Jessica Horne Collins

John McMurry: Another Brick Wall in Winn Parish

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is Brick Wall. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

Brick walls? Every genealogist has a few. They’re the difficult ancestors who seem to appear out of (or disappear into) thin air, leaving few records and stumping us for years. These family members are our greatest challenges, but — if we make a breakthrough — are our greatest victories.

John McMurry, my 2x-great-grandfather, is one of my long-standing brick walls. Like my challenging Smart family, John lived in Winn Parish, Louisiana, in the 1880s. The courthouse and all its records were destroyed by an arsonist’s fire on November 26, 1886.¹ (The courthouse had previously burned in 1868, and was again destroyed by fire in 1917.²) Records that could answer my questions about John McMurry were likely lost in these fires.

But courthouse disasters don’t mean the end of the road for genealogy research. It just means we must look for evidence from other sources.

Jean Joseph “Montreal” Etier: Early Caldwell Parish Settler Profiled in the News

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is In the News. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

Newspapers are great sources of genealogical information. Some common newspaper finds are birth announcements, engagement and wedding announcements, and obituaries. However, modern-era newspapers can also give clues about distant ancestors — like this article about my 6x-great-grandfather Jean Joseph Etier.

**Article about Joseph Etier**, The (Monroe, Louisiana) News-Star, 1 Nov 1998

Bailey Loving: War of 1812 Veteran

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is 12. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

This week’s prompt could be interpreted in many ways. The “12” could refer to an important date or may bring to mind an ancestor with 12 children. I thought of the War of 1812 and Bailey Loving, my 4x-great-grandfather who served in the Mississippi Militia during this conflict.

Thomas Leonard Smith & Lillie Modena Ingram: Large Blended Family

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is LARGE FAMILY. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

Large families seem to run in my Smith genes. My mother was the oldest of 11 children, and my ancestors Lot Smith and Elizabeth Loving had sixteen!

My great-grandparents Thomas Leonard Smith and Lillie Modena Ingram also had a large family, but it was a blended brood of his, hers, and theirs. They were kind of like a 1920s version of the Brady Bunch — with an unfortunate mix of the Bible’s book of Job, too.

John Morgan Smith: Bachelor Uncle?

This entry is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. This week’s prompt is BACHELOR UNCLE. To see other posts in this series, view my 52 Ancestors in 2019 index.

Our family histories are often focused on ancestors who married and had children — after all, that’s how we got here. But what about the bachelors and maidens in our family trees? They deserve to be remembered, too.

**Photo of John Morgan Smith, late 1940s**¹

John Morgan Smith — known as “Uncle Johnny” — lived with my mother and her family in their dog trot-style farmhouse during her early childhood. He was my mother’s great-uncle. Without a family of his own, Uncle Johnny lived at Smith Hill for many years — first with his brother Leo Smith and Leo’s wife Dena, and then with my grandparents James Paul and Dorothy Smith when they took over the farm. Uncle Johnny’s room was the small one, second on the right, walking down the breezeway.