Eva Rogers

The paternal side of my family has always been a mystery to me. Until recently, I’ve been able to put some pieces of the puzzle together through records, DNA matches and speculation.
There was no one left of my father’s immediate family who could point me in the right direction. He and his father died when I was young. His mother died when he was young.
But, persistence has paid off over the years.
Eva Rogers is one of my paternal great-great-grandmothers and is one of my brick walls who has connections to at least three recent DNA matches I found on Ancestry.

My paternal great-grandmother, her daughter — Lillie Mae Dennard — was another brick wall I ran into. During one my research sessions, I devoted time to find out more about her.
I happened to find Lillie Mae’s death certificate on FamilySearch.org. Lillie Mae’s husband, Robert Jackson (my paternal great-grandfather), was the informant and he listed her mother as Eva Rogers.
It was a very happy find for me!

Lillie Mae’s father, Kelly Dennard, married at least four times in a span of 20 years. One of those marriages was to Eva Rogers. I knew this information for years, but could never find any records of Eva Rogers, other than the marriage record to Kelly Dennard.

So for years, I wondered, “who was the mother?”
Finding Lillie Mae’s death certificate helped me to eliminate the other wives and name her mother.
But, it left more questions for me.
Once I found Eva, I did a search for her on FamilySearch.org. I input her name and her residence as Terrell County, GA. Not only did it bring back her marriage record to Kelly Dennard, it brought back another death certificate where she was listed as the mother of the deceased, Edgar Williams, and Edgar’s father was listed as Barn/Bern Williams.

Who was Edgar Williams and Barn Williams?!

Edgar Williams’ death certificate helped me put a timeline together. Sort of.
He was born in 1875. Lillie Mae was born in 1894. That is a 19 year gap. I’m not saying it wasn’t possible, but it kind of explained some other things. Sort of.
In December 1902, Kelly married his recorded fourth and last wife, Lilly Belle Baldwin.

While playing the guessing game of who Lillie Mae’s mother could be in my early research, I had settled on Lilly Belle. But, the timeframe and age never added up.

Then I settled on his first wife, Georgia Morrow, whom he married in 1882.

That didn’t add up because he married a woman named Anna Branner in 1890.

I eliminated Anna because a few months later, he married Eva. Eva was the logical choice, but I wanted to find at least one more record to back it up.
Why? because in the 1900 US Census, Lillie Mae lived with a widowed Mary Dennard in Dover, Terrell County, GA. She was listed as her daughter along with siblings Valley and Jessie.

I recognized the name Valley from my paternal grandmother’s obituary as the name of an aunt. Valley was listed as a son of Mary’s however, which threw me off more. Later that year, I found a marriage record for a Valey Dennard. Maybe the census taker wrote her gender wrong? Maybe Valley was a common name in Terrell County?
I found no marriage record for Kelly and Mary. And I knew Kelly was very much alive because I found him from previous research years ago in the 1910 and 1920 US Census.
I did not find him in the 1900 US Census, however.
Here’s another twist…
Lillie Mae’s death certificate lists her as being born in neighboring Randolph County. My theory about Mary Dennard and why Lillie Mae lived with her is that Kelly was working in another county or was not available for the 1900 Census and that Mary may be the widow of one of Kelly’s brothers and she was taking care of Lillie Mae. This also leads me to believe that some time between after Lillie Mae was born in 1894 and Kelly’s marriage to Lilly Belle in 1902, Eva may have passed away. The State of Georgia began keeping death records in January 1919, so, there would be no record of her death.
I don’t believe my ancestors had enough to leave in wills back then, so, I have not checked probate records, but I’m not ruling it out.

So, back to Eva Rogers.
I wondered if Eva was very young when she gave birth to Edgar. It’s possible. So, I estimated her date of birth as between 1850 and 1860.
I did a quick check on Edgar Williams’ life and found him in the tree of an Ancestry match.
This match shared 43 cM with me and her great-grandfather was none other than Edgar Williams!

But, what happened to Eva?
So far, this is what I know:
Eva Rogers was born some time between 1850 and 1860, possibly in Georgia. She and Barn Williams had a son, Edgar in 1875. Eva married Kelly Dennard on January 4, 1891 in Terrell County, Georgia. They had a daughter, Lillie Mae, born in 1894. Eva may have died some time after Lillie Mae’s birth and 1902.
I’m not giving up on Eva and any additional information I can find out about her. But for now, this is the story I was able to put together for her.