The Belcher Family Tree
Mary Belcher is the person on the tree that started this whole process. Actually, it was the abscence of her husband Thomas J Duke. The story is that Mary left Alabama in 1846 with 3 children, pregnant and a single slave - in a covered wagon and arrived in what would eventually be Pontotoc County Mississippi where she built a log cabin and later remarried. The problem is, that she had a child after the missing husband was supposedly dead, and although she remarried shortly after his birth and she had a child with her second husband, she retained the name Duke for that child. _ The child is my great grandfather.
Several theories arise as I explore this branch of the family tree.
Several theories arise as I explore this branch of the family tree.
The Elusive Ancestor
I went searching for an ancestor. I cannot find him still.
He moved around from place to place and did not leave a will.
He married where a courthouse burned. He mended all his fences.
He avoided any man who came to take the U.S. Census.
He always kept his luggage packed, this man who had no fame.
And every 20 years or so, this rascal changed his name.
His parents came from Europe. They should be upon some list
of passengers to U.S.A., but somehow they got missed.
And no one else in this world is searching for this man.
So, I play geneasolitaire to find him if I can.
I'm told he's buried in a plot, with tombstone he was blessed;
but the weather took engraving, and some vandals took the rest.
He died before the county clerks decided to keep records.
No Family Bible has emerged, in spite of all my efforts.
To top it off this ancestor, who caused me many groans,
Just to give me one more pain, betrothed a girl named JONES.