Michael Talley's Page

Finding a microfilm copy of a US census is not hard, unless of course it is from the year 1890 which was somehow mostly destroyed by fire. The library at the local community college from which I obtained a degree in computer science has two whole floors dedicated to family history research. Finding the names you are looking for on the other hand can be really hard, especially if the indexes are incomplete or missing. You can spend hours turning a wheel on a machine trying to decipher the… Continue

The letter in my last post indicated that my grandma had moved back in with her dad at the age of 18 in June of 1927. On October 10 of that year she was married to the son of a Baptist Preacher who lived next door to her foster parents. His name was Richard Lemmy Meherg. I was able to find them in Fayette County, Alabama in the 1930 US Census. Finding anything in the census is a lot of work. There are usually indexes, but they often have spelling mistakes due to the poor quality of the… Continue

I was able to obtain a copy of the original application which my grandmother filled out when applying for Social Security. As I expected, It confirmed which date was accepted by the SS administration, but was of little other value. Did it contain the truth? That was what I needed to know. And if it was a lie, when was the lie first told? This brings me to another document that was supplied by one of my aunts. Apparently, what was found in the old bible was a letter that my grandmother herself… Continue

“Mamaherg” was raised by foster parents. Her mother died of tuberculosis in 1913. She had some older sisters by her father’s first wife and a baby brother. Apparently one of the older sisters was holding the baby while standing too close to the fire and the blanket caught on fire. This convinced her father, William Melhorn, that he could not work all day in the coal mines and take care of the babies at the same time. Somehow foster parents were found to raise my grandmother, who at that time… Continue