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 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 of her family appear several pages over. After this there is no known information about Mary.
When and where did Mary die and where is she buried?
1st 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 he 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-greatgrandfather, 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.]
2nd 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 first published this article online on numerous message boards many years ago. The few responses provided almost nothing of any significance. I’ve decided now in early 2015 to take “a shot in the dark” and place the article online again…… jt