Showing posts with label Willis Bowens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Willis Bowens. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Guardians Part 1 Thomas Brumfield Guardian

Fragmented Families

Thomas Brumfield Guardian

I have taken a long sabbatical from blogging but not from my search of tree family history.  I will continue to continue to blog and hopefully more family members will follow the blog. 

One of my primary interests in my family trees is to go beyond the brick wall of 1870. The year 1870 is the first time that black Africans previously enslaved in the United States were identified in the United State census.   I realize that my ancestors may have been sold, freed before the Emancipation Proclamation, escaped from enslavement, transported to other continents during the diaspora and died unidentified.

Identification of different families father, mother and children have been the nucleus of my research.   Many of the families however have been fragmented.  It is my attempt to identify descendants of fragmented families which include widows and orphans. I would like to start a series of blogs that I call The Guardians. This series is based on information I have found related to my family trees.  
The 1865 Mississippi Black Codes further restricted and regulated the lives of freed black people.   The Apprentice laws stated that any child under 18 years old who was an orphan or family unable to provide support for the child could be assigned to the former owner. Black men with limited rights were the guardians of the family, widows, and orphans after slavery.  I have chosen the term "Guardians" because all women had minimal social and no voting rights. Black orphans had no rights.

This research project is constantly evolving because I am looking for new information.  In reviewing some of my research, I found the names of children who had guardians of my trees in Pike County, Mississippi. 

Thomas Brumfield (1852-1926)  was a child of Liddie and Louis (?) Brumfield.  He was a farmer and homesteaded land in Pike County, Mississippi. Thomas and Celia (1850-unknown) had a daughter Mary.  Mary Brumfield married Willis (Parker) Bowens on January 11, 1894 in Pike County, Mississippi File # 0043983 Book "D" page 322.  Mary and Willis Bowens are enumerated with their children in the Pike County, Mississippi 1900 Federal census.   


Source Citation

Year: 1900; Census Place: Beat 1, Pike, Mississippi; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0105; FHL microfilm: 1240825

 Bowens Willis           Head B     Oct 1861   32
                Mary            Wife B     Dec 1877   23
                Courtney   Daughter B     Dec 1895     4
                 Isaac           Son          B     Mar 1897     2
                Thomas        Son    B      Jan 1900    4/12

By 1910 Mary and Willis with their children were living in the household of Tom and Celia Brumfield Mary's parents.  Courtney is not listed with the family.


Source Citation

Year: 1910; Census Place: Beat 1, Pike, Mississippi; Roll: T624_756; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0094; FHL microfilm: 1374769
Brumfield Thomas Head                   M  58  
                           Celia     wife                    F   49
Bowens     Mary     daughter             F  33
                 Isaac      grandson             M 12
                 Thomas  grandson            M 10
                 Mattie    granddaughter     F  8
                Willis Jr.  grandson            M  6
                Nehemiah grandson           M  4
                Rosebel     grandson           M 1 10/12  
                (Roosevelt)

Mary Bowens died sometime in 1914 at the age of 33 years old. I do not know the cause of death and have not located a death certificate. His father Thomas Brumfield became the guardian of her children. I have not located any additional information concerning Willis Bowens. 




In this document dated December 17, 1914,  Thomas Brumfield Sr. takes responsibility for his daughter Mary Bowens' estate and agrees to take inventory of her goods, and chattels (personal possessions)  and pay her debts.  

In my blog post Six Degrees of Separation Caston & Brumfield families Part 12 date 2/24/2015, I discuss Tom Brumfield and some of Mary's children. 




Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Six Degree of Separation: Caston & Brumfield Families Part 12

Thomas Brumfield



Thomas Brumfield had a land homestead in Pike County, Mississippi. From research, he is known to have a wife Celia (Selia) her last name unknown and had one child a daughter Mary. Mary attended school  in Pike County.  Mary Brumfield and Willis Bowens at the age of approximately 17 and 27  years old married. Tom enumerated as the head of the household in the 1910 census with Mary and Willis Bowens having had nine children listed with six surviving Isaac 12, Thomas 10, Mattie 8, Willis Jr. 6, Rosabel (Roosevelt) 1 10/12 and Nehemiah 4.    Courtny a 4 year old child in the 1900 census is no longer listed and presumably dead.

Tom as a farmer, provided economic support for his family and extended family. I was unable to uncover any additional information related to Mary and Willis Bowens after the 1910 census. Tom employed his grandchildren on the farm.


In the World War I registrations, Issac and Tommy Bowens are farmers and list Tom Brumfield Sr. as their employer in September 12,1918 and October 28, 1918 respectively.

Isaac Bowens WWI Registration


Tommy Bowens WWI Registration
During my genealogy trip to the Allen County library, I found additional school census for Pike County, Mississippi. Tom Brumfield also was listed as the guardian for his grandchildren Nehemiah and Roosevelt Bowens 17 and 14 years old respectively at the Pike County  Yale School in 1923.



1923 Pike County, Ms. School Records Tom Brumfield guardian Roosevelt Bowens & Nehemiah Bowens children
The children of Silas Caston, John Gatlin  & Squire Gatlin are also listed in this record








In 1926, Tom Brumfield had apoplexy which is defined as a stroke and died 2 weeks later. On his death certificate, Lidia Caston is his mother and Celia Brumfield was the informant. This death certificate and the Federal 1870 census which I posted in part 2 of this series are the two items that establish Thomas Brumfield as a child of Liddie Caston.

----The Tree Gardener