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Continued: I am studying inventors' backgrounds, specifically old-time inventors who thought they could revolutionize the industrial world with compressed air as an energy medium. Knowing only that he had a patent for an air powered locomotive that could supposedly replenish its own air tanks while it was moving, it took over a year of occasional searching to finally find the right James Ira Pittman, and then the census schedule he was on was badly faded and almost illegible. The description he gave of his occupation is not illegible however; it says "inventor". The census is the same town and time as the patent for the air-powered locomotive, so there is no doubt I have found the right person for that year. Now to weed through the other records that seem to match only his name. And if I can manage to enhance the census schedule where he says he is an inventor, maybe I'll learn the name of his wife and child. CONCLUSION (for now) REGARDING ILLEGIBLE 1910 CENSUS:
James Ira Pittman is 46 years old in 1910. He married Annie 2 years earlier in about 1908. It's his first marriage and her second. His step-son's name is Lawrence. His brother-in-law's name is Russell E. Everyone and all their parents are from Georgia. (Both LDS and ancestry.com transcribers thought the wife was named Vinnia but I don't see it and already searched the name with no results. Her age according to ancestry.com is 22 but I can't make it out.) Co-inventor was an Elizabeth R Harrison of Valdosta, Georgia. On page 6A of the census there is someone Elizabeth Harrison, a 22-year-old washer woman. (Same age as his wife?) She lives with three unmarried adult siblings and her married sister and brother in law. Her brother in law is either a retail merchant or a railroad mechanic, self-employed. They live at 305 North St. I can't read Pittman's street name. RESIDENCES:
His patent for the air powered locomotive and two other patents listed his home as Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia. Another patent listed his home as Longwood, Okaloosa County, Florida. That is straight west of Valdosta, Georgia and much closer to the other James Ira Pittman (b: 1876 Alabama) than it is to Valdosta. So there are two James Ira Pittmans in northwest Florida, but someone who sometimes lived in Okaloosa county in north central Florida is our inventor. There is also a James R Pittman b: 1870 Alabama who lived in both Escambia County, Alabama and Okaloosa County, Florida. And others, who I've entered in case they all end up being related. HIS ANCESTRY:
Finally found his parents but mistaken transcriptions didn't make it easy. An LDS transcription of his death certificate (James I Pittman, inventor, b: 1864 Georgia; unmistakably him) lists his father as L D Pittman and his mother as Miss Browning. I am sure that is a mistranscription of J D Pittman and Mary Browning. The name "Browning" was the key to identifying the right family since everything else was illegible and/or mistranscribed. A marriage record was found for James D Pittman and Mary M Browning in Telfair County, Georgia. Then the 1870 census didn't show James I, age 6, in the family. But I found the same family in 1880 and there he was, the right age. The 1870 census has several Pittman families living next to each other, probably brothers, and the youngest has a 65 year old Mary Pittman living with him. I have assembled this family based on the evidence from the 1870 census and guessing they are one family and Mary is the mother of all the Pittman heads of family in the neighborhood. But some could be cousins or whatever. 1900 CENSUS might not be him but J I Pittman sounds good and the area is right since Wilcox and Telfair Counties are adjacent to each other. But he's a boarder and nothing else is known about him except he's a woodsman, he's a white male, and he can read, write and speak English. Sounds like the right person but age and where he's from is missing.
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