Madness Monday: Fred Jack Sanford

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Sometimes in our research we run into people who drive us up the wall.  This has been the case with my research of Fred Jack Sanford, the seventh child of Ambrose Sanford and Naomi Jane Liner.  For years I operated in complete ignorance of his existence.  They say ignorance is bliss and in this case – I’d have to agree.

Through email contact with another Sanford researcher I learned of Little Fred Jack.  I learned he was born on the 12 Jun 1889 in Haywood County, North Carolina and died 18 Oct 1893 in Haywood County, North Carolina.  Little Fred Jack was only four years old when he died.  The same email informed me of his burial in Crabtree Baptist Church Cemetery in Haywood County, North Carolina.

The years in which Fred Jack lived out his short existence prevent me from finding any formal records on him.  There is no 1890 census for the state of North Carolina and since his death occurred before 1913 there are no death records for me to find.  I desperately clung to the hope that I would be able to find Fred Jack’s tombstone, so I searched Crabtree Baptist Church Cemetery as if my life depended on it…  but I found nothing.  I next looked through Cemeteries and Family Graveyards in Haywood County, NC – June 1, 1979 by George A. Miller in hopes that Little Fred Jack was buried elsewhere, but once again I came up empty-handed.  It made no sense to me that Fred Jack would be buried in Crabtree Baptist when his parents and grandparents were just up the road in the Upper Crabtree Cemetery and I still remain a little skeptical over his burial site.

With all the endless issues I was having while researching Fred Jack – I began to believe perhaps the information I received about him was incorrect, but then I ran across one of Fred Jack’s nieces who confirmed the information I had received.  I remain unaware of a family bible for Ambrose Sanford and Naomi Liner that would provide the evidence I am looking for, so I am running out of options.  I plan to comb through newspaper articles the next time I am home, try to dig up burial plot deeds, and contact the Crabtree Baptist Church to see if they have a legend or any information on those buried in their cemetery.  Knowing it is very likely that Little Fred Jack actually existed and not being able to prove it has driven me completely mad over the last several years…  I’m a little worried that if I don’t prove his existence that the lack of information will be the proverbial straw on the camel’s back.

Crabtree Baptist Church and Cemetery - Mar 2011

Crabtree Baptist Church and Cemetery, Mar 2011 by Cassie Sanford Clark

Military Salute Photo Contest

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Claude Sanford

Claude Sanford, Circa 1945

It’s the last day to send off photos of your hero for The Mountaineer’s “Military Salute Photo Contest” on Facebook.  The winning photo will be featured in Monday’s newspaper in celebration of Memorial Day.

I entered a photo of my papaw, Claude Johnson Sanford (you can read about him here and here).  You can help him win by going to The Mountaineer’s Facebook page and liking his photo in the Military Salute photo contest album.  While you’re there, make sure you honor the other Haywood County men and women who have served in the US Military.  :)

Photo of Samuel F. Sanford Family

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Samuel and Emma Sanford Family, Circa 1896

Samuel and Emma Sanford Family, Circa 1903

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to speak with one of Samuel Sanford’s granddaughters over the phone.  It was so wonderful to get to hear stories about her father, William Crawford Sanford, and her Uncle Grover Sanford.  She was such a sweetheart and gave me a great deal to consider about my ongoing struggle to research her particular Sanford line.

The biggest thing she left me to think about is the above photo of the Samuel and Emma Sanford family.  I dated the photo and named the family members based off of census records and guesstimates of the ages of the photographed children.  The 1900 Spartanburg County census lists Samuel, Emma, Thomas, Grover, Ceneth, Charles, and William Crawford Sanford.  Since Crawford Sanford was born in 1896, I naturally assumed the baby in the photo was him and placed the date of the photo at 1896/1897.  However, after talking with my Sanford cousin I learned that the baby in the photo is not Crawford at all.  Crawford is the cute little boy who appears cross-eyed and picking his nose – I’m guessing his age to be about 6 years old.  If Crawford were in fact 6 or 7 years old when this photo was snapped, that would mean the picture was actually taken around 1902/1903.

Since I know the photo was taken at least six years after what I originally thought – I’m now left with a great big confusion on my hands.  Where is Charles and who is that precious baby?  I had always assumed little Charles was adopted or passed away around the same time as his parents.  However, his absence in this photo would lead one to speculate that he died sometime between the 1900 census and around 1903 when this photo was taken.  Unfortunately, my Sanford cousin didn’t know the precious baby’s name and all she did say was that she believed her daddy had said it died as an infant.

The phone conversation with my Sanford cousin certainly left me with more mysteries than it cleared up, but I can’t complain!  She gave me some wonderful insight into what happened to the surviving children of Samuel and Emma Sanford after the untimely death of their parents.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to take the things she passed on to me and find some more clues that will lead me to discovering the truth about what really happened to her grandpa’s family.

James Anderson Sanford

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James Anderson Sanford was the sixth child of Ambrose Sanford and Naomi Liner, and the next person on my list to research after completing a full profile on his brother, Josephius Carter Sanford.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to share on James even with everything I have compiled…

My first research goal for James was to find all of his census records, which was easy enough.  I found James in the 1900, 1910, and 1920 Haywood County census records by using Heritage Quest.  These records told me that James was born sometime around 1888, married a woman named Carrie, the couple had five children: Fred, Hermie, Hillard, Robert, and Hazel, and James had worked both as a farmer and a laborer in a pulp mill to support his growing family.

I went to the Haywood County Register of Deeds to look for a death certificate, because I was unable to locate a 1930 Haywood County census record for James Anderson Sanford or his family.  My efforts in looking for a death certificate were rewarded and though I did not learn all I hoped to from the document, I still learned quite a bit.  James Anderson Sanford’s date of birth, occupation, and his wife’s maiden name were all missing from the document.  However, I did learn that James died on 21 Jan 1923 in Beaverdam, Haywood County, North Carolina from tuberculosis.  The document also told me James had been buried in the Old Thickety Cemetery in Haywood County.

I next checked Ancestry.com hoping to find more information on James Anderson Sanford.  My searches on Ancestry helped me a great deal and I was able to find his WWI Draft Registration Card from 1917.  The registration card told me James was born on 21 Jun 1886 and he was employed at Champion Fibre Company at the time of his draft registration.  Ancestry.com also helped me locate several public family trees where James Anderson Sanford was listed and from them I learned the maiden name of his wife had been Robinson.  I later confirmed James Anderson Sanford’s marriage to Carrie Lee Robinson on 17 Dec 1908 in Haywood County, North Carolina.

I was able to find Carrie and all of her Sanford children in the 1930 Haywood County census at a later date.  My original searches for the family were fruitless, because I had failed to realize Carrie had remarried about three years after James’ death.

After tracking down all the records I had access to I went to the Old Thickety Cemetery to search for James’ tombstone, but was unable to find one.  I feel pretty confidently that James is buried in the cemetery in an unmarked grave, because James’ son Fred (also in an unmarked grave) and his wife’s parents are buried in the cemetery too.

If anyone has any further information I would love to hear from you!

Old Thickety Cemetery

Old Thickety Cemetery by Cassie Sanford Clark

Passing Down the Musical Gene

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I recently saw a funny quote on Facebook proclaiming, “Successful parenting is finding 80′s hair band music on your kid’s iPod.”  I giggled and thought to myself how fine of a job my parents did with me.

This thought of course led to my thinking about my own children and the kinds of music they like.  They only recently got iPods of their own – more for games than music and we haven’t even added any songs to them yet.  I know it’s coming though and I’m betting I can already foresee what will be on each of my children’s.

Alana is my shy child.  She refuses to sing when there is an audience.  She won’t even sing along in the car… it is a difficult task to catch her singing at all.  Alana isn’t the music fanatic that I am, but she does enjoy music from time to time.  To her music’s only purpose is dancing – to run around the house, jump on the furniture, and burn off her excess energy.  Basically, Alana loves pop music or anything with a fast beat that allows her to let out her inner-wild child (so long as no one is paying too much attention).

Cali, however, marches to the beat of her own drum.  She loves all music and in her I have found a wonderful musical companion – someone who will sing along to every song she knows the words to (occasionally making them up when she doesn’t).  She loves the Beach Boys and is convinced “California Girls” was written about her, loves “Airplanes” by BoB, and throws her hands in the air every time she hears “I Don’t Want this Night to End” by Luke Bryan.  Cali just really loves good music.

While Cali loves all music, I can’t help noticing that she really gets into 80s music:  Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Eddie Money are definitely some of her favorites.  She’s known every word to “Take Me Home Tonight” since she was about two years old, but her very favorite song is “Man in the Mirror.”  Cali requests “Man in the Mirror” on every car ride, every time the stereo gets turned on at home, and can even be caught singing it in her room to her stuffed animals.  Her love of the song is so precious and one of the memories of her childhood that I’m sure will never fade for those who have had the privilege of witnessing it.  There really is no way to explain how adorable it is without showing you:

I’m convinced that I’m more than succeeding as a parent, because Cali-Belle could give the King of Pop a run for his money!  I hope that in the years to come Cali will keep her wonderfully unique taste in music and become one of the many musically inclined Sanfords, but if she doesn’t it’ll be okay…  I’ll always have a video of her singing her little heart out when she was only three years old.

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