My grandma told me that when her father passed away, her mother put his birth place as Shreveport, Louisiana on his death certificate. All that my grandmother had heard about him was that he was from Texas, and many of the documents we have show that he claimed Texas as his birth place. She even asked her mother why she put Shreveport, LA as his birth place, and she remembers her mother saying that she didn't know why. As a result, my grandma had always assumed that she'd put that because of her state of mind, being grief stricken and distraught after the sudden loss of her husband. I asked her recently if she'd ever looked into the Shreveport, LA possibility and she told me no, because of the response from her mother and the fact that everything she knew about her father pointed to Texas.
Well, one simple search on Ancestry for a William Campbell in Shreveport, LA revealed a match! This record confirms the story that William left his home for Texas for several years to work.
Not only does it indicate where he was living while in Mexico, but he lists an emergency contact: Ida Eliot of Cisco, TX. We're not sure yet who Ida is, but this is a great step into learning more about William and his family.
A HUGE thank you to my sister-in-law Amber who found this and sent it on. You're an angel!
There was an Ida Elliot, wife of (Swan?) Elliot, mail carrier, enumerated on the 1910 Eastland County, Texas Census.
ReplyDeleteCisco bottom of Sheet 12A and top of 12B.