August 14, 2008-Finding Laura Manning

Laura Griffith Manning was my paternal great grandmother. I have never heard anyone in the family tell stories about her or describe what she looked like. It seems there has been little mention of her name. In April 2008, I decided that I wanted to focus on women in the family and I decided to start with Laura.

Laura Griffith was born in Collin County, Texas in 1874. Her parents were George Griffith and Amanda Mallow Griffith. Her father died when she was very young and I don't know who his parents were. Amanda's parents were Jerusha Jane Heffington Mallow and Stewart Dickey Mallow. Laura married great grandfather Forbis Manning in 1893 in the Choctaw Nation (Oklahoma). Forbis was 1/4 Choctaw Indian and Laura is noted on the census to be white. I could find Forbis and Laura on the Choctaw Rolls and on the census for Bryan County, Oklahoma. I knew she was buried in Caddo, Oklahoma because I visited the grave sites of the LeFlores and Mannings there. I decided to backtrack a bit and follow the census for her mother, Amanda and her grandmother, Jerusha.

I could find them fairly easily until 1900 and then it seemed I hit a dead end. I recalled that after Jerusha's husband, Stewart Mallow died, Jerusha remarried. She married Mr. David Allen.

So, I searched for Jerusha Allen. It worked because I found a 1900 Bryan County, Oklahoma census with Jerusha Allen as the head of household. I was very surprised to find the other household members to be "Mandie" Griffith (Laura's mother, Amanda), Ellen Patterson (Amanda's sister), Liddie and Annie Patterson (Ellen's daughters). All of the women were noted to be widowed. I knew Jerusha died in 1901, so I looked to the 1910 census for Mandie, Ellen and Ellen's daughters. I found Ellen Patterson living with her daughter Annie in 1910 and then with her daughter Lydia in 1920. Lydia had married Mr. Avant and they were all living in Texas.

I had the feeling that if I found a relative of Lydia Avant and Ellen Patterson, they might know something about their neice/cousin Laura Griffith. The outcome of my search was amazing. I found that Lydia had a daughter Lillian who married Mr. Stone, so I looked in the "Find Living People" section on ancestry.com and found a Stone family living in the town in Texas where Lydia Patterson Avant had lived. I wrote them a short note letting them know who I was and that I was looking for the relatives of Ellen Patterson and Lydia Patterson Avant,who were descendents of Jerusha Jane Mallow. I got an immediate email from one of the family members stating that she was the great-great granddaughter of Jerusha Jane Mallow. What followed were a series of wonderful emails and lots of pictures.

I received a picture of Jerusha Jane Mallow, her daughter Ellen Mallow Patterson, Ellen's daughter Lydia Patterson Avant and Lydia's daughter Lillian Stone. Also received a picture of the trunk Ellen Mallow Patterson used when she moved from Oklahoma to Texas, pictures of crochet work done by Ellen and Lydia, and a picture of a cape worn by Jerusha Jane Mallow. I really treasure these pictures.

Of course, they knew Ellen's sister was Amanda Mallow Griffith and knew Amanda's daughter was Laura Griffith, but they didn't know much else and didn't have any pictures of them. I kept looking at the pictures of these very pretty women and imagined that great grandmother, Laura Griffith Manning probably looked very much like them. I had some satisfaction in having an image in my mind about her. So, I basically felt I had completed all that I could regarding Laura.

In July 2008, I was in Oklahoma City for a family funeral. I went to visit my aunt and uncle who had done the family genealogy years ago. Whenever I visit them, they usually bring out some old family photos for us to look over. They did and it was really good to see some I had not seen before. There was one really old studio photo, with scratches all over it, picturing two very pretty women, nicely dressed. I asked who the women were, but neither my aunt or uncle knew. I turned the picture over and could see some faint writing on the back. I took the picture over to the window for better light. You cannot imagine what I felt when I saw the name LAURA GRIFFITH written on the back. I felt so happy to see her. She was beautiful, looking very much like her aunt and cousins, just like I thought she would.

I can truly say that the process of Finding Laura Manning has been one of the most rewarding genealogy experiences I have had.

Here is the photograph and that is Laura Manning on the right.