Tag Archive for Tensas Parish

The Grand Genealogy Journey 2010 (Virtual Edition) Starts Anew

June 30, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Believe it or don’t, but it’s been three years since the Big Train Trip.  I’m really ready to go again, but circumstances currently won’t allow that.  So we started to lay out our virtual genealogical dream trip traveling via Amtrak and other conveyances.  We ran into a set of difficulties soon after the beginning of the trip.  As a result, we’re restarting the trip. At each stop along the way, we’ll describe what research we’ re going to do, where and how we’re going to do it and other sights to see in that locality.

We’ll start in Sacramento.  Our route will take us from California’s capital to Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City.  And you know what we’ll do there!  From Salt Lake City, we’ll move on to Colorado’s capital, Denver.  We’ll spend a few days in and around Denver, then  we board the train and head for Kansas City.  We’ll keep on heading east from Kansas City to Jefferson City, and then on to St. Louis.  While in St. Louis we’ll also step over the Missouri River to Southern Illinois.

From St. Louis we’ll take a short flight to Atlanta, which will be our base for exploring central and western Georgia.  When we’re finished in Georgia, we’ll board the train in Atlanta and rumble on to New Orleans.  After a couple of days in the Crescent city, we’ll hop back aboard for Houston.

Houston’s location affords us a number of opportunities.  We have work to do in Houston itself.  We’ll take bus trips from Houston to Milam County, Nacogdoches, Longview, and Shreveport. Shreveport will be a major stopover itself because we need to explore much of of northwestern Louisiana.

We’ll go back to Houston on our way to the Gulf Coast.  There we’ll stop in Galveston, Corpus Christi and Rockport.  From the from the coast we’ll move north to San Antonio.  After finishing up in San Antonio, we’ll move northwest to Austin and Midland.  We’ll leave Texas for Albuquerque, eventually going to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles will be a two or three day stop.  Then we’ll work our way back to Sacramento via both the coast in the Central Valley by train and automobile.

On each leg of the trip, we’ll describe what is or who it is we’re going to research, the resources will use in that area, the travel options to get there, other historical sites or points of interest.

There will be special editions of The Peripatetic Graveyard Rabbit describing the graveyards we find along the way.

We’ll have regular editions of GeneaBlogie during the trip as well, covering our usual eclectic set of genealogy and historical issues.

Grand Journey Map

Some of the stops on the GeneaBlogie Grand Journey 2010

(Click map to enlarge)

The GeneaBlogie Grand Journey 2010  starts later this week at Sacramento’s historic California Railroad Museum! Join us, won’t you?

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The Process of Breaking Down a Brick Wall

August 6, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy, Tensas Parish

Second in a multi-part series

Here’s a synopsis of how I achieved my #1 research goal: finding the parents of my great-grandfather, Richard Gines of Shreveport, Louisiana.  Bear in mind that eahcof these steps took months or even years to complete and some ran concurrently.

Step 1:  The  Neophyte Phase.  I was new to genealogical research and had fairly easily made my way through the generations up to my great-grandparents and with respect to the next generation, I had not had much difficulty, either.  But getting past Richard Gines in Louisiana was proving difficult. In this first phase, I concentrated specifically on finding the father of Richard Gines.  I looked almost exclusively for people named Gines [remember this was my neophyte phase!]. Occasionally, I’d come across someone named Gaines, which seems to be thought of as the most likely variation on Gines.  Google, and other search engines, for example, will ask, “Did you mean Gaines?” if you search for Gines. Once in a while, my relatives have been listed in publications or records as Gaines; but it doesn’t happen that often.

To find Richard Gines’ father, I embarked several times on a study of collateral relatives.  As I mentioned in the prologue post, I
had made an assumption that the Ed Gines I had found in Bossier parish was Dick’s brother.  So I tried to find a father for Ed–also to no avail.  I then tried to compile a database of all blacks in the Deep South (LA, MS, AL, GA, SC) named Gines after 1870. Although it’s not complete and is not all that well organized, I have the semblance of such a database.

I used all the  “usual sources” to get there: census records, land records, military records, church and marriage records, tax records, ships’ manifests, deeds, slave bills of sale, etc.  My thought was that I could simply “connect the dots” of birth dates and places and that would lead to the imminent discovery of Richard Gines’ parents.   It didn’t work.

Step 2:  The Learning Phase.  At some point, I began to engage in a broader study of the history, geography, and sociology of Louisiana.  My original naive hope was that I would find the Gines name mentioned in one of the research materials.  That only happened only infrequently and in circumstances that “obviously” had nothing to do with Richard Gines. But it was during this phase that I got the hints that I would need to put it all together eventually.  For example,in a census record, I discovered a Caroline Gines in Catahoula Parish, aged 73 in 1910.  While I couldn’t make a connection to Richard Gines in Caddo Parish, I kept thinking about Caroline Gines and wondering where she had come from.

Then I found some tax records transcribed from Tensas Parish in 1899,  That listed a Rebecca Gines and a “Don” Gines [who I now know to be Dorsey Gines, son of Milford and Rebecca Gines] on Marydale Plantation in Tensas Parish and Elijah Gines and Caroline Gines on Evergreen Plantation.  [Yes, the same Caroline Gines as in the 1910 census!].  Again, no direct connection, but I kept these things in mind.

After thinking about the Tensas Parish tax records for a considerable period of time, I decided to look into those particular plantations.  I read several books about the planters in Tensas Parish.  I discovered that the Tensas planters were often the same people who owned plantations in western Mississippi.  Given the number of folks named Gines in that area, perhaps the slaves in western Mississippi were related in some fashion to those in Tensas Parish.

Significant Locations for Gines or Guynes Surname in Lousiana and Mississippi

Significant Locations for Gines or Guynes Surname in Lousiana and Mississippi

Key for unidentified jurisdictions:
Louisiana: 1-Madison Parish
2-Franklin Parish
3-Richland Parish
4-Catahoula Parish
Mississippi: A-Claiborne County
B-Copiah County
C-Pearl River County

Step 3:  The Spelling Bee.   When I was  about ready to concede defeat, several occurences came together to give my even more clues.  First, cousin Karen Burney related that she had met some one whose name was “Guynes.”  Second, I found a death certificate for one Egans Gines.  This latter individual had been born in Tensas Parish.   Putting the two together, “Tensas parish” and Guynes, led to the discovery of many black people named Guynes in Louisiana.  This led me to want to study further the geography and history of the Mississippi Delta region. I then began to come across people, mainly white, who were  named “Guynes.”

I tried to track “Guynes” slaveowners.  There were several, concentrated around Copiah County, Mississippi, in the southwestern part of the state, but not that many in Louisiana.  But as I continued to look closely at Tensas PArish, I began to find what appeared to be variations on the name Gines.  As I have described before, I found people identified as Gynes, Gions, Giones, Guynes, Gion, Guins, Guines and even a Gaynes.  They all appeared to be related and were concentrated  in an area surrounding Tensas Parish, which area includes parts of western Mississippi.

Most of the apparent variations I had not considered because most don’t occur in a Soundex search.  But there they were.  And I wasn’t sure how to deal with them.  Then the next bit of evidence fell into place.  I discovered that the Louisiana State Archives had a death certificate for one Ed Guynes, black male, born about 1843 in Bossier Parish.

At first, this did not strike me as significant, although interesting.  The  date of birth, 1843, was far earlier than I had placed any sibling of Richard Gines. The more I studied it, however, the more interesting it got.  Ed Guynes’ spouse was named “Adelaide” on the death certificate.  Ed Gines on the 1880 census had a wife identified as “Adlade.”

This was eventually interesting enough to cause me to set up an intermediate hypothesis: that Richard Gines’ parents and siblings would be found in Tensas Parish.  So I went back there to look for collaterals.  But this time, I was armed with a good knowledge of the name variants as well as  a knowledge of the plantations in the parish.  I began an intensive search in Tensas Parish, looking for men named Dick and running all the spelling variations. This yielded a lot more Gines people under various forms of the name. It also produced a certain feeling in my mind that I had located Richard Gines’ parents in Tensas Parish, even though I still didn’t know specifically who they were.  I had one lead in which I had only a little confidence.

But I could sense that I was so close, so close! I couldn’t let what I had slip away. I decided to make one major push on this issue. I decided to go page by page pf the census records for 1870 for Caddo, Bossier, and Tensas Parishes, searching for every known spelling variation.  That is what I did . . . and that’s how I found George Guion!

I could have searched page by page at the beginning five years ago, but I wouldn’t have known what I was looking for or where reasonably to search.  I would have been seeking a family named Gines and I would have not found them.  It was only when I had learned many other things in context that I was ready to find the answer.

Next: What Makes You So Sure You’ve Knocked Down A Brick Wall? (Remember “The Wrong Longs?”)

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The Brick Wall–Did We Really Knock It Down?

June 16, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

A week ago or so, I was making noise about hammering down a major brick wall in my research. I was getting ready to do the Genealogical Happy Dance.

I have made a major advance in my research into the Gines family as a result of the research I’ve been describing here over the last several weeks. I’m thrilled about that. But as the dust settles in the harsh light of sober reality (mixing a few metaphors!), it may not be the answer I was seeking.

Recall that the problem has been getting around my great-grandfather, Richard William Gines, born in about 1860 in Bossier Parish, Louisiana (supposedly–more about that a bit later). We have circumstantial evidence that he died between 1900 and 1910, but we have found no records or other direct evidence of the date of his death.

Our efforts took us to Tensas Parish across the river from Mississippi. We discovered that in Tensas Parish, there were a number of people named Gines (spelled various ways at various times). We found out that at least two particular plantations were places where people with the Gines surname were held in bondage. We learned that the Tensas plantations were tied to Mississippi planters, especially in and around Adams County,

Mississippi, and elsewhere in Mississippi’s Delta counties. We know that today there are numerous people with the surname Gines who live in this region.

There were several things that excited me about this. First, the possibility that Richard Gines was born in Tensas parish, and not Bossier, has been presented. Although we have often said in this space and others that he was born in Bossier, a review of the available data provides no evidence of that whatsoever. He well could be a son of one of the Gines families in Tensas.

To some extent, the spelling variations and transcription errors in the census records contributed to my nascent belief that perhaps we had knocked down the brick wall. Here’s what happened; you decide what it’s worth:

sims-tensas-1900

Nathan Sims or Nathan Gimes or Nathan Gines?

In the 1900 census of Tensas Parish, there is enumerated a man named “Nathan” whose surname is variously transcribed as “Sims” or “Gimes.” The “Gimes” possibility particularly attracted my attention for obvious reasons, but also for another reason. In Ancestry.com’s World War I draft card collection, there is a man whose name is transcribed as “Oscar Gimes.” Now I know this person to be Oscar Gines because his address is the same as that of our subject, Richard Gines. Additionally, Oscar has two draft cards on file; the other record transcription has his name correctly as “Oscar Gines.” So the notion that “Nathan Gimes” actually might be “Nathan Gines” is not out of the bounds of sense.

Oscar Gimes WWI draft card

Oscar Gimes = Oscar Gines

Oscar Gines WWI Draft Card

Then, to pour fuel on this fire, I discovered that in the 1880 census of Tensas Parish there is a man named Dick Simms. So if Nathan Sims—>Nathan Gimes—->Nathan Gines, then why not Dick Simms—->Dick Gines? (Don’t answer that too quickly; there’s more!).

simms-tensas-1880-a

Dick Simms or Dick Gines?

And of course what would be more natural than for Richard (Gines-by-way-of-Simms) to have a son named Richard Gines? (Wait! There’s more!)

Dick “Simms” was born in Louisiana in 1831, so says the census record, and his wife Lucy was born in Georgia in 1845. Now those ages make them old enough to have had a son in about 1860. But (more!) then there’s the matter of where they were born. In the 1880 census of Caddo Parish, we learn that Richard Gines, our subject, had a father born in Louisiana and a mother born in Georgia. And what would be more natural than a man with a mother named “Lucy” to name one of his own daughters “Lucille” as our subject did? Finally, Dick and Lucy “Simms” have a son named “Oscar” who well could be the grandfather of the previously-mentioned “Oscar Gimes”!

Genealogy is art and science. It exists as a field of endeavor because of uncertainty–like all science. And like all science, it offers some answers in which there will be necessarily a degree of ambiguity. “Facts” rely on assumptions and are established within “confidence intervals.”

GeneaBlogie, Sunday 12 September 2004

So to what level of confidence would you assign the proposition that our subject Richard Gines was the son of Dick “Simms/Gines” of Tensas Parish? Or is there something more you’d like to know before attempting to answer that?

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Way Around the Brick Wall: The Plantations

June 4, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

As we were making our long way around the brick wall of my great-grandfather Richard William Gines (1860-?), the trail led to several plantations in Tensas Parish, Louisiana.

The first  plantation we found was called Marydale.   What attracted us here was a nearly forgotten tax record from Tensas Parish that showed Rebecca Gines and “Don” Gines living on the plantation in 1899.   Census records suggest that this is the family of Milford Gines, residing in Police Jury Ward #3 of Tensas Parish.  The 1900 census shows the family consisting of Milford, 52; wife , “Beckie,” 50, and sons Austin, 17, and Dorsey, 22.  [The tax record transcription undoubtedly refers to Dorsey, or "Dor," where it says "Don."].  Within several households, and therefore also perhaps on the grounds of Evergreen Place, are the families of Charles Gines (Charles; wife “Loue”–short for Luellen, and daughters Eliza and Mandy) and Jane Gines: Jane (the widow of Milford and Rebecca’s son Ben); sons Milford, 20,  Alfred, 7 and “Isic” Hill, 3; and daughters Caroline, 18, Nancie, 13, and Elnora Hill, 5.

After the Civil War, a number of new freedmen stayed on the same land they had worked while in bondage.  So it is a reasonable inference that these Gines families and others nearby had worked on Marydale  as slaves.

Marydale was owned originally by Alexander Blanche.  He was born in Scotland and came to America in 1851.   At some point, Marydale came into the hands of Charles Gustavus Dahlgren.  A native of Philadelphia, Dahlgren had been a U.S. Navy officer.  In 1835, however, he moved South to try his hand at making a decent living from the land.

In Natchez, Mississippi, Dahlgren became one of the pillars of planters’ society.  He purchased a sizeable quantity of land, apparently icluding Marydale acrsoos the river in Tensas Parish.  Married twice, his step-dauhgter from his second marriage was the novelist-provacateuress Sarah Ellis Dorsey.  Mrs Dorsey had scandalized Mississippi social circles by carrying on a friendship of some sort with Jefferson Davis, later leaving her entire estate to him.

During the War, Dahlgren raised two regiments of troops for the Confederacy.  He was made brigadier general of the 3rd Mississippi Brigade.   Dahlgren had strong views about the prosecution of the war; unfortunately, his views did not coincide with those of Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee.  He was eventually relieved of command and marginalized by his former friends.

Dahlgren’s brother, John, was a an admiral in the Federal navy, and his other brother, William was a U.S. spy stationed in England to keep any eye on Confederate purchasing agents.

When the Battle of Vicksburg was lost, Dahlgren abandoned Mississippi (as well as Mary dale) to go to Georgia.  He returned to Mississippi to re-establish himself after the war.  However, he was unable to so, and thus headed back to New York in 1870. He died there in 1888.

Evergreen Place was owned by Haller Nutt, the son of Dr. Rush Nutt, a Virginian, who had moved to Natchez, Mississippi.  Haller Nutt’s mother was the daughter of the founder of what is now the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Haller Nutt was educated at the University of Virginia and then returned to Mississippi to assist his father with the family plantation near Natchez,  called Laurel Hill.  The elder Nutt was very much fascinated with the science of cotton growing and so was the younger man.   Rush Nutt had traveled in Egypt and had observed cotton-growing in that nation.  He brought back to Mississippi several Egyptian cotton seed stocks which he hybridized with so-called Mexican seeds.

Haller Nutt eventually owned several plantations in addition to Laurel Hill.  These included Evergreen Place and Winter Quarters in Tensas Parish, Araby in Madison Parish, and Cloverdale near Natchez.  Nutt was one of the largest slaveholders in  all of northeast Louisiana.

Despite being one of the richest men in two states (Louisiana and Mississippi) and notwithstanding his Virginia ancestry  and education, Haller Nutt was a firm Union man.  In fact, General Grant issued a series of “safeguards” to ensure the safety of Nutt’s family and properties when the U.S. Army was operating in his vicinity.  In return, Nutt gave Grant’s troops hogs and other items of subsistence.  Nonetheless, as the Fderal forces moved against Vicksburg, Nutt’s property was burned and looted.   The U.S. Congress later passed a bill compensating hsi widow in the amount of about $260,0000.

Why are these plantations and their stories important to our way around the brick wall?  Well, first, they are in Tensas Parish where many Gines surnamed people appear in the census.  The 1899 Tensas property tax rolls show Elijah and Caroline Gines living on Evergreen Place; presumably they may have worked in bondage there. As we’ve noted above, Rebecca Gines and her son Dorsey lived at Marydale Plantation.  The 1900 census shows her husband Milford living with them.

Second, these plantations are connected to the landowners (and therefore, the slaves) of the Mississippi Delta.   Thre are several Delta counties in Mississippi with large numbers of Gines surnamed people.

But they raise many questions as well.  There are so many slaves involved that it is difficult to link census names and ages to slave schedule ages and genders.  We need to know how the slaves were traded among the Natchez planters.  Did they stay together as afmilies (more apt to happen in Louisiana because of the church-driven Code Noir)?  How did they acquire their surnames?  How did they migrate throughout the region?

Fortunately, there seems to be a great amount of information on this area and these plantations.  It will  take a while to fully analyze, but we may have at least found the motherlode in the fatherland–that being Tensas Parish.  So we can press ahead on several leads in Tensas Parish.

Next: Have we really cracked the brick wall or not?



Sources:

1.  Gower, Herschel, Charles Dahlgren of Natchez: the Civil War and Dynastic Decline, (Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 2002).

2.  State of Mississippi, Dept of Archives & History, Pilgrimage Historical Association Collection, Nutt Family Papers 1841-1911. Absract at http://mdah.state.ms.us/manuscripts/z1817.html

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Reading the Writing on the Brick Wall

May 29, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

Wordle: Names

I had intended to move on today and discuss the plantations that we’ve come across in our long way around the brick wall of my great-grandfather, Richard William Gines.  But I want to share an issue that has hindered our search and is not all that uncommon.    The Wordle graphic above tells the story!

To put the issue into genealogical research terms, watch as we follow my presumed collateral ancestor Rebecca Gines through her lifetime via the census.   She was enumerated each decade in  Tensas Parish, Louisiana.

(click on any image to enlarge)

1870

beck-guines-1870

Ancestry.com transcription:

Beckey Guines

Heritage Quest Transcription:

Beckey Guines

1880

reb-guines-1880

Ancestry.com Transcription:

Rebecca Guions

Heritage Quest Transcription:

Rebecca Guions

1900

beck-gioms-1900-cropped

Ancestry.com Transcription:

Beckie Gions

1910

rebecca-sines-lines-1910

Ancestry.com Transcription:

Rebecca Sines

Alt.: Rebecca Lines

HeritageQuest  Online Transscription:

Rebecca Lines

1920

[No record found]

1930

reb-gines-1930-cropped

Ancestry.com Transcription:

Rebecca Gines

Then at her death in Madison Parish:

rebecca1

Louisiana State Archives Death Index

In addition to the examples above, I found Gines family members indexed as “Genes,” “Gaynes,” and even “Sims.”  So I have not one surname to check, but really about a dozen.

How can it be determined that two spelling are the same name and not just different names?  One clue is the length of time the different spellings persist.  A short time for a spelling differential may suggest a mere mistake in spelling or transcription.  A lengthy period may suggest that there are different names involved.   Then, of course, one should check other records.  So where “Oscar Gines” appears on the census living in Shreveport and “Oscar Gimes” has the same address on his World War I draft card, a reasonable inference may be drawn that they are the same person.

There are myriad permutations of most names when one considers spelling, misspelling, mistranscription, mispronunciation, accents, and the lack of standardized spelling until the 19th or 20th centuries.

One thing that I do is examine the census pages some distance before and after my targeted individual.  I find a lot of related people, sometimes with names spelled differently, by this method.

Thanks to Wordle.net!

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When A Wild Goose Chase Isn’t A Wild Goose Chase

May 22, 2009 Craig Tensas Parish

Some Lessons from Our Pursuit of Egans Gines

We had started out to get past the brick wall of my great-grandfather, Richard William Gines, who was born in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, in about 1860.  After years no success either on the ground (we visited Bossier Parish as well as Caddo Parish in 2004 to research this matter) or online, we decided to take the long way around by studying a presumed collateral relative.  That person was Egan Gines, whose 1948 death certificate we found in the Louisiana State Archives. We chose him because he was not previously known to us, whereas all the other known collaterals had led us back to the brick wall!

We drilled into a number of databases and records and learned a few things about Egans Gines.  For example, we learned that he was born in Tensas Parish, but probably not in 1872 as his death certificate states.  We learned that he was the son Julia Turner Gines of Tensas Parish.  We discovered that his siblings were Tillmon, Zeke, and Jeff Gines. We found him in no census records.  We found no marriage license for Egans and discovered no apparent children.  We did not learn his father’s name, although we fingered a suspect (who is presumed innocent until paternity is “proven” by the Genealogical Proof Standard).

This “collateral” investigation took up a fair amount of time, and we came up for air, it seemed that we were no closer to Richard William Gines than we had been before.   Or were we?

One of the most useful bits of information to come out of the Egans Gines investigation was that he was born in Tensas Parish.  Some years ago, I had come across a transcription of the 1899 tax rolls for Tensas Parish. The transcription listed, among others, four people with the surname Gines. Two of them, “Don” Gines and Becky Gines, were living on a plantation called Marydale.  Both were denoted as “colored.”  Two others, Elisha Gines and Caroline Gines, resided at a place described as “Evergreen Plantation.”  They also were “colored.”

Those years ago, I couldn’t quite connect these folks with the other Gines families I was researching.  For one thing, I had a difficult time finding them in the census records.  Now, however, thanks to Egans, I can draw some things together.

In the search for Egans, I found in the 1870 census some other Gines families.  For example, in Tensas Parish’sSubdivision 105, there reside Milford “Guines,” 21 years old, Beckey “Guines,” 25, and Jane “Guines,” age 6.

1870 U.S. Federal Census; Subdivision 105, Tensas, Louisiana; Roll M593_532; Page 332; Image 664.

Following this family through the years, we find them in 1880 enumerated in Tensas Parish’s 4th Ward thusly:

Guions, Milford    B    M    27    Laborer                       Miss    Miss    Miss
Guions, Rebecca    B    F    30    Keeps House                  La    La    La
Guions, Ellen    B    F     6                                                        La    Miss    La
Guions, Mary    B    F     5                                                       La    Miss    La
Guions, Charles    B    M     9                                                 La     Miss    La
Guions, Dorsey    B    M     2                                                 La    Miss    La

Note the change in spelling of the surname.

1880 U.S. Federal Census; 4th Ward, Tensas, Louisiana; Roll: T9_472; Page: 164.1000; Enumeration District: 81; Image: 0330.

[Interestingly enough, it appears that Jane "Guines", who was counted at Milford and Beckey's home as a 6 year old in 1870, is in 1880 at age 15, living in the nearby home of Elijah and Caroline  "Guions" as their daughter-in-law.  She is apparently married to their son, Benjamin.]

And then twenty years later in 1900, in Tensas Parish,

1900-gions-tensas

(click to enlarge image)

1900 U.S. Federal Census; Police Jury Ward 3, Tensas, Louisiana; Roll T623_583 Page 10A; Enumeration District 110.

[Note yet another change in spelling].

There in Line 1, Dwelling #211, is Milford and Beckey’s son Charles, now grown with a wife and two daughters. (He married Luellen Roach of Tensas Parish). Scroll down a bit, and we find Milford and “Beckie” in dwelling #217 with sons Dorsey, 22, and Austin, 17 (he’s been born since the 1880 census, obviously).  And what of daughters Mary and Ellen, who would be in their mid-twenties now?  Ellen married one John David Jones in October of 1893 (she was 19 years old). In 1900, the Joneses still live in Ward 4 with one of their two children, Alic, who is six months old.

and Mary

Next, look at the next household, #218.  There’s Jane listed as a widow, and residing with her son Milford (named after his maternal grandfather), daughter Caroline (named for her paternal grandmother), and Nancie.  Three other children are listed with Jane: Alford Gines, Elnora Hill, and Isic Hill.  All three have been born since 1890. [What makes this interesting is that there exists a record that shows a Jane Gines marrying one Dave Banks in 1892 in Tensas Parish. So what happened to him and who are these children?  But that's another story!]

Finally, in 1910, Milford and Rebecca live with a grandson, whom we’re unable at this point to identify further.  And the spelling of their name has “stabilized.”

1910-milford-1

1910-milford-2

Nearby are son Charles and his family, whose name spelling is also “modernized.”

1910-census-header-tensas

1910-chas-tensas-1

Also close by is a Harry Gines with wife Jacklin and children Sara, Daniel, and Ella.  We’re not sure to whom this family is related.

1910-henry-tensas_edited

1910-henry-tensas

Milford Gines (the elder) died in 1930 at the age of 81.  Becky Gines then apparently moved to live with her son, Milford (the younger) in neighboring Madison Parish.  She died there in 1931 and her age was given as 90.

la-death-records-header

rebecca2

milford

rebecca1

Louisiana State Archives Death Records Database

(click on image to enlarge)

So why isn’t this a wild goose chase?  We still don’t know a lot more about the way around Richard William Gines, do we?

Well, sometimes brick walls come down a brick at a time.  Consider what we now know:

  • Significant numbers of people named Gines lived in Tensas Parish.
  • Gines-surnamed people apparently lived on two plantations, Evergreen Place and Marydale in Tensas Parish.
  • The surname Gines has a number of variant spellings and is also mis-transcribed in creative ways.

These are important steps forward and advance our flanking movement around the brick wall. So let’s keep going–you won’t believe what’s just ahead!

Next: The Plantations

Then: Bring out the Jackhammers! Time for this wall to fall!

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Egans Gines (??-1948)

May 16, 2009 Craig Genealogy

In which we beat the bushes for a collateral relative in hopes of finding our way past a brick wall!

One of my big brick walls has been getting past my great-grandfather Richard Gines. [Another challenge I have is getting my voice recognition software to recognize that surname!] To deal with this brick wall I’ve been looking for collateral relatives all around Grandpa Dick. In the course of doing that I’ve turned up some names that I can’t quite place.

Recently I found in the Louisiana State Archives a death certificate for one Egans Gines. I had not come across this name any place else before. So I went hunting for him in the census records, first to no avail. Then I did find in the Shreveport city directory for 1945-46 a person listed as “Eggens” Gines, most likely the same person. But that’s the only reference I found to Egan Gines anywhere.

The death certificate tells us that he was born on August 29, 1872, in St. Joseph, Louisiana.  St. Joseph is in Tensas Parish, a place where I haved found the surname Gines before. So I looked once again at the census records for Tensas Parish and once again, no Egans Gines. So let’s see what else we might glean from the death certificate. Well, he lived in Shreveport, Caddo Parish, for a while; but, again, the only reference in Caddo parish is that entry in the Shreveport city directory.

The death certificate lists Egans’ mother as Julia Turner. The next step then is to find either a Julia Turner or a Julia Gines in Tensas Parish.

Keep in mind that if she was married to a man named Gines in 1872, then we may have a very narrow window of time to find her in the census records as Julia Turner. That’s because most African-Americans were not listed by name in the census until 1870.

As it happens, Julia Turner appears on the 1870 census of Tensas Parish as a 10-year old. She’s with her parents, Jeff Turner, age 50, and Caroline Turner, age 36, and four siblings. I should say that these people are her “apparent family” for the reason that, as we all know, the 1870 census did not show relationships. They live in the prosaically named village of Waterproof, Louisiana.

This census record, if it is referring to our Julia Turner, makes apparent that either she is not the [two year old] mother of Egans Gines born in 1872, or he wasn’t born in 1872.

How does one resolve this dilemma?

I would stick, at the outset, with the working hypothesis that she is the mother of Egan, but that the death certificate is likely in error. If I develop further leads along this path, I can pursue them; if not, I’ll shift to a different hypothesis.

One factor in my thinking here is that although the census may be wrong about her age, it is more likely to be less wrong than the death certificate. Did you follow that?

The census record of Julia’s age was made by people who saw her, knew her, and overall had a better opportunity to judge her age. The death certificate record of Egans’ age was made decades after the fact by someone we don’t know anything about [more on that in this specific case later], who may not have known him well, or at all; whose memory may have faded or been clouded by the stress of the moment. So we continnue on the notion that Julia Turner is the mother of Egans Gines.

I spent some more time rooting around in the census records, and find that in 1880, Julia is still living with her parents and even more siblings. Her age is given as 16. There is no evidence that she has any baby, not to mention an 8 year old [which is how old Egans would be if he was really born in 1872].

A further search of census records turns up no more evidence of our Julia Turner.

So now we might seek evidence of a marriage of Julia to a man named Gines or direct evidence of her having given birth to a child named Egans Gines.

In several Louisiana marriage databases, we find a couple of possibilities. In January 1875, a Julia Ann Turner was married to Moses Jenkins in Tensas Parish. Our Julia Turner would have been either 11 or 15 years old, based on the census records. In May 1879, Julia Turner married Edward Palmer in Tensas Parish. Our Julia would have been about 15 or 19 at that time. This is one is a little more plausible than the first. But it doesn’t help because what of the Gines surnamed-baby? And what of the fact that the 1880 census shows her with her parents under her maiden name?

Neither of the last-asked questions above should be too difficult to explain and still find one of even both these marriages to have been our Julia. Noting for a moment that the 1870 census shows two Julia Turners, and that the “other” one plausibly could be marrying in 1879 at least, we’ll keep this information handy.

One way to test the idea that any of the Julia Turners is the our Julia Turner (in the absence of a marriage license or a birth certificate for the child Egans) would be to find her in the census with the child.

We make a discovery in the 1900 census. Living in Tensas Parish then is one Julia Gines with a birthdate of September 1860. [This takes a little work to verify, since the transcriptions at the usual places are horribly mangled!]

This Julia Gines is a widow with three sons, none being Egans. But we’re pretty sure this is the same Julia Turner we encountered earlier because the birthdate fits and the places of her parents’ nativities also fit. Somewhere between 1880 and 1900, she got married, had children, and lost her husband.

So where is Egans in 1900? Or for that matter, where is Egans anytime from his birth to his death?
In fact, where is Egans after his death? The death certificate says he was buried in Fairfield Cemetery in Shreveport. I’m told by a knowledgeable source that the cemetery no longer exists–there is an apartment complex on the site.

Coming soon: The Round-About Way Around Collaterals to your Brickwall–more on the Egans Gines case study.

Then: Some of the Plantations and Slave Owners of Tensas Parish, Louisiana

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Back to Some Hard Genealogy . . .

January 25, 2009 Craig Tensas Parish

Seems it’s been a while since we did any hard genealogy here.  The best way
to handle that is simply to just jump into it.  Our subject today is one of
my most resistant brickwalls. I’m going to describe my research and solicit
ideas about how to proceed.

So as they  used to say on that early 1960s game show, will our mystery
guest sign in please? It’s my maternal great-grandfather, Richard William Gines.  He was born in Bossier Parish, Louisiana in about 1860.  The first record we find of him is the 1880 census.  There he’s found with the family of one Edmund Morris, a black man from North Carolina.  They’re in Bossier Parish and Dick is 20 years old and single.  Nearby live Ed Gines and his wife Adlade Dent.  Ed is 21 years old and is believed to have been Dick’s brother.

The next census entry for Richard Gines in Louisiana is in 1900, of course,
there being no surviving census data for Louisiana in 1890. In 1900, our
subject is living in Shreveport with his wife Sylvia LeJay and six children,  including my grandfather, William Edward Gines, who was born in Shreveport in August 1898 (the census actually says 1897). Their residence was on Ashton Street. He was employed as a fireman at the “electrical roundhouse.” [There were several railroads in and around Shreveport]. Richard and Sylvia are said to have been married for 17 years,
putting their wedding sometime in about 1883.

By 1910, Dick Gines is apparently dead, because Sylvia is now listed as the head of the family and Dick cannot be found.  Sylvia lived until August 10, 1940.

I have been to the parish offices in both Bossier Parish and Caddo Parish
and in neither place did I find a marriage license for Richard and Sylvia,
nor did I find a death certificate for Richard.  The Louisiana State
Archives has a death certificate for Sylvia.

The 1880 census describes both of Dick’s parents as having been born in Louisiana. The 1900 survey, however, places his mother’s birth in Georgia. But one of the most interesting leads concerning his parentage may be his marriage to Sylvia LeJay.  The LeJays came to Louisiana from South Carolina–and in fact, there are a number of black folks named Gines in areas of South Carolina near where the LeJays seem to  have originated.  Could Dick’s parents or grandparents have come from South Carolina?

Another interesting potential lead is that there were in Shreveport during Dick’s lifetime, several men other than his presumed brother Edward, named Gines and born in the same general time frame.  They’re close enough to have been brothers.  These include Oscar Gines, Sr., Nathan Gines, and Louis Gines, none of whom stayed within range of a census enumerator for very long.

There is another bit of information that is intriguing.  On the 1870 census,
there is a 20 year old black man incarcerated in the Texas State Prison at
Huntsville whose name could be transcribed as “Dick Gines.”  Could this
person have some connection our Dick Gines? Note that he would be ten years older if the age is correct.

Now the other relevant information is that there are plenty of folks named
Gines to be found in Louisiana in the late 19th century. Almost all of them
are black.  For example, the tax records of Tensas Parish for the year 1899
indicate a Don Gines and a Becky Gines, both black, residing at Marydale
Plantation in that parish.  Elisha Gines and Caroline Gines are residing at
Evergreen Plantation in Tensas.  And there are numerous persons with the
Gines surname in Caddo and Bossier Parishes.  It’s hard to know what the
relationships are.  Some these people are likely related to our Richard
Gines and may provide a clue to his paternity.  There are death records for
some of them in the Louisiana State Archives. Getting those is an important
next step.

This is the point where the unique challenges of African-American research
become apparent.  Since most black people were not identified by name in
the census records until 1870, other records become important.  These may
include tax records, estate records. and plantation records.  Such records
sometimes describe slaves by name; some times they don’t. But by
identifying whites who may have owned slaves, these records can point in the right direction.

Curiously, there seem to be very few white people named Gines in Louisiana,
either now or in the 19th century. I’ve found one Confederate solider named
Gines from Louisiana.  I’ve looked for plantation records, tax records, land
records, church records–no white Gines.

So where do you think we should go next?

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