The Genealogy Query Database
Genealogy Query Details
|
|
|
The Genealogy Query Database |
Genealogy Query Details |
Full Details for Query #31036 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Commands:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date Posted: |
24-May-2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Surname(s): |
ALDRIDGE : NEWKIRK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Query Text: |
I wondered if you might have run across might have run across Sallie Mae Aldridge b. (SC?) or her son Robert Aldridge born (SC?) ca. 1890 who may have come to Ga between 1890 and 1910 and Robert Aldridge may be the one who suddenly appeared in Al after 1920. He told his daughter Lorene he had many sisters and brothers, including she remembers a Frank (Aldridge?). Or he may really be of a family from Muskogee Co, as he said, near Columbus, GA. which I cannot find and who came there when everybody else came to grab the land. I am doing a family tree for my children and have come across the possibility that they have black cousins, or even black heritage. But definitely Indian heritage thru Sallie Mae. I do not know where she was born, ut the Roert in the 1910 census Camden Co. says his mother is born in SC. Below is my info. I have 2 births for Robert Lee Aldridge Oct 5 , 1890 from his daughter - and Nov. 12 1892 on his gravestone in Bessemer, AL. It is coincidental that last week I had published a partial list of slaves from the wills of the SC and AL Hardys on Gen Forum in case black SC and AL Hardys were looking for their relatives. Now I myself am looking for answers on another branch of the family who may have been slaves. I thought it would be so easy to connect with the right line of Aldridges and from there so much research has been done that it would be a piece of cake. Not so. I have just come across a 1910 census in GA -Camden Co. Thompkins Dist. (on the GA coast). Even though our Robert Aldridge supposedly came from and supposedly was born in Columbus, GA on the AL border. Anyway here is the story and any help would be appreciated. No one rememers the whole truth. Here are some rumors only, just to let you know that the family wonders how he could have left children behind and never seen them again- Some grandchildren heard he shot somebody in the middle of the night and left. Some grandchildren say he deserted 13 children when he left. (Lorene says that is not so- it was only 2 children- Jessie and Aline -sp?.) Some grandchildren say he changed the spelling of Aldridge from another spelling. (Lorene says that is not so.) My deceased husband heard the Aldridges ran to the NC mountains in the Civil War to escape the fighting. Lorene Aldridge has a good memory and claims to know part of the story which I will incorporate below. I would like to say that I am not an Aldridge by birth, but my children are. I will also say that although the Aldridges were desparately poor and beset by tragedy, they were the handsomest, tallest group of people I have ever seen and all musically talented and tops in sports. And great story tellers. My mother thinks they must, somewhere in their genes, have a very distinguished family. I have a lot of difficulty with the Aldridges - in finding documentation -except a few AL ssn s. These Aldridges seem to have threatened to shoot every census-taker in GA and AL (and ILL where they worked in the mines for 3-4 years). After interviewing one of his last surviving children and getting a possible birth date for him, I still had nothing, despite hours of searching in data banks----till today. Lorene Aldridge had told me her father Robert Aldridge looked undefinable in that he was medium skinned and medium brown hair, but blue eyes. (At first I understood that Robert looked Indian. It was actually the mother's side- Lorene's Mewbourn grandfather who was black haired and looked like an Indian.) Today I saw that amongst B's are also some M's and found a Robert with M. Robert told her he had a half Indian or Indian mother called Sallie Mae (no record of marriage). She cannot remember if he ever said anything about his father-no name, no description- except he was mean and used them all like slaves. Lorene also told me that he told Lorene that he left 2 children behind in the care of a relative after a wife Phoebe had supposedly died. Lorene Aldridge Freeman also said he came from Columbus,Ga. which is Muskogee Co.- but I find nothing. But it could be that I was only looking for "white" families, because today I hit the jackpot when I changed my tactics---- and have finally found a Robert with the correct birth year which Lorene swears by for Robert in Ga. -1890. Only- the Co. is wrong. In the 1910 GA census, this Robert Aldridge is 20 years old living with his brother in Camden Co., Thompkins district-Militia 32. Robert is listed as head of house and his older "brother" is delegated to 2nd place, even though the brother is older. Robert's brother has another name -Henry Newkirk - and is "married " (although there is no woman listed) and is listed as "black." The whole page of the census is black people. Robert Aldridge is listed mixed race and is one of only two of a hundred people in front and behind who is anything but "B" for black. Well to be living away from his father makes sense because Robert claimed he hated his father for allegedly beating him bloody all his life, so if it is true ,he must have left home as soon as possible, and maybe to the other side of the state at that. Have you ever heard of the term "crossing over?" Mulattos or mixed race people used it when they look white enough to change their color identities and start over somewhere else where no one knows them. I ask myself this question for 4 reasons. 1) Lorene said her father never took them to visit his relations, although she said it was hard in those days because they had no car. They were so poor and so many children. 2) Lorene said a man across the hallway in a hospital where her brother Seaborn was recovering in Birmingham sent a note thru the nurse saying - "What ever happened to Robert Aldridge from Columbus,Georgia?" and she was told not to talk to him and they did not reply to the note. 3) There were some Aldridges who working in the same Bakery in Birmingham as Robert's daughter Lorene- and she was told not to associate with them and Lorene could not understand why. 4) when Robert Aldridge supposedly went back to GA ONE time ( years later ) to try to find out what ever happened to his own flesh and blood he had left behind in GA. , he said he came no more than 20 miles from the parents place and would go no further. He asked an old acquaintance Seabourn Collatt about them but no one knew anything and he went back to AL without seeing his parents which he had never seen since leaving all those years before, and Robert never saw again in his lifetime. What do you folks think? Maybe in order to "cross over" and disassociate from his black relatives, he wanted to cut all ties and make a better life for himself, which is every man's right, or was he just afraid of the police? A possible scenario as follows which I have constructed from the information in the 1910 census. Robert Aldridge's father is born in NC around the time of the Civil War. His father has a son by a black or black/Indian woman called Newkirk in NC in 1888. He is called Henry Newkirk and looks black enough to be listed as lack in the 1910 census . Robert's father moves across the order to SC where his mate Newkirk dies. He takes up with an Indian woman called Sallie Mae and has Robert Lee Aldridge by Sallie Mae in Oct. 1890 in SC, and this SC birth is what was told to the census taker. Robert Lee Aldridge looks mixed race, blue eyes. The family supposed then moves to GA. (Maybe it was only Henry newkirk and Robert. who moved to GA.) Between 1900 and 1910 Robert Aldridge moves out of his family house in GA. and moves in with brother Henry who meantime married. They find work in Camden Co. Henry in a store. Robert -odd jobs. In 1910 they are living together in the Camden Co. Ga. census in a black neighborhood. The next part is told to me by his daughter Lorene: Phoebe part Creek Indian or Creek Indian "marries" somebody and has a daughter before 1910. Between 1910 and 1920 Phoebe Creek Indian "marries" again to Robert Aldridge . Since Robert's own mother is part Indian, this is natural for him. They have Jessie and Aline before 1920. Phoebe Creek Indian Aldridge supposedly dies -before 1920. Robert Aldridge gets a girl pregnant in Muskogee Co. The police in Columbus GA tell him to cross the river to Alabama and don't come back. Robert Aldridge leaves the 2 children in care of his step daughter part Indian "meandering" (Lorene Aldridge) to Ragland, AL (where , by the way, there are also Arledges- he does not mention them ) never to see them again. Robert works maybe in the cement plant in Ragland. Robert Aldridge marries Cora Mewbourn in Ragland, AL in 1921 (at the home of her uncle John Layton who is a preacher). In 1933 Roert makes an attempt to see his children ut does not go the whole way. He stops at Seaourn Collat's haouse who knows nothing of what happened to the children. Years later, Lorene and her sister write a letter to the postmaster of where ever it was and ask if they ever heard of these children Jesse and Aline, as they would like to meet them. The answer comes back. NO. Robert talks about a brother Frank and other forgotten names to his daughter Lorene. He never sees his family ( whoever they are) again. Is it possible that he has crossed out of the Indian (and black) community in Ga. into white Alabama? Do you know who this Robert Aldridge in 1910 could have been? That is the latest in my search....anybody have any advise on researching this?I have to find out who Robert Aldridge's father of is. Is he Mulatto who has a blue eyed parent? Is he white and the Robert's blue eyes come from him? Is he black and the blue eyes come thru Sallie Mae his half Indian mother who had a blue eyed father? Was his name Aldridge? Or was only Sallie Mae an Aldridge? The Aldridges all look like normal whites. I hope I could help anyone to find the parents of little lost Jesse and Aline, or the woman he got pregnant. Who knows. Please tell me if I have helped you. And do you have suggestions for me? I am prepared for anything. I am old now and understand the world. susan aldridge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Associated
|
United States > Georgia > Muscogee County
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cross Search on
|
View all matching genealogy records for the following surnames:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
