On This Day in Family History - January 6

 Nancy Ellen 'Nannie' Hicks married George Woodson Sandefur 06 January 1901.

 They were married 52 years, until George's death in 1953.

Nancy passed away on 06 January 1965, on what would have been their 64th anniversary. She was 90 years old when she died.

Photos above and below: George and 'Nannie' Sandefur with some of their progeny. The girl with the curly hair is their granddaughter Nora Solomon. I don't know the other two children in the pictures.

Nancy Ellen Hicks was the sister of my great-grandfather Ulysses Hicks. Their parents were John Henry and Malisa Burns Hicks. Nancy married George Woodson Sandefur and they had two children: Ida Mae (called Mae) and Charlotte Viola (called Viola). 

Photo: Front - Malisa Hicks and her daughter Nancy Hicks Sandefur. 

Back - Nancy's daughters Mae and Viola

Photo: Nannie Sandefur, age 84, with great-grandchild Debbie Wright.

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A few tidbits of interesting information about Nancy Ellen Hicks:

 

Nancy's husband George Sandefur had a sister named Ida. Ida married Nancy's brother Felix Hicks.

Photo: Front - John Henry Hicks, Malisa Hicks, David Hicks. Back - Felix and Ida Sandefur Hicks and their daughter Rosie, Ulysses Hicks

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Nancy's daughter Viola married William Solomon and they had one child, Nora. William died before Nora's first birthday. I don't know his cause of death. Viola never remarried.

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Nancy's daughter Mae married a man named Ceilco Weatherford in 1925. That's all the information I had about her. So I went to FamilySearch and tried to find out more. I found 2 records. One was the 1940 census, in which Ida Mae is reported to be a widow, and she had a 4 year old son. I dug around some more and found a death certificate for a Carter Lewis Ceilco Weatherford. He was near the same age as Ida Mae. He died of a gunshot wound -- officially deemed a homicide -- in 1946. On the death certificate his wife is listed as "Gracie." Now, I have learned that information gleaned from census takers is not always reliable. So I'm wondering if Ida Mae was not in fact a widow in 1940 -- but maybe divorced or her husband had left her at that time. I mean, how many Ceilco Weatherfords could there have been in Arkansas? (He was killed in Tennessee, but on the death certificate his residence was listed as Wilson, Arkansas.) Ceilco's full name was Carter Lewis Ceilco Weatherford. Ida Mae's son in the 1940 census is named Carter Weatherford. So I'm relatively certain the murdered man was her husband. (Alan actually found a Carter W. Weatherford II currently living in Arkansas. He would be the right age to be Ida Mae's grandson. I'm tempted to write him and ask if he is related to Ida Mae, and if he knows any more about this story.)