Life at the Home20

A few posts back I explained that I had been forced to go cold turkey on my genealogical addiction about five years ago because I just didn’t have the time anymore. Full time work and supervising Sweetpea’s after school and evening activities just were just too overwhelming. Then GetAlong hit the road and I swiftly went into genealogy withdrawal. It took two years to lose the cravings for research time.

Now Sweetpea can drive and I have some free time. So to keep my mind off her lack of real driving experience I am digging out the old files and looking at them with very fresh eyes AND BOY DID I FIND SOMETHING INTERESTING! And I feel totally stupid for never seeing it before. Ok, so it’s not earth shattering but I was thrilled.

I had pretty much gone “eeny meeny miney mo” and pulled out the Confederate Pension Application of Widow M. F. Smith of McLennan County, Texas.  Background:  Martha Francis Chapman was born 28 August 1837 in Houston County, Texas to Robert D. Chapman and his wife, Rebecca Hodges. Robert D. Chapman is one of my DRT (Daughters of the Republic of Texas) proven ancestors. Martha married Littleton Smith in 1857.  The 1860 census lists Littleton as “Leticia” Smith along with Martha and their two oldest girls. In 1850 he had been listed alone in nearby Rusk County, age 18 and born in South Carolina.

Now there were some Littleton Smith’s in South Carolina but they are pretty well documented and don’t fit the criteria for my Littleton but I keep them in mind. Smith is a hard name to research so you tend to keep other Smiths in mind but you can’t know for sure if they are related. No other Smiths appeared to have moved with Littleton between 1850 and 1860. Other researchers have left information with the LDS church listing him as Robert Lilton Smith. In 1870 he is enumerated as Lewis Smith but with the correct family members. In 1880 he is listed in McLennan County, Texas as L. Smith, a horse breeder, with the same family. So that pretty much sums up the brick wall on my Smith line.

I spent a little time earlier in the day on Ancestry.com today to see if anything had popped up on my Smith line. I noticed a couple of other Littleton Smiths I didn’t remember seeing before but nothing really stuck out.

But back to the pension application - Martha is named as the widow of L. S. Smith throughout the document but in one place that I had apparently not been able to decipher earlier, he is named as Littleton Spivy Smith. It’s hard to read the handwriting but this time it made total sense because Littleton Spivey Smith was one of those individuals I noticed on Ancestry today. Did I scream? Pretty much and it felt so good to be back.  (Only another genealogist would understand that!)

Well, it turned out that my Littleton Spivy Smith (born ca 1832 in SC) is not the same Littleton Spivey Smith (born 1819 in GA) that is in Ancestry. I could find nothing to help me but I am one step closer than I was yesterday and that made my day.

Tags: Southern Genealogy //