In my prior post, I introduced an incomplete scan of a hand-drawn family tree. The detailed representation was penned by Rosemary and was based on confident recollections passed on by Mary Zerelda Cannon her father's sister, known as Aunt Mazie. This post digs into one section of the larger tree to illustrate the combination of various imperfections and helpful opportunities this tree offers to my research on my father's Cannon side.
Likely TruthsAs shown by a check mark in the image above, records have been found for William and Phoeby. From the pension application we know that Phoeby was severely afflicted and living at home with her widowed mother. She had no known children. Other than common variations in the spelling of her name, there is really nothing to add or alter about her small branch. Loose EndsWith the breadth of records that are now readily accessible in digital formats, this tree begs to be expanded by many new branches. As noted already, John Cannon would replace Louis in Mazie's tree. His wife Martha Moore and their six children were not known well enough to be part of this tree. William is shown correctly above but without his wife, Lucy Ward, and their nine additions to the grandchildren of Ellis and Elizabeth. His sister Susanna also married a Ward and they added seven more grandchildren. Winnifred is also among these missing siblings; she and her husband John Vandiver would add nine more branches. The most valuable among the added branches would show Elijah Cannon (b. 1782) who married Darcus (Dorcas) Bowen and had eleven children. Adding their branch would help distinguish his records from those of his nephew, Elijah Cannon (b. 1796) born only 15 years later to Elijah's older brother Lewis Cannon (b. 1775). Rich InheritanceEllis Cannon is the starting point for a very helpful tree of his descendants. At each generation of descendants of Reverend Ellis Cannon, there continue to be both accurate, inaccurate, and omitted names. As with any family history that has been passed on from oral retellings, it remains an extraordinary inheritance especially with its imperfections. Leaping ForwardThis hand-drawn tree is a family research treasure map. I've already mined it repeatedly to initiate record searches that confirm and expand on the many household nodes it suggests. It has led the way to primary source documents such as US Census records. Recently I've returned to the tree for a closer look. This time, it promises to offer far more than confirmation of existing records. It may help me bridge from a dead end in our Rainwater branch to a dead end another researcher's Rainwater branch to help reunite names from the original household. More about that in the next post, Leaping Into Rainwaters.
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Updated with new text and images on 24 Feb 2019 The image below comes from two generations of reproduction. Although I have now photographed the most complete version of the tree that I have, I do not have the original. The copy that I photographed below was created from the original by my father using a Xerox machine in letter-size sections and carefully taped together. It was then folded up and stored in a file folder for many years. I have been told that the original poster was created by my father's sister, Rosemary Cannon for a school project. This was likely done when she was in high school in the mid- to late-1950s. She was living in New Mexico and probably consulted by phone with Aunt Mazie (Mary Zerelda Cannon) in Arkansas. My father and his sister Rosemary have died. Only their brother, my Uncle Jim and their first cousin, Sarah Cannon, are still living and may be able to offer more details about the poster. I'm hoping to see Sarah and find that she has the original poster from Rosemary for me to photograph. The one certainty I have is that Aunt Mazie was always certain of her facts, even the ones that were incorrect. A close transcription of the text in the tree is organized in nested lists below. I've tried to capture the exact lettering without any corrections. I'll save corrections for later posts.
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aboutA conversational space for deeper questions. Each post is a response to another cousin-researcher or a think-aloud exposition about ongoing challenges. It is one of four separate blogs on this site, each one focusing on the branches arising from one set of great grandparents.
authorKathy Cannon. Please reach out with any corrections, comments, or other contributions! by date
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