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This is a continuation of a discussion I started in a blog I posted. This history has already captivated one member [besides myself] of GenealogyWise - GeneJ. I have benefited already from his insights [as GeneJ pointed out, sometimes all it takes is another pair of eyes].

I am reaching out for help because it has come that time when I realize I need to. Please read the blogs already posted about Julia Rivers McClain, and if any person, place or thing jumps out at you, please let me know. Thanks.

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Whew! Those PDF files give me a fit. If I did not want this document so much, I would have given up. I got it, though, thanks to you.

I have Ancestry.com and that particular hint never came up for me. After I entered the information you provided, voila! There it was. I depend on Ancestry to search its records on my behalf, and I must say their system does an adequate job. However, this is not the first time that I have had to find a record without the assistance of the Ancestry search engine. [Come to think of it, mans assistance is always going to be the best.]

I then tried to find a record of Julia as Julia Rivers McClain with no luck. I turned everything off and went to bed, but my computer kept calling out to me, so here I am. This is a most interesting history I have stumbled into. Thanks for your help. I am going to go broke paying you back for those semi trailers you are using to deliver this wealth of information. LOL.
Thanks, GeneJ. I am going to try this website: Obits Archive. I have had some success there, and the last document I purchased only cost me something like $2 and change. [Of course, with rising costs, that may have changed; I paid that about 16 months ago.] Thought I would throw it out here because you and others may want to check it out if you already haven't.

You have given me something to think about with the FindAGrave site. I have visited off and on from time to time, never found any graves relating to my research. I do have the burial sites of a few of my ancestors, and this may be a way to get photos of their graves.

There is a confession I have to make. I revealed in chat yesterday that I don't EVER go to cemeteries [except when a relative is being buried]. Cemeteries and I don't quite feel comfortable with each other. In fact, the discomfort is so great, I will probably not even attend my own funeral and subsequent burial. :-)) Thanks again.
I bookmarked FindAGrave site. Thanks for the reference.
I checked the newspaper site, but I couldn't find the papers from Bishopsville. I bookmarked the site, and I hope I remember to return to it. It looks really interesting.

There is one Felder in my direct line, Ruby, who is 100 years old. Her name is Ruby. The Felder name is very common in South Carolin which makes for some challenging research.

I'll pass on posting to George Geder's forum at this time because no one in my family tree, so far, has come from Africa. Thanks for the suggestion. It's something to keep in mind.
RESEARCH OVERLOAD!! RESEARCH OVERLOAD!! LOL.

I should know better. I should know that in some apps, you have to be very specific as to how you frame your searches.

Once again, thanks for saving my bacon.
I am still trying to find some record of Julia Rivers under the name McClain. Nothing so far.
Gene, at this point, a little background on my research may help. My main branches are Adams [maternal] and Spivey [paternal] both in Georgia when my research started. My daughter is the Felder descendant. In my early days, I would do what turned out to be wide ranging searches [the information is much more organized today as more and more volunteers got involved and set up databases]. I came across Julia Rivers McClain in my Felder research, but my daughter's father [we are divorced] said he knew nothing of any relations by either the name Rivers or McClain. So, I put those notes aside, and what I presented here was the only information I have.

Subsequently, I did meet two fellow researchers, one of whom was researching the Rivers McClain name, and one of whom was researching the Felder name. I believe I saw one, Allen McClain, in the chat room here one day. He is the gentleman who is researching the Rivers & McClain surnames.

In the case of the gentlemen researching the Felder surname, I have reached out to him and am waiting to hear back. Thanks for the suggestions. I will follow them for all my lines.
There is a vital piece of information I am missing, GeneJ. Five of Russell Felder's children migrated to New York where I discovered them on the 1930 Federal Census living in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Russell Felder Jr was among them. Russell Felder Jr is my daughter's great grandfather. I am missing the name of his first wife, my daughter's great grandmother.

Hopefully, they were married here in New York City, but that is not certain since the five went back and forth between New York City and South Carolina, as did their other four siblings. As a matter of fact, two of the brothers who came to New York City seem to have returned to South Carolina to live [citation: their death certificates].

In trying to fill in some of the missing pieces, I keep going back to the question of which one of Americus Felder's wives was the matriarch of the Felder family I am researching. That brought me to the question of whether or not Julia Rivers McClain Felder may have been married previously, and the patriarch I am searching for may have been a McClain, not a Felder, originally. Children, by virtue of the way census records are often recorded, are shown by the name of their stepfather once their mother remarries.

Am I making sense here?

Anyway, I would love to have a second set of eyes and hands when those eyes and hands have time to devote to my search. Thank you more than I can say for the offer.
It was actually somewhat of the other way around, Gene. I told you that I was researching the Felder line. That research led me to Americus Felder, and there seems to be a good connection with my patriarch, Russell Felder. During this phase, I was led to Georgia and Alabama. I was already researching my other family lines in Georgia, and I thought the Felder line was connected to them. I did not find any such connection, but I did come across the name Julia Rivers McClain Felder and miiy memory is somewhat sketchy, but I thought I came across that name in Alabama.

Recently, I came across the notations about Julia Rivers McClain again, and decided to do a little more research on her. I found her connection to Americus Felder who was already in my tree. The real problem I have at this time is whether or not my patriarch, Russell Felder, is an offspring of the marriage between Julia Rivers McClain and Americus Felder or, is Russell Felder the offspring of some other marriage of Julia Rivers', or some other liaison of Americus Felder's.

I probably should not have posted the information about Russell Felder, Jr here because that is another facet of the family family I am trying to piece together, based on issues that arose as I tried to flesh out his family.

I am trying to not go off on a tangent because I know how easy it is to do that. I, too, started with the known [Russell Felder] and his father [Abraham Felder]. According to his great grandson, Abraham Felder was a white man of the Jewish faith, whom the family fondly called 'Ham'. I am trying to find out where in this family that particular scenario fits. Thanks, as always, for your help. I certainly appreciate it and can certainly use it, as well.
That is where I am running into the problem, Gene. I am not sure if Russell Felder was born as Russell Felder, or Russell McClain, or Russell Rivers. It is tough without the necessary documentation to show which of Americus Felders' wives was the mother of this particular clan. Thanks for your help. I am sorry to have presented such a problem. Now you can see why I posted in the first place. This family is presenting a challenge [as are some of my others], but this is the one I chose to post about. Too bad, I may have had better luck asking about one of my other confusing [i.e., brickwall] family branches.
Hi, Gene. There I go again. I don't think I am a bad researcher, but I do have some serious flaws. :-( As much as I would like to respond to your question, I don't know how except to refer you back to my previous posts.

That being said, however, I realize that you are correct. I have found females as young as 13 giving birth, but never one as young as 10 [which I don't believe is a common enough occurrence to give credence to Julia having given birth at that age].

After putting everything together before I even posted here, I figured that the ancestor of my family patriarch was Elizabeth Church, the one wife of Americus Felder for whom no 'formal' marriage record exists. I have doubts about that, but that is the best theory I could develop under the circumstances I was aware of.

My second theory, that this patriarch was born with a surname other than Felder led me to question the parentage of Julia Rivers McClain's children. That led to that question being posted.

I am in touch with only one other Felder researcher, and it is he who gave me the information which led me to the relationship between Americus Felder and my Felder family. He is the person I have been trying to contact for further clarification. He did provide me with written documentation about the national Felder Family organization [of which John Moffitt is the national president] , but the compact disk he also gave me would not work in my computer so the information on that disk is not available to me.

The Russell Felder [Sr] I am researching [who was born June 1877] was, according to information from the Felder family researchers, living in Maitland, Orange, Florida in 1880. I have not yet found that census record, so can't present it here. Any suggestions?
Hi, Gene. I thought I replied to this post, but I don't see that reply here or on my page.

First, let me point out that I was contacted by a Felder Family researcher who identified Abraham Felder as a member of the Felder clan the Felder Family Organization [whose National president is John Moffitt] is researching. I have tried to contact the gentleman on more than one occasion, and the one response I received said he would get back to me.

What I needed from him was the name of Abraham's parents because the printout of names he provided me with does not match the children up with their parents, spouses, or children [this information may have been on the CD he also gave me, but that CD would not play in my computer because my computer will not play burned CDs [sigh].

This list of names provides the name, date of birth, and census record where the individual can be found. That is where I got the information that Abraham Felder [born 1876] was on the 1880 Federal census living in Marion City, Florida. I still have not discovered that census record. There is only one other Felder on this list residing in Marion, Florida at this time and that is Isaac Felder [born 1834] who, according to this research, appears on the 1900 Federal Census for that location. Isaac could possibly be Abraham's father.

Now, examining the dates [Abraham was born about 1876 and Russell was born about 1872, they would most likely have been brothers or cousins, not father and son.] That still leaves me in search of the Abraham Felder who was the patriarch of the clan I am researching. It also leaves me wondering who Isaac Felder was since my ex-husband says his great grandfather was Abraham [Ham] Felder, a white Jew.

I feel hopelessly lost at this point. I am also tackling the problem of identifying the mother of Russell's son William, who was born about 1919, which is a couple of years after Jalura died, and a few months after Russell himself died. [The 1930 Federal Census shows William, then 11, living with his siblings in Brooklyn, New York.]

A researcher kindly searched through some South and North Carolina records for me and came up with the name Tela Felder [1876 - 1926] who might possibly be William's mother.

This is an update on where I stand at this time. The Russsell Felder you found is the same Russell Felder I am researching. Thanks again for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated as I try to fnd my way through this fog. Spivey

P.S. The Felder Foundation is not researching this branch of the Felder family tree as far as I can tell by the notes that were given to me.

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