When you've been doing genealogy for any amount a time, you will occasionally come across people who time, it seems, has forgotten. They fall off the map after a census record places them with family, never to be seen or heard from again. Sometimes, if you're lucky, and/or diligent in your research you find evidence of them and it turns out they didn't marry or have children, so nobody came looking for them or proof of their existence. This post and maybe a few more that follow, will be my attempt at remembering the lost and forgotten members of our families.
Subscriptions that aide in genealogy research can be pretty expensive. I've been able to justify that expense when I'm making loads of progress, but when I seem to have stalled out, I discontinued those services and when I felt the urge to research I used free services like Family Search. After going a few years without Ancestry, Fold3 and Newspapers accounts, I decided to re-subscribe to see if there were any new records. I found some, but quickly ended up where I had been before. Most of my tree filled out and no new records on the horizon.
It's cheaper to pay by the year rather than the month so here I was with the majority of the year left on my subscription but nobody to research. In order to get the most of my money I started researching various unrelated branches of cousins, in-laws, half-siblings, step-parents etc...
I also discovered upon my return to my Newspaper subscription that several new papers had been added. So whenever I found a paper that seemed to have a lot of "hits" regarding family names, I decided to dig in and dig deep.
That's what has lead me to here.
My husband descends from Quincy A. Bell. He is his 3rd great grandfather. Quincy is the father of at least 7 children. I have them as Mary, Cordovia J, John L, Surrena, Eliza Emoline, Joseph P. and Samuel M. Three of these children, before last week, had just disappeared in my research.
According to Civil War records, Quincy was born March 1825 in McMinn County, Tennessee. The first census record that lists him by name places him in Dallas, Greene County, Missouri in 1850 with several other adult members with the same surname: BELL. Including a Sarah listed one household before him who is old enough to be his mother with a young female named Sirina [sic]. *Note that on the following page is also a Mary E. BELL age 4.
Then in the 1860 census he is found in Washington, Webster County, Missouri. But if you click on the image you will see that it's actually still Dallas Township. This family most likely did not move. In 1855 Webster County was created from part of Greene County.
Back to the census. Quincy this time is living with Sarah BELL who is 19 years his senior (again, most likely his mother) and other BELL siblings, a few names are the same as were found in the previous census. 
Then in 1865, when Quincy is 40, you can find a marriage record to a Matilda A FRAZIER in Webster County, Missouri. Image below you can read Quincy A Bell and Tilda Frazier married in July 1865.
But, when you find Quincy five years later in the 1870 census, he is now living in Upton, Texas County, Missouri. He is 45, his assumed wife is Elizabeth not Matilda. She is 28. Then the following children are listed: Mary (9), Cordovia (4), John (2) and Sereny (1). The ages of the children, specifically Mary, quickly put a kink in things. She would have been born 4 years before his marriage to Matilda. And I've never found any other marriage record for Quincy and Elizabeth or any marriages to anyone else for that matter.
As we move on, there's the Missouri State census of 1876. Quincy is still in Texas County, Township 31. Elizabeth is now Emaly E. and Mary A. has a different last name. Is it Tiry (Tyree?) Did she marry? Is she a widow? *The name Tyree is important because one of Quincy's daughter's death certificates lists her mother's maiden name as Tyree* But other siblings' death certificates have listed Moody as well as Stevens. And later, in 1935 a newspaper article disclosing a lawsuit claiming relation to Jackson Barnett, by the Bell descendants, states her maiden name was NEWMAN*
Next, we have the 1880 census. They're still in Texas County, Missouri. Living in the town of Upton. Mary A. is now nowhere to be found. Quincy's wife, Elizabeth is now Emiline E. There's a new child, Josephus P. and a cousin James M. Sitton living with the family.
The 1890 census isn't around; therefore, we fast forward 20 long years. A lot can happen in two decades. In Dec 1883 Cordovia Jane BELL marries James W. Rose and before the next census they will have six children. John L BELL has married Mary "Emma" Owen in Feb 1889 they will have had three children by the next census. Surrena has married Benjamin Lee Fielden in 1883, and they have five children by 1900. And lastly, we have my husband's ancestor, Eliza Emoline who has married Samuel Williams and they have at least six living children by 1900.
In 1900 we find Quincy is widowed and living with him are his youngest two sons, Joseph P. who is listed as being 22 and Samuel, who is 18. He also has his married daughter Cordovia ROSE's family living with him. And his eldest son John is listed right above him. I want you to look closely at how all of the adults and most of the children are able to read and write... except for Joseph.
Before now, this was the last record I could find for Joseph. But now, because of a few newspaper articles, I think I have found him. And because he was recorded as unable to read or write, I have a theory. There is no definite record, that I have found for a death date for Quincy or for his wife Elizabeth for that matter. But we know, because he is listed as a widow, she died before 1900. This is also the last census record for Quincy and the article below from page 6 of The Houston Herald dated May 15 1902, makes be believe he died around this time.
This article from the same source dated 16 May 1907 gives us a better picture as to why Joe BELL was adjudged a county charge, keeping in mind that he was the only one of his siblings unable to read or write.
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| The Houston Herald, 16 July 1908 |
I don't have any definitive proof that this is indeed Joseph P. BELL, son of Quincy A. Bell but I feel pretty sure that it is.
Find-A-Grave has no one with the last name BELL added to their database for the Ozark Cemetery in Houston, Texas County, Missouri. But I feel like it's a good place to look for further information. Using the articles above, I did go ahead and create a memorial for him.
My next post will be about Joseph's brother Samuel who also seemed to have disappeared after the 1900 census.
Until then,
Becky
