My Life in Wansley-Eavenson Genealogy
Jim B. Evans
My interest in genealogy began while I was growing up. My Wansley-Eavenson families told stories about the family. They mentioned my great-great-grandfather, John William Eavenson [1840-1935], who returned to his home in Elbert County, Georgia from the Civil War in 1865. His daughter, Sarah Ann Eavenson, about four years old, walked out toward him at their home. Capt. Eavenson reached down from his horse, picked her up and put her on the saddle with him. Sarah Ann Eavenson [1861-1944] married James H. Wansley [1856-1935] [my great-grandparents]. My mother, Celestene Nora Wansley Evans, and my aunt, Mary Adra Wansley Rodieck, had fond memories of Sarah Eavenson’s wonderful effervescent spirit.
One touching connection to the past was reading John William Eavenson’s letters to his first wife, Lucy Brown Eavenson [1843-1864], while he was serving the Confederacy in Georgia. He wrote about events on the front and his love for his family. Eavenson’s last letter to his wife was written just before she died, and probably was delivered after her death.
And of course, there was Aunt Sexta [Eugenia Sexta Eavenson] who was Sarah Ann Eavenson Wansley’s half-sister. Sexta was a daughter of John William Eavenson and his second wife, Jane Josephine Oglesby. Aunt Sexta published her family genealogy, Eavenson-Strickland and Allied Lines in 1933. Sarah Eavenson Wansley’s children chipped in $30 to purchase the book for her, very expensive during the Depression. I was fascinated reading Eavenson-Strickland, the first time I had read a printed genealogy. Sexta Eavenson Strickland was active in many genealogical societies and was D. A. R. Regent for Georgia.
In the late 1970s, my parents visited Elberton, Elbert County, Georgia where they met Frank N. Wansley [1901-1983], author of From Rome to Ruckersville – Our Wansley History, published about 1977. They purchased his book and shared it with me. As Wansleys we are very fortunate Frank Nicholas Wansley collected oral family histories, myths and incomplete family lines. Frank Wansley’s book reflects his great pride and joy in being a Wansley. However, he did not critically evaluate materials and did limited research, other than Revolutionary War pension application for John Wansley, Sr. and part of his estate records. Frank Wansley propagated the myth of Amelia Barber, alleged wife of John Wansley, Sr. Amelia Barber has now become an internet virus. The theory is that Amelia Barber existed because there was no documentary evidence for her. I asked Mrs. Doris Steed Smith, a descendant of Sarah Wansley and John Beck, about proof of marriage between John Wansley, Sr. and Amelia Barber. She crisply informed me, “The fact that we exist is proof of their marriage.”
Frank Wansley’s book inspired me to learn more about our Wansley family, exploring available resources and separating assumptions from verifiable information. Information that cannot be documented is not necessarily wrong, merely unverified. Genealogical research in the 1980s and 1990s was laborious. Using SOUNDEX to find our Wansleys in the census records took hours. Now, that is easy with every-name census records available within a few seconds, including census images. Most microfilmed records had to be ordered through LDS, requiring a few weeks to receive them at the local library. And we wrote letters to courthouses requesting copies of documents. The remarkable resources in Dallas [Texas] Public Library Genealogy Department greatly facilitated my research. Its holdings included extensive records from Georgia and Virginia, as well as Elberton, Georgia newspapers on microfilm. The Dallas Library also had microfilmed deeds and minutes of Church of Christ on Vans Creek; several Wansley women belonged to this church ca 1800.
Core Concept From Decades of Wansley Research:
What information can be documented?
Connect With Other Family Researchers
Connecting with other family researchers can be immensely important and rewardin. For example, Joan Horsley and I connected through another Wansley researcher. We were both descendants of John Wansley, Sr. and Mildred Whitten. We knew about Virginia records in 1780 stating William Wansley, now deceased, had served in the French and Indian War, and his heir-at-law was John Wansley. Walter Goldsmith’s affidavits confirmed William’s service in Albemarle County, Virginia. Joan Horsley pursued the Goldsmith connection at Library of Virginia, Richmond. Her insightful investigation revealed two chancery court records for Walter Goldsmith with well over 100 pages of documents. Walter Goldsmith and the family of John Wansley, Sr. were closely associated in Albemarle County. John and Mildred Wansley, Sr. and William Wansley, their son, were deposed, providing personal insights about the Wansley family and their neighbors in Albemarle County during 1780s and 1790s. Joan Horsley was a formidable researcher seeking facts and persuasively puncturing myths. Joan Horsley more importantly became a cherished friend. Her Wansley-Whitten research culminated in Mildred “Milly” Wansley Wife of John Wansley of Albemarle County, Virginia and Elbert County, Georgia [Previously known as Amelia Barber] Fictions and Facts in Wansley Family Genealogies. 2009, on-line. Joan Horsley carefully questioned the early Wansley history and adeptly reconstructed the lives of John Wansley, Sr., Mildred Whitten Wansley and their children.
Seek and Collect Extensive Information on Your Ancestors
One of the most useful methods developed over decades of research has been to discover as much information as possible about our ancestral families, not just my direct line. When you also research brothers and sisters of your direct ancestor line, extensive information becomes available about the family, frequently complementing information on your line. Check out local histories, discover surviving newspapers, find family letters and family Bible records. During this process, repeatedly ask, “What do we really know and are we certain about the facts?”
Explore the Records in Elbert County, Georgia
Since our Wansley and Eavenson ancestors lived in Elbert County, Georgia for more than 200 years, local research has been rewarding. The Elbert County courthouse has complete records beginning in 1790s. [Elbert County, Georgia records are also available on-line at familysearch.org.] Church of Christ on Vans Creek minutes mention our Wansley back to about 1800, including family squabbles. Several Elbert County newspapers are available on microfilm [University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia] beginning in late 1880s. If you go to the Elbert County Public Library, you can search through huge bound volumes of newspapers. These newspapers reported marriages, deaths and local community news, for example: Ruckersville, Bowersville, Dewy Rose or Silk Mill. I have not explored every type of document in the Elbert County courthouse. One potentially productive avenue is reviewing early Inferior and Superior Court records that include jury service and being party to suits. Only the first few years of these records have been published and indexed.
Collect and Combine Multiple Strands of Information on Your Ancestors
Based on years of extensive research, my genealogy goal has been combining multiple strands of information:
1. Collecting extensive information, not limited to dates of birth, marriage and death
2. Connecting individual lives with the local and national history of their times
3. Discovering their stories and motivations
4. Recovering personal information, illuminating the lives of our ancestors
5. Finding communal connections to their neighbors and information concerning their secular and religious lives.
Ultimately my genealogical intent is discovering, at least partially, an accessible world of our ancestors.
My book, John Wansley and Mildred Whitten Wansley of Albemarle County, Virginia and Elbert County, Georgia and Their Children, culminates several decades of research. The book is now available on-line at wansleyfamily.org. Joan Horsley’s husband, Barry Gilbert, encouraged and greatly facilitated development of the on-line versions of the Wansley book.
Let me invite you to begin your research now. Ask your parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents about their memories. When many people begin family research, they are perhaps about 50, and by then we frequently say, “I wish I had asked my grandmother about this or my aunt about that event.” Write down what you remember about their stories, events they remember. These memories enliven our ancestors. Write it down, save that information and pass it to the next generation.
And have fun!
Jim B. Evans
November 2018
Frequently my family talked about their Wansley and Eavenson families in Elbert County, Georgia. My mother said the James H. Wansley family took a train from Georgia to Texas, stopping in Smith County, Texas because it looked like good farming land. More than likely the Duncan family had arrived in Smith County before the Wansleys. Based on later research Sarah Ann Eavenson Wansley exchanged letters with her family in Georgia, received newspaper clippings from Elberton, Georgia and made at least two trips back home.
The John Andrew Wansley family in Fort Worth corresponded with their Wansley family in east Texas, especially Lucy Wansley Duncan [wife of Graves Duncan] and Jewell Smith, daughter of Fannie Estelle [Essie] Wansley and Wyatt Otis Smith. Over the years Lucy and Essie shared part of their Wansley mementos: a few photographs, newspaper clippings from Elberton, Elbert County, Georgia, recipe books, a miniature Bible, and items like Grandma Wansley’s coffee grinder.
She visited Smith County, Texas in 1937.
Aunt Sexta corresponded with my grandparents John Andrew and Fannie Pearl Newberry Wansley. I remember my grandmother looking forward to Aunt Sexta’s annual Christmas epistles. The letters had little news but had her latest religious Christmas poem. The letters continued until a few years before her death in 1971 at age of 102.