Finding Your Folks: Robert Tidwell and the wild goose chase

I have just been on the second worst wild goose chase of my genealogy “career” trying to track a child of Mark and Frances Boyd Tidwell. The worst was several years ago when I tracked an Owens family for two years before I found out it was the wrong one.

However, the biggest difference is that this Tidwell information, though on the wrong Tidwell, can be used. The information I so meticulously gathered on the wrong Owens family could not. Such is genealogy. Live and learn.

So, the only child of Mark and Frances that I’m sure of is Mary who married William Jasper Hembree and lived in Carroll County. They had three children: Ella J., William M.W., and Emma L. Hembree, who all grew up in Carroll County. They apparently lived in the vicinity of Powell’s Chapel Methodist Church because that’s where Mary and William Hembree are buried, along with at least two of their children and a host of Mary’s Boyd relatives.

What happened to Mary’s brothers — William, Robert, John and James — remains a mystery. They were all born between 1840 and 1848 and may have served and died in the Civil War. Even the youngest would have been 16 in 1864. How sad if that was the case with all of them.

The Robert Tidwell I researched for the past two weeks, according to Internet resources (don’t believe a word of it), was thought to have been the son of Mark and Frances Tidwell and was said to have married a Tabitha Jane Clark Edwards, a widow with one child, in Meriwether County in 1866. The couple was said to have moved to Alabama where Robert died about 1905 and Tabitha died in 1916. That was the extent of my lead. But it was better than nothing and I was off on my search.

It was just providence that, within days, the following message came across the Randolph-L e-mail list, a Rootsweb-sponsored list for those researching in Randolph County, Ala. The message was one in a series of transcriptions done by Candace Teal Gravelle of Oregon and taken from microfilm records of The Roanoke Leader newspaper, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 1917. It said:

“Administrator’s Notice, Final Settlement. State of Alabama, Randolph County Probate Court, November 21, 1917.“In the matter of the estate of Mrs. T.J. Tidwell and the estate of R.W. Tidwell, deceased.

“Notice to: Sallie Dewberry who resides in the State of Tennessee, post office address unknown; Clementine Hodge who resides in the State of Georgia, post office LaGrange.

“This day came B.M.P. Stone, administrator of the estates of said deceased, and filed his accounts, vouchers, written evidence, and statement under oath for final settlement of said administrations. Whereupon it is ordered that the 22nd day of December 1917 be appointed a day on which to make such settlements, at which time all persons interested can appear and contest same if they think proper. Witness my hand this 21st day of November 1917. John T. Heflin, Judge of Probate.”

As you can see, this fit my family to a “T” and was so full of leads I couldn’t believe it. But, as I searched and uncovered more facts, red flags started popping up and warning me that this Robert might not be the child of Frances and Mark.

The most obvious was the absence of children named Frances or Mark and the presence of children with names totally foreign to both the Tidwell and the Boyd family. (Clementine? Where did that come from?)

Another was Robert’s consistent recording of his mother’s birthplace as being Virginia. Frances Boyd was, without a doubt, born in South Carolina.

Consistently near or adjacent to Robert in the censuses (both in Georgia and in Alabama) was a John Tidwell, born in 1833, married to an Amanda. Who in the heck was this? My Robert’s brother John wasn’t born until 1845. Things just didn’t fit.

And so, I began to look at the possibility that this Robert Tidwell belonged to another Tidwell family and, finally, I think I found the right one.

I believe this Robert was the son of William Tidwell and Martha Andrews and the grandson of Benjamin Tidwell and Milly Grimes. His parents were in Coweta in 1850 and his mother in Meriwether in 1860. His siblings were named John (b. abt 1833), Benjamin, Milly A., Clementine, Pauline, Emily and Martha. His mother’s birthplace was Virginia. (Oh yeah. Now we’re cookin’.)

Robert was in Meriwether in 1870, and in Randolph County, Ala. in 1880 and 1900. His wife, “Tabithy Jane,” is listed as a widow in 1910. Children appearing in the censuses through the year include Mollie, Melinda Clementine, Amanda J., Sarah E., Dolluska, Barbra, and Viola, although Tabitha said she had given birth to 11 children, with 7 living in 1910. In the 1900 census, she said she had only 10.

Clementine married Joe Hodge and moved to LaGrange by 1920, Sarah (Sally) married Enoch B. Dewberry and lived in Lawrence County, Tenn. by 1920. Viola married a Hines and became a widow shortly after her marriage. Amanda J. Tidwell was married to B.M.P. Stone who administered the estate.

If you have evidence contrary to what I found, please write and tell us what you know. But, I believe we are on the right track. It appeared that no one online had done serious research on this family.

Although I don’t have time to research for you, I welcome stories about your ancestors who lived in the south metro Atlanta area. Send your stories to me at The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214. By e-mail (which I prefer), I can be reached at jkilgore@thecitizen.com or JodieK444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!