Myrtle's Mother is a Mystery

Brief Recap:

My mother's father's mother is Myrtle.  Myrtle's mother (I call her Tina) is a mystery.

Below is part of my 21 Nov 2015 Post about Tina.  Pay special attention to the highlighted part.

Myrtle's mother has been a bit more difficult to track down.  Even her name is complicated. I have seen her listed on documents or referenced by family members as Tina, Tinia, Tinnie, Tunie, and Tiny.  One of her grandchildren thought her maiden name was Hartley but there has, to my knowledge, never been anything else to confirm that.
She was born according to one census in October of 1860.  She has been listed as being born in both Louisiana and Mississippi.  It is also not know when she died.  Presumably sometime after 5 Jun 1900 which is the last time she shows up on a census in Hunt County, Texas with her second husband Jess W. Abrams.
Ironically I know the date of Jacob's marriage to Leannah Dyer and the date of Tina's marriage to Jess Abrams, but I cannot find marriage records for Jacob and Tina's marriage.  Probably sometime between 1875 and 1879 based on when children were born.
Speaking of children, here are Jacob and Tina's children:
Jacob and Leanna:Richard P. born 1860Mary C. "Mollie" born 1870Jacob M. born 1873Cully C. born 1875
Jacob and Tina:LaHanna "Annie" born 1879William Douglas born 1882Myrtle Victoria born 1886Jesse Jewel born 1889
Tina and Jess:J.C. Abrams born 1898

My mom had her DNA tested through Ancestry a couple of years ago and I've been working through the results ever since.  A couple of months ago I started noticing a familiar name in some of her results - Hartley.  Could this be the connection I've been looking for?!?!

My mom's closest Hartley match has a pretty good tree - yay!!  The person who stands out to me in the tree is Samuel Tillman Hartley.  Here's why...

This is what I know about Tina:

• Probably born around October 1860 in either Mississippi or Louisiana
• Probably married Jacob Pinkney Briggs in the 1870's because their first child was born in 1879
• The Briggs family seemed to live in and around Choctaw lands as they moved about the country
• The Briggs moved to Oklahoma in the late 1880's
• Tina married J.W. Abrams in 1894 in Texas (her youngest daughter lived in Texas which is probably why she moved there)

Here's some info about Samuel T. Hartley and things that I find interesting:

• He was born in 1825 in Choctaw County, Mississippi
• He also lived in Texas and Oklahoma
• His family applied to be included in the Five Civilized Tribes (Dawes Rolls) as Choctaw - they were denied
• There are some similar names between Samuel's family and Tina's family (not conclusive evidence but interesting) 

The more research I do on Samuel, his children and relatives I keep finding "coincidences" between the Briggs and the Hartleys.  But I just can not find the connection. It's very frustrating. I think the main problem is the lack of information I have on Tina.  If I had anything else - anything at all - I think I could make the connection.

Annie Briggs

Jacob and Leanna Briggs had a fourth child, Cully, who was born in Mississippi in 1875. But after that it's a mystery.  He lived until at least age 5 because he shows up on the 1880 census with his family, but so far no other record of him has been found.

So Jacob's next child is with his second wife, Tina.  Jacob and Tina's oldest child is LaHanna "Annie" Briggs born 5 Jan 1879 in Mississippi.  Annie married William Edward Ivey in 1893 in Lamar, Texas.  (Note: William had two children from a previous marriage, Belle and William. Remember that for later.)  I'm not sure what brought Annie to Texas - several of the Briggs family members show up in this part of Texas around this time. Anyway, Annie and William had three children:

• Ed George Ivey (1894-1973)

• Laura Ruth Ivey-Mathews (1895-1928)

• Oma Ivey-McCay (1901-1962)

I'm not sure whether William died or he and Annie divorced, but Annie married James Monroe Jackson on 8 Apr 1907 in Woodland, TX. (This, incidentally, is around the time and place her mother, Tiny, died.) Annie and James had five children:

• Mack Delton Jackson (1908-1976)

• James Otis Jackson (1910-1955)

• Mary Belle Jackson-Killian-Kinnamon (1912-1988)

• Hilda Farie Lee Jackson (1917-1918)

• J.P. "Jack" Jackson (1920-1972)

Mack Delton Jackson is the father of Cousin Cathy.  She is the one who has given me most of my information on the Briggs family.  In fact, if I hadn't stumbled onto a picture she posted online I would never have found out anything about my Briggs line (because my great-grandma Myrtle's death certificate was leading me on a wild goose chase).  So I am immensely grateful to her!

Annie passed away 26 December 1933 in Kosoma, Oklahoma.  This is a family story that Cousin Cathy shared with me about her grandma's death: 

She and my grandfather were living in a little house they had built on Doug Briggs property.  She had helped Doug kill hogs during the day, came home and put food in the oven to warm up, and went out to milk her cow.  Her oldest son, Ed Ivey, was in the house.  When she didn’t come back he went out to look at her and she had just leaned back against the wall on her stool and was dead.  The milk wasn’t even spilled.  My mother said Annie had complained to her of a pain in her side the last time she saw her.

Remember when I mentioned that William Ivey had two children when he and Annie got married?  Well, William's daughter, Belle, married James Monroe Jackson's brother, Dode Jackson.  Since James Monroe Jackson was Annie's second husband, there's no actual familial relationship, but interesting nonetheless.

Mamie Briggs

Jacob Mamie or Mamie Jacob Briggs was born September 15th of either 1871, '73, '75, or '76 (can't seem to make up his mind) in Sunflower Co., Mississippi .  Mamie was the son of Jacob Pinkney Briggs and Leannah Dyer, making him a half-brother of my great-grandmother, Myrtle Carroll.

He was married 20 Jul 1899 in Howe, Le Flore, OK to Mollie N. Merchant. And they had 3 children: Marvin, Tommie (girl), and Willie (girl).  Willie died when she was only ten years old. But the other two children grew to adulthood, got married and had children of their own.

He died sometime in 1946 in McAlester, Oklahoma and was buried in Red Oak Cemetery there.

Mamie's WWI Draft Registration

Doug and Allie Briggs & Mamie and Mollie Briggs

Mary C. "Mollie" Briggs

The next few posts I'm going to go through some of the children of Jacob and Tina Briggs.

It appears Jacob may have had an oldest son named Richard P. (born 1860 in Mississippi), but I have no other information about him at this time and I don't know of anyone else who does either.

Next in line was Jacob and Leanna's daughter Mary C. "Mollie" who was born 10 Jan 1870 in Mississippi. Mollie married Thomas Andrew Wilson on 29 May 1886 in Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma. Mollie was Thomas's third wife (but not his last). Mollie and Thomas had 5 (possibly 6) known children: Katie(?), Effie Edna, Eunice Claudie, Ida May/Mae, Thomas Lee (died in infancy), and Dewey/Duey Fontain.

Left to right
Eunice Claudie Wilson
Thomas Wilson holding Ida May Wilson
Mary C. "Molly" Briggs holding Dewey F. Wilson
Effie Wilson

Above is a picture of the family I found on the OK Gen Web site.  The identification is also from that site.

Effie Edna was born 3 May 1887 in Indian Territory, OK.

Eunice Claudie was born 3 Jun 1889 in Butler (Indian Territory), OK.

Ida May/Mae was born 6 Mar 1893 also in Butler.

Dewey/Duey Fontain was born in December 1897 in Dunbar (Indian Territory), OK.

Cousin Cathy told me a family story that was related to her that Mollie was pregnant at the time of her death. She tragically fell out of a window which killed her and the baby.  This was on 1 Jan 1901 in Pushmataha County, OK.

Discovering the Briggs Family

I decided to dig a little into my grandpa's mom's family a couple of months ago.  I honestly didn't expect to get very far because her family always seemed to be a bit of a mystery.  My mom barely remembers her.  My grandpa only spoke vaguely about her when he was alive.  My grandma loved her but doesn't seem to know (or remember) much about her family.

Her name was Myrtle Victoria Briggs-Carroll.  I also know she was married previously to a man with the last name Crawford because my grandfather had half-siblings with that last name.  I know that she was born 26 Jan 1886, although where seems to be up for debate.

About the only other thing I had to go on was a vague memory of my grandpa talking about visiting his Briggs family in Moyers, Oklahoma as a young man.  And on Myrtle's death certificate her father's name is listed as Doug Briggs.

When I showed my grandma the death certificate she thought I probably shouldn't put much stock in the father's name because it was supplied by Myrtle's husband (my grandpa's dad Earl) and not only was he never really that interested in Myrtle's family, he was also very old when he gave them that information.

I went digging through some of my grandparent's old pictures and found this!

Front

Back

As you can see, it says that it's a picture of "Uncle Doug Briggs - Mom's Brother." That's my grandpa's handwriting. And it says it was taken in Moyers, OK.  I'm not sure when he wrote this on the back but it may have been many years later as he got Doug's wife's name wrong, but it was something to go on.

I found out that Moyers is in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, so I started looking around on the internet to see what I could find out about it.  I came across this website:

Oklahoma GenWeb

As I began scrolling down, I noticed a few people named Briggs.  But I thought what are the chances it's my Briggs.  Sure there's a guy named William Douglas Briggs, but as I've discovered that's not the most unusual name in the world.

I took a chance and emailed the lady who submitted the pictures and, unbelievably, she is a distant cousin.  Those ARE my Briggs!!

New Cousin Cathy's grandma was the sister to my great-grandma Myrtle.  I knew Myrtle had a brother, but I didn't know about a sister.  Turns out Cathy has been researching "our Briggs" for many years and had tons of information on them!  She has been a treasure trove of information.  Plus it's fun to have someone to share your excitement with.

So, needless to say, I've been overwhelmed the past couple of months with sorting through all the information she's given me. Not to mention trying to fill in a few blanks here and there myself since new information comes online on almost a daily basis.

I'll try to begin posting what I'm finding out about my great-grandma Myrtle Victoria Briggs-Crawford-Carroll's family.