52 Ancestors Challenge...Week 5...Microfiching At The Library

Back To Family Trees in 2019 with 52 Ancestors In 52 Weeks

Week 5 ~ prompt ~ At The Library

     Many hours were spent 'At The Library' researching our Family Tree.  Notes were written on backs of junk mail, notebook paper, envelopes and slips of paper.  Letters were written revealing bits and pieces of information found 'At The Library'. 

     All by my Aunt Irene.  

     Her hours of note taking in libraries and the inquiries from Genealogical Societies from Georgia to Texas have given me an abundance of information on which to build our Family Tree in the Technologically Advanced Genealogy Community of the Twenty-First Century.

     So, after many hours of  21st Century Technology and Online research, I was back to Irene's 20th Century research center...'At The Library'...looking for a step-great grandmother revealed through online Civil War research, and a death certificate.  Irene's research gave no clues that her widowed grandfather had a second wife much less how their union led to a generation of double grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. 

Look who I found Microfiching 'At The Library'. 

FORT STOCKTON PIONEER August 23, 1918
DIED
Mrs. G.W. Pittman, of Grandfalls, who only recently had come here for medical treatment, died very suddenly from organic heart trouble, at the Riggs Hotel, Saturday evening August 16th.

The remains were prepared for burial by Undertaker W.H. Bird, after which they were taken to Grandfalls, Sunday afternoon and interred in the cemetery at that place. 

The funeral services were conducted by Reverand M.O. Williams, pastor of the Methodist Church, of which church the deceased was a devoted member.
A husband and two children, who reside in Grandfalls, are left to mourn her loss.

Obituary for Mrs. George Washington Pittman...Nancy Anne Carey Forkner Pittman.  Born...April 23, 1854 in Monroe County Tennessee to John E. Carey and Ellen M. McAllister.   Died...August 16th, 1918 at the age of 64 in Fort Stockton, Pecos County, Texas.  Survived by husband George Washington Pittman and two children....who turned out to be granddaughters. This I knew from the 1910 Census that listed Maime 4 years and Tillie 1 year, and who at the time of Nancy's death would have been 12 and 9 years of age.  Who and where was the Mother of these two granddaughters?   Why weren't Nancy's SIX children she reported as having given birth to in the 1900 Census, listed as surviving her or preceeding her in death?   Questions for another 52 Ancestors Week.

        For now, the 'At The Library' Obituary Revelations!!

     The Riggs Hotel where Nancy died had a special place in my life, too.  As a former member of the Fort Stockton Historical Society and Board Member of the Annie Riggs Museum, I spent many hours there.  What a special moment it was for me when I read that my Great Grandfather and Step-Great Grandmother had stayed there exactly 95 years ago to the day that I Microfiched the Obituary!  I could hardly wait to get back to Fort Stockton and the Annie Riggs Museum to find their Signatures in the August 1918 Registry.

The remains were prepared for burial by Undertaker W.H. Bird, after which they were taken to

Grandfalls, Sunday afternoon and interred in the cemetery at that place. 

That place being the Tamarisk Cemetery.  Another Special Moment to realize that another of my Pittman Texas Ancestors can now be officially laid to rest with other Family Members including George Washington Pittman's Grandsons and Great Grandsons.

Rest in Heavenly Peace

Nancy Anne Carey Forkner Pittman

April 23, 1854 - August 16, 1918

You are fondly remembered in the Pittman Family Tree and History

as documented in Tracks of My Texas Ancestors.