Irvin Brumfield Identified

 I have been trying to identify the Brumfield children of Liddie Brumfield (Caston) and Louis Brumfield.  One of Liddie’s children  was Tom Brumfield. In my genealogy research, I have found several men with the name of Irvin Brumfield who lived in Pike County, Mississippi. I have been trying to ascertain if Irvin Brumfield born August, 1846 is a child of Liddie .

I have established that Irvin Brumfield definitely knew Liddie Brumfield's second husband Calvin Caston. Calvin Caston was a sworn witness on Irvin Brumfield’s homestead application. Tom Brumfield was a sworn witness on Calvin Caston’s homestead application.  The children of Tom and Irvin Brumfield and Calvin Caston are listed on the 1885 Pike County, School record.  Irvin’s children’s names were Martha Ann, Irvin Jr., William, Sherman, Louis, George, Isom, Mamie, Daisy and Mattie.

It was exciting for me to meet Eddie Brumfield Sr.  His grandfather was Tom Brumfield son of Liddie and Louis Brumfield. Irvin Brumfield Sr. died in 1900 before Eddie Sr. was born. Eddie Brumfield Sr.  however knew the some of the children of Irvin Brumfield Sr. They were  Irvin Jr., Isom, Sherman, Louis, Mamie and Mattie who were his father’s Willis age and his cousins.  I believe Tom Brumfield and Irvin Brumfield were brothers.

         

Irvin Brumfield Sr. would be Eddie Brumfield Sr. grand-uncle .

----The Tree Gardener

Eddie Brumfield Sr. Family Tree

Family Tree

Eddie Brumfield Sr. born in  Pike County, Mississipp in 1917 is a child of Willis Brumfield  and Neathia Gatlin Brumfield.   

Eddie's siblings:

Ethel Brumfield  26 Apr 1904 to Mar., 1985

Bertha Brumfield 10 Dec 1905 to Mar., 1974

Bessie Brumfield 1909 to unknown

Essie Brumfield 1910 to 06 Jun 1971

Agusta Brumfield 1910 to 1910

Wilcous Brumfield 17 Apr 1912 to 22 Oct 1994

Herman Brumfield 1921 to1936

Thad Brumfield Sr. 08 Sep 1923 to 17 Oct 2006

Milton Brumfield 1915 to 1928

Eddie Brumfield Sr. family roots were in Pike County, Mississippi for three generations. Jeramiah Conerly parents are not listed.  Jeramiah "Jerry" Conerly parents were William "Will" and Harriett Conerly 68 and 60 years old respectively listed in the Pike County Federal 1870 census both born in North Carolina.

1870 Pike County, Mississippi Federal census William and Harriett Conerly listed lines 21 and 22 Jeramiah and family also listed 1870; Census Place: Township 2 Range 10, Pike, Mississippi; Roll: M593_745; Page: 153A; Image:366049; Family History Library Film: 552244

William "Will" Conerly 70 years old widower is also listed in in the Pike County Federal 1880 census. Harriett apparently died between 1870 and 1880.  Will and his mother place of birth are listed  as North Carolina and his father Africa.  His date of birth has a discrepancy being 1810 or 1802.   Jeramiah Conerly and his family are also enumerated on the same page. 

Will Conerly and Jerry Conerly enumerated "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4G1-JTG : 11 August 2016), Will Conerly, Beat 1, Pike, Mississippi, United States; citing enumeration district ED 37, sheet 348A, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0662; FHL microfilm 1,254,662.

One couple of Eddie Brumfield Sr. great-grandparents have been identified.

----- The Tree Gardener

Eddie Brumfield Sr.

Blest Be the Ties that Bind

I met Roger Dale Wilson via an internet message board who first told me about a connection between the Brumfield and Caston families. He told me about an upcoming family reunion.   I was able to attend the Caston-Brumfield family reunion in Atlanta, Georgia in 2010.  Prior to the reunion, I had interviewed very few family members and had researched my family history 3 generations earlier. I previously met very few family members even one generation older. Brumfield is a common surname in the southern part of Mississippi and northern Louisiana. I was not sure that Roger’s Brumfield family and my family were the same.   

I made the trip to Atlanta with slender threads of information about my family.  A great deal of genealogy research consists of recording a name with a beginning of birth and an end of death. The middle is the details of the life. In genealogy research, there are two tasks that a beginner is always instructed to perform.  The first is to record your own life’s story and the second is to interview your oldest known living relative.  It was at the family reunion, I had an opportunity to meet one of my oldest relatives. 

   
The first gathering of the reunion was in a hotel ballroom. There were people seated at multiple tables labeled with the first names of Caston and Brumfield family members.  At the reunion, I first met Eddie Brumfield Sr., the nonagenarian grand patriarch of the Brumfield family, who was seated in a chair near a wall in the hotel ballroom.    In the informal setting, family members paid their respects and chatted with him.    

Quick-witted, he willingly told stories about the family’s past. He recalled the names of family members Irvin, Sherman, Louis, Isom, Mattie, Mamie all his cousins who were counterparts in age with his father Willis Brumfield.   He knew the story about the injury and tragic death of cousin Lattimore Brumfield daughter of Sherman Brumfield.  This story was recited many times to me as a child. It was from his recollection of the death of Lattimore, I knew we were related. I had found my cousin and family.        

Eddie Brumfield Sr. in 2010

Blest be the ties that binds

Our Hearts in Christian Love; 

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to Above 

The Story of Latimore Brumfield

Nonexistent Information in Genealogy ----- Missing Children Part 4

The Silver Sparrow

The book Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones is a fictional story about a man who has two families--- a bigamist. It takes place in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1980’s.  Both families live in the same town but only one family is aware that the other family exists.  One of the man’s family remains in the shadows and not recognized by the community. Tayari Jones uses the metaphor of the Silver Sparrow to describe the child of the hidden family.  

Married men who have more than one family or more than one set of children is not unusual.  The treatment of the unmarried mother and her child is dependent upon their position in society and the time period. Sometimes the parentage of a child is considered a family secret and rarely discussed. There are situations in which the mother and father married after the birth of the child. 

 In the case of adoptions, the process  may have  been informal, legal, black-market or involve one related parent. The child may have been reared by foster parents. The discovery of information is even more complicated if the adoption occurred generations ago.   The institution of slavery in the United States in which families were sold and separated is also another element that makes it difficult or impossible to identify parents.

 Nowadays, children are born daily with unmarried parents. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014, the number of live births to unmarried women in the United States was 1,604,870.   With hospital records, school records, birth certificates, Social Security numbers, census, baptismal records and DNA analysis there are more tools available to determine parentage and ancestors. There is usually a limited paper trail of documents to verify information.  Relatives who are are knowledgeable about a child's birth maybe uncooperative about giving information. Finding the missing father or the parents of a child or orphan can still be difficult and possibly never identified. 

"I don't why I'm here Lord, I just know I'm here "

---- The Tree Gardener