Genealogy can be a cold, cruel mistress. Last weekend, I learned that my 3rd great grandmother Matilda Jane Goodger‘s maiden name was Miller. We know this because of a funeral home record from 1929. Mrs. Mat “Gresham” was memorialized in death as the 78-year-old daughter of “U Googer” and “Miller”.

i have no doubt that the informant, Vester Garner, was accurate. After all, he was Mat’s nephew and the grandson of “U Googer” and “Miller”. He would not have met his grandmother who died in 1881 but he would have certainly have known his grandfather, Ulysses Goodger, who died when Vester was 25. Having lived his entire life in northeastern Mississippi, Vester would have grown up with other Millers who were most certainly his kinfolk. So I think he knew what he was talking about when he gave the funeral home the names of his Aunt Mat’s parents.

When I received the email with Matilda’s maiden name, euphoria swept over me like an ice cube slipping down my back on a hot summer’s day. The first few seconds were thrilling… but as the ice cube melted and seeped into my trousers, the euphoria dissipated. I knew the identities of Matilda’s parents (I thought) almost intantly. It was so obvious. And then it became less obvious. And then doubt set in as I realized I was facing another set of brick walls. It would be easy for me to assume that Matilda’s parents were Joel and Mary (Griffith) Miller but was it accurate?

Joel Miller had sold land to Stephen Goodger, Ulysses’ father, when the Goodgers arrived in Tishomingo County in the 1840s. Stephen’s daughter, Hannah Goodger later married Joel’s son Josiah. So it’s not a stretch to assume that Matilda Jane might be Joel and Mary’s daughter since the two families were very close to one another. Cased closd?

Not by a longshot. Having obssesed about Matilda for quite some time, I knew things weren’t adding up in my head as I took a closer look at Joel and Mary. First, Matilda’s birthplace was consistently listed as Tennessee in the censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Assuming Tennessee is correct, she would have been the only child of Joel and Mary’s who was not born in Alabama!!! Furthermore, according to the 1880 census, both of Matilda’s parents were also born in Tennessee. Joel Miller was born in South Carolina and Mary Griffith was born in Georgia. The ice cube hath melted.

I turned to the 1830 and 1840 censuses looking for Joel Miller and wish I hadn’t. According to her headstone, Matilda was born in 1828. She should have been a tickmark representing a female child  under the age of 5 living in Joel’s 1830 household had she belonged to Joel and Mary. It was tickmark-less. In 1840, she should have been a tickmark for a female in the 10 to 14 category. No tickmark but there was girl in the 5 to 9 category and two girls under 5.

If one could find Joel’s probate records, perhaps it would identify the names of his chldren. And so one toiled through 300 pages of unindexed images online and indeed found Joel’s probate records. And there it was: two lines intentionally left blank for the names of Joel’s children and heirs. Most certainly, the court clerk intended to go back and fill them in later but it never happened. I cannot make this stuff up.

Was Matilda the daughter of Joel and Mary? Were the census takers wrong about her age and place of birth and those of her parents? And if Ulysses wasn’t Joel’s son-in-law, was it just a coincidence or a cruel joke that he was appointed to help appraise Joel’s estate? And who knew that another brick wall was waiting for me behind Matilda’s?

Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relationship: 3rd great grandmother
Common ancestors: The Millers!