Norwood Heraldry

When I began my genealogical research, I began in Tennessee and South Carolina with Southern American folk.  I never imagined I'd run into anything quite like I did with the Norwood line, a well documented family of knights and English land owners that I became fascinated and fell in love with.  I trace my lineage to the Norwoods via my 5th great grandmother, Elizabeth Norwood.  She married George Yarbrough and they were the great grandparents of Alexander Yarbrough, my third great grandfather.

In researching this branch of my family, their heraldry factors prominently into the pieces of their history that still remain.  Eventually, I wanted to recreate an image of their heraldry and in doing so, began to research it more specifically.

Although I began researching the Norwood de Sheppey heraldry, I quickly ascertained that there is no such thing as a family coat of arms. [11]  Instead, each individual family member achieves their own heraldry that is specific to them and their accomplishments.  Thus, this wound up being a journey through the history of the Norwood Heraldry.

Mattie Clark Sinks - My Family's Lewis and Clark Mystery

This post is one part biography and one part mystery.  Although I know some about Mattie from interviews with family, I have been unable to trace her family past her.  I've stuck with this one pretty tenaciously because there is a family story that we "are related to either Lewis or Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition" via my great grandmother, Mattie.  I'm hoping that by posting this information, someone who has some of my missing pieces will see it.

I started at both ends... by researching Mattie and also by researching William Clark and Meriweather Lewis.  What I was hoping is that by staring at both ends, I could try to narrow down the possible relation connections and/or find a link to Mattie via the known descendants of either man.  That didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.

My great grandmother, Mattie Clark, was born 2 Jun 1878 to Jam Clark and M Parmellia Lewis Clark in Tennessee.  [2][4][8]  She does not have an official birth record or a delayed birth record with the state of Tennessee.  As of the time of her death, she had the following half brothers and sisters : Ed Clark, Nashville, Mrs Myrtle Bateman and Mrs EJ Wyatt, Erin, TN and Mrs L O Rye, Birmingham, AL. John Clark, Tennessee Ridge, TN [2].  Being that the males have the last name Clark, these half siblings are likely her father's children with a different mother and are  most likely born after the 1880 census in which James appears with Mattie's mother.

Alexander Yarbrough

Alexander Yarbrough on a Wagon ^[4]

Alex Yarbrough (aka Alex or Allie ^[4]), my great, great grandfather, was born on the 6th of January in 1862 in Shiloh, TN to Weldon and Millie Yarbrough. ^[2]

Alex married Laura Belle Martin in Stewart County, TN on the 25th of April 1882. ^[1]  My family all calls her Laura Belle, just like her daughter.  I matched her with Laura Martin via her marriage to Alexander Yarbrough and her death date, which matched family stories.  There is some confusion over Laura Belle Martin's birth date though.  Her headstone (in this post) and her Social Security Death Index record says Sept 12, 1861, the marriage record says she was 18 in 1882, making her born about 1864 and the census says she was 37 in 1900, making her birth year about 1863.  The marriage record could have been a transcription or miscalculation error as I have not seen the original, the census is written very clearly and I am not sure of the source of the date on the headstone.  So take that for what you will but she was born sometime between 1861 and 1864.

The 1900 census shows Alex, 37, his wife Laura, who is also 37, married for 17 years, at that point, with seven children.  Oscar, 16, Mary, 13, John, 11, Ella, 8, Ethel, 6, Effie, 3 and Millie, 1.  ^[7]

On February 12, 1901, Laura Belle Yarbrough, my great grandmother, was born to Alex and Laura Belle.

Laura Belle Yarbrough

My connection to the Yarbrough family comes via Helen Paulene Maynard, my grandmother.  She was born to Barnes Maynard and Laura Belle Yarbrough, November 7th in 1924. She married John Michael Sinks.  She died Sunday, Feb. 6, 2005, in Atlanta, Georgia.  ^[5][6]

Her mother, my great grandmother, Laura Belle Yarbrough, was born on 12 Feb 1901 in Montgomery Co., TN ^{[3] [11]} to Alexander Yarbrough and Laura Belle Martin.   The 1910 census shows Alex, 49, married to Mary, 24 with Laura's children,  Ethel, now 16, Effie, 14, Millie, 11 and Laura (Belle) who is now 9 years old.  [11]

When Laura Belle Martin passed away, my great grandmother, Laura Belle Yarbrough, was only three years old.  Alexander remarried to a lady named Mary (Dib) Kirlacy. Dib and Alexander had several children that would be Laura Belle's half siblings.  My family remembered Virginia, Sally, "Betsy", Sam.  ^[1] Bessie was 9 years old in the 1920 census. [8] I have seen on other family trees, but have not yet verified that Lorene (Sally) was born in 1924 and died in 2002 and Virginia Ruth was born on 03 Mar 1928 in Clarksville, TN and died on 26 Apr 1976.

Laura Belle Yarbrough married Barnes Maynard, the son of James (Jim) Henry Maynard and Callie Potter ^[2] on on 23 Sep 1917 in Clarksville, TN, becoming Laura Belle Maynard. ^[4]  According to a story I got from my first cousin once removed, Callie (my great, great grandmother) once told her (my cousin), Barnes and his family went out west in a covered wagon and settled somewhere in Oklahoma.  But Barnes and Laura had fallen in love before they left and Barnes wanted to come back and marry her so the whole family came back with him.^[2]

Laura and Barnes had Robert Earl ^[9], Helen Paulene ^[9].  They appear in the 1920 census as Laura and Barnes "Mayner", 19 and 21 years old, respectively with a 5 month old Robert Earl. ^[8]  They appear in the 1930 census with a 10 year old Robert E and a 5 year old Helen P.^[10]