Why Does There Always Have to be “Smith” in the Family?
How I used contextual clues and cluster research to determine the identity of an unknown man with the last name of “Smith” in bag of old photographs.
One of my maternal great-grandmothers was born a Smith. Ugh. Dorothy Elton Smith married Harold Daniel Garner and she was the daughter of Amos Leonard Smith and Artie Lenora Albritton. My mom grew up knowing her great-grandparents and early in my genealogy research, this generation was quickly added to my tree and not much thought went into sourcing or flushing out this particular branch because it was known.
Dorothy Elton Smith pictured with Harold Daniel Graner on their wedding day, February 17, 1934 in Hardee County, Florida. As of the date that this article was posted, the physical photograph is in the possession of Michelle Garner Montgomery of Arcadia, Florida. Michelle is the granddaughter of Harold and Dorothy Garner.
Recently, I connected with my cousin Eileen who is a granddaughter of A L and Artie Smith. She has been doing genealogy for many years and I knew that she had all these shared lines pretty well researched and flushed out and I knew that one day I would just ask her to share her work with me and then I could verify it without spending a lot of time doing my own research. My time could be better used elsewhere. So, I finally made that call to her and we started working together. I would work through verifying the information she had collected over the years and she would work on scanning many of the photos and source materials she had collected over the years and we would pass information back and forth with the ultimate goal of having an accurately sourced family lineage to present to the Florida State Genealogical Society in order to receive our Florida Pioneer Descendant Certificate.
"The Florida State Genealogical Society's Florida Pioneer Descendant Certificate Program honors descendants of Florida pioneers who settled in Florida prior to statehood on 3 March 1845, and Settlers & Builders of Florida who settled in Florida between 3 March 1845 and 31 Dec 1900."
I was telling my mom about my work with Eileen and it made her remember that back when Dorothy Smith Garner passed away in 2002, my mom had found a bunch of old, loose photographs in Nanny's dining room buffet. Over 20 years ago, my mom had bagged up these photos and never looked at them again! What a treasure trove! There were folks in these photographs that we had never realized photos existed for! Many were labeled. Many were not. But of the ones that were labeled, while we might recognize the surname, we were left wondering, "But who was this person?" I soon realized that I was going to have to flush out the collateral lines of my 2nd great-grandparents, A L and Artie Smith.
My Great-Great Grandaddy, Amos Leonard “A L” Smith. This picture was taken at an unknown date, but most likely in the 1930’s or 1940’s. As of the date that this article was posted, the physical photograph is in the possession of Eileen McGowan Reed of Texas. Eileen is the granddaughter of A L Smith.
Happily, one of the quickest things that I was able to do was notice that some of the names of the folks written on the back of these photos, matched the names of the siblings of my 2nd great-granddaddy, A L Smith, as listed on the 1900 census.
19 year-old Amos L Smith listed in the household of his mother, Ella S Smith, and brothers Adger B, Joseph C, Henry E and David T. His brother Frank Smith lived next door with his wife Mollie L and their daughters Pauline and Opal. 1900 United States Federal Census Year: 1900; Census Place: Turkey, Sampson, North Carolina; Roll: 1217; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0105; FHL microfilm: 1241217.
Interestingly, it appeared that some of these photos were taken in Arcadia, Florida. But Grandaddy Smith had come down to Florida from North Carolina by himself, hadn't he? My mom doesn't remember meeting any of his brothers. Or playing with Smith cousins that descended from that generation. This was confusing since we are very close to our cousins and many generations have lived in Arcadia for a great many years. How could these brothers and their families have lived and worked in Arcadia, but my mom knows nothing of them?
The search was on!
One of the photos was labeled with the name "D T Smith". The young man in the photo was standing next to a chair that looked like it could be the same chair that my Great-Great Grandaddy Smith was sitting in while photographed around 1905. The photo of D T Smith was labeled as 1906, so that was consistent.
Photograph on the left is of Amos L Smith in approximately 1905. As of the date that this article was posted, the physical photograph is in the possession of Eileen McGowan Reed of Texas. Eileen is the granddaughter of A L Smith. Photograph on the right is of D T Smith and is labeled 1906. As of the date that this article was posted, the physical photograph is in the possession of Michelle Garner Montgomery of Arcadia, Florida. Michelle is the great-great niece of D T Smith.
Note the similarities of the chairs used in each photograph. If it is not the same chair, it is most certainly from the same set of chairs. I can’t eliminate that it might even be the same suit. The color of the suits and the lapels are certainly quite similar. It fits A L Smith more snuggly and he was a bit stouter than D T Smith, as well as older. In fact, it is so loose on D T Smith that it actually looks ill-fitting, which implies that it was not actually his suit.
The full text written on the back of the photo was as follows:
"D T Smith, at 21 years Mar 2 1906 Arcadia Fla <illegible> <illegible" girl"
A scan of the back of the photo of D T Smith. As of the date that this article was posted, the physical photograph is in the possession of Michelle Garner Montgomery of Arcadia, Florida. Michelle is the great-great niece of D T Smith.
Thus it appeared that not only was this a photo of A L Smith's brother, but that D T Smith was in Arcadia, Florida along with A L Smith by 1906! So what did the 1910 census say? I didn't have the 1910 census attached to anyone but A L and Artie Smith. I had not previously located any of his brothers as of 1910. Quick searches did not locate any "low hanging fruit" - which I expected because otherwise, I would have already attached them plus, "David Smith" was just too common of a name. Searching in both North Carolina and in Florida during that period was just too broad.
But I did know a couple of things that could help me narrow things down:
1) David T Smith appeared to be in Arcadia, Florida with his brother Amos Leonard Smith around 1906.
2) David and A L Smith had a brother named Adger Smith.
"Amos" and "Adger" are less common names and I knew that A L Smith had remained in Florida the rest of his life. I started by scouring all the source information I had previously procured for A L Smith and looking for other Smith associates. I felt like such an idiot when I looked at the city directories for Arcadia, Florida from the 1910s and 1920s and saw A L Smith and his wife Artie living at 112 W Imogene Street, and just a few lines above saw an "Adger R Smith" also living at 112 W Imogene Street. I mean, come on! I had been sloppy when attaching sources. I had made assumptions about what I thought I "knew" about the family instead of researching this line looking for clues like I SHOULD have been doing.
Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Title: Arcadia, Florida, City Directory, 1915
One small problem was that Adger Smith was listed as "Adger B Smith" on the 1900 census, which was the only other record I had previously located for him. As these men often only went by their initials in official documents, searching for "A B Smith" had yielded me no results and thus he had seemed to "disappear" per preliminary searches. But after checking all the directory entries, he was consistently listed as "Adger R Smith". It was enough circumstantial evidence that it was worth running searches with to see if it netted any good leads.
But Adger Smith would have to wait. David T Smith was the person that I had a photo of and he was the man that I was most determined to locate. Scanning the directories further, sure enough, there was a David T Smith and his wife Lessie living in Arcadia, Florida in the 1915 and 1917 Arcadia, Florida city directories.
Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Title: Arcadia, Florida, City Directory, 1917
So, the next step was to search for this marriage record. I tried a few different searches within ancestry.com with no luck.
I wasn't hopeful because of the negative searches in ancestry, but to be thorough (or "reasonable and exhaustive"….), I popped over to familysearch.org and decided to check each marriage set within Florida individually. Personally, I have had a lot of luck with this method for Florida marriages. I have found that pertinent records show up much higher in the results using this methodology than the same search parameters tend to do in a more general search.
It wasn't until I got to the third record set down that I had any luck. I ran a search for "David T Smith" with a marriage place of "Arcadia, DeSoto, Florida" and a spouse with the first name of "Lessie". Two records appeared at the top of the screen that looked especially promising.
The results of searching “Florida Marriages, 1837-1974” using only the parameters “David T Smith” and a spouse with the first name of “Lessie”.
I clicked on the one with the earliest date of December 7, 1914. The record had been indexed, but I wanted to see the original document. Family Search advised that I would have to browse the film, but the book and page number were helpfully provided. I went ahead and checked the index at the front of the book once I clicked in to confirm the page number, but once I finally got to the record, it all paid off.
Marriage license 171 between David T Smith of Arcadia, Florida, Age 23 and Miss Lessie Waldron of Arcadia, Florida, Age 18 was issued on December 7, 1909 and delivered to Amos L Smith. "Florida Marriages, 1837-1974", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWS2-KL6 : 11 January 2020), David T. Smith, 1909.
Y’all. Stop it. These are the moments, ammiright????
And here is the next record that had come up in the search, dated for December 8, 1909.
The marriage license for David T Smith of Arcadia, Florida and Lessie Waldron dated December 8, 1909. Witnessed by A L Smith and Mrs. Bertha Waldron. "Florida Marriages, 1837-1974", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWSN-MLN : 11 January 2020), David T. Smith, 1909.
Again, this record was indexed, but I had to browse the film to find the original record. And in neither index was my Great-Great Granddaddy, Amos L Smith, listed in any of the data. I can not stress enough how important it is to look at the original record any time that you can. Finding his name confirmed that the David T Smith who married Lessie Waldron was, in fact, A L Smith's brother and that he was the David T Smith listed in the 1915 and 1917 Arcadia City Directories!
