Byram and Tidwell family members might want to pay particular attention to this week’s story. It concerns an error in their family lineage which has been propagated over and over on the Internet and in some print resources.

I couldn’t stand it. After finishing the column last week and still having so many unanswered questions, I trotted down to the Coweta County Courthouse last Friday to see if I could find anything that would throw some light on our Mary E. Tidwell situation.

I hate to tell you this, but we’ve got some refiguring to do on statements made in last week’s column about Mary E. Tidwell, identified as the daughter of Benjamin Tidwell and Martha Moody. It appears there are several Mary E. Tidwells and two families are laying claim to the same one.

I had a delightful conversation Wednesday with Lurline Dickinson of Union City about her Tidwell ancestors. Lurline is descended from Benjamin Tidwell and Martha Moody through their daughter, Luraney Tidwell who married Daniel G. Gilbert. Benjamin was the son of William Tidwell and Mary Amelia Jones. We had mentioned him a couple of weeks ago and questioned whether he was married once or twice. I think we have our answer.

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.

For those who may be curious, my mystery caller did call back and I pointed her to the Old Campbell County Historical Society’s research room. She was thrilled to learn about it.

William Tidwell and Mary Amelia Jones, our current family of interest, had nine children, as previously stated. Seven were born in Putnam County and the last two were born in the Coweta-Meriwether area, according to Ettie Tidwell McCall, author of McCall, Tidwell and Allied Families, written in 1931. This book has been the basis for much of the information in this series on the Tidwells. These nine children were:

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? And I really appreciate your patience as I recuperated from open heart surgery and had to drop the ball here, at least temporarily. I am doing much better, thank you, and am going to attempt to get these columns going once again, picking up where we left off with the family of William Tidwell and Mary Amelia Jones.

To all my fellow genealogy enthusiasts and readers: My deepest apologies for the recent temporary interruption in the columns. Believe me, it was totally out of my control.

When I started this Jones surname research, I had no idea I was opening up a real can of worms. I guess with a name like “Jones,” many conflicts should be expected. After researching the Internet using official records as well as family trees composed by others, I have come to the conclusion that this family is a real mess.

I had intended to wrap up Mary Amelia Jones’ family this week but two things popped up which require dealing with before we go any farther.

The Jones line in America, that behind Milly Tidwell Boyd (of Fayette County) through her mother, Mary Amelia Jones Tidwell (of Meriwether and Coweta counties), started in Virginia in the late 1600s, as descendants of Captain Richard Jones and his first wife, Amy Batte.

I don’t know whether anyone’s ever stopped long enough to think about it, but we genealogists tend to be a bit sexist. We go flying off into the wild blue yonder tracking our male ancestors, but when it comes to the females, we try to find their maiden names and, that done, we just sort of leave them dangling there, hanging off an outside branch of the family tree ... petticoats fluttering in the breeze.

As related last week, the Westmorelands were among the earliest settlers of the Fayette County area, arriving in the 1820s and settling near what is now County Line Christian Church.

Continuing with our series on the Tidwell family of Fayette, this week we add the collateral family of Westmoreland, descendants of William Westmoreland of Virginia. Much of the information in this series was taken from the book, “McCall-Tidwell and Allied Families,” written by Ettie Tidwell McCall of Atlanta in 1931. Several members of the Westmoreland family married Tidwells.

There were several marriages between the Tidwell and Westmoreland families but we’ll only discuss one this week; the marriage of William de Graffenried Tidwell to Angelina Westmoreland. Much of the information on this family is taken from the book, “McCall-Tidwell and Allied Families” written by Ettie Tidwell McCall of Atlanta in 1931. William de Graffenried Tidwell was Mrs. McCall’s grandfather.

Last week we left off with the children of William Tidwell who married Mary Amelia Jones and came to the Coweta-Meriwether area. This week we’ll discuss his brother, Benjamin, from whom he was never separated after the two were orphaned in 1783. Much of the information on this family is taken from the book, “McCall-Tidwell and Allied Families” written by Ettie Tidwell McCall of Atlanta in 1931. Some is from my own research.

Continuing with the story of the descendants of John Tidwell of Virginia, we pick up this week with his grandson, William Tidwell, son of John (Jr.), who moved to Craven County, S.C. with his parents in 1772. William was born about 1765 in Westmoreland County, Va.

Betcha didn’t think you’d get me, this week huh? Well, it’s time for my annual, “thank you,” “pep talk,” and “how-to-get-your-religion-stuff-in-the-paper” column.

This week we’ll launch the series of southside families from the book, “McCall, Tidwell and Allied Families,” written by Ettie Tidwell McCall in 1931. Descendants of this Tidwell family married into many, many families in Fayette, Coweta, Campbell, Meriwether, Pike and other Atlanta metro counties. The more families I read about, the more amazed I became at the number of people (surnames) who are descended from this family.

Quite by accident, I stumbled across an old book online and opened a whole lot of doors to Southside families.

I had run into a dead end on one of my lines and decided to take a different tack and head in another direction. Since the Tidwells married not only into the Boyd family of Bethany, but also into my Robert Boyd’s family, on a whim, I did a search for Tidwells at Ancestry. Up popped this terrific little book (360-plus pages) which has a number of family surnames very familiar to Fayette, Coweta, Campbell, Carroll, Pike, and Meriwether county researchers.

I found another little genealogy treasure at the Hogansville auction last month. It’s a book on the life and times of the Rev. Dr. James Clyde Adams, a Methodist minister who served his last years in Heard county and contributed many wonderful things to the development and progress of that county beginning in the 1930s.

I don’t know how she found it, but Sarah Sullivan found and responded to a wonderful story we did in September of 2004 on the Price family of Deerfield, Conn., whose descendants ended up here in Fayette and Coweta counties. The story was submitted by Ken Arnold who has been a regular contributor to our genealogy section over the years.

We’re picking up this week with the continuation of the Stamps family of Coweta, submitted by Carol K. Garrett of Chamblee several months ago (sorry ‘bout the delay). Carol’s letter was in response to my column of several years ago on the Stamps family of early Georgia, which I tentatively was connecting to my Noel Johnson and Tempy Stamps in Oglethorpe. Noel and Tempy are said to have moved to Tennessee and lived near the Johnson family which was connected to that of President Andrew Johnson. The families are said to be related, although, for the life of me I can’t make a firm link.

I’m going to have to make a serious apology. Late last spring/early summer, when I was totally caught up in the families at Bethany, I received an e-mail from Carol Garrett of Chamblee who responded to a column I did last year on the Stamps and Johnson families. I had to put a lot of letters on hold back then so as not to break the flow of the stories.

Before you start getting all excited at the names in the title, I should advise you that I have found no connection of these families to the Harps and Norrises in Fayette (except for one teeny tiny clue), although the author of the letter I received does live in Fayetteville.

I received an e-mail recently from Fran Gillich, who believes she is connected to the Bennetts of Fayette County. However, proof of the connection has eluded her for years.

This week I’ll give you a little more on the third family mentioned by Tim Turner in his letter a few weeks ago, and that is another family of Boyds who ended up in our area. As far as I can determine, these Boyds are not related to the Boyds at Bethany or the Boyds of Meriwether and Cleburne (Ala.)

This week I’m going to address Tim Turner’s letter about his Boyds, Corbins and Bradberrys of Gwinnett County, but first I want to say something about our new Web site.

We’ll wrap up the Holley family this week with an e-mail I received from Tom McBryde of Austin, Texas, another Holley descendant. Tom’s information indicates that John Holley’s father was William Holley, as Johnnye Moore Clements was trying to prove several years ago.