Surname Saturday: COLLINS

The COLLINS line for my children ends with one of my ex-husband's great-great-grandmothers, Senna "Senie" COLLINS TOLLIVER, who died in Los Angeles in 1950. The line's beginnings, as we know it, start with Jonathan COLLINS, Sr., in Pennsylvania in 1706. I strongly suspect that this line has Melungeon heritage, due to the facts that COLLINS is a common name among that ethnicity, as well as the family is known to have lived in areas of North Carolina where Melungeon ancestry is common. Furthermore, a close biological relative of my children tested positive for sub-Saharan African ancestry in an autosomnal DNA test.


Stories and History:

Ahnentafel #608 - Jonathan COLLINS, Sr. (1706 - 1779) - born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he married Ann SMITH (b. 1719) on 2 Jul 1731 in Hardwich, Sussex Co., New Jersey, where later Jonathan died.. They had eight children.

Ahnentafel #304 - Mahlon COLLINS (1756 - 1834) - born in Sussex County, New Jersey, he married Phoebe WEBSTER (1756 - 1841) on 10 Oct 1776 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. They also had eight children. Mahlon would have been the right age to have served in the American Revolution, but so far, I have neither found, nor honestly looked, for information to support this. This couple likely followed their adult children to Grayson County, Virginia, and eventually to Lawrence County, Indiana, where Mahlon died.

Ahnentafel #152 - John COLLINS, Sr. (1777 - 1850) - born in Sussex County, New Jersey, he married Effie CONLEY (1775 - bef 1830); no marriage details found so far. They had seven children. This couple migrated with John's siblings and probably his parents to Grayson County, Virginia, where John died.

Ahnentafel #76 - Elijah COLLINS (1802 - 1896) - born, married, and died in Baywood, Grayson Co., Virginia, he married Margy COX (1817 - 1904) on 9 Jun 1832. They had 14 children, many of whom moved west to Nebraska and Colorado.

Ahnentafel #38 - Mahlon F. COLLINS (1846 - 1887) - born in Grayson County, Virginia, he married twice. His first wife was Mary A. "Polly" HACKLER (1848 - 1878), to whom he married on 18 Feb 1869 in Grayson County. They had five children, the eldest being my children's ancestor (see below). After Polly's death, Mahlon married Nancy WARD (1843 - 1920) by 1882. They had two children. With his second wife and children, Mahlon migrated west to Nebraska, where he died at age 41, probably in Battle Creek, Madison County.

Ahnentafel #19 - Senna "Senie" COLLINS (1870 - 1950) - born in Grayson County, Virginia, Senie moved west with her father, step-mother, and siblings to Battle Creek, Madison Co., Nebraska, where she met and married Clark Pleasant R. TOLLIVER (1861 - 1918) from North Carolina. They were married on 3 Jul 1886 and had nine children. The family migrated to Hotchkiss Twp., Delta Co., Colorado, where they met the MIDKIFF family. Two of their children married MIDKIFFs, and both families migrated further west into California in the 1910s. Clark died in 1918, and Senie remained unmarried for the rest of her life, another 32 years, living mainly with her children in the Los Angeles area. She died in Los Angeles, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale. I was able to visit her grave in 2010 while attending Jamboree.

Ahnentafel #9 - Margie Ethel TOLLIVER (1889 - 1977)

Ahnentafel #4 - John Franklin MIDKIFF, II (1910 - 1957)

Ahnentafel #2 - my children's paternal grandfather (living)

Ahnentafel #1 - my children's father (living)


More about the COLLINS family:

1. Online database (I update this at least once a month): COLLINS ancestors and relatives (no info on living persons available)

2. Posts about COLLINS ancestors and relatives on this blog

3. Some scanned COLLINS photos

4. Some scanned COLLINS documents

5. My  COLLINS Virtual Cemetery on Find A Grave

6. The Historical Melungeons blog


The COLLINS immigration trail:

Bucks Co., PA > Sussex Co., NJ > Hunterdon Co., NJ > Grayson Co., VA > Lawrence Co., IN > Madison Co., NE > Delta Co., CO > Mesa Co., CO > Custer Co., ID > Los Angeles and/or Butte Co., CA > Yakima Co., WA > Thurston Co., WA > Clark Co., WA > Spokane Co., WA

Wordless Wednesday: Sena "Senie" (COLLINS) TOLLIVER

Sena "Senie" (Collins) Tolliver. C. 1920s. Original photograph privately held by Lorna Kennedy, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Auburn, California. 2010.

Clark Pleasant TOLLIVER (1861 - 1918)

Source: Tombstone of P.C. Tolliver, Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., California. Digital photograph taken by "Guardian," Find A Grave photo volunteer, at the request of Miriam Robbins Midkiff. 11 September 2006. Digital copy in the possession of Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Spokane, Washington. 2006.

Clark Pleasant TOLLIVER...or was it Pleasant Clark TOLLIVER?...was my ex-husband's great-great-grandfather, born 25 May 1861 in North Carolina, probably in or near Glade Creek, Allegheny County. His parents were Jacob F. TOLIVER (1831 - 1898), a Civil War veteran, and Matilda HIGGINS (1829 - 1906). Clark had two older siblings (Amanda Phidella and Rose Phidella) and two younger siblings (Solomon and John Houston) before his parents divorced sometime before 1882. That was a time when divorce was not as common nor easy to obtain as it is today, and I hope to someday obtain a copy of their court records to discover more about that situation.

In 1882, Clark's father remarried to Caroline CHEEK (1849 - 1927), with whom he had one known son, Clayton. Clark was a young man by this time, and not long after, he removed to Battle Creek, Madison Co., Nebraska, where he met and married Senna "Senie" COLLINS (1870 - 1950) on 3 July 1886. The couple had five children while they lived in Nebraska: a child who died young; Margie Ethel (my ex-husband's great-grandmother, whom he remembers well); John Houston; Zada Elizabeth; and Emma Leah. The family then moved further west to Hotchkiss Twp., Delta Co., Colorado, where they had four more children: Mae; Mitchell Luther; Elsie (who died in infancy); and Lorna Ermine.

It was in Delta County that they met the MIDKIFF family. Margie married a widower in 1907, John Franklin MIDKIFF, who had four older children, including Edna Susan, whom Mitchell married 13 years later in California. Thus there were Midkiff and Tolliver cousins who were doubly related: first cousins on the Tollier side of the family and half-nieces and nephews on the other.

Sometime before 1915, Clark and Senie moved once again, this time to Los Angeles. Clark died there 22 May 1918. Senie lived until 1950. They are buried in separate cemeteries: Clark at Evergreen and Senie at Forest Lawn in Glendale.

Scanfest is Coming...But Not Until September 30th

Scanfest is coming! For those of you who are regular Scanfesters, you may have accidentally marked September 23rd for the next Scanfest Day, since that is the fourth Sunday of the month. However, there are five Sundays in September, and our usual meeting time is the last Sunday of each month. Therefore, we will be gathering Sunday, September 30th at 11 AM, Pacific Daylight Time, and scanning and chatting until 2 PM, PDT.

For those of you who are wondering what Scanfest is, it's a time we genea-bloggers have set aside to scan our precious family documents, records and photographs for preservation's sake. Scanning can be one of those monotonous chores, put off until never. So in order to make it a little more interesting, we've agreed to meet online for three hours every month while scanning, and chat using Windows Live Messenger. It's a great way to get to know one another and exchange ideas about preservation, technology, and genealogy.

You don't have to have a genealogy blog to join us. We are always open to new "faces" at our Scanfest sessions! Here's how to sign up:

To join us, you'll need a Hotmail or Gmail account, and Windows Live Messenger downloaded to your computer (Mac users go here to download Microsoft Messenger for Mac). Although WLM states that it is compatible with Yahoo! e-mail accounts, we have had difficulty adding Yahoo! users to our chat conversation. Once you have gotten set up, send me an e-mail (see my profile in the right-hand menu) and I'll add you to our chat list. You'll receive an invitation message from me in the e-mail account that you've set up for Messenger, and will need to verify that I can add you as a contact. My Messenger account is identical to my Gmail account, except that it's "@hotmail.com".

Here's a list of some of the things I've scanned, either in part or fully, over the last seven months:

• * The Family Record Book of John Martin HOEKSTRA and Lillian Fern STRONG - my great-grandparents' family tree book (see scanning progress here).
• * Photos of my husband's TOLLIVER and COLLINS ancestors, loaned to me by my father-in-law and sister-in-law
  
• * Journals and investment documents of my grandfather, Adrian DeVRIES
• * Other family papers and photographs from the estate of my grandmother, Ruth Lillian (HOEKSTRA) VALK DeVRIES (here, here and here)
  
• * My black-and-white wedding photos - for the eventual creation of a Wedding Memory Book at MemoryPress.com

I have so much more I need to scan! I'll bet you do, too! Won't you join us?

Report on April Scanfest

Last Sunday, I hosted the April edition of Scanfest. It was a small group that met and we were not all online at the same time; nonetheless, we enjoyed ourselves as always, and I for one was able to get a lot of materials scanned. Joining me were Amy, Lee, Jasia, the footnoteMaven, and my daughter, Missy. I scanned some photographs my sister-in-law had recently shared with me, along with the listing of my ancestor Jan Martens HOEKSTRA in the Musekgon County, Michigan Probate Records Index, as well as many materials of the DeVRIES family that my uncle recently sent to me. These items can be seen on my Picasa Web Albums account in the following albums: Collins Photographs, Tolliver Photographs, Midkiff Photographs, Hoekstra Documents, and DeVries Documents.

The May edition of Scanfest will be hosted by Susan, and will be held Sunday, May 20th, from 11 AM to 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time. This is not our regular meeting time, which is normally the last Sunday of each month. It has been changed to an earlier day due to Memorial Day weekend. Please read the other posts on Scanfest to find out how to join. You don't need to be a blogger; we always enjoy new people and it's a great way to get to know each other. Stay tuned to Susan's blogs, Family Oral History and 20/20 Hindsight for more information.

Research Log - Obits for Norm's Ancestors, Part 2

Heard from Christine Gray, RAOGK volunteer for Multnomah Co., Oregon. She will be looking for obits for Emma Alice LYTON and John Franklin MARTIN. Requests reimbursement of 25 cents per obit (copying fees) and $1.25 parking fee. She's done a lookup for me before; found Leona Mary MARTIN's obit a month or so ago, and did a great job.

Also heard from Joyce Obland, RAOGK volunteer for Rosebud Co., Montana, willing to look up obits for George Rice WESTABY, II, Reuben Wohlford SNOOK, and Elizabeth NEARHOOD. She requests reimbursement for gas (50 cents per mile is the standard donation...however, she has a 60-mile round trip to do her lookups), plus $1.00 per obit copy. I e-mailed her back and told her I will have to wait until after the holidays, as the $30.00 for gas is a little much right now.

Lastly, I heard from Linda Kolinski, RAOGK volunteer for Los Angeles Co., California. She had done an online search in ProQuest Historical Newspapers in the Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1985), and was unable to obtain an obituary for either Clark Pleasant R. TOLLIVER or Senna COLLINS.

Research Log - Obits for Norm's Ancestors

Requested obituaries though various RAOGK volunteers for Norm's ancestors:

Peder Johnsen LERFALD
Regina LERFALD
Clark Pleasant R. TOLLIVER
Senna COLLINS
Emma Alice LYTON
John Franklin MARTIN
George Rice WESTABY, II
Reuben Wohlford SNOOK
Elizabeth NEARHOOD (step-ancestor, second wife of Reuben Wohlford SNOOK)
Angelia Rebecca LUKE.