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Dyer/Cox brick wall

I am looking for more information on the family of my great-great-grandmother Sarah Claire Dyer. I know her mother's first name but not her maiden name, and all I know about her father is his surname and country of birth. I would like to find out the full names of her parents and would also like to find out what happened to her siblings. Here is the information I have on this family:

Mary, born about 1838 or about 1842 in Ireland

Married unknown Dyer. He was born in Ireland and died before the 1870 census.

Children:

Mary E. “Mollie” Dyer, born about 1860 or about 1863 in Kentucky or Louisiana

Sarah Claire “Sadie” Dyer, born 8 October 1863 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, died 20 January 1945 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. Married John William M. “William” Gatlin on 26 June 1881 in Davidson County, Tennessee.

Michael Dyer, born about 1868-1869 in Tennessee

Mary married John Cox on 10 April 1871 in Davidson County, Tennessee. He was born in England and died before the 1880 census.

Children:

Nannie Cox, born about 1873 in Tennessee

Thomas Cox, born about 1874 in Tennessee

Willie Cox, born about 1877 in Tennessee

Nellie Cox, born about 1878 in Tennessee


The Nashville Public Library’s Nashville Local History Index of marriages has a marriage record for a Mary Dyer and Walter Hughes. It says Bnd. Feb. 1882. (Marriage bond date?)

I found a Mike Dyer in the Tennessee Census, 1810-91 database on ancestry.com. He lived in the 12th ward of Davidson County in 1891. The information came from the Tennessee 1891 Voters List.

I found a family tree on ancestry.com which said that Nannie Cox, the daughter of John Cox and Mary Dyer, married George Richardson and lived in Rienzi, Alcorn, Mississippi. I researched this family, and I found that the parents of this Nannie Cox were William Darling Cox and Emily Kessler, both born in Mississippi. So although this Nannie Cox was born in Tennessee around the same time, she is not the daughter of John Cox and Mary.

I am attaching the census records for this family. I will attach the later census records for Sadie (when she is married with children) separately since it looks like there is a limit to the number of files that can be attached to a post. I will post the information for that family in the reply too.

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Permalink Reply by Beth Gatlin on August 30, 2009 at 6:44pm
Children of Sarah Claire Dyer and John William M. Gatlin:

Mary Florence Gatlin, born September 1882 in Tennessee. Married Downie Campbell Pate.

Henry Brown Gatlin, born 28 June 1884 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee. May have died in 1949 or 1953 (family sources give me different years, and I have never found his death record). Married Anna Gertrude Tarkington. Divorced, probably around 1922 (I think my grandfather was about 12 at the time, but I am not sure). Remarried Louise. (Note: although Gertrude is listed as a widow in the 1930 census and I cannot find Henry in 1930, I know from my grandfather that his parents were divorced, and I found Henry’s 1942 World War II draft registration card.)

William D. Gatlin, born 10 December 1886 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, died 23 September 1919 in Joliet, Will, Illinois.

John Reynold Gatlin, born 10 March 1889 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, died 13 July 1945 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. Married Ermer.

Anna E. Gatlin, born December 1890 in Tennessee.

Walter Raymond Gatlin, born 16 October 1893 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee. Married Evelyn Mattson.

Michael Joseph Gatlin, born 15 February 1896 in Tennessee, died 10 October 1918 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois.

Clarence J. Gatlin, born September 1898 in Tennessee. Married Mabel K. Vogt.

Bruce E. Gatlin, born in 25 December 1900 in Tennessee, died 22 March 1975 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. Married Elsie on 4 September 1931. (The marriage index says her surname was Blocher, but Bruce’s death certificate says his wife’s maiden name was Moore; maybe Bruce was her second husband.)

Marshall I. Gatlin, born 4 June 1903 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, died 13 September 1923. Married Julia.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Gatlin on August 30, 2009 at 6:46pm
Here's the 1930 census record for Sadie.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Gatlin on August 30, 2009 at 11:20pm
Yes, I have her death certificate and many documents relating to her marriage. I have scanned them and will attach them. I wish I had an obituary, but I have not been able to find one. I got her middle name from my father's baby book.

I can give you a timeline for the family's migration if it will help. It would appear that my great-grandparents Henry Brown Gatlin (Sadie's son) and his wife Anna Gertrude Tarkington had moved to Chicago by 1910. I can't find them in the census anywhere, but my grandfather was born in Chicago on 14 April 1910. Sadie's son William D. Gatlin was also in Illinois in 1910, in Chester, Randolph, Illinois, in prison. Everyone else that I have been able to locate was in Tennessee. In 1911 William D. Gatlin and John Reynold Gatlin were arrested in Bloomington, Indiana. (I found newspaper articles.) They had come to Indiana from Kentucky. I haven't been able to find John in the 1910 census; maybe he was in Kentucky then, and William joined him there when he got out of prison. William was arrested again in Bloomington, Indiana in 1912, and the newspaper article mentioned the previous arrest and said that John was in naval prison for desertion from the navy. I found 1917-1918 World War I draft registration cards for Sadie's sons Henry, William, John, Walter, and Michael. All were in Chicago. Sadie's daughter Mary Florence Gatlin was in Bloomington, Indiana with her husband Downie Campbell Pate by 1910, but by 1930 they were in Chicago too. William got arrested again in 1917, this time in Chicago, and was sent to Joliet Prison, where he was shot and killed for resisting an officer. (He seems to have taken after his paternal grandfather, who was tried for an ax murder!) I don't know what happened to Anna; she may have married, and could have stayed in Tennessee, or moved to Chicago or elsewhere.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Gatlin on August 30, 2009 at 11:21pm
Here are the remaining documents that I wanted to attach.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Gatlin on August 31, 2009 at 12:02am
Dyer could be a variant of Dwyer. John Reynold Gatlin's death certificate gave his mother's maiden name as Dwyer. And I know alternate spellings need to be considered.

I can't go to my local Family History Center at the moment because they are closed for vacation until the week of September 12. But I will definitely be going there next month because I have ordered some records and they should be in by then. (The ones I have ordered relate to different families.) I also already found more records (again, for a different family line) that I want to order. I'm not sure how much help the birth, marriage, and death records will be in this particular case (although they may be helpful to research others, since my father's father's family is from Tennessee and I have a lot of family history there). All Mary's children were born before 1880, and Mary's first child was not born in Tennessee so she probably didn't marry there. The only one I know of who definitely died in Tennessee between 1874 and 1913 was Mary's second husband John Cox, Sadie's stepfather. If the daughters married I wouldn't know their surnames when they died, and Mary could have married again after John Cox died. Unfortunately, Tennessee death certificates do not include parents' names until around 1912. If I do find someone with the right name, how do I know it is the right person?

The directories might be useful. I will have to look into those. And the newspapers could be helpful for researching many of my Tennessee ancestors and their families. I know you can find many interesting things in newspapers; I found my great-great-great-grandfather's murder trial in the newspaper when I went to Tennessee a couple of years ago.

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