Jan 12, 2002

Information learned in Tennessee Part 3 – the Honeycutts

Gale / Hugh Smith, Smiths / downloads, research, Tennessee /

The Honeycutts

Trulene and I started to search for Janie Honeycutt in 1920. Once again, I had no success because of being too literal. Trulene found her family on the 1920 census and discovered Janie was actually Eliza Jane.

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Some things I noticed — Ida Belle was probably 15 when they married because she was 16 when the first child was born. The Honeycutts lived on Capuchin Creek Rd. and Trulene told me it’s so remote that even today no one hardly ever goes out that far.

1910 Census

Trulene found the 1910 census next, even with a change in names. This census was taken on May 2nd where the 1920 census had been taken on January 19th so there was a slight shift in ages. If you look at the census page image note the 11 and 13 year old boys are farm laborers now but listed as still attending school. Eliza Jane could read but not write at 8 years old.

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 1900 Census

Some observations — Ida Belle was 17 years old with a 3 and 2 year old on June 14, 1900. The census said both James and Ida Belle could read but not write.

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1895 Marriage of James Honeycutt and Ida Bell Roysden

There’s several things about this document that annoy me. Ida Belle’s name isn’t even spelled correctly, no signature was required by the bride-to-be, and it’s almost like she was sold to him. What can I say? It was 1895 in rural Tennessee.  Ida Belle was born on 7/13/1880 and James on 4/26/1875 so Ida Belle was 4 months short of her 15th birthday when she married. The entire entry is in the same handwriting so this would back up that neither James nor Ida Belle could write.

 

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1930 Census

Trulene, being a thorough researcher, wanted to find the 1930 census to verify that Eliza Jane was no longer listed there. Despite the census taker entering the name as James Heneycutt Trulene was able to find the record.

One the 1930 census they asked the age at marriage and the put 18 and 14. That is incredibly young. Apparently the son John who was 1 year old on the previous census did not survive. Daisy, the youngest child, must have been on the next page of the census and wasn’t listed. She was born in 1922.

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One last document I found from the Honeycutts — the WWI draft card for James Honeycutt. Look at the eye and hair color. Yellow eyes and black hair. Yellow eyes? That’s a new one and I wonder if it was true.

 

Question remains

This was all interesting genealogy of my dad’s maternal side, but it didn’t get me any closer to finding out who the father may have been to Eliza Jane’s child.

Trulene and other ladies at the historical society told me it was common practice back then that when a daughter got pregnant out of wedlock the child would be raised as the parent’s child, not the daughter’s. This was viewed as more socially acceptable.

They also told me it was common place for the girls to never tell anyone who the father was. I couldn’t understand why a case of teenage hormones had to be kept in such secrecy until they explained that more often than not the father was a married man. So the girls protected the cheating, predatory male with their secrets.

But what little dad said about his early childhood sounded like it was he and his mother and no mention of anyone else around so I wondered if she had left home after the birth of the child. Trulene said there was a chance there might be a court record if she had to apply for welfare for herself and the baby so I decided make a trip to Scott county.

 

May 11, 2001

Information learned in Tennessee Part 2 – the Smiths

Gale / Hugh Smith, Smiths / downloads, research, Tennessee /

Trip to Tennessee

I decided I would have to go to Tennessee if I wanted to find out anything more, so I went there last week where I spent a lot of time at the Campbell County Historical Society. With the help of Trulene Nash, a volunteer at the society, we found more information than I ever could have hoped for.

*Note on ancestry.com searches – I should note that the majority of information I got in Tennessee was on ancestry.com, which I could have accessed from home. Apparently I needed the search skills of someone more experienced and Trulene is a former employee of the FBI. Once again I was bit in the butt by my tendency to be too literal. Her searches were more ballpark than precise and that’s what netted all the information. Don’t be too specific (or literal) when searching ancestry.com. There are tons of typos and flat out inaccuracies so you need to broaden your perspective.

Considering I more or less went to Tennessee expecting to come home knowing no more than I did when I left, it ended up being a very worthwhile trip. But to be honest, just seeing where dad lived would have made the trip worth the time and money so I was really thrilled with what I learned.

1940 Census

So let’s start with that 1940 census where they lived at 319 Lick Fork Rd. in Elk Valley. I was shocked to learn there was an adult male in the household since my dad had never once in his life mentioned one, but had said there were two half brothers. Here’s the census information:

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Marriage Certificate

Trulene found the marriage certificate for John and Jane on ancestry.com where I had totally failed. I was looking for Jane and John. She was looking for variations on the name and found JF and Janie.

I had learned that Clay’s father was John F. Smith when I saw the social security numbers for dad and Clay were one number apart. I got curious who had the number in between so I found a way to look it up and discovered it was John F. Smith. I never thought to look for JF.

Since John was born in 1889 and Janie in 1902 that meant she was 23 and he was 34 years old so there was a 13 year difference in age. My dad was 3 years old when his mother married John.

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1930 Census

Once again I have to credit Trulene with this find. I was busy searching Tennessee where she broadened her search and found them in Virginia.

I was once again shocked to see they not only lived in Virginia (which dad had never mentioned) but they stated on the census that 5 year old John Jr. (Clay) and 3 year old David had been born in Virginia. The change in the names of the children was also surprising, but I was learning the quality of information gathering by census takers was less than optimal at times. I also think people changed what they told the census takers. John (the head-of-household) was 52 in the 1940 Census and 36 in this one. I knew from his social security number that his birth year was 1989, so I wondered why about the inaccuracy of his age in 1930. Could the age difference been an issue or had the census taker made a mistake.

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All this left me with a dilemma. Dad was born September 23, 1920. John Smith and Janie Honeycutt married December 28, 1923 so John Smith was not his father and I had no idea how to find who the biological father was. With the help of Trulene I kept looking.