How does Charlie connect to my family?
Charlie's daughter, Joanna, married Smylie Arthur Coleman.
Smylie was the son of Henry Coleman and Eudora "Dora" Markham.
Eudora and my maternal grandmother, Alice Markham Marshall, were siblings.
These little darlings were a part of the Great Migration. Between 1916 and 1970, more than 6 million African Americans left the rural south for the big cities of the Northeast, Midwest and the West.
They were the children of Henry Howard and Mary Goodwin Young. The two older children were born in Brookhaven, Lincoln County, Mississippi. The mother reported on the 1930 census that the youngest child, Henry Samuel, was born in Kentucky. The children were the youngest of their mother's nine children.
Mary Goodwin first married Willie Young and had five children with him: Cecil, Martha, Wilma, Jessie, and Ruby. In a previous relationship, she had given birth to a son, Arthur Carter.
Willie Young died 19 Feb 1917 of pellagra at the age of 48. Wikipedia defines the disease as a vitamin deficiency disease most commonly caused by a chronic lack of niacin (vitamin B3) in the diet. The disease is described as the "four D's": diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia and death.
The second husband was the younger children's father. He was Henry Howard born about 1879. Mary married Henry 26 Jan 1919 in Lincoln County, Mississippi. The marriage lasted almost eleven years. Henry died 21 Dec 1929.
Mary's older daughters had moved to Indianapolis during the early 1920s for better opportunities. After the death of her husband, Mary moved to Indianapolis. Pictured below is her home in Indianapolis. Note the tricycle in the yard for children.
Photos courtesy of Christi Young.
The children's mother Mary Goodwin Young Howard, and my grandaunt Alice Marshall Goodwin were sisters-in-law.
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There were twelve Bank sisters: Mattie Mae, Arcola, Viola, Leola, Beatrice, Mary, Odessa, Olivia, twins Archie Mae and Jannie Mae, Annie Lee, and Joy, born between 1908-1934. They were the daughters of Archie and Jannie Scott Banks of Lincoln County, MS.
I wonder if the sisters were labeled by people outside of the family and family members. Was one known as the smart one, the skinny one, the pretty one, the fat one, the fast one, the ugly one, the quite one, the silly one, the sweet one, the bookish one, the whatever one?
Bertha Taliaferro died November 15 1930 at 5AM. Embalming was not a practice in rural communities in Mississippi. Her family and friends would wash and prepare her body for burial.
Print Henley and Carrie Singleton, children of the deceased, went to the casket dealer Oscar J Young for a casket. Young was a farmer in 1900 but by 1910 he was a salesman and used a vehicle in his business, by 1920 he had a store. They may have looked around at what Young had or asked for the standard casket. They chose a half couch casket at the price of $150. They also got a robe, and hearse service was $10 additional.
Did Young bring the casket to the home, or did Bertha's children bring the casket with them in a horse driven wagon?
Bertha was buried the next day following her death, November 16 1930. She was buried in the Hunters Cemetery, likely next to her husband Thomas Taliaferro.
