#52Ancestors: Week 10 – Grafting the Adcock Branch to the Howes Family Tree

This is week 10 of the 2015 #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of u52ancestors-2015 Images blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year.  To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.

Yes, I know I am late with this post.  I have outlined it several times in my head and finally have the words down to the blog.  Week 10 theme was Stormy Weather.  Whether personal crisis or weather related events that affected our ancestor’s lives.  My take was grief.  Our ancestors were flooded with grief at various stages in their lives.  Especially those who crossed an ocean or trekked overland from the east to west of the continent.  They endured countless hardships along the way.  The following story is about a family that continued to lose a parent early in their lives.

Grafting – taking a branch of one tree and inserting onto another so that the two branches may join together.

The Adcock branch was grafted to the family tree through marriage by my Aunt Pat. She married Noah Adcock in the 1950’s. Noah’s family hailed from De Kalb County, Tennessee. The Adcock’s served in many of the early wars, including the Revolutionary War and Mexican War of 1812. Two generations served on the confederate side of the Civil War.

Noah Adcock unexpectedly passed away at the age of 45. This early death, unfortunately, is pattern in the Adcock family history. The Adcock line is flooded with much grief in the past. Noah lost his own parents when he was quite young.

His mother, Ada L. Duncan, died a few weeks after his birth in December 1928. She was 28 years old and left five small children under her husband’s care. At 12 years of age, Noah loses his father, William M. Adcock. William Adcock (1884-1940) was 55 years old at the time of his death of myocarditis. Noah died of a heart attack.

Noah’s grandfather, Perry Green Adcock (1853-1927), died of mitral regurgitation at age of 73. Perry Adcock lost his father at the age of 11. William Adcock (1823-1864) died in the Civil War. Most likely of sickness.

William remarries circa 1939 to Alice Todd Willis. A widow herself with young children. Alice finds herself a widow again, when William dies in 1940. Noah has now lost both his parents and finds himself back at his grandmother’s home.

In 1928, William’s mother, Mary Jane Love, steps in to take care of Noah and his siblings. She does the same after William dies. Alice Todd Willis with small children of her own does not take custody. Mary Jane Love was nearly 70 when she takes over the care of William’s children. In 1940 she is nearly 80.

The flood of grief does not stop. Mary Love Adcock passes away in 1941. Leaving Noah without close times to his parents. Who provides the nurturing care after her death is not known to me. His oldest sister, Mary Lou Adcock, just recently married to James E. Judkins, is only 19 years old.

Noah joins the military in 1947 and serves until 1952. He does not return to Tennessee and settles in Michigan, where he marries my aunt.

Anomalies

1930 Census, Mary Jane Love is most likely misidentified as “Sarah” in household of William.

A daughter, Grace, is listed in William’s household on the 1930 Census. If this is William’s daughter, she may be from a prior marriage. No record has been found of this marriage, as of yet. Some online trees list Ada Duncan, as her mother. Ada would have been 12 when Grace was born in 1912, and could be dismissed as her mother. Ada and William were married in 1919. Grace could have also been a niece or cousin who lived with William.

The 1920 census, for William and Ada, lists a son named Robert. He does not appear on the 1930 census. I not located a death record for him. I did find one for his brother, Willie T. Adcock (1924) who died at birth.

Final Resting Place

William Adcock shares a headstone with Ada Duncan at the Faulkner Cemetery in Warren County, TN. His mother Mary Lou Adcock lies there too. A sweet grave epithet is engraved on her headstone. It reads, “Having finished life’s duty she now sweetly rests.”

 MaryJane Love_Adcock William_Ada_Adcock Headstone

Photograph Citations

James Hill, “Find-A-Grave” database. (www.findagrave.com) for Mary Jane Love Adcock (1861-1941), Faulkner Cemetery (Pike Hill), McMinnville, Warren Co, Tennessee; Memorial# 34255261; accessed 15 Mar 2015.

James Hill, “Find-A-Grave” database. (www.findagrave.com) for William Adcock and Ada Duncan Adcock, Faulkner Cemetery (Pike Hill), McMinnville, Warren Co, Tennessee; Memorial# 34255153 and 34255195; accessed 15 Mar 2015.

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