I will be delighted to receive a copy of the photo, Shirley. Coincidentally, I stumbled across the 1900 census image with the Holcomb household shortly after reading your post, Shirley. Some background for wanting it ... My late mother and her brother and sisters all lived in Glade District starting by 1900. For a short period they lived in Erbacon after that time, but returned to Cowen or Glade by the 1910 census. Ron Hardway, while he was teaching at the highschool in Upper Glade, checked his transcription of the census and found the family in the area in both 1910 and 1920. (If anyone reading this has access to these later census images, I'd certainly appreciate a look-up for the John Henry Davis and Leona Elizabeth Davis household in Cowen or Glade) Certainly, the two families knew each other and the children attended Cowen's schools together. Unfortunately, I failed to have the presence of mind that day to jot down everything lying open on Ron's desk at the highschool. So, we may have to wait until the census images show up or possibly look at the microfilm somewhere and learn if they remained in Glade. I suspect they remained because my mother showed us Cowen school in 1950 up on the hill and the location of the family small farm in Glade, but she didn't show us any home in which she lived in Cowen. Then, with the later census data we may solve the question of whether Gertrude or Roy was the adopted child. I suspect Gertrude, still, because of how Ron Hardway laid out the evidence by referring to my grandmother's statements in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census. Where my grandmother stated she had two living children and two natural children, three children lived in the Glade house in 1900, Gertrude, Flossie, Roy. Then, in 1910 she shows Gertrude as working in the home and not her child. But, in a later census, 1920 I think, she changes her mind and says Gertrude is her child. I grew up knowing all the children that survived childhood and would not have guessed Gertrude was not equal in the eyes of all. However, she did have quite a different look and personality from the other girls. I should have pressed my mother for the facts while she was alive. However, I had no idea then that there were so many facts that the family was covering up. Such as what was behind her simple and only description of her father when I asked what he was like. Her reply, after a long pause, "He was not a very nice man". And then who was Millie Dotson's father? I had no idea that there was any question about my mother's grandmother, her father's mother. Millie was named for her mother, Melissa Dotson (also Milissa on the 1850 census). Dotson was Melissa's birth name and to date no one has owned up to knowing who she might have married, if in fact she did marry. There is an active Dotson research group these days and the family has been studied extensively. But, they don't know either. Since my mother told me that the family knew of a native american in the line, said to be Cherokee, it is possible that Melissa and her man chose to keep him out of the house while the census taker was visiting. The census provides no clue to her children's father(s). The census does show her farm to be adjacent to her fathers farm in Doddridge Co. Also some Davis families lived nearby. So, Anderson G. Davis married Millie Dotson, dau of Melissa Dotson, according to Nicholson and my grandfather's death cert. My grandfather, John Henry Davis did marry Leona Eliz Haymond and did not marry Elizabeth Carder as is stated in error in "Davis: The Settlers of Salem West Virginia" Therefore, it appears that Millie's secret was that she was the illegitimate daughter of a native american or someone else whose identity has been kept secret and is probably one of the secrets protected so carefully by my mother and her sisters. A secret aunt Mabel might have been thinking about when I asked her to tell me about the family and she replied, "That's none of your business". She was not the sort who would change her mind and I never pressed her to tell me about her parents or grandparents. Another possible secret was my grandmother, Leona Eliz Haymond, is shown in a Braxton co census District as insane when she was a young girl. However, I grew up within an hour or two of my grandmother from the time she was about 70 years old until her death and she was unquestionably quite level headed, opinionated, intelligent, well read, creative and respected by her daughters who all attended college after graduation from Cowen Schools. (Wavelyn taught school in Earbacon for a couple of years before her marriage to Wm Alton Gillespie of Virginia.) One piece of wisdom my grandmother taught me was that it was possible to overcome one's fear of dying. I asked her a few years before her death (stroke) if she was afraid of death and she said, "no". She had lived a long time, done everything she cared about, could not see to read or sew and those were what she missed. Therefore, she was disappointed to awake each day and wished her life would finally end. I'll always appreciate her sharing that for it taught me that fear of death is a learned thing and it motivated me to unlearn it. I wonder who taught her. Liam Liam liam@fix.net ----- Original Message ----- From: <Shir689@cs.com> To: <WVWEBSTE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 6:44 PM Subject: [WVWEBSTE] Holcomb, Henderson, Thomas > Greetings fellow researchers, > > I have a picture of my grandmother, Bessie Holcomb b. 1901/2; with > her sisters: Samantha and Thelma Holcomb. I just received > information today about the other two people in the picture. > 1.) Nora Thomas-- who was a best friend of Samantha > (Holcomb) Good Roberts. > 2.) Frankie Henderson-he is very young-- maybe a year old. > (My HOLCOMBs lived in the Glade district in 1900. I haven't > checked the 1910 & 1920 census for them as yet.) > > I'm not sure when the picture was taken-my guess- 1910-1912?? > Does anyone have any information on these two people? > Or, anyone that would like me to e-mail them a copy of the picture? > > Regards, > Shirley > >