Category: Jeff’s Ancestors

Posts and biographies pertaining to the ancestors of Jeffrey Greene.

Anniversaries: My Husband’s Grandparents Married 80 Years Ago Today

William Wallace Greene Jean Alice Harless Honeymoon
William Wallace and Jean Alice (Harless) Greene, in Arizona during a quick weekend away from college to get married.

Eighty years ago today, my husband’s grandparents — William Wallace “Wally” Greene (b. 1908) and Jean Alice Harless (b. 1912) — married in Maricopa County, Arizona.

I don’t know much about their marriage. I don’t have a copy of their marriage license or any wedding photos of the two of them together. I am sure I can ask their children for these (Jean and Wally are both deceased)…just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I like to try to hunt these types of things down for myself.

I am not even sure how they met. Wally hailed from Arizona, Jean grew up in San Francisco, California and came from a family with long ties to the Bay Area and northern California. Wally attended college and medical school at Stanford University…so they must have met at that time.

My husband and I need to make the time to talk to their children and find out more about Jean and Wally’s courtship, wedding, and early marriage. I tend to be really bad about spending time on more immediate ancestors, focusing instead on more distant discoveries. But the stories of our immediate families are just as important, and I want to be able to pass down the story of Wally and Jean to our own children. So perhaps this task will be a goal I set for this year.

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Upcoming Dust Bowl Documentary By Ken Burns Prompted Me To Investigate Family Lore About Dust Bowl Migration

Photo via PBS: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/

Yesterday afternoon, I stumbled on PBS’s website, which is currently advertising the new Ken Burns documentary — The Dust Bowl — premiering November 18 & 19. My husband and I are both huge Ken Burns fan and have watched a number of his documentaries. So, I instantly added the premier dates to my calendar, since our DVR won’t schedule recordings that far ahead.

A few minutes later, Hubby asked me if I have ever been able to confirm whether or not his deceased grandfather Roy D. Pace (1913 – ?) moved out to California during the Dust Bowl migration. My husband’s family currently hails from Bakersfield, California — Okie and Dust Bowl migrant capital. He’d heard that his Pace side migrated from Texas to California in the 1930s — with his Grandpa Pace doing that CCC stint in the Grand Canyon on his way west. And he knew that Grandpa and Grandma Pace had settled in California by the early 1940s, first in Los Angeles and then Bakersfield.

Although parts of northern Texas were struck by the massive dust storms of the 1930s, documents place Roy and Rebecca Pace in southern New Mexico and southern Texas during this time, closer to Mexico than to the Dust Bowl.
(Public Domain photo courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

I hadn’t really ever focused my research on that era of his grandparents’ lives, aside from investigating the CCC connection. Instead, I simply sought out the vital details of their lives (birth, marriage, death) since I was following that documentation path to research ancestral connections further back.

So, I spent a good chunk of yesterday evening searching for records documenting their lives during the 1930s and 1940s. FamilySearch.org gave me my first clue, when cross-searching records for Roy Pace with his wife Rebecca’s name — which instantly gave me a hit for their oldest child’s New Mexico birth index entry, and provided me with Roy’s middle name (Delmar). A couple minutes later, I was able to find the 1940 US Census record for Roy and Rebecca Pace, living in Lordsburg, New Mexico. Shortly after, I found a 1941 Texas birth index listing for their second child.

According to this documentation, Roy Delmar Pace and his Nashville, Tennessee-raised wife Rebecca Haley Pace (1916 – 1991) were still living in New Mexico and/or Texas as late as most of 1941. The Dust Bowl migration is generally noted as having ended by 1940. So while it’s possible that they and their families might have been impacted by the effects of the Dust Bowl — I can’t tell this from the records I have so far — Roy and Rebecca would not be included in what historians count as the official wave of Dust Bowl migrants.

My Bakersfield-proud Hubby (Drillers!) can’t even claim now that his grandparents were Okies. I hope I didn’t just ruin his Okie credibility with his old redneck Bakersfield buddies. Fortunately, my husband does still have plenty of documented redneck in his blood!

Doesn’t this look like Okie Dust Bowl migrant stock? Three generations of Paces — although Hubby and his immediate family lived in Indiana at this time, not Bakersfield. That’s my husband in the front row, sporting the yellow Steelers shirt. Grandpa and Grandpa Pace are in the top row, 1st and 2nd from the right.

My Husband’s Family History Connection To The Hatfields And The McCoys — Harless Creek In Pike County, Kentucky

While researching some of the ancestors this weekend from my husband’s Harless line (his grandmother was a Harless), I was caught off guard to discover a connection to the McCoys of the infamous Hatfield-McCoy Feud — which was just recently depicted in an excellent History Channel miniseries.  My husband’s Harlesses lived in Pike County, Kentucky — home to the McCoys.

The first Harless ancestors to migrate across the country to California in the early 1850s were Leonard Jackson Harless, my husband’s great-great-grandfather, and his father Miles (Myles) Washington Harless (1826-1891). I learned last year that Miles was born in Pike County, Kentucky on Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River at the mouth of Harless Creek, and that Miles’s father Joseph Harless (1788-1836) died at Harless Creek. At the time of this discovery, I even located Harless Creek on Google Maps…mentally filing the location away as a future hopeful vacation stop.

But, I never bothered to look up the county in which Harless Creek resides. Until last night.

http://www.tourpikecounty.com

Since I find almost nothing about the history of Harless Creek (just a lot of 2010 news and video from the bad floods), I decided to try to read up on the history of Pike County. A quick search brought up the  Pike County tourism site as one of the first hits. I decided to click on it,  because I assumed it would mention at least a little bit about the county history. And there it was, right on their home page — an article about “Hatfield McCoy Feud Sites”.

While, thanks to the History Channel miniseries and Wikipedia, I knew that the McCoys were from the eastern Kentucky border, I had not paid attention to the county name. Yet, sure enough, the McCoys lived in Pike County, Kentucky, and did most of their fighting along the Tug Fork tributary of the Big Sandy River (remember, Harless Creek is also a tributary of the Big Sandy River). The county seat of Pikeville — where the Hatfields were frequently held in custody and tried — is only 13 miles northwest of Harless Creek.

I immediately got excited, wondering if perhaps my husband’s Harless ancestors might have known the McCoys. But, while the Hatfield-McCoy Feud took place after the Civil War (1863-1891), Miles Washington Harless had emigrated to Missouri by 1850 according the 1850 Us Census. So it’s possible that Miles and his siblings might have known the patriarch of the feuding McCoys (Randolph McCoy, 1825-1914), but our Harless ancestors were no longer in Pike County when the feud erupted in 1863.

Still, it is a really cool connection to discover! And it bumps Pike County much higher up on our vacation wishlist now, since we’d get to visit ancestral lands and historical feud spots. Besides, Jeff and I fell in love with Kentucky while vacationing in the Appalachians in 2010.

1940 Census Stories: William Wallace Greene And Veronica (Dorris) Greene

1940 US Census image courtesy of FamilySearch.org. Click on the image for a larger view.
After last week’s 1940 US Census discovery on Ancestry of my grandfather Michael Flanagan’s census record, I decided to hop on FamilySearch.org tonight to see what states they have indexed, and was quite pleased to see that Arizona is already fully indexed.
A quick search quickly revealed the census record for my husband’s great-grandparents William Wallace Greene and Veronica (Dorris) Greene, enumerated on April 25, 1940, in the city of Phoenix (Maricopa), Arizona. They are listed in Enumeration District 7-41A, Sheet No. 61B, on lines 62 and 63.  Unlike the 1930 US Census, at this time, no family or lodgers were living with the Greenes.
William (1869-1944) is described as 71 years of age, having completed 4 years of college, and was currently not working. At his age, I assume he was retired rather than jobless — my husband says that he had always heard that Great-Grandfather Greene never went unemployed during the Depression.  Significantly for William who died in 1944, this particular US Census would be his final one. William had moved to Arizona from Illinois sometime between 1880 (the 1880 US Census places him in Arizona still) and 1900 (listed in Arizona on that year’s US Census), when Arizona was still just a territory. I am missing that elusive 1890 US Census that would help me narrow down when he left Illinois.
William Wallace Greene, Sr. (1869-1944)
Veronica “Ronnie” Dorris (c. 1884 – ?) is described as 51 years of age (I hadn’t realized that she was 20 years younger than her husband), having completed an 8th grade education, and not employed. Veronica had been born in Mississippi, and had moved to Arizona by the 1910 US Census. I have only recently started exploring Veronica’s “Dorris” family line.
Veronica (Dorris) Greene (c. 1884 – ?), with my husband Jeff.

Family Photos Friday: My Father-In-Law, As A Toddler

My husband’s father, as a toddler, in his sailor stripes.

I haven’t had much time for research the past few weeks, but I will continue to at least share old family photos until I resume my research.

Since I shared a photo of my dad last week, this week’s Family Photos Friday submission is a photo of my wonderful father-in-law — also as a toddler. What I like so much about this photo is his little sailor stripes outfit. Very fitting since my husband’s dad has spent much of his life sailing, and grew up to become a marine biologist who is happiest on the sea or picking his banjo.

Family Photos Friday: Hessie Hemphill McNamara

Hester “Hessie” Hemphill McNamara (1863-1941)

This week’s “Family Photos Friday” features a well worn photo I discovered just this week in the Public Family History Content of Ancestry.com, from Public Tree member jad3164.  The subject is my husband’s great-great-grandmother, Hester “Hessie” Hemphill McNamara (1863-1941).

I myself haven’t done much research on our McNamara line, but fortunately, there are already a ton of other genealogists who have heavily researched and documented this family.  I will share more about Hessie as I corroborate the information so generously shared by my fellow family historians.

And I just love how many people now share ancestral photos on their Ancestry Public Trees.  What a joyful discovery each time I stumble across a photo of my family’s ancestors or distant relations.  I myself now try to remember to post photos from our own collections whenever I am adding to one of our public family tree profiles on Ancestry, to reciprocate and allow other researches to use and share these photographic treasures.

Research Leads: My Husband’s Ancestors Helped Settle Jamestown, Virgnia

The 1624 map created by Captain John Smith of the new settlement of Jamestown, Virginia. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

 

This past week, while comparing my own researching against that of others who share their work in Ancestry Family Tree, I came across some heavily documented public trees that trace the male ancestral line of our Roy D. Pace’s grandfather, William F. Pace (1846-1915), all the way back to Jamestown, Virginia. THE Jamestown, Virginia — first permanent English settlement in the current United States.

How cool is that?!

I’m just starting to research this lead, but there is quite a bit published about this family line.

It looks like my husband has several ancestors who lived in the early Jamestown settlement. Richard Pace (1583-1627), and his wife Isabella Smyth (1589-1637) — who immigrated from England, and their son George Pace (1609-1655).  If this lead is indeed true, Richard — who has an entry in Wikipedia — is my husband’s 11th great-grandfather, and George is my husband’s 9th great-grandfather.  My fellow researchers are in dispute as to whether George was born in Jamestown, or back in England.

I don’t find any of our Jamestown ancestors on the Historic Jamestowne lists of the initial settlers who arrived in 1607 and 1608. There are quite a few Jamestown history and lineage books available through Google Books that mention Richard Pace, and the Historic Jamestown site claims to have a biography of both Richard and his wife Isabelle available — but their horrid shop site keeps throwing server errors when I try to authenticate and activate my account (a sign warning me NOT to try to buy online through them).

I am very excited at the challenge of proving this lineage true!