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Hallums, McClendons, Roberts in the mailbag By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE The “shelf life” of these columns continues to amaze me. Many times I receive queries on those that ran more than two years ago. Those who read the column in the newspaper may not be aware that it also goes on the Citizen’s Web site each Friday and that all the columns are archived back to the very first one I did in January of 2001. This means that whatever you write and we print goes all over the world. The surnames in these columns will come up when you do a general search on the Internet. Many of the responses I receive are from the Internet source. Although I don’t run short queries here, since there are other outlets for those, I do “save” them and run them together when I have enough to fill a column. I also try to answer each and every e-mail I receive with an answer or a referral of some kind. Here’s one I received just recently from Deb Spoonhour of California on material sent to me by Belton Hollums in November of 2001: “Hi Judy, “I'm writing to you because I just came across a column regarding genealogy that was written by W. Belton Hollums. I believe that he and I share the same 6th great-grandfather, William Hallum of Hagerstown, Md. “I was finally able to verify that as of last Monday when I perused through a book that was written about the history of the Hallum family (the book “lives” at the Library of Congress). The author was a gentleman by the name of Charley Hal Houston Hallum. I believe that he was from Oklahoma. I was fascinated by the history that he had accumulated from family members, census records, family Bibles and wills. This is where I first ran across the mention of the murder of Captain (or Ensign, or whatever) Gordon by William. “In the column, Mr. Hollums mentions that he has written a book on the family as well. I’d love to get in touch with him. I did find the book on the online index to the Georgia State Archives and will request an interlibrary loan from my local library (I’m in San Diego, Calif.). The book that I mentioned above, by Charley Hallum, is located at the Library of Congress and I was able to go there last week while I was visiting some friends of mine in northern Virginia. “My connection to the Hallum family is as follows: “My mother is Jackie Semper Spoonhour b. 1936; her mother was Bernice Hallum Semper, b. 1912 in Fresno, Calif.; her father was John Mitchell Hallum Jr., b. 1885 in Los Angeles, Calif.; his father (my gg-grandfather) was John Mitchell Hallum Sr., b. March 1862 in Ga.; his Father was Mitchel Lafayette Hallum, b. Jan. 24, 1831 in Lumpkin Co., Ga.; his Father was Wm. Wakely Hallum, b. 1793 in S.C.; and his Father was Capt. John Hallum, b. Aug. 23, 1750 in Hagerstown, Md. “Finally, Capt. Hallum’s father was William Hallum of Hagerstown, Md. (my 6th great-grandfather). “I would love to touch base with Mr. Hollums regarding his book and research on the family. My grandmother and I were extremely close and she just passed away in June. She taught me a lot about our family history on her mother’s side, but her father, John Jr., died when she was about 11 years old, so she really didn’t know anything about that side of the family. I don’t know why exactly because it turns out that she still had an aunt and grandparents on her father’s side (based on census records). “I wish that I’d been able to find all of this information while she was still living. I know that she would be thrilled! “I believe that you said that you know Mr.Hollums fairly well. Would you please pass this message along to him for me? I’d enjoy chatting with him about the family history. It sounds like this genealogy bug must run in the family! “Thank you, Deb Spoonhour “debspoonhour@cox.net” Consider the message passed, Deb — to Belton and any others who may connect to this family. Here’s another e-mail response from a column on the Blakes and McClendons of Coweta County that ran back in February of this year: “Dear Judy, “It was great to stumble upon your Blakes and McClendons, especially Olive Blake. “I’ll go up the tree (hope I got the spelling and info right): "I’m Steve Dumont, grandson to Berta Bell Johnson (Bratcher) and Ernest Johnson. Berta was born to Thomas Bratcher and Addie Aldora McClendon. Addie was born to Joseph Allen McClendon and Georgia Aline Venable. Joseph Allen McClendon was born to Addison Tully McClenden and Isabella Huggins. Addison Tully was born to Joseph McClendon and Olive Blake. “So guess that makes me the great-great-great-great grandson of Joseph and Olive. Would love to hear more about the family, or from the family. “Photos would be great! I’ve never been to Coweta County, but somehow it feels like home. I was born in Los Angeles in 1951, and live in Portland, Oregon. “Thanks again, Steve Dumont “sdumont69@juno.com” Since Olive was one of my distant relatives, I’ll answer this one in a personal e-mail, and hope that any McClendon descendants in the area will contact Steve also. A really short e-mail from Rynda Roberts Clark, of Kenedy, Texas, offers to share a photo of her great-grandparents, Joseph Roberts and Martha Slaton, of Fayette County. Their story ran back in April of 2001. Those who may be interested may contact Rynda at Packrat1996@wmconnect.com. There are several more letters I’ll run in the next few weeks. I welcome feedback from any of you who may have seen your family mentioned in the columns. Send letters 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.)
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