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

Nonexistent Information in Genealogy ----- Nicknames

Nicknames, Moniker, Name Variations

The search for individuals is first based on identifying the person’s name.  Some people are known by a substitute name, moniker or a nickname.  I have found that some of the people I have tried to locate were known by their nickname and not their given name. I was only able to find some people because family members gave me their nicknames.  Some families have people with the same given name for multiple generations. I have found at least 4 people in extended family named Tom Brumfield. I think that other names have evolved to distinguish people in a family with the same name.

Common name variations of have been helpful in finding ancestors.

Examples of a variations: Elizabeth (primary name) Liz, Liza, Lizabeth, Lizzie, Libby, Lisa, Beth, Bess, Betsy, Betty. Sometimes it necessary to look at all name variations to find an individual.

Nicknames often are not related to the given name. One of the children of Irvin Brumfield, Louis Brumfield was known as “Doc”. The entire family is listed in blog post Ervine, Irvine, Irving, Irvin Part 1 on 11/15/2012.

I was told that he was given that name because he acted as the local veterinarian. He is listed with wife Elizabeth as “Dock” not Louis in the Pike County, Mississippi Federal 1930 census. Last family listed.    

Year: 1930; Census Place: Beat 1, Pike, Mississippi; Roll: 1162; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0001; Image: 627.0; FHL microfilm: 2340897


I would not have been able to find Louis if I did not know he was known as "Doc" Brumfield. His brother William Brumfield and his family are listed above on this census image which helped with identification.                                                                        
  Nicknames are nonexistent information in general genealogy research.  It is important to always talk to family members.                                                                                        
   ------- The Tree Gardener