The Consumptive Disease

About six months ago, I came across a database online that had information about one of my family lines that I had been searching for years.  My great grandmother was the daughter of Buena Vista Bailey (A Life Too Short) and I knew very little beyond her.  Buena Vista died at the age of 21 years old, just a few short months after my great grandmother’s birth.  All I knew about her mother was that her name was Margaret.  This database that I located online not only had Buena Vista – but the full name of her mother as well….Mary Marguerite Church.

I must admit that it was quite a discovery, and I gained a lovely cousin and friend as well.  However, a picture started to emerge of Buena Vista’s family that started me wondering about something else.    Mary Marguerite Church was born 16 Jun 1845 probably in Watauga Co., NC as the daughter of Noah Howard Church and Asinth “Jencie” Irena McCall.  She married Jasper Bailey probably around 1868 and had her first child soon after, Colorado “Collie” Bailey born in 1869 and then Buena Vista in 1872, John W. in 1873 and Ninevah Frank b. 1876.  Mary Marguerite Church died at the young age of 32 years of age.  According to a letter that my Bailey cousin had, she died of tuberculosis also known as consumption.  Not only did she have tuberculosis but so did her daughter Colorado and son Frank.

Colorado “Collie” married Asbury Reid and moved to Illinois and had several children but had to move to Colorado because of the drier climate.  She tried to go back to Illinois, but couldn't take the climate and her husband didn’t want to live in Colorado so they eventually divorced.  Collie remarried and lived to ripe old age of 97 which is shocking.  To be so sick with tuberculosis that you couldn't live in one area of the country but you could survive to an old age in another part of the country is surprising.  Her brother Frank is found living with Collie and her husband in the 1930 census, but he dies about a year later at the age of 55.

So this leads me back to Buena Vista Bailey, my great grandmother’s mother.  I've always wondered what she died of exactly.  My great grandmother was born in late January and it wasn't until April that Buena Vista died.  I've never really heard of a cause of death except that she never recovered from childbirth.  This makes me wonder if her death cause was in fact, tuberculosis.
  

When I was 19, my step grandfather was in the hospital during the late stages of Alzheimer.  During the last three weeks of his life, they had to move him to a different hospital because they had diagnosed him with tuberculosis of the brain.   They moved him to the different hospital so he could be under ultraviolet light which helped treat the condition.  When he died a few weeks later, he had a nice healthy tan.  I found out at that point that most people of a certain age had been exposed to tuberculosis and that it could rear its ugly head almost at any point.  I also found that everyone in my family had to be tested to see if we had been infected …thankfully, none of us were.  That understanding of the disease makes me question whether tuberculosis is what killed Buena Vista Bailey at the young age of 21.  She could have been week from childbirth and became ill with the tuberculosis that was so prevalent in her family.

The new information about the Bailey family has opened up a whole new set of questions – most of which will probably never be answered.  There are a lot of theories that could be spelled out such as the belief that tuberculosis might have been prevalent in the Church family since several of Mary Marguerite’s seemed to die at a young age.  Perhaps it all can be explained by the facts that my ancestors lived in a rough and unsanitary time with little to no positive prognosis for anyone who developed tuberculosis.  Collie was unusual in that she lived to be 97 years old – I think it is much more common for tuberculosis victims to live much shorter lives…which could explain Buena Vista’s death at 21 and her mother’s at 32.  

My DNA Journey - MtDNA Results

I am interested in the science of genealogy research – I’m not sure I understand it as well as I should but I am certainly interested enough to dip my toe in the waters.  Earlier this summer, they had a special running on Family Tree DNA for a 12 marker MtDNA test which tests the maternal lines of an individual.  I must say that the results were surprising.

My maternal line goes thus:

• Carmen Maria Johnson
• Betty Jean Tannahill
• Capitola Esther Friddle
• Sophia Vestelle Dollar b. TN
• Buena Vista Bailey b. NC
• Mary Marguerite Church b. NC
• Asinith Jencie McCall b. NC

I can take it no further.  I believe that the nationalities that are associated with these lines are Scottish, German, and Irish and it really doesn’t go any further back than 1800 in North Carolina.  Understanding that these maternal lines go back much further and in fact go back thousands of years, it seems a poor listing of my maternal lines.  I must admit from experience that they can be very difficult to research – sometimes you have to just get lucky because you can’t find any other documentation that lists anything other than a woman’s married name.   Several years ago, I watched a documentary on National Geographic channel called “The Seven Daughters of Eve” which discussed the maternal lines that have emerged from the genetic testing that has been done.  It was based on a book by Bryan Sykes published in 2001 called The Seven Daughters of Eve. Now I want to go back and see it again – because now I have an idea which of the “Seven Daughters of Eve” is a matriarchal ancestor.

So, I just recently received my testing results and find out that I am from Haplogroup T2 and my ancestral matriarch is “Tara”  So…what does this tell me?  Someone from Haplogroup T has a European lineage and has an origin in the near east greater than 45,000 years ago.  In fact, according to what I read, my Haplogroup of T2 is considered to be one of the older lineages that may have been present in Europe and probably dated from the “Late Upper Paleolithic”…. translation – Late Stone Age.  So, my ancestors were probably cave dwellers who might have lived in Europe between 10,000 and 50,000 years ago.  According to what I found, about 10% of European ancestry traces their maternal lineage back to Haplogroup T.  According to the theory of Brian Sykes, my ancestral matriarch – “Tara lived about 17,000 years ago in the northwest of Italy among the hills of Tuscany and along the estuary of the river Arno.” 

Now, I am not quite sure that I know what this all means.  I know that they want me to do more testing, so I can go deeper into what branch or sub clade that I come from.  As I understand it, further testing has determined that there were most likely “additional daughters” that would definitely increase the number from seven.  When I go on the DNA website, the only matches that currently show up for my Haplogroup of T2 come from England, Ireland and the United States with the most being in Ireland. 

There are some generalities that I read that actually quite interesting.  The T Haplogroup is currently found in high concentration around the eastern Baltic Sea.  Wikipedia listed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to be part of T2 which would also include most of the royal lines of Europe, because not only was his grandmother Victoria the ancestor of most of the European royalty she was also a descendant.  Jesse James was also said to be part of T2.  So…evidently I have royal cousins and criminals as distant relatives.  That sounds about right.

I suppose that I am going to have to find the money to do some further testing.  I am curious what it might tell me.  So, now I know my ethnic heritage (My DNA Journey - The Results) and now I am curious to dig a little deeper into that heritage to find out more about deep genetic roots that I would never find through documentary research.  All I can say is that I have a lot to learn!

Jasper Bailey

I’ve always been curious about my great grandmother’s grandfather, Jasper Bailey.   Her mother died a few months after she was born, so my great grandmother never knew her mother – but she must have known her grandfather and I suspect that she was fond of him, since she named her oldest son after him!

Jasper L. Bailey was born on 25 May 1842 probably in Ohio and died 1 Jan 1928 in Denton’s Valley, Washington Co., VA.  I first find Jasper in the 1870 census in North Fork Twp, Ashe Co., NC with his two oldest children, Georgianna Caroline Bailey b. abt 1864 and George Columbus Bailey b. abt 1866, his second wife Margaret and their oldest child, Colorado Bailey b. Jan 1870.  I later discover that he was married to Martha Ellen Church b. abt 1843 and d. bef 1868.  Based on the age of the oldest known child, he probably married Martha abt 1863.  Martha was the daughter of Noah Howard Church and Jencie McCall.  She probably grew up near what is now Watauga Co., NC – I suspect somewhere around Cove Creek.  By 1868, she has died and Jasper has married Margaret.  I have no real idea what Margaret’s surname was nor her parent’s names – at a guess, I suspect that her surname might be Dozier – but I have nothing to confirm that.  Update - Jasper married Mary Marguerite Church, the sister of Martha Ellen Church probably in 1868.  She died in 1877 of Tuberculosis. This second marriage produces the aforementioned Colorado b. Jan 1870, Buena Vista b. abt Apr 1872 and Jonathan W. b. abt 1874.  Margaret probably dies in childbirth with Jonathan in 1874.  Jasper then marries a widow, Rachel McBride in 1876 and they are the parents of Ninevah Frank b. 1876, Joanna A. b. 16 Nov 1879, Arrinda E. b. 20 Mar 1882, and Luther Jasper b. 29 Feb 1884.  All of this third family were born in Johnson Co., TN.    Rachel McBride was the daughter of Barzilla McBride and Elizabeth “Betsy” Eggers.  She was first married at 13 to George Washington Hilliard, who probably died in the Civil War. She then married Noah Howard Church (the brother of Jasper’s first wife, Martha Ellen Church) in 1865 and after his death around 1875, she marries Jasper.

Jasper Bailey - taken around 1900

These are the facts that I know of Jasper’s life…which has taken about 15 years to ascertain from research.  I know from census records that he was born in Ohio and that he lived in North Fork Twp, Ashe Co., NC in 1870, Dist. 1, Johnson Co., TN in 1880, Neva & Vought’s Gap, Johnson Co., TN in 1891 according to the Veteran’s schedule and is in Washington Co., VA by 1900 and lives there until his death in 1928.  I’ve tried to locate a death record for him and have been unsuccessful as well as marriage records which I am not sure they exist any longer.   Jasper served in the 3^rd NC Infantry, Co B in the Union army and was injured at the skirmish at the Red Banks of the Chucky River.  He served from August of 1864 to August of 1865 and the copy I have of his pension is the best documentation that I have of him and his life.

 

Several years ago, I met his granddaughter in law who I believe is still alive and in her 90’s.  (She has since passed away in 2017 at the age of 102) She told me at that point that Jasper was in pretty bad shape by the time he passed away.  The injury that he had received in the war had permanently damaged his leg and by the time he died he was pretty crippled.  I know from other family stories that Jasper helped support his family by hunting bear and also as a farmer.  I suspect that he was well beloved by his family.  My great grandmother was raised by her paternal grandfather, Alexander Monroe Dollar and his second wife, Lulu Pearce.  When she married and had her first child, she named him Jasper James Friddle.  The Jasper was obviously for her grandfather and the James was for her husband’s brother.  (Interesting enough, Jack never liked the name Jasper and changed it legally when he graduated from high school.)  For Mom Friddle (my great grandmother) to name her son after her grandfather I think that I can make two conclusions – one that she saw him fairly often and that she was quite fond of him.  She was an excellent judge of character so I suspect that he was well loved by her.

Bailey Home Place in Denton Valley, Washington Co., VA

Jasper Bailey & Rachel McBride's grave at Montgomery Cemetery, Washington Co., VA.

During that first trip back to TN/VA in 2001 – I was fortunate to be shown where Jasper was buried which showed his birth and death dates and the location of his home place in Denton Valley.  I’ve also met via email a few other descendants of his who have shared stories and photos of Jasper and his family.  I am still frustrated that there is so much still undiscovered about him.  His second wife, Margaret is particularly frustrating.  She is my great great great grandmother and all I know about her is her first name and a general idea of the dates she was born and died.  I suspect that her surname might have been Dozier, but I have never discovered anything to back up that theory.  Mom Friddle had a sister named Bessie Margaret Elizabeth Dozier Dollar.  She was obviously named for her two grandmothers (Elizabeth Pennington was the wife of Alexander Monroe Dollar and mother of John Dula Dollar and Margaret was the mother of Buena Vista Bailey)…but I still wonder where that Dozier came from.  Perhaps someday someone will be able to assist me in finding something new about Jasper and Margaret…in the meantime, I will keep searching and trying to unravel the puzzle further!