Sandy, Thanks so much - I've been to Cherokee County, AL many times - where my grandfather was born and raised, but Coosa and Chambers is where his mother's family was from. She was a full blood Creek or close to it, and her family was in Coosa back in the early 1800s - I was reading in one of the histories about the very early settlers of the area, and they weren't mentioned, yet I knew they were already there before those listed, so it was very strange to me why they weren't talked about - I've been working on this family for over 20 years and have found next to nothing about them, and have my direct line with a family that simply disappeared, or at least the parents and 3 of their 6 kids did. I later found out they were Creek, which answered many of the questions about the scarcity of info and records about them. I'm hoping to find more about them such as if the kids were enrolled in the mission school, etc. The earliest one I have info on is Alban Willingham and his wife Bedy Herring - they had 9 children - the youngest, Nancy Ann Willingham, married Asbury Morgan Kimbrough, Sr. and I've found info about them. But my direct line is their oldest son, Shemie/Shamie/Shame/Shemii Willingham b 1811 and wife Elizabeth Strong - his name has not been the same in any of the records, but several of the records spell it Shemie. They are the couple that disappeared, along with 3 of their kids, sometime between the 1850 and 1860 census records. The last record we have is the 1850 Harrison Co., Texas census, and a record of a possible baby born in 1850, then nothing until 1860 when my gggrandfather, their next-to-youngest child, showed up in Coweta County, GA at the home of his uncle, his sister, the oldest child, shows up in AL at her uncle's house, and the baby shows up at yet another relative's home - the baby is later listed in the AL census as a "mulatto". We are assuming the parents and children died of some sickness or something, but yet I've found land deeds in the BLA records where Shemie bought land after 1860 in AL. I'm just clueless about where to go from here to figure out what happened to them. The folks at the archives in Harrison Co., TX haven't found anything about the family except the census record, but they say that from old letters that still exist, there were a couple of Scarlet Fever and Cholera epidemics that came through in the 1840s, so that may be the answer - I just don't know, and I'm extremely interested in finding those other 3 kids if they lived, and why the land records in Shemie's name if he was dead. Anyway, I'm looking for any info that might be clues - the surnames I'm particularly interested in are Willingham, Strong, and Owen. Thanks, Laurie > Subject: [ALCOOSA] Mission Schools > Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 22:23:11 EDT > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > Hi Jeanne and Laurie > > I live in Talladega County Alabama, a couple of miles from Coosa County. Our > library has several donated documentaries on the history of Coosa County. I > will be glad to go to the library this Saturday and see what I can find on > Mission Schools in Coosa County. > The house I live in was one of the first black oneroom schoolhouses/churches > in Alabama. I have the original deed showing where my grandparents purchased > it from the owners. Unfortunately, I have never seen any mention of the > school house/church in any books. It was called St. Paul's School. > > I will let you know what I find out at the library. > > Sandy -- ...»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«....*@*....»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«... Laurie L. Wicks, Phoenix, Arizona Website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~papashouse/ Researching in the areas of VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, and New England - Stowe, Kemp, Camp, Corbin, Willingham, Hunt, Brand, Whitener/Weidner, Willingham, Strong, Owen, Herring and mixed Creek/Cherokee ...»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«....*@*....»º@º«....»º@º«....»º@º«...

Laurie, I'm sure you have but I have to ask, did you post this same message to all the counties you mentioned and to all the surname lists? Even the ones in Texas? Get as much exposure as possible on the lists. If you have anything you can contribute to the county lists with the family names you are looking for. I posted obits for my hubbies family. The obits had been cut so I didn't know the exact date or which of the 2 newspapers it was actually in. I wrote a disclaimer - along the lines of "The obits came from [newspaper name] or [other newspaper name] . . . I can attest to this as being from my husbands [full name] family history." Last week I received an email from one of his cousins. He had decided to work on his family history and came back to the county his father had been born in. Said when he saw the last name in the obits he thought "what's the chance this one will be related?" In the first paragraph . . . before he even looked at the obit, he had his answer. It may take time. Happy family hunting, kemis Researching: Duke, Evans, Hickey, Mays, Rosamond, Songer, and Camp for me Researching: Brooks, Chambers, Massey, Fountain, and Smith for my hubbie Researching Clapp Cemetery in Muscogee County, GA - none of our family lines From: Laurie L. Wicks Sandy, Thanks so much - I've been to Cherokee County, AL many times - where my grandfather was born and raised, but Coosa and Chambers is where his mother's family was from. She was a full blood Creek or close to it, and her family was in Coosa back in the early 1800s - I was reading in one of the histories about the very early settlers of the area, and they weren't mentioned, yet I knew they were already there before those listed, so it was very strange to me why they weren't talked about - I've been working on this family for over 20 years and have found next to nothing about them, and have my direct line with a family that simply disappeared, or at least the parents and 3 of their 6 kids did. I later found out they were Creek, which answered many of the questions about the scarcity of info and records about them. I'm hoping to find more about them such as if the kids were enrolled in the mission school, etc. The earliest one I have info on is Alban Willingham and his wife Bedy Herring - they had 9 children - the youngest, Nancy Ann Willingham, married Asbury Morgan Kimbrough, Sr. and I've found info about them. But my direct line is their oldest son, Shemie/Shamie/Shame/Shemii Willingham b 1811 and wife Elizabeth Strong - his name has not been the same in any of the records, but several of the records spell it Shemie. They are the couple that disappeared, along with 3 of their kids, sometime between the 1850 and 1860 census records. The last record we have is the 1850 Harrison Co., Texas census, and a record of a possible baby born in 1850, then nothing until 1860 when my gggrandfather, their next-to-youngest child, showed up in Coweta County, GA at the home of his uncle, his sister, the oldest child, shows up in AL at her uncle's house, and the baby shows up at yet another relative's home - the baby is later listed in the AL census as a "mulatto". We are assuming the parents and children died of some sickness or something, but yet I've found land deeds in the BLA records where Shemie bought land after 1860 in AL. I'm just clueless about where to go from here to figure out what happened to them. The folks at the archives in Harrison Co., TX haven't found anything about the family except the census record, but they say that from old letters that still exist, there were a couple of Scarlet Fever and Cholera epidemics that came through in the 1840s, so that may be the answer - I just don't know, and I'm extremely interested in finding those other 3 kids if they lived, and why the land records in Shemie's name if he was dead. Anyway, I'm looking for any info that might be clues - the surnames I'm particularly interested in are Willingham, Strong, and Owen. Thanks, Laurie