Gravesites of William Turner Williams and Mary Jane Clark Williams

William Turner Williams and Mary Jane Clark Williams are my paternal great-grandparents. They are the parents of my grandfather, Willie Frances Williams, who is the father of my father Willis Burkett Williams.

Headstone of Mary J Williams
Photographed by Patty Shreve
Find-a-grave site

 MARY JANE CLARK WILLIAMS

Through a series of leads today (8/29/2022), I virtually saw the gravestone of my paternal great-grandmother, Mary Jane Clark Williams. It started with that Ancestry hint which led me to Newspapers-dot-com. Click. There was her death notice in The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia) from Sat, 6 Nov 1948 (page 10). I easily recognized my great grandfather's name, W.T. Williams, as her surviving husband, along with their eight daughters: Annie, Virginia, Hattie, Fannie, Maggie, Daisy, Edna, Mary Jane and sevens sons: Joe, Willie (my grandfather), George, Carl, Herman, John, Harris. Each name had the city where they lived at that time -- verifying information and in some cases, providing me with new information.

Other new information included the name of her sister, Mrs. Sina Pound of Macon; the names of two sisters-in-law Mrs. Eliza Clark and Mrs. Ola Clark both of Macon. My guess is that they are her brothers' wives. Wow, my great-grandmother had at least one sister and two brothers.

Further information: "Funeral services will be held at Williams Chapel AME Church near Haddock, the day and hour to be announced later. Hutchins' Funeral Home." In a search I found two churches with the same name near Haddock, so I decided to first reach out to the funeral home, asking for a funeral program. I was surprised with a same-day response that took me back another generation!

"We do not have a funeral program. We only kept cards back in the 1940's.

This is the information on the card:

Name:  Mary Jane Williams

Date of Death: November 3, 1948   Age: 54

Place: Macon, GA

Date of Birth: March 25, 1894 

Place: Jones Co. GA 

Father's Name: Austin Clark - born in Jones Co. GA

Mother's Name: Marth(a) Pounds - born in Jones Co. GA

Occupation: Laborer

Cause of Death: Unknown

Informant: Fannie Hudson

Funeral: 2:00 p.m. 11/8/1948 at Wiliams Chapel AME

Burial: 11/8/1948 at Williams Chapel AME cemetery in Haddock, GA"

*NOTE: Her birth year is about 1864.

   

I was so excited about the information provided by Hutchins Funeral Home that I immediately looked at Find-A-Grave for the Williams Chapel AME Cemetery. I added all the new information from the funeral home, along with the picture of her gravestone to my family tree. 

WILLIAM TURNER WILLIAMS

Then it dawned on me, what about my great-grandfather, William Turner Williams? Another email to Hutchins Funeral Home provided information on him. Again, it took me back another generation.

Not sure if this is the right person but it's the only one in 1954 that came close.

Name: W.T. Williams

Residence - 2195 Neal Avenue

Place of Death - Macon, GA

Date of Death - July 29, 1954

Date of Birth - August 25, 1884  age 64

Place of birth - Jones Co., GA

Father's name - John Williams

Mother's name - Annie ? (Maiden name)

Occupation - Farmer

Spouse - Mrs. Mary Williams

Informant - Mrs. Rufus Hudson

Funeral - 1:00 p.m. August 2, 1954 

Williams Chapel AME - Burial in church cemetery at Williams Chapel AME

*NOTE; His birth year is about 1858.

Headstone of William Turner Williams
Photographed by Patty Shreve
Find-a-grave site

I am beyond grateful to the "angel" who took the time to photograph my great-parents' headstones and to the person at Hutchins Funeral Home who responded to my inquiries. I have both shouted for joy and cried happy, mournful tears over this new information which, of course, leads me to more questions to research.

*NOTE: Their death dates of 1894 and 1884 were clearly typos because their daughter Fannie Williams Hudson (Informant) was born in 1898.

Copyright © 2022 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.

Looking Beyond a Death Certificate

I love genealogists and genealogy groups -- so willing to help find an answer! I could not make out the Place of Burial (line 19) or the Undertaker (line 20) on the death certificate of my 2nd great-grandfather, Ned Washington, born abt 1825, so I asked for assistance from members of the Facebook groups Mississippi Genealogy Researchers, Mississippi Genealogy Network, and Mississippi Genealogy "Family Tree" and History Group. I thought Mississippi folk might be familiar with both or either of the places.

Facebook post to: Mississippi Genealogy Network

Date: April 11, 2022

Today I got my 2nd great-grandfather's death certificate in the mail. He died May 31, 1918 in Holmes County, Mississippi. He was buried June 1, 1918. I can't make out the cemetery or undertaker. Is anyone familiar with either? He was a Black man, so probably buried in a "Colored" cemetery.

There were several RESPONSES, these were the most promising:

• Barr-Gwin Co. Undertakers were in Lexington, Holmes Co. during that time period.

• Shady Grove Cemetery? There are many of them, but there is one small one in Goodman, Holmes Co, MS. https://www.findagrave.com/cem.../62701/shady-grove-cemetery

 (My response):     Thank you, looks promising since it is an African American cemetery

• I can't find any hits for East Shady Spruce (which this seems to be) however East Shady Grove had a school+church, and therefore probably a cemetery in that time period. There's a record approving for a grant to be sent to them to buy supplies and repair damages in 1919

(My response): Thank you. Where did you find that information?

• newspapers.com I found another article that might help

Most promising RESPONSE from Mississippi Genealogy "Family Tree" and History Group

• East Shady Grove, there is a african american section and a white section.

                   https://www.msholmes.org/.../shady-grove-cemetery-african...

Trying to gather as much information as I could, I also sent an email to MDAH.

Email to: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Subject: Undertaker and cemetery circa 1918

Date: April 12, 2022

Hello,

I recently received my 2nd great-grandfather's death certificate. He died May 31, 1918 in Lexington, Holmes, Mississippi. The undertaker listed is Barr-Gwin Co. and the cemetery is East Shady Grove. Ned Washington, age 98, was a Black man and given the time period I am wondering if the undertaker and cemetery only catered to "Colored". If you can find any history about either place, I would appreciate it. I'm always interested in more than names and dates of my Ancestors. My name is Sandra Williams Bush and email is sanwbush@gmail.com

RESPONSE April 13, 2022

Reference Desk <refdesk@mdah.ms.gov>

Thank you for your query to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. We checked our holdings, but unfortunately we do not have any information on Barr-Gwin Funeral Home. We also checked our WPA Cemetery Guide for the cemeteries listed in Holmes County. There was not an "East Shady Grove Cemetery" listed, but there were three cemeteries listed under the name "Shady Grove." The first Shady Grove Cemetery was African American, located four miles northwest of Ebenezer, and was located in Section 18, Township 16, Range 2 East. The second Shady Grove had both white and African American burials, was also located four miles northwest of Ebenezer, and was located in Section 30, Township 14, Range 2 East. The third Shady Grove did not list whether it was white or African American, was located "near Goodman," and did not have the Section, township, and range listed.

J.G.

Taking another step, I searched the Library of Congress Chronicling America site and found some information about the Barr-Gwin Co.

• The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.), 14 March 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024271/1919-03-14/ed-1/seq-4/>

• The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.), 21 Nov. 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024271/1919-11-21/ed-1/seq-1/>

However, Barr-Gwin seemed to have a hand in everything

As with all genealogy, answers to questions lead to more questions . . .

Copyright © 2022 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.

AncestryDNA Sideview & Me

In April 2022, Ancestry-dot-com introduced DNA SideView technology that reconstructed a person's parental DNA; splitting the 50% of each parent's DNA that a person inherits. This technology is derived by comparing DNA matches from the database.

One evening I tried to figure out which parent was which in this DNA puzzle by comparing the DNA cousins of my parent with 0% from an area to the DNA cousins of my parent who had some type of percentage from the same area. 

I looked at two paternal first cousins and two paternal second-third cousins. 

DW  1st cousin 1x removed

        

There are no maternal first cousins in my DNA Matches; I looked at the four highest 2nd - 3rd matches.

MALI

Parent 1 has 8% DNA from Mali which I inherited while Parent 2 has 0% from Mail. However, looking at the top four DNA matches, both paternal and maternal DNA cousins have DNA from Mali at about the same percentage. Paternal is 4-10% and maternal is 5-12%.

SCOTLAND 

Parent 1 has 0%  DNA from Scotland. Parent 2 has 8% DNA from Scotland that contributed the 8% DNA that I inherited. Looking at those same cousin relationships on my maternal and paternal sides, I see that the closest DNA cousins from my father's side have 0%  DNA from Scotland while the closest on my mother's side have 0-5%  DNA from Scotland. Could it be that Parent 1 with shown Scottish DNA is my father and Parent 2 with the 8% DNA is my mother?

SENEGAL

Parent 1 has 3% DNA from Senegal which I inherited while Parent 2 has 0% from Senegal.  However, looking at the same matches, both paternal and maternal DNA cousins have DNA from Senegal at about the same percentage. Paternal is 4-6% and maternal is 3-4%.

IRELAND

Parent 1 has <1%.  Parent 2 has 3% DNA from Ireland that contributed the 3% DNA I inherited. With those same eight DNA cousin comparisons, I see that the closest DNA cousins from my father's side have 0% DNA from Ireland while the closest on my mother's side have 1-8% Irish DNA. This again, suggests that my father is Parent 1.

So as of now I'm leaning toward Parent 1 as my father and Parent 2 as my mother. Yes, the sampling of DNA cousins I looked at is small and yes, I only get a glimpse of 50% of each parents DNA -- but I am not a science nor math person and it was all head-spinning for me. Overall, it was an interesting parlor game, but as it stands now I don't see how it really matters which parent contributed which of the 50% DNA I inherited. And for me, the paper trail is still more interesting.

Copyright © 2022 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.