Atco history and Groce family are surprise connections

Sometimes this genealogy business will knock you off your chair when you encounter strange coincidences in the search for your ancestors. Here are a few I'd like to share with you.

Last week, I had decided the night before that I was going to do the Civil War letter to Melinda Boyd Groce and tie it in to my experience of attending the meeting of the SCV in Sharpsburg. I did the column loosely Tuesday night and intended to put the final touches on it Wednesday morning, in preparation for my Wednesday afternoon deadline.

Wednesday morning, I had an e-mail in my mailbox in response to a query I had posted on Genforum last November about the Groce family. My Genforum message was posted before I received the letter from my new cousin, Virginia Groce Joiner, who lived in Oklahoma City. Virginia helped me put the missing Boyd/Groce family together and filled out another branch in my family tree.

That is another coincidence in itself and taught me a lesson about not throwing things away ... not even envelopes things were sent in.

Back in the 1950s or 1960s, my aunt and my mother had received a photo of Robert Boyd and Sarah LeGuin from an Ila Harris in Shawnee, Okla. Mother had saved the envelope and I copied the return address. It was then that I placed the message on Genforum, grasping at straws, it seemed, trying, to track this family and put the missing pieces together.

Well, Virginia is not online, but a friend of hers was. Ila Harris happened to be Virginia's aunt. The connection was made, my suspicions were confirmed that my Robert Boyd and her Melinda Boyd Groce were cousins, and I found my missing Boyd/Groce family. It also added about 100 more people to my growing family tree. And all this from a 50-year-old address. Strange.

Last week's e-mail, and answer to the six-month-old Genforum message, was from a Dan Groce who lives right here in Fayetteville. Here is Dan's letter:

"Hi Judy,

"I'm trying to find out genealogical information about the Groce family. I saw a note you had on the Boyd/Groce families of Meriwether County last November on Genforum and also an article on Brick Walls in the Citizen. We have traced our family back to a William Robert Groce.

"William Robert Groce is a brick wall for us. All we know about him is that he and his wife Sarah Francis Fullbright Groce moved to Chattooga County from somewhere around Buchanan, Ga. I believe he died sometime before 1920, but his wife was alive at the time of the 1920 census.

"I couldn't help but notice that the note says that Melinda Boyd Groce and some of her children moved to Carroll County after 1850. Her father's name was William and her grandfather was named Robert. I was wondering if William Robert Groce might be one of the children of Melinda Boyd Groce and Lewis Dudley Groce. Do you have any suggestions on where I could find out information on William Robert Groce? I live in Fayetteville. Thanks for any help!

"Dan Groce

"dan.groce@worldspan.com"

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I checked the information Virginia had sent me on the children of Melinda and Lewis Groce, and there he was: William Robert Groce married to Sarah Fullbright.

I fired off an e-mail to Dan right away and discovered that we are fifth cousins, once removed. I don't have any information on Lewis Dudley Groce's parents, but there were several Groce/Gross families in Meriwether in 1850, plus several in Troup County, from which Meriwether was formed. The name "Dudley" seems to be a big family name in the Groce family, as well as the name "Buford" (also seen as Bluford and Beaufort) who was a brother of William Thomas Groce. With a little concentrated effort, this family shouldn't be too hard to track.

But, what I did have was tons of information on the Boyds which I am sharing with Dan, including the will of my GGGGgrandfather, Robert Boyd, who died in Meriwether County about 1846 or 1847. Robert is the common ancestor which makes us cousins.

Now, is that not a strange coincidence, or what?

The other strange coincidence was in a column that appeared several months ago on the Cochran family who lived in Atco. I couldn't find Atco on the map, but after I submitted the column to our late managing editor, Dave Hamrick, he wrote me a note saying that Atco was a mill village near Cartersville and his dad had preached there for a while. Another strange coincidence, huh?

Just a few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Barry Bailey who also had Atco connections. Barry writes:

"You won't find Atco on a present day map. It has been, in not too recent years, incorporated into the Cartersville city limits.

"When I was a boy, Atco was a town on the map with a post office (located in the company store).

"Some interesting history: Atco was originally built by the American Textile Company at the turn of the century. They built a mill village and a mill to make horse collars. In the 1920s the mill and village were bought out by Goodyear.

"When the union came in, the company gave up sole ownership of the village and sold the houses. My dad worked at the mill and was the union president. I never lived in the village growing up but I bought a house here three years ago and I love it. I love to hear the stories the old-timers tell about the village.

"As a side thought, I didn't live here growing up, but Atco has fond memories for me and almost everyone in Bartow County. There was a company store where we would buy groceries and toys and just about anything else you would need. The post office was located at the store. There was a school with a real nice ball park (from which came Detroit Tiger, Rudy York). Also the best swimming pool in the county was in the village near the ball park.

"Atco is on the list to be on the national historic registry. Many of the houses here still have their original tile roofs.