My stroll down memory lane ...

Sometimes, when you get really stuck on trying to dig into your direct line of ancestry, you just have to give it a rest and do something else. There was one line in my "extended" family that I had absolutely no information on. And, surprisingly, it was the one that was right here in Fayette and Old Campbell counties.

It was the family of Zephaniah and Lucy Norris Fowler McFalls. Oh yeah, I had lots on Lucy and Zeph. I even had Lucy's second husband and their children (who were still my cousins because Lucy was my GGgrandmother's sister). But I had nothing on the children except their birth dates. I didn't even know when they died or where they were buried.

I had made contact with one descendant each of three of the children ... Nancy Caroline Fowler who married George Martin Vincent, Hester Elizabeth Fowler who married James McWilliams, and John Fowler who married Nancy Leah Harper. But despite query after query, I could not make contact with any descendants of Joanna Fowler who married Ephriam Waits. I was going to have to do this on my own.

Fortunately, there is a Web site on the Campbell County GenWeb page where the late Henley Campbell had laid out the family relationships of those buried at Owl Rock Methodist Church in South Fulton County, formerly in Campbell County. There I found the Vincents and the Waits ... Nancy and George, and Joanna and Ephriam, but I still had no children. There was some background on the Waits family ... Ephriam's parents and siblings ... and I thought, "Well. That's as good a place to start as any." So I started going over Henley's work and adding people to the family tree as I found the connections.

In the meantime, a flap had occurred in some information on the McFalls family (Lucy's second husband) and I was working with Virginia McFall Smith, who lives in Alabama, trying to straighten it out. The McFalls were in DeKalb and Fulton counties, in 1850 and 1870, before they were in Campbell, then Douglas, then Cobb ... and that's where I began, in Stone's District of DeKalb County.

I am a map person. Maps help you see exactly where people were, what was going on when they were there, and how the boundary lines changed through the years. For those of you who don't know (and everybody who does genealogy in this area does know), before Fulton was formed in 1853, Campbell, Fayette and Henry counties shared a boundary with DeKalb. I found some maps on the DeKalb site, looking for Stone's District, and I made some surprising discoveries. Stone's District was not there, but I found Sandtown in Campbell County where all these people ended up, and it was almost adjacent to the DeKalb County line. Hmm. Interesting.

Then it was on to the 1850 DeKalb census, details and specific location provided graciously by Virginia, and I was really surprised to find not only the McFalls, but also just a few houses away were Amos and Amy Vincent, parents of George, and Ausborn and Nancy (McWilliams) Waits, parents of Ephriam. Hmm. This was getting even more interesting. These families were together even before they came to Campbell.

I spent the next three days poring over censuses in the Sandtown area, matching up people who were buried at Owl Rock with those I had been able to find marriage records for in either Campbell, DeKalb or Fulton counties. I probably added nearly 200 people to the family tree by the time I finished with 1930. And not one of them was a Fowler!

I also found a distressing situation. Ephriam and Joanna were nowhere to be found after the 1880 census when they were both with their parents. They absolutely vanished from the scene from 1900-1930. But I knew they were married in Campbell county because that information was relayed to me nearly two years ago. I also found three children, William, Lucy and Albert Waits, nieces and nephews, living with Ephriam's brother, William Waits, and sister, Rosa Waits Woodall. Could these be the orphans of Joanna and Ephriam? Could they both have died before 1900? Joanna's mother, after all, was named Lucy.

Then, Wednesday afternoon, I paid a visit to Owl Rock myself, and added some dates Henley's work did not have, since people had died and were buried there after it was published. I also found the sad ending to my story. Ephraim and Joanna did, indeed, die before 1900. Joanna died in 1897 and Ephraim followed in 1898. So, more than likely, these nieces and nephews living with family members were their orphans. They also had a fourth child, sex and name unknown, born and died in 1890.

In a future column, I'll give short sketches of these families for our southside heritage collection. Their professions were interesting. One of the Waits boys was a warden for an "Industrial Farm for Colored Males" located in Adamsville. John Fowler (Jr.) operated a confectionery store in Union City. Could it have been a local branch of his cousin's Norris Candy Company?

John Fowler Sr. gave his occupation in 1920 as working with the Union City Police Department. Many, of course, were farmers.

They married into many families. Among them were Herring, Wallace, Clay, Stewart, McCullough, Woodall, McGouirk, Ewing, Hudson, Jackson, Blissitt, Hembree, Morgan, Butler, Orr, and Nixon. (See? I've been busy.)

Also, another time, I want to write a little more about Owl Rock Church. Organized in 1828, it is absolutely beautiful in its simplicity, and sits on the corner of Union Road and Campbellton Road (Ga. Highway 166) in South Fulton County.

I'm still looking for your stories about south side families and places too. Send them to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!

(Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others, but she will willingly share research information on her own family lines.)