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Brick Walls of My Ancestry. Can You Help?

I have some brick walls in my ancestry - ancestors for whom I have little information about: no parents' names, no sibling names, little or no census information, OR, a family relation that I have a DNA connection to but don't know how.

I am on ancestry.com, but I'm not sure it can help me anymore regarding these brick walls, So I'm hoping that, by posting this information on a public web page, I might be able to find someone who has the info I'm looking for - I'm hoping that when people search for certain names on Google or Bing or Duck Duck Go or whatever, this page might come up.

A summary of what I'm interested in finding out about:

Mansfield (white) and Shaw (black) families of Hale and Perry Counties in Alabama, and surrounding areas, 1820 - 1930 (more details at the link).

Beasley, family from Georgia, USA, 1810 - 1900 (more details at the link)

Smith or Schimdt and Wells, Georgia, USA, 1830 - 1900 (see below).

Martha Bradshaw or Bratcher (see below - near the bottom).


Smith or Schmidt Info I am looking for:

Emma Smith 
My 2rd great-grandmother

Birth: June 1854 (according to the 1900 Census)
Father: born in Germany (according to the 1900 Census)
Mother: born in South Carolina (according to the 1900 Census)
Home in 1900 (according to that year's census): Reed, Henderson, Kentucky
Home in 1910 (according to that year's census): Reed, Henderson, Kentucky
Death: 1918
Brothers or sisters: William, born in 1850 in Indiana, others unknown

The 1900 census says that her father was from Germany. So that means her maiden name was probably Schmidt, not Smith. And I believe his name was William, which makes him William Schmidt in Germany and William Smith in the USA.

We have a death certificate for Emma that says her mother was Polly Wells. Family lore says Polly was born around 1830 in South Carolina and that she died in Georgia, we guess around 1880. I am skeptical that that was her name. 

According to a 1900 census, Emma Beasley was living with her brother, not her husband, probably because her husband, Morris, died in 1893. The brother that she was living with was William Smith, born Feb. 1850 in Indiana. William, her brother, died on August 31, 1906, at the age of 56. According to an interview with Emma Cravens, my grandmother and his great-grand niece and grand-daughter of Emma Beasley, William (Bill) died because he "fell into a fire." 

I am searching for the exact place Emma Smith was born, any other siblings' names (if any) and her parents full names and where they were born.

I am at a complete stand still and have been for years regarding this branch of the family - and it's frustrating because this branch of the family is why I joined ancestry.com - and don't get me wrong, the service has been a tremendous help for other branches, and for finding descendants of Ambrose and Missouri, and for solving oh-so-many family mysteries in other branches.

Martha Bradshaw or Bratcher Info I am looking for:

Martha Bradshaw or Bratcher, married name Martha Perrin, was one of my 3rd great-grandmothers. I think she was born in 1834 in Grainger County, Tennessee. She was married to William Perrin (1827–1865), also of Grainger County and my 3rd great-grandfather. She is listed in the 1860 census as living in Grainger County, married to William, with three kids. The 1870 census changes her birth year two years and adds a kid.

The 1924 death certificate for her son, John Perrin, is the only official record I've found of her maiden name - Bradshaw. She died in 1895, according to other people's ancestry.com trees.

Did William Perrin die in the civil war? Did he die in Tennessee?
Did she die in Tennessee?
Is perhaps, her last name wrong, and it's not Bradshaw nor Bratcher?

What documents can help that I cannot find:
  • Marriage certificate - she married William Perrin sometime in the 1850s in Tennessee, probably in Grainger County, Tennessee
  • Death certificate for William Perrin, probably in Grainger County, Tennessee
  • Burial site and tombstone information for William Perrin
  • Death certificate for Martha

Have info that could help me?

If you have information, please contact me at
 jcravens42 "at" yahoo "dot" com

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The personal opinions expressed on this page are solely those of Ms. Cravens, unless otherwise noted.