Soon after Art’s Grandma Barnhill died in 2001 (at the age of 101), Art and I spent some time with Art’s mom going through some old photos. There were some very old ones of Art’s grandparents, great grandparents, etc. and I became really interested in them. I asked Art’s mom if I could borrow the pictures so I could copy them. In the midst of that, I decided it would be fun to make Ken and Ross photo albums for Christmas. I’ve always liked to give unusual Christmas gifts…ones with more meaning, more substance than just something bought at a store….something to treasure. I spent many hours copying photos and calling Art’s mom asking questions about the people in the photos. By Christmas I had two books, exactly alike, filled with Art’s family history. One day, while working on that project, it dawned on me that I had nothing like that about my family history. That made me very sad. Thus began my genealogy adventure…the search for my ancestors.
I’ve discovered that either you are really interested in your family history or you are not. There is no in-between. I also discovered that you usually don’t get interested until most everyone who could answer your questions is no longer on this earth to ask. That is certainly my situation. So what do you do? You have to dig for the information. You might be asking….why do you even care who your ancestors were? I don’t think there is a very clear answer. Like I said, you’re either interested or you’re not.
One of the reasons I’m writing this blog is so my kids and grandkids won’t have to wonder who I was and what I did in life and what I thought…in case they are interested someday…..after I’m no longer here to ask.
I never got to meet even one grandparent. They died before I was born. That’s sad to me…sadder the older I get. That means that I missed out on a whole bunch! My grandparents were never even talked about in our house when I was growing up. I’ll never understand that. But when I realized how much I had missed, I became very curious. No, I kind of became obsessed with finding out about my grandparents. Who were they? What were their names? What kind of lives did they live? Were they good people? Or would I be ashamed to find out about them? After several years of searching, I found out those answers.
Check out the pictures below. This is one of my really, really interesting stories I discovered. The old man on the left was William Frank Murray, my great grandfather…my mom’s mother’s father. For a long time he was what a genealogist calls “my brick wall” and I guess he really still is. I can find no trace of him being born or growing up or anything about his parents. He just appears about the time he marries my great grandmother. Well, guess what? On his death bed, he confessed to being John Wilkes Booth!! That’s the guy on the right. What do you think? Looks like it could be, huh? Booth as a young man compared to Murray as an old man? I’m no expert on photo-facial comparisons, but I would sure like to find someone who is. I know you’re thinking…but I thought there was a fire in a barn and Booth died there…..well, some people think that and others do not. Some Booth historians believe that he indeed escaped and lived to be an old man. They lost track of him for about 12 – 15 years and then think he lived in Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma in his later life. Guess where William Frank Murray lived during that time? Yep and I have the documentation to prove that part of his life. The Booth historian I visited with told me that I would be famous if we could prove that William Frank Murray was really John Wilkes Booth. I’m not sure I want to be famous.
Well, now for a better story or I mean one that is about a better man…my great grandfather on my daddy’s side…another great grandfather named William…William Garey…my daddy’s mother’s father. There’s no“brick wall” here. I have found lots and lots about him, pictures and even copies of letters he wrote. I’ve been to his gravesite in Hardin County, Tennessee. William Garey was a good man.
According to the man who wrote William Garey’s obituary: “Mr. Garey was a farmer and was a successful farmer always enjoying the farm and for many years had owned one of the good small farms in the county, which he kept up well and made a bountiful plenty for those he was commissioned to care for.” He went on to say, “William Garey was one of God’s noble men always standing for that which is right and best for his fellow man. He professed religion in early life and joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and was a ruling elder for many years always caring for and supporting the Church and was a leader in his community for schools.” In the writings of my Great Grandfather Garey, there is strong evidence that he was a deeply spiritual man of God.
Grandpa Garey had quite an interesting childhood. His parents emigrated from Ireland to New Orleans. William was the youngest of six children of David and Mary Ann Garey. On July 10, 1852 David died of yellow fever and then just a little over a year later Mary Ann died on August 1, 1853 leaving 6 children. The four oldest children were apparently able to take care of themselves, but the two youngest boys, Bartley, age eight, and William, age five, needed to be cared for. They were given to a Dutchman who kept them for about two years and then took them to a male orphan asylum on June 19, 1854 where they stayed four years.
In the early winter of 1858, J.H. Hawkins and Rueben White, farmers of Hardin County, Tennessee loaded wooden staves onto a flat boat and floated up the Tennessee River, down the Ohio River, down the Mississippi River to New Orleans to sell their goods. Needing extra help on the farm back in Hardin County, Mr. Hawkins applied to the necessary authorities while they were there and went to an orphanage to select a young man to take back with him. From among over 100 boys, he chose Bartley Garey. It is said that Bartley refused to go without his little brother, William, so because Mr. Hawkins could not take both boys, Mr. White decided to take William. The four of them walked back to Tennessee. The boys grew up near each other on neighboring farms and according to William “both had good homes – none better in Hardin County.” And William went on to say, ”But here we were 1,000 miles away from any relative of any kind, and everything different from what it was in a large city.” He said “Imagine dear reader if you can how two little children would feel under such circumstances.” Talking about the White family in his later years, William recalled, “I was living with them, Reuben and Caroline White, an orphan boy with no relatives save one brother and hundreds of miles away from my place of birth, was given a home by them and cared for as one of their own, under those circumstances.”
My great grandfathers,William Murray and William Garey. Two very different men.
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