Today is a beautiful day, and it’s making me feel very productive. I’m sitting in the living room on my laptop and talking with Grandpa Moore. He’s already cleared up some Thorward things for me that I was unclear on. Today is devoted to the Mays family though. I’ve got to keep moving forward towards my summer goal.
I’m up to Millard Mays in my family file. I know he married Nora Barker. I was looking in the Kentucky Birth Index on Ancestry.com to verify some of her children on the census. I ended up having to go to some more extreme measures to find one of the children, because they just weren’t showing up for some reason. When I did that, I might have found out what happened to Millard’s sister Barbara.
It just so happens there was a Barbara Mays who was giving birth to Barker children. Knowing the Mays family like I do, this isn’t at all surprising for me. To be honest I’m finding that I look for these connections more then not. It’s just the marriage pattern of the family.
I was mainly looking for the younger children, but there are some things I really like about this 1930 census record. Barbara has a son named Millard! Lorene from the Birth Index is there, but Robert, the youngest is not. A quick check of the Kentucky Death Records gave me a big idea of what Robert and Barbara Barker went through with their children. They had three stillborn children and Kline who died at one month of meningitis.
Unfortunately, nothing I found actually gives me clues on whether this is my actual Barbara Mays. I haven’t fleshed out enough of the Mays family to know how many other Barbaras there might be. I’m going to add this family into my FTM file, without identification numbers but with sources. That way when I find out where this Barbara fits, it’ll be an easy merge.
The next task I might work on is linking Nora Barker, Robert Barker and Lela Barker (wife of Luther Mays).
I might be able to help you with some of the Mays family – Kentucky stuff.
My name is Daniel Neil Mays and I live in Walcott, Iowa. My grandfather, Cecil J. Mays, was born in Plummers Landing,Kentucky, and moved to Cedar County (Durant) Iowa shortly after 1910.
Cecil (He hated the name Cecil and only went by “Jay”.) married Ellen Olive Johnson ( an immigrant from Sweden) and they had 3 children: Wallace, Virginia & Gerald – my father.
There is more — including at least 2 Barbara Mays individuals, but I don’t think either of them is the one you are looking for.
Thanks so much for all the info you’ve already given me Dan! I’ve got your email also, and I will email you back soon, I’m in the middle of re-organizing some things so I don’t have my information in a good place right now. I can’t wait to talk more though!