The Williams Sisters of Madison County, KY and Family

I recently stumbled across (on the information super highway) photographs of two sisters interned at Salem Cemetery, Madison County, Kentucky. What I saw broke my heart, and warranted some looking up in the hopes I could write a bio about them. It lead me onto yet another interesting adventure in which I hope will help someone out there in their research efforts.

In Madison lived two sisters; Sophronie Mandy Williams (b. 1914) and Mable Williams (b. 1917). The death date for both sisters headstones reads “unknown”. This indicates some sort of tragedy- could they have been harmed by someone? Was there a fire or illness? Were they children or adults when they passed so tragically? I did not know. But I was determined to find out. I performed my usual ancestry hunt based on names, dates of birth, county and state- no luck at all, not even a close match when omitting first names. Being as though their stones state parents as Squire Williams and Lizzie, I decided to try that route. I found a few posibilites but nothing earth shattering. I gave up for a while but something kept drawing me back in, so I kept on the hunt- no records from tombstone transcriptions, death or births in Madison, nothing. Then seemingly out of the blue I found an old death certificate on ancestry with two names listed: Squire Williams and a Saphrona Mandy Williams!

The death certificate lists Sophronie /Saphrona as born January 16 1918 and her death November 8 1919 in Edenton, Madison County, Kentucky. Her parents are listed as Squire Williams and Lizzie, just as the headstone states. Saphrona passed from flu and spinal meningitis; she was only 8 ½ months old. What is odd is the death date is written as November yet the certificate was filled October 30… The handwritten year of filling is hard to make out- it looks like 1918 or 1919, neither of which make sense. Perhaps the death and filing dates were accidentally reversed, or maybe the date of passing was unknown just like the footstone reads. But if that is the case, how would anyone know the cause? I contacted Gerald Tudor, a friendly and knowledgeable researcher in Madison County; I wanted to know if he knew circumstances of the passing of the sisters (Garald has an amazing extended family in the area which numbers at over 45,000).Unfortunately he had no back story but he did provide me with the b & d dates he had in a book for Sophronie, Mabel, Squire and Lizzie. He also told me the family was not buried at Salem, but at Gilead Church Cemetery south of the Salem Cemetery.

The footstones do not appear to date that era and show no wear at all, which (along with the “unknown” death date) is what originally lead me to believe the two sisters were found decades after the fact. I have a few theories… 1) Maybe a later ancestor of the family purchased the stones and didn’t have the correct dates or 2) maybe Squire and Lizzie had another daughter they named after their (missing?) elder daughter of the same name. Not at all unheard of; I’ve seen southern families with many children who succumb to illness and the parents keep renaming the same.

So no, I didn't solve the mystery-yet! But all in all, with just a simple call, email and a quick look into free scans of Madison County original death certificates, I stumbled upon a wealth of informationthat maybe will help someone who is trying to research this family... I found both nearly 10 actual death certs for this family, clarified some vital records dates, got Squires occupation, found out the whole family is in the same cemetery as well as the name of the cemetery. I also discovered the family progenitors and descendants! All in under an hour. "Why go through the trouble?" some might wonder. Well, let me tell you, not only is it interesting and fun for me but I know how difficult family research can be (esp. when armed with wrong dates and miss spellings), and if I can help someone else, maybe someone in turn, will help me.

For anyone out there researching this family who may have hit a brick wall, here is the scoop as I have found it...David Williams wed Betsy Estes 1818, it looks like in Garrard County. They had a son, Shipton Williams. Shipton wed a woman named Mary in Garrard County Kentucky. On all official documents her surname varries; it is McMaddus, McManiss, McManus, McMoore. Shipton and Mary had a minimum of 5 children: Squire (b. Jume 30 1840 in Garrard County Ky-d. Nov 12, 1922), unnamed child who died at birth (b.d. Jan 20 1854 in Garrard County, Ky), Ali (b. August 14 Garrard County no yr recorded but died at age 84 so abt. 1855- d. April 26 1939), Burchell (Jan 21 1859 Garrard -d. July 26 1940), and Dicea (b. July 19 1862 Garrard County-d. July 15 1951). The entire family moved to Madison County from Garrard County abt 1900. Squire, as you know from reading, had at least two daughters and a wife named Lizzie. It also looks as if Squire owned a grocery store in Madison, and judging by/from what I know of names, it is highly probable they are of british descent. [feel free to contact me and I will pass on the certificates]

Head(stone) Scratcher of the Month

As an amature genealogist, Ive grown accustom to seeing dating mistakes on head/footstones which are not always as avoidable as one thinks; sometimes a birth date or full name is unknown for whatever reason. This one in particular at Salem Cemetery in Madison KY caught my eye- likely due to the way it was photographed.

It actually took me a minute to notice what is going on here. Thank goodness nowadays descendants on a gen quest have free lookups at their disposal as well as helpful cemetery staff- otherwise, this reversal could be quite the hindrance... I decided it was only right for me to do a quick look up on G. Parsons (being that I have an ancestry.com account), who I assume is male being that there is a mason engraving on the tombstone. Unfortunately I found no Parsons whatsoever born or died on these dates (in their proper order). I did not even find a G. Parsons in Kentucky. Too bad- I have a feeling this guy led an interesting life (and there may be others in the plot being that the bottom of the stone says "Parsons").

Abandoned Cemetery: White Oak

White Oak is located behind old White Oak Meeting House on KY 152, .25 miles from US 27 and near the end of Fred Day Road. As far as I can tell, there are only two tombstones there: Mary Mack (1855-1936)and Minnie Mack(Sept. 7, 1899-Oct 12 1939). There are probably more burials here but perhaps not; being that the two women passed a few years apart from each other, maybe the family moved.

I wish I knew more about the White Oak Cemetery...Being the Garrard County historical buff that I am, I will be doing a little more research on this cemetery and women on my next visit. I'll add updates as I get them

Photographer: Yvonne Lay Logue