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Apparently I am going to have to throw in the towel and limit access to this site as far as submitting comments goes.  The spammers are hitting me anywhere from a low of twenty to a high of fifty times A DAY with idiotic comments advertising their idiotic wares or providing links to their idiotic wares.  Anyway, effective today I am restricting comments only to individuals who properly register on the site.  If you would prefer to send me a private comment or email message then please send your email to  johnt  AT  genwebsite.com   but change the AT to @ and don’t include the blank spaces.

After many hundreds of hours of research and with the help of many fellow researchers, I’ve documented my TAYLOR line back to the Immigrant Ancestor and also documented genealogical data on thousands of people from associated lines.  However, it has always been a great source of frustration for me that I’ve never been able to properly document my great-greatgrandmother Taylor and five of her six children.

In the hopes that someone will read this and help provide me with some of the missing information, I am listing the basic information that I do know about my missing TAYLORs.

Mary E. (THROGMORTON) TAYLOR [my great-greatgrandmother]   b. abt. 1842 IL  and  d. aft. 1880

Mary and her children (and her mother) appear twice in the 1880 census of Lawrence Co., AR.  Due to the census taker’s error, she and half the family appear on one page and then she and the other half appear several pages over.  After this there is no known information about Mary.

When and where did Mary die and where is she buried?

1^st spouse:  Drury Matthew TAYLOR 1838-1870  [he is well documented]

Son:  Leander J. TAYLOR b. 1860 MO  [he is basically documented until his death which must have occurred prior to June 1887 because his spouse, Patsy Bunch, remarried then in Lawrence Co., AR.  She and Leander had married 1884 in Lawrence Co., AR and they had one child, Bettie, b. 1885 (no info known about Bettie)]

When and where did Leander die and where is he buried?

Son:  Jefferson Davis TAYLOR b. 1863 IL  d. 1899 MO  [he is basically documented except not much is know about his first wife,  Sarah Sallie Bunch, whom he married in Jefferson Co., AR in Jul 1884.  She must have died prior to Dec 1889 because he remarried and had a family with his second wife.]

When and where did his first wife die and where is she buried? Did they have any children?

Dau:  Elizabeth A. TAYLOR b. 1865 IL  [absolutely no documentation found on this child other than the 1870 Jefferson Co., IL census and the  flawed 1880 Lawrence Co., AR census.]

What happened to Elizabeth after 1880? Spouse, children? When and where did she die and where is she buried?

Son:  John Riley TAYLOR b. 1869 IL  [he and his family are the big mystery and I find this especially frustrating because he is the twin brother of my great-grandfather, William Wiley TAYLOR!]

John Riley married Francis Freer Jul 1893 in Lawrence Co., AR … after that, there is no documentation on either John Riley or Francis.

I have been informed by Lawrence Co., AR sources that Willie Lee (Pete) TAYLOR is the son of John Riley TAYLOR.  Willie Lee was born 11 Jan 1893 in Lawrence Co., AR.  Since this birth was seven months prior to John Riley’s marriage to Francis, it brings into question as to whether Francis was Willie Lee’s mother or perhaps John Riley had had a previous spouse?  I do know a little about Willie Lee and his family; he had  two sisters, Frances (b. 1894) and Clara F. (b. 1898).  Thanks to a very detailed account in a recent history book about Lawrence Co., AR, I have a great deal of information about Willie Lee TAYLOR’s spouse and children BUT NOTHING ABOUT HIS PARENTS!

What happened to John Riley TAYLOR and Francis Freer Taylor after their 1893 marriage?  When and where did they die and where are they buried?  Who were their children?  Did John Riley have any other spouses?

Son:  William Wiley TAYLOR  b. 1869 IL  d. 1939 TX  [this is my greatgrandfather and he is very well documented other than the fact that I can’t find him in the 1920 census even though he never left Red River Co., TX from 1910 till his death in 1939.]

2^nd spouse (of Mary E. (THROGMORTON) TAYLOR  [my great-greatgrandmother]  Greenberry TAYLOR (Drury’s nephew)  b. 1847 MO  d. bet 1872-80 Lawrence Co., AR?  A handwritten marriage document indicates that Mary married Greenberry in Lawrence Co., AR 17 Jul 1872.  Since Robert L. Taylor b. 1873 shows up on the 1880 census then I am assuming this is Mary’s son with Greenberry.  However, Greenberry completely disappears after the marriage document and I have no other documentation about him.

What happened to Greenberry TAYLOR after his 1872 marriage?  When and where did he die and where is he buried?

Son:  Robert L. (Littleman?) TAYLOR b. 1873 AR  [absolutely no documentation has been found about him other than the flawed 1880 Lawrence Co., AR census and a brief mention in some family correspondence of a half-brother of William Wiley named LIT  (maybe short for Littleman)

What happened to Robert L. TAYLOR after his appearance in the 1880 census? Spouse, children? When and where did he die and where is he buried?

My grandfather had already died when I started my genealogical research and my great-grandfather was long dead.  According to my grandmother and at least one grandaunt here is the family legend ….

Mary Throgmorton TAYLOR, her mother and her children all moved to Lawrence Co., AR after the Civil War.  There, she married her late husband’s nephew and had a son by him.  Then, the entire family, except my great-grandfather William Wiley Taylor, died of an epidemic.  William Wiley lived with and worked for a Dr. Richardson in a place called Oil Trough which was either in AR or MO.

Well, the problem with this legend is that ALL of William Wiley’s brothers obviously lived to adulthood because we find documents proving marriages and children for them!

Actually (research-wise) it would have been easier to explain all the missing answers IF the family had all (but one) died off from a horrible epidemic.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) that wasn’t the case so I need a lot of help and I hope someone reading this will throw me a few bits of useful information ………….

I started to title this,  COMMENTS, SPAM, LINKS, & JERKS,  but I thought that was a bit too strong.  However, let me make this as short and sweet as I can …. If your comment is obvious (or not so obvious) spam, then it ain’t gonna be approved!  If your comment includes a link that isn’t directly related to genealogy then it ain’t gonna be approved!  If you think that I am accusing anyone who tries either of these cons as being a Jerk, then you would be correct!

All Jerks please take notice …. Each time you leave a spam comment you also leave your IP address.  If you continue to play games with my website then I will file complaints against you with your ISP and we’ll see where that goes ….

You’ve got to cite sources (even if you use improper form) if you ever expect others to admire, respect and/or use the information in your family tree research …. the exception would be if the research is solely for your own use and satisfaction.   Source citation is the equivalent of leaving an audit trail so that others can come along, even many years later, and understand what you wrote, why you wrote it, and see where it came from … otherwise following your data becomes a guessing game.

You cannot copy unsourced information from someone else’s family tree and simply cite their tree name or website as the source.  Ancestry.com makes this common practice far, far too easy and it typically leads to big problems.  Just recently I had to email a young man and tell him that the person he’d copied into his family tree from another tree was actually not his great grandmother because she was my grandmother and I personally knew ALL her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren and furthermore I knew for a fact that he was not a member of that group!  If only he’d found proof of the information he’d copied ….

Let me clarify … there is nothing wrong with copying entire family charts from others’ trees … BUT if the facts on that copied information do not have sources then use the information only as a guide until you can substantiate it with sources.

The THROGMORTONs & TAYLORs of Jefferson County IL & Lawrence County AR.

The name THROGMORTON is an obvious derivative of the name THROCKMORTON; the spelling variations are far too numerous to list. The most common include: THROGMORTEN, THROGMORTIN, THROGMARTIN, THOGMORTON, THOGMARTIN, THRAGMARTEN, FROGMARTIN, TROGMORTEN, etc.

The association or connection of the THROGMORTONs and the TAYLORs is first documented in the 1850 census of Jefferson County, Illinois, which shows the families of William Trogmorten and Elizabeth (widow of Drury, Sr.) Taylor to be neighbors. Two of William Throgmorton’s daughters married two sons of Drury Taylor, Sr. Jefferson County, Illinois records indicate that Mathew William Taylor married Eliza J. Throgmorton on February 7, 1855, and, Drury M. Taylor married Mary E. Throgmorton on November 5, 1859. In the late 1850′s (probably 1859) the family of Drury Taylor, Sr. moved to St. Genvieve County, Missouri, and the William Throgmorton family accompanied them as the 1860 census for that county shows dwelling numbers 889, 890, and 891 to be Taylors, and then number 892 is listed as the family of William Throgmorton. Sometime after the beginning of the Civil War (probably 1862) the Taylors and the Throgmortons left Missouri and returned to Jefferson County, Illinois. Drury M. Taylor had died in early 1870 and his widow, Mary Throgmorton (along with Drury’s five children) is shown on the 1870 census living in Dodds Township with her parents, William and Lucy Throgmorton. Elizabeth, widow of Drury Sr., and most of her children and their families are shown living nearby in Blissville Township. The Taylors and the Throgmortons left Illinois and migrated to Lawrence County, Arkansas sometime between late 1870 and mid 1872. On July 17, 1872, the widow of Drury M., Mary E. Throgmorton, married Greenberry Taylor in Lawrence Co., AR. Greenberry was a son of Godfrey Taylor, Drury M.’s older brother.

The Throgmorton family was already represented in Lawrence County, Arkansas as one of Mary’s cousins, Robert Pinkney Throgmorton had married Elizabeth Foreman there on April 1, 1869. As early as the 1850′s and 60′s, several related Throgmorton lines had moved into Arkansas counties adjoining Lawrence. Lawrence County Arkansas courthouse records indicate a great deal of official activity during the 1880′s and 90′s in which a Taylor or a Throgmorton was listed (oftentimes jointly). The 1880 census for Lawrence Co., AR lists the following: John L. D. Taylor, son of Drury Sr. Sarah Jane Taylor (Wells), dau of William C. Taylor Mary Throgmorton (Taylor), widow of Drury M. & Greenberry, along with her sons & dau L.F. (Lucy) Throgmorton, widow of William Throgmorton & Mary’s mother Duane Marion Taylor, son of Drury Sr. Eliza Jane Taylor, widow of William C. Taylor Martin William Wyatt, widower of Elizabeth A. Taylor (Drury Sr’s dau), along with two sons Littleman L. Throgmortin, Mary Throgmorton Taylor’s bro & son of William Isiah Minson, son of Sarah Jane Taylor (dau of Drury Sr.) E. G. Throgmorton, Mary Throgmorton Taylor’s bro & son of William The county marriage records include too many entries to list here, but five significant ‘joint’ listings are: L.L. Throgmorton to Rosanna Taylor 11-20-1881 with J.M Wells as security Isaiah Minson to Margaret Ward 4-2-1884 with L.L. Throgmorton as security Jefferson D. Taylor to Sallie Bunch 7-11-1884 with E.G. Thogmartin as security Leander Taylor to Patsy J. Bunch 8-1-1884 with E.G. Throgmartin as security John Riley Taylor to Francis Freer 7-8-1893 with E.G. Throgmartin as security.

After a mere half century the two families appear to have separated themselves from each other. Just before and during the turn of the century the Lawrence County AR Taylors and Throgmortons migrated again …. only this time they scattered throughout the region as individuals and small family units making them extremely difficult to track. Many of the Throgmortons moved into Craighead County AR where they live today (spelling their name Throgmartin); others may have moved back to Missouri. Many of the Taylors are believed to have died in Lawrence County. Some moved into Oregon County MO, some to Craighead County AR and further into southern Arkasas. By the 1910 and 1920 censuses, several of the original Lawrence County Taylors were in Oklahoma and Red River County, Texas.

Why did the two families leave Illinois … Why did they settle in Lawrence County Arkansas … What happened to separate and scatter them???? After more than a hundred years time which has eliminated any evidence that might have existed, here’s some speculative answers ….. The Civil War decimated many families and our Taylors and Throgmortons were no exception. The move from Illinois to Missouri and then back to Illinois was probably precipitated by the war and must have been extremely expensive for the families who’s meager funds were already stretched by the existing conditions. When the war ended, the families probably followed thousands of others searching for either free or inexpensive land and new opportunities in the southwestern United States. One of the primary migration routes from the northeast to the southwest was the Old Military Road that crossed right through Lawrence County Arkansas making it a typical ‘way station’ for weary travelers. Unfortunately, the Ozark foothills did not provide a very hospitable environment. A yellow fever epidemic killed hundreds during the period of 1897 though 1899 (followed by a meningitis epidemic in 1899). The harsh post-war reconstruction imposed on the southern states caused poverty to be even more epidemic; not one of our Taylors’ names is listed on the 1890 tax rolls of Lawrence County (although two Throgmortons do appear!). With this in mind, and having personally heard the sad stories of misfortune from my grandparents, I believe that disease and poverty finally caused the large family groups to break up (many must have died) and scatter as individuals.

Here are my primary family lines:

Taylor, Parker, Smithen, Walker, Phillips, Throgmorton, Risenhoover, Power, Timmons, Pritchett, Davis, Hiler, Stelle, Thomason

For the most part, they are mostly Southern families coming from Georgia, the Carolina’s, Tennessee, Illinois, and Ohio.  They passed through or settled in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.