see what we can find, which is a logical next step, I like to consider what her life must have been like. I know from experience that raising children in those early year is challenging - to put it mildly. Eliza had 4 children in 5 years. She was not yet 30 when her last was born. The proximity to her remaining family was probably extremely important. Mother Sarah and the younger sisters all lived close by in 1910 and 1920. Lillian would marry and move to Virginia before 1930; she never had children to my knowledge. Valeria, the youngest girl, also married before 1930 and had at least 2 children. She lived and died in Fort Worth. Eliza too lived in Fort Worth almost her whole life. My great-grandfather George W. Dunaway got a law degree and would eventually (before 1930) move to Midland, Texas to practice. I wonder if Eliza missed being near from the family she'd lived so close too. 

My mom and grandparents would talk of her "fragile mental health." She apparently took weeks and sometimes months at a facility to "get her strength back". This was in Fort Worth. Maybe a way to be near her mother? 


Eliza's husband George Washington Dunaway died in 1934 of coronary thrombosis. He was 56 years old. I don't know where Eliza lived after he died. Did she stay in Midland? Did she go back to Fort Worth with her mother and a sister were still living? She's missing in the 1940 census - but I know where she was. She lived with her son and his wife, my grandfather and grandmother. None of them have been found in the 1940 census because my grandparents moved about 8 times that year all within Texas. They were one step ahead of the census taker! I do have several photos (including the one at the top) of Eliza during the time she lived with my grandparents - my grandmother was pregnant in 1940 with my uncle.

Elizabeth died on Halloween of 1945. She is buried with her husband  George in Fairview Cemetery in Midland, Texas. She was 61, relatively young. Her mother Sarah was still living, and would be for 2 more years before her own death in Fort Worth. 

I wish I knew more about her, as always...

Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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Sibling Saturday: she's happier than she looks

12/7/2013

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This is truly one of my favorite sibling photos. The little girl is Annie Anderson, my great grandmother. In my notes the boy was identified as her older brother George. However, George was about 8 years older than Annie so that seems unlikely. Maybe it was David who was only 2 years older than she? Annie was born in 1882; if she's 5 in this photo the year was about 1887. In 10 years both her parents would be dead. Annie, one of the younger of her parents 16 children, lived with a local Doctor and was well cared for until she met and married my great grandfather, John Guthrie, in 1900.

What's striking about this photo is that both children look a little sad, maybe even scared. These are not at all the emotions I see on my great grandmother's face in more recent photos. She almost always had a big smile on her face. Annie had 11 happy children of her own, a long life and marriage, and a lot of smiles. Old photos often look more somber than the reality - of course NO one could hold a smile as long as it took a camera to take the picture!

Maybe she just hadn't had her nap that day ;)
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Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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May your birthday be filled with bourbon balls and shopping!

11/19/2013

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Holly at almost 23 years of age.
Eleven - Nineteen - Nineteen Eleven. That was my grandmother's birthday. Or today, 102 years ago. As a child I believed there was some hidden meaning that her birthday was the same backward and forwards. 

If people had thought she was into witchcraft because of it, nothing would have pleased her more. She did dress as a witch every year. She did pass away on Halloween (20 years ago.) She did give my brother and I as many bourbon balls as we wanted every Christmas. Maybe that last one is just awesome not scary. 

I challenged myself to learn something new about Holly Guthrie Dunaway as a way to celebrate her 102nd birthday. Without my mom I knew that would be difficult. I'm sure there's a LOT I don't know; but I also feel like I knew her pretty well. I was lucky enough to see her almost daily growing up. 


All the "new" stuff to me comes from the diary and she and my grandfather kept during the first year of their marriage. So I looked up her birthday...
Here's what Holly was up to on 11/19/1934:
We shopped some in Houston this morning and left about noon. Stopped in Beaumont and saw Oscar and Mrs. Buck. Shopped in Beaumont. Finally got to Lake Charles, LA after drinking beer all the way. Are staying at the Charleston Hotel. Howardy gave me a real pretty night gown for my birthday. I'm 23.
I wrote the above text before looking at her birthday entry. Makes the bourbon ball comment all the more appropriate I think ;)


Happy Birthday Grandma! I hope they have bourbon balls wherever you are!
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Holly around 1970 (the year I was born) with Howard. Outside a church, just in case someone took me seriously about the witchcraft ;)
Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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Sibling Saturday, but not mine...

11/16/2013

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I can't resist a sibling shot! These siblings belong to my grandfather, Howard Dunaway. From left to right: Alton, Lillian, Howard, Catherine. In their Ranger High School days - proudly displaying the "RHS" beanies, ties, and flag.
Although, I'm not sure you could get high school students of today to wear those ;) This one should go in the Ranger museum...
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Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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Back at the Graveyard = happiness

3/6/2013

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"Lean on me"
It's a gorgeous day in Houston, Texas: sunny, mid-60's, breezy. We have about 10 of these "San Diego days" a year, and they always put me in the mood to go to a cemetery. To take photos of course. I'm attempting to photograph all the stones in a local catholic cemetery. I haven't been in about 4-5 months. That's a long dry spell for me. I admit I go in spurts, but it was sure good to get back today. 

I headed straight over after dropping the kids off at school. It was good to be in a solitary, quiet place after getting 3 children ready for school. I might recommend it for general stay-at-home parent therapy but I'm afraid our cemeteries would be overrun with joyous parents ;) 

Today's walk/photo session got me thinking about the many lessons I've learned from several years of doing this. I'll dwell on that more for a Family History Daily post. The most immediate lesson from today was: avoid the ant piles! Usually I will try to carefully pull weeds, grass, leaves, etc. away from the stones before taking the photo. But I will not "brush away" an ant pile for anyone's relative (even mine own!)

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Ants in your pants?
I've included two of the pictures from today. Above, the one stone leaning on the other, a mother and daughter. The daughter was only 16 when she died, no wonder she still needs a mom to lean on. I don't think we ever get too old for that.

The second, a "small" ant pile example. Really. This is not one of the largest ant piles I've seen at all. And while I'm sure I can find out Mr. Mancuso's relevant birth and death dates in documentation, the photo evidence will just have to wait.

Happy tombstone hunting all!

Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash

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Fingertip Friday: A China Cabinet and a Toy Box for the Ages

2/22/2013

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Since I mentioned it in my last post, I thought it appropriate to expand on the corner china cabinet. In the bottom photo of that post you can see how it stood (for about 40 years) in my grandparents dining room. In 1997, after my grandfather's death, the cabinet moved from Gonzales, Texas to Austin to grace my mother's dining room. She moved to Houston with it and after her death, the cabinet came to live with me.

It's really the only piece of furniture I ever wanted. My brother has the beautiful cherry table and chairs that match a large hutch; those were the true center pieces of my grandparents dining room. He also has the standing butcher block and lighted china cabinet that my grandfather hand made for my mom. And that's all find by me as long as I have this.

As a child, I would sit for hours on the floor in front of the bottom doors of the cabinet in a darkened dining room pulling out dishes, lace place mats (made my my great-grandmother), and other treasures that my grandmother kept down there. She never seemed to mind. I never got a warning to be careful or stop playing.

I would have been about the same age, 9 or 10, that I read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"; for me this cabinet was my own magical wardrobe. I told my mom when she was living with us how much I loved the cabinet and had loved playing in it as a child. She said "oh yes, I did the very same thing!"

Now, if I found one of my three "playing" in the bottom of it I would probably have a small conniption. I inherited the love of playing in it not the patience of children around it ;) It's loaded down with much of the same glassware and dishes that my grandmother had. Only for her, those things were first, maybe 2nd generation dishes. For me they are running on 4th generation - and in much smaller number - I can't let the loss of something like that fall on my children.

As you can see, this cabinet barely fits in the corner. And that's the largest corner in my dining room - an older house means small rooms. But it does fit, and I smile every single time I look at it! :)

Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash

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Home is where the heart is, even if it's not yours

2/20/2013

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This is a photo of my grandparent's house right after they bought it in 1947. Howard and Holly Dunaway had moved around quite a bit in their early marriage (10+ times in one year alone.) They were done! This ranch style house in Bellaire, Texas (Houston basically) would be their home for the next 43 years. And mine.

Not really mine, I didn't live with them. We (my brother and I) lived in Houston with our mom and had several houses that were all fine with lovely memories of their own. My dad lived in Silsbee, Texas, and there were a couple of houses there that we called home in the summers. But nothing can compare to how I felt about my grandparent's house.

It was our rock, the place we could count on to always be there and never change. I mean never change. My grandfather added on a greenhouse and converted the front porch to his study, but other than that everything remained. The dark paneling, the long heavy drapes, the huge backyard, even the kitchen was state of the art for 1947! Every family holiday was there, cookouts, sleepovers. Their house was 2 blocks from my high school and every school morning I would get dropped off there and hang out with my grandparents until it was time to walk to school. I loved that place.

Houston had grown a LOT from 1947 to 1900 and my grandparents, in their 80's, were ready for a quieter life style. They sold the house to a family who promptly razed it and built a small mansion. Even now, I'll drive down Pine Street and wish I could see that house. 

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A typical family dinner (Holly, Sybil and Howard) in the dining room circa 1980. The corner cabinet is now in my dining room and the table and chairs at my brother's house :)
My son was preparing for a solo performance in his middle school band recently. To calm his nerves another mom said, "Think of your grandparents. Everyone usually has such wonderful memories of their grandparents that it's a great way to relax." I can totally see that being true. And, my son said it worked!

Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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Wordless Wednesday: The Event was Instant History

2/13/2013

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Morning Edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram
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Evening edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram
Just found these photos last night as I was going through my mother's college photo album. She and my father were attending TCU in Fort Worth at the time. Photos are a bit faded and I left them untouched. The event was instant history. And to give you an idea of how she probably felt about the assassination, see below.
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    I'm Jodi. Lover of genealogy, graveyards, and stuff that's old.

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