Julia Goldsmith McBride, 1928 - 2016

Julia Goldsmith McBride

My step-mom passed away last Tuesday morning. I hope she isn't looking down on me in anger for posting this, as she didn't want any fuss made. Absolutely no fuss. But I need to mark her passing for my own peace.

I met Julie in 1965, shortly before she married my dad. We had a great relationship over many years, and I have always been thankful for the way she loved my brother and me, and later, our families. Daddy wasn't the easiest guy to live with, but Julie made it look easy. He called her his "Judy," and they had 33 years together until his death in 1999. After they moved three thousand miles away from us, we saw her seldom, but she never forgot a holiday or birthday, and we made letters and phone calls close the gap. I always admired the way she accepted the step-mother role, loving us but never crowding our mother's place. I have many years' worth of letters and cards, always signed "love ya! Julie."

A happy day with "Mutt" at their 19th century house in upstate New York

Julie became ill last winter and was unable to remain in her home. It was a hard transition and she was frequently frustrated. As a series of strokes took away her speech, she seemed to have more she wanted to say. I spent a couple of days with her in early summer, and we were blessed with a wonderful visit. We had "red hots" for lunch, and walked the Erie Canal. She showed me the movie theatre she went to as a teenager, and some other spots she frequented over the years. We had glorious weather, and just soaked up our time together. I think we both knew it was the last time we would see each other on this earth.

A visit to their New York home with their first granddaughter, Emily

Picking apples with "Mima Julie" and Bepa

I think it's a double whammy, because over the last 17 years since Daddy died, she was also my link to him. She missed him terribly. I'm missing both of them.

Love ya, Julie. I'll see you again!


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William Nevels – Gone but not Forgotten

I had planned to start in an orderly fashion, with my great-grandparents, and move back. But I decided to post instead some information I have already shared with my first cousins. Much of this information I owe to my third cousin, Jan Faulkner, who has generously shared information with me for years. She has seen the Eakin family Bible referred to below, and has done much of the hard research on this family.

William Nevels was my great-great-great grandfather, born in 1808 in the wilds of Jefferson County, Mississippi Territory, probably to James and Elizabeth Nevels. A Bible in the Eakin family has information on William and his family, and shows his birth date as March 8, 1808.

There are at least three William Nevels in Mississippi in the mid 1800's, according to the National Park Service Soldier and Sailor database. One of them was in Hinds County, Mississippi in the 1830's, as there are several deeds bearing that name. I'm not convinced that this is our William, although it is a possibility.

The Eakin Family Bible records that our William Nevels married Mary J. Nevil, likely a cousin, June 4, 1834. The place of their marriage isn't known, but William was on the Holmes County, Mississippi tax list in 1835, and lived the rest of his life there. There are no marriage records in Holmes County from that time. Jan remembers her grandfather stating that Mary's name was spelled with an "i" and that her parents used "Nevill". However, spelling was never consistent in the 19th century.

Mary Nevels Headstone 1817-1862

William and Mary had eleven children by 1855; three of them died in childhood. After Mary died in 1862, William married a widow, Missouri Ann Pitchford Ford, with a young daughter. Almost every widow and widower remarried soon after a respectable mourning period; it was a matter of survival as much as love or companionship. A farmer left with young children needed someone to care for the family and the house, and a widow could rarely keep a farm going without a husband.

William and Ann seemed quite companionable however; they had six children between 1865 and 1880. William was 72 when his daughter Fannie was born, and Ann was 49! Does anyone else find that amazing?

Did William serve in the military? Jan has information (from a probable grandson of William) that he served in Adam's Company, Mississippi as a private from 1861 to 1865. There is a William Nevel listed in the National Park Service soldier database in that company, but three different William Nevels served from Mississippi. Since Mary died in 1862, he had at least a couple of young children at home, and he married Missouri Ann about 1864, it's hard to imagine he would volunteer or be drafted at that age. I've not found further military records to determine if this could be our WIlliam.

His son Robert Peyton Nevels, however, served in Company B, 1st Mississippi Sharp Shooters, from Holmes County, alongside a great-great grandfather of mine, Andrew Jackson Whitehead. 

There's a fascinating family story about William that he helped to catch a notorious outlaw, and my cousin Jan has found newspaper articles corroborating that story. I think it's her story to tell, so I will wait for her to do so. Maybe she'd be willing to post it here!

1859 Land Patent for William Nevels of Holmes County

Let's follow a timeline for William Nevels. I'm omitting events that I think may be a different William Nevels.

• 1808 - born Jefferson County, MS Territory
• 1834 - marries Mary Nevil, likely in Holmes County, MS
• 1835 - on the Holmes County tax list
• 1838 - daughter Julia Ann is born
• 1838 - has letters waiting at the Lexington, Holmes County post office
• 1839 - daughter Lucinda Elizabeth is born
• 1840 - Holmes County Census with Mary, Julia and Lucinda, and also a male 20-29 and a female 15-19 (siblings?)
• 1841 - son Robert Peyton is born
• 1942 - daughter Sarah Jane is born
• 1844 - daughter Martha Ann is born; she dies before 1850
• 1845 - daughter Margaret Eliza is born; she dies before 1850
• 1845 - on the Holmes County tax list
• 1847 - daughter Mary Matilda (Molly) is born
• 1849 - daughter Emily Louise is born
• 1850 - Holmes County Census, listed as a well-digger, age 41, with Mary, Julia Ann, Lucinda, Robert, Sarah, Mary and Emily
• 1851 - son William James is born; he dies before 1860
• 1853 - daughter Laminda Alice is born (also shows as Lucinda Alice)
• 1855 - son John Thomas is born
• 1859 - federal land patent registered for 40+ acres in Holmes County
• 1860 - Holmes County Census, listed as a farmer, age 52, with Mary, Robert, Sarah, Mary, Emily, Laminda/Lucinda, and John
• 1862 - Mary Nevil Nevels dies at age 45 and is buried in Oregon Cemetery, Holmes County, MS
• 1864 - approximately - marries Missouri Ann Pitchford Ford
• 1865 - son Lewis Albert is born
• 1866 - MS state census in Holmes County, with himself and 3 other males, and 4 females
• 1867 - daughter Ella B. is born; daughter Julia Ann dies days after her fourth child is born at age 29
• 1869 - son Larkin Everett is born
• 1870 - Holmes County census, listed as farmer, age 62, with Missouri Ann, John, Lewis, Ella, Larkin, and step-daughter Rebecca Ford; daughter Emily Louise dies at age 21
• 1872 - daughter Ida is born
• 1876 - son Franklin is born
• 1880 - daughter Fannie Virginia is born
• 1880 - Holmes County census, listed as farmer, age 72, with Missouri Ann, Lewis Albert, Ella, Everett, Ida, Franklin and Fannie
• 1883 - William Nevels dies in Holmes County, MS

It's interesting that William Nevels lived in Mississippi his entire life; much of our family moved states at least once. 

Children of William and Mary Nevels are

• Julia Ann, born 9 Feb 1838; died 18 Jul 1867; married Daniel McBride of Holmes County
• Lucinda Elizabeth, born 27 Oct 1839; died 29 Jan 1929; married Thomas Eakin
• Robert Peyton, born 25 Jan 1841; died 1 Sep 1926; married Mary Porter
• Sarah Jane, born 21 Apr 1842; on 1860 census; death date and marriage unknown
• Martha Ann, born 28 Jan 1844; died before 1850
• Margaret Eliza, born 15 Jul 1845; died before 1850
• Mary Matilda (Molly), born 16 Jan 1847; died 16 Jul 1939; married Franklin Eakin
• Emily Louise, born 17 Feb 1849; died 24 Feb 1870
• William James, born 5 Sep 1851; died before 1860
• Lucinda Alice, born 30 Aug 1853; death date unknown; may have married Edward Crabtree
• John Thomas, born 23 Jan 1855, died Jul 1931; married Lula Lee Sherrod

Children of William and Missouri Ann are

• Lewis Albert, born 1865; death date and marriage unknown
• Ella B., born 1867; death date and marriage unknown
• Larkin Everett, born 1869; death date unknown; may have married Annie Ables
• Ida, born 6 Jan 1872; died 2 Jan 1921; unmarried
• Franklin, born 1876; death date and marriage unknown
• Fannie Virginia, born 29 Jan 1880; died 22 Dec 1909; may have married John W. Crabtree

At my count, that's 17 children over 42 years for William. There should be quite a few descendants, right? Missouri Ann Pitchford Ford Nevels married Calvin Brandon in November of 1886. She still had young children to care for; I hope they had a happy marriage.

And how am I related to William Nevels? His oldest daughter, Julia Ann Nevels, married Daniel McBride; she was my paternal grandfather's grandmother. My great-grandfather, Moses McBride, was only six when his mother died. That family will have a blog post of their own another day.

Thanks for reading; feel free to comment below. 

Hello Cousins!

I've been researching my family's history since I was in college. I clearly remember getting the term paper assignment in a required Writing History 301 class: research and write your family's history. Oh great. My family didn't talk about their history; there were entire branches that were a complete mystery to me. This was before the Web and email, so I started by writing a letter to my grandmother, enclosing a questionnaire that she could fill in as she wanted to. Bless her, she did; I still have that questionnaire that she sent back to me. Somehow I was able to expand my research and finished the term paper. That's around here somewhere too.

I found a few interesting bits, and as I completed my history degree, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know where my ancestors were during the American Revolution, the Civil War (well, that wasn't much of a surprise), and even the during the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918-1920. How did they get from Ireland (in my early days, I was sure they all came from Ireland), to Mississippi, Oklahoma and Arizona? Did they ride in covered wagons? Were they all farmers? Why did so many of them commonly use their middle names? And what's with these Greek names used in the South?

I still don't know all the answers, and of course I have many more questions now. I have found a few answers though, and I've found many cousins over the years who have blessed me so much. I hope to repay their generosity by sharing my research with others.

I plan to publish posts on what I know or surmise on my ancestry (mostly from Virginia and North Carolina west to Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arizona), and possibly some from my husband's family (New England to Pennsylvania, Utah and California, as well as England and France to the Caribbean and Utah). 

I hope someday my grandchildren get an assignment to report on their family history, and they find enough to say "Wow! that's so cool!" Because, you know, it really is so cool.