Rockdale County GaArchives Photo Document.....Rockdale County Genealogical Society-Newsletter February 12, 2009 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Larry C. Knowles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002854 February 12, 2009, 5:46 pm Source: Larry C. Knowles Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/rockdale/photos/documents/rockdale4419nph.gif Image file size: 280.4 Kb Rockdale County Genealogical Society Newsletter-February 2009-[page 3] <> One Man's Family My late best friend Harry Alexander was a reluctant genealogist. He loved to visit rural family cemeteries with me, and hear tales from my old family diary, but he never expressed any desire to trace his own family. Harry was truly a great friend, but he was a type-A personality, he didn't have the patience that God gave Job's Billy goat. Yet, in the short span of two years, he became a great genealogy buddy, and a good family historian. As my family lines began to hit "brickwalls", I finally got him to go to the State Archives. I don't recall what we found that first day, but it was enough to spark his interest. Each trip became more intriguing. At first he wanted to do only his paternal line, but we soon branched out as each marriage was found. With few initial clues, Harry found a Civil War soldier, a pioneer Presbyterian minister, a member of the Georgia Legislature, a Madison hotel owner, three Revolutionary soldiers, and two 1770s Virginia patriots. Like me, most of his easily traced forebears were here in Georgia, so we could readily visit the courthouses, seek old cemeteries, or even sightsee on our short day trips. We did get off on one wild-goose chase, but the clues eventually cleared that up. We made trips to NC on his paternal line, but we got great information on his Virginia men in Macon at the Washington Memorial Library. Harry's good luck would have filled a nice little book on the adventures possible in genealogy, unfortunately, I didn't record every detail. Harry's father, Edward G. Alexander, grew up in Senoia in Fayette Co. GA. We knew that his father, Harry, a postman, had married Annette Nipper, and was buried in Senoia, near his father, Thomas G. Alexander. Harry's mother said that Annette Alexander had told her that her mother, Frances, buried with husband Jacob D. Nipper, in Atlanta's Westview Cemetery, had been a "Widow Cherry". And, that the Nipper family had often received visits from a "Major Dozier", in their West End-Atlanta home, in the early 1900s. Beyond his grandparents, these few clues were all that we had to start with. If Harry could do family research, considering his temperament-and few clues, I believe anyone could do it. Here is his story. Widow Cherry and Major Dozier This story is not sequential-and, as in all genealogy, the facts and final conclusions were accumulated from multiple sources, over varying periods of time. We of course started with Harry's paternal line in Fayette Co, but I will get to the wild-goose chase first. We found that Jacob D. Nipper was a drug company salesman in Atlanta in 1900. Had we looked closer at his census, and his then wife, Antoinette, we would have likely saved a lot of time. Instead, we found Jacob listed on the 1880 Spalding Co. census, as a "commercial traveler"-age 33, with wife Fannie-22, three small sons, and his mother-in-law, Emma Adair-59. We soon found that the couple had married in Fayette Co., though her parents, William H. P. Adair-a grocer in Greenville, and mother Henrietta Emma(Coleman)had lived in Meriwether Co. As Jacob's business evidently placed him east and west of the rail corridor from Atlanta to Griffin to Macon, an elopement seemed entirely possible. We didn't make any quick links on Wm. H. P. Adair's line, as he was born in Alabama, but we soon made a connection to Emma's father, Samuel Coleman, in Columbia Co. Her mother, likely Sarah Coleman-age 72 on the 1850 Meriwether census, lived next- door to the Adair family. Though we would eventually go to Columbia Co. on another line, most time was wasted at the Archives. We didn't really get on the right track until I found "Emma Coleman Adair's" burial in a book that I had on Henry Co. "Churchyard Cemeteries". [By coincidence-Henry was one of my home counties] This book had also noted that Jacob Nipper's parents, John and Rachel Nipper, came to Henry in 1849 from Richland District SC-[facts on their tombstones]. Interestingly, we learned that they were buried in the cemetery of long defunct Mount Pleasant Methodist Church, now on the grounds of Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, GA, just barely outside of the 3rd & 4th turns! Much later, we visited Emma C. Adair's grave at the Berea Christian Church cemetery in Hampton-and, surprise, surprise-we found that daughter, "Fannie"(Frances)Nipper was buried beside her. She had not made the book! Instantly, all of our Adair/Coleman research was useless, as Harry's ancestor was the "2nd Fannie" Nipper, buried in Atlanta with Jacob. We then returned to Jacob's 1900 Fulton Co. census, and saw that he and wife, Antoinette, had been married nine years. Though the census taker had noted that she was the mother of five children, with five living, none of the children shown could have been her's. Fulton Co. court records showed that Jacob Nipper had married Antoinette Dozier. Suddenly, both of Harry's mother's clues were relevant. Was "our" Fannie-a "widow Cherry? And, a Dozier? And, who was Major Dozier? After Jacob Nipper's death, we found Antoinette on the 1910 census, living in the same neighborhood, in the home of a James S. Dozier. Again using census records, we found that James and Antoinette were children of William Hunt Dozier of Columbia Co.(later of Floyd Co)-but we couldn't find a sister Frances or "Fannie". Somehow(the details are now fuzzy) we learned that James Dozier's Spanish-American War bible-a small New Testament, was in the Archives vault. An examination reveled the obvious names of siblings-Antoinette, and others, but still no Fannie. Finally, we began to look for "Cherrys" in areas where Jacob Nipper lived and worked. On the 1880 Bibb Co. census, I found a John Cherry-30, wife-Frances 25, and, with Harry's luck-a girl, Emma Dosier-13. Other records confirmed that we had found our "Fannie", the daughter of Ignatious J. Dozier of Pike Co., a younger brother of William H. Dozier[sons of Green J. Dozier of Columbia Co.]. Antoinette Dozier was Fannie's first cousin! [ Revised: 02-09-09 ] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/rockdale/photos/documents/rockdale4419nph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/gafiles/ File size: 7.0 Kb