|
a.
|
Note: THE GRANITE BRICK WALL PORTERS
My maternal Grandmother, Geneva Porter, has turned out to be the greatest brick wall of my life. I never knew her because she died twenty years before I was born. Thank God, I did ask some questions of my mother about her; although, back then, I didn't really know what questions to ask. Today, more than eighty years after she died, she is still a big question to me. I wish with all my heart that I had known her. I was so upset that I didn't have but one grandparent when I was a kid that I asked my cousins' grandmother, Anna Zimmers, if she would be my Grandma, too. And she
was the only Grandma I ever knew.
Where to start with Geneva? Her name. First, my mother was adamant that her real name was "Geneva". Mom said that her nickname was "Neva". This was a name which Benjamin Whittaker, Neva's husband, called her. Most all of her existing documentation lists her as either "Neva Porter" or "Neva Whittaker". Even her grave marker and her death certificate list her first name as "Neva". There is only one place that her name is noted differently. That is on the 1910 US Census of
Benwood, Marshall County, West Virginia. Here her name is stated to be "Amelia". I believe this to be a mistake because a) this name appears no where else b) it cannot be another wife because Benjamin and Neva were married in 1890 and I have the marriage record, and c) I have tried to uncover any record of her under the name of Amelia Porter and no one matches her other qualifications such as age, parents, and birth place.
Birth Place is the other sticky wicket. She supposedly was born 04 Jul 1872 "somewhere" in Kentucky to John and Mary Porter. So, somewhere in the big state of Kentucky, with a common last name like Porter, was born my Grandmother, Neva. Try to prove that. Kentucky has had more court house fires than I have seen in any other state, in a myriad of different years, all of which encompass the time my Grandmother Neva was born. Neither she nor her family show up any-
where in the censuses of 1880 in Kentucky. This was the only census where you were going to catch her because by 1890 she had already married my Grandfather, Benjamin Whittaker. I am not even sure of this birth year because of the different ages she has been reported to be in her documentation. I believe it is just the year I am concerned with.....who would forget a birthday like July the 4th? It seems to be off just a year or two at times. So, say we are talking about a birth date of 04 Jul 1871-1873. This was a very bad time for record keeping in Kentucky.
Birth parents were not written in stone either. I tend to hang on to the names John and Mary Porter, though, because this was the information, although still tentative, that her sons gave both, on her death certificate and on her interment record at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. I also must remember that she had a son named John and a daughter named Mary. I would think that if she had named them after her parents, she may have stated this fact to them or to the other children. For that matter, though, none of the names which she named her children match any
names in the Whittaker family. I have tried looking for these names in the Porter families of Kentucky to no avail. If, however, the sons were wrong about the names of her parents, I do have one candidate which could be her in the 1880 US Census of Riverside, Hamilton County, Ohio. There was one Geneva Porter aged 6 (could have been born in 1873) whose parents were William H. Porter b. Kentucky and America Porter b. Massachusetts, with brothers Decatur, Nevada, and Americus. This census states that the children were born in Ohio, however I know just how messed up the census takers can be on this question. There was one other interesting census in 1880. The Charleston, Kanawha County, Census for 1880 had a "Nevora" Porter living with her widowed mother, Mary, and 4 black men out on Estill Road in South Charleston. Nevora was the right age, 8 years old, and the mother was the right name; but I couldn't reconcile in my mind the name "Nevora". Also both the daughter and mother plus the child's father were listed as having been born in Virginia/West Virginia. I still kept both of these families at the back of my mind, though I couldn't prove or disprove either one.
When my mother's sister, Ethel Whittaker Bastian, died last year at 96 years of age, on her death certificate it stated that she was born in Green River, Kentucky. I thought I had hit pay dirt; and that this would be the connection I was looking for.....that Neva had gone home to have her baby in 1909. This turned out to be one of the biggest wild goose chases involving Neva yet. It turns out that there is no town called "Green River" in Kentucky. There is just a river named "Green River" in Kentucky. I followed it around on the map of Kentucky and it meanders like a snake
across over half the state of Kentucky. So, even if she was born on a boat traveling on the Green River, which is not out of the question because the family had been known to live on boats which my Grandfather worked on, then Ethel could have also been born "anywhere" in Kentucky! The apple does not fall too far from the tree. It was a big let down for this reason. However, I was soon to find the present hidden within the death certificate from my Aunt Ethel. That was her son, Paul Ervin, whom I did not know where he might be. He was listed right on the death certificate
as the supplier of the information, living in Wisconsin. I got his telephone number and immediately called him. I am so happy that at least we have found each other again. The sad thing is, that Paul did not know any more than I did about this puzzle; and, now there is no one left alive to ask.
I have gotten all of the Social Security Applications of my mother's siblings just to see what they had put for the names of their parents.....all state Benjamin Whittaker and Neva Porter. All of these children were born between 1904 and 1912. I have also tracked down all other documents upon which they may have stated where their mother was born. Each of them put something different! The following answers were given: Kentucky, Gallipolis Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia!
I have made it a project to study all of the main Porter families of Kentucky to see if I could place her somewhere within any of them. So far, I have not been able to do so. I am also now studying the Porter family from the Riverside, Hamilton County, Ohio Census mentioned above. So far, they seem to be rather murky, too. I also checked out all of the answers given for the birthplaces of Neva referenced above with no cigar.
I am not giving up on Grandma Neva for anything! However, I think it is at a place, where only the help of Neva herself will suffice. So, I am waiting for that help.
UPDATE - 04 July 2008:
It is fitting that I post this update today on Grandma Neva's birthday. I have found Neva and her mother; and further research is underway to uncover the rest of her family and ancestors. This isa very happy day, indeed!
It was through the City Directories of Charleston, West Virginia that I finally found out who Neva really was. Since she was listed as a resident of Charleston on her and my Grandfather's marriage record, I decided to try and find her.......and, possibly her mother, who was listed as "present" though un-named on the same record, in the City Directories around the time that they were married. So, I requested, in a letter, copies of all City Directory pages which contained the names of PORTER and
WHITTAKER (in all the spelling variations) between the years of 1880 and 1900. What I received from the State Archives of West Virginia was really pretty pitiful; only 6 directories were copied. In the 1889/1890 City Directory Neva Porter was there, at the age of about 17 years, as a boarder at 110 Clendenin Street with the occupation of "nurse". As I was looking through the other copies, I noticed that one of the other years, 1888, had no pages of Porters. I knew this had to be a mistake because the other 5 directories all had quite a few Porter families in them, both before 1888 and
after.
I decided to e-maill my good friend, Cristy Dunlap, who lives in Charleston; and, ask her to check up on these City Directories at the Archives for me since I did not trust the State Archives at this point to rectify this situation. Cristy went there and re-copied all of the City Directories that she could find. There were eleven of them......still pretty pitiful for a twenty year time span; but better, none the less.
When I received the package from Cristy, there were indeed Porters in the 1888 Directory.
My jaw dropped almost to the floor when I looked at the 1897 Charleston City Directory. There, in all her glory, was "Nevora Whittaker"! Right then and there, I knew that Nevora Porter had really been my Grandmother all along. There was only one big family of Whittakers/Whittekers who had come to Charleston in 1806. They were four brothers from Princeton, Massachusetts and all of their descendants were identifiable as the Whittakers in the City Directories. The only one who had married a woman who even could be Nevora, by any stretch of the imagination, was my Grandfather, Benjamin Whittaker.
But, what of the assertions of my own mother who had said that her mother's real name was "Geneva"? Well, all I can say is this: my own mother did not like her given name, May Ada. After her mother and father died, she re-invented herself as "Jean Whittaker". I, myself, did not like the name (which my mother loved), Dolores, and did the same thing, turning myself into "Dee". I truly think that my mother and I came by this honestly and quite possibly Nevora did not like her name either; and, it was a really odd, uncommon name. I could not find another Nevora in the entire United States. So, I think that it is probable that my Grandmother Neva used her nickname instead, at first. Now, along comes my mom wanting to know the real name of her mother and asking questions. Neva is usually used as a nickname for Geneva, so I think my Grandmother just told people that was her real name because she probably wished that it was.
Now this cut-off branch of my family tree may finally grow, in time; and, out of respect for my Grandmother, I promise never to call her Nevora.
UPDATE: The new brick wall is Nevora's parents. I have not been successful in finding anything at all on her father or mother. The only document showing her mother is still the 1880 Census of Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia. I have since searched all marriage records and death records of the area for both of her parents and come up empty. I even checked to see if her mother had remarried since she was a rather young widow. The only small crumb I have found is that I have finally been able to place Neva and Ben in Charleston in the 1901 City Directory. Benjamin is listed there as a "grocer" and the home address as 24 Clendenin Street. I am now trying to find out who else might have lived at that address or next door at the time.
I have also paid a researcher in Kentucky to check the birth records in the counties which border on West Virginia for the births of either Nevora or her daughter, Ethel Whittaker. This was not successful either. Since Neva's father would have been the right age to be in the Civil War, I have also checked both the Kentucky and West Virginia records on both sides of the conflict without any luck in identifying him. Right now, I am giving it a periodic rest, in hopes that something new will come to light.
UPDATE 22 July 2015:
I have taken an autosomal DNA test which has been uploaded to Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, and Gedmatch. So far, I have matched with five different people who are descendants of Patrick Porter and Susannah Walker. I still have not been able to establish a documented connection; but, even if I never do, at least I now know that my grandmother was descended from this branch of the Porters who lived in Floyd and Pike Counties, Kentucky.
|
