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Connections
Genealogy Clues Found in the
News!
from TheOldenTimes.com
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I'm very excited to share this news!
This will be a continuing story, I'm sure, as the descendants of the Whartons and Gilliams in The Wharton Album continue to get in touch with each other and share family news. They have been very kind to share some of the family history with us!
As some of you know, I found an old photo album at the Will Rogers Cattle Barn Flea Market last year. I have posted photos from what I named "The Wharton Album" in my Victorian Scrapbook section. The name comes from the single newspaper clipping tucked inside: the obituary of Joshua F. WHARTON of Blossom, Texas.
As the obituary states, he was survived by a widow and children, but no names were given. There was, however, a portrait of him with his wife and oldest child in the album, so I knew that his wife was Annetta GILLIAM and that his oldest daughter was Mamie WHARTON.
Joshua and Annetta married on October 10, 1892 in Lamar County, Texas, according to information obtained at the Lamar County, Texas GenWeb site and through the LDS FamilySearch site.
Annetta's parents were George and Jane GILLIAM. She apparently had brothers named Jim GILLIAM, Arch GILLIAM and George GILLIAM.
But who were the other children? Why was this old album languishing in a dust-covered pile in the Cattle Barn flea market? Who had collected, labeled, and - ultimately - lost the photos?
Based upon some of the notes added to the pictures, it seemed apparent that a child of Joshua WHARTON and Jane GILLIAM had labeled the pictures. And though she would have been referring to herself in the third person when identifying the photo of Joshua & Annetta and their baby, I suspected that Mamie WHARTON had assembled, at least in part, the old album.
Finally, thanks to a kind person (unknown, at least to me) who forwarded the information about the album to the newspaper in Paris, Texas, some WHARTON-GILLIAM descendants learned about this site and got in touch!
Here's a little bit of an update, which I will add to as more information comes in.
According to Ruth Wharton Ethridge, a granddaughter of Joshua F. Wharton, the children of J. F. WHARTON and Annetta GILLIAM were:
Mamie WHARTON
Ruth WHARTON
Wesley WHARTON
Jess WHARTON
Claude WHARTON
Frank WHARTON
Woodrow WHARTON
Ruth's father was Frank WHARTON, who, along with her mother, died when she was a very young child, leaving her and her brother and sister to be raised by their Aunt Mamie WHARTON, who married Albert DeBARRY. Joshua WHARTON died when his daughter Mamie was about 12, and Mamie was never close to her mother, and thus Ruth has had very little information about her WHARTON ancestors.
Check back here for more new information, which I'll post as time - and puppies and children - permit.