Tennessee research*

*I have been research on my husband’s father’s side of the family. In Tennessee records were not kept well so it has been a challenge.
My first challenge has been Clyde’s mother’s family. I have seen where she was a Russell and where she was a Breeden. No one seemed to want to claim her so I began my search with what little I knew. I started off two years ago by obtaining the marriage certificate of David Hall. On it she stated her name was Ollie J. Breeden. There seems to be no information on an Ollie J. Breeden. David and she were married on Nov. 5th 1910 in Blount County, Tennessee by E. L. Williamson, J.P. This information was recorded on Dec. 19, 1910 by C. B. Badgett in Book 12 page 241.
According to my husband’s family she was Janie Russell. My next step was to see just who Ollie J. Breeden was. One thing led to another which all seemed to lead to dead ends. I then decided I need to start finding information on deaths and seeing if I can find any information on my husband’s grandparents. It seems that Tennessee did not keep records, at least at the county level, of births and deaths for about 50 years. *Note to self: Check with Tennessee Vital Records office to see if there are records there that were not kept at county offices.
I checked to see if there was an Ollie Jane Russell married to a Breeden; none to be found. I then decided to search for obituaries of my husband’s aunts and uncles. Lo and behold I found a sister I did not know about. A half-sister – possibly still alive – a call to my husband’s oldest brother and yes there is an aunt that I had no record of. I knew that Ollie had remarried after David died, but she was aged and I didn’t think she would have another child. I found Aunt Alice. She was living in the same home that they all remembered her living in as children. She is the one I found on Ollie Jane’s death certificate as informant. She knew Ollie’s mother – Frances Jackson – but not the father. Strange I thought as everyone knew her as being a Russell.
One my husband’s father’s death certificate it states that his parents were Dave Hall and Jane Russell. This information is also recorded in the Miller Funeral Home Book 1941 – 2001 found at the Blount County Library in Maryville, Tennessee.
I needed to know, was Frances Jackson ever married to a Breeden. Internet searches at ancestry.com have led me to a Frances Jackson married to a John H. Breeden, Feb. 2, 1891 in Sevier County, Tennessee. (*note to self: check this information out and see when or if they legally divorced.) This is near the area where most of my husband’s family lived. He remembers Wear’s Valley as a place they would visit. This now made sense since I knew his great-grandmother had married a Russell at some point. I found the marriage record of Isaac J. Russell and Frances Breeden at the vital records office in Maryville, Tennessee. They were married August 26, 1896 by E. L. Williamson, J. P. ~ same person that married Ollie and Dave.
I have searched the two census records that Ollie would be in with a parent. In the 1900 census I found Jamie (Janie) listing her birth as Dec 1893 with Isaac and Frances. It states that Janie is a daughter of Isaac and Frances. However, Frances and Isaac were not married until 1896, and Frances and John were married, or so I am assuming, John would be a better bet on being her father. Note that many dates did not match other information for the family members birth years and months. This happened frequently as many times births were not recorded or people couldn’t remember exactly, just that it was wintery or summer time. Also note that Isaac’s first wife was still living, Sophronia Virginia Webster, she died about 1893 which would make Isaac and Frances not be parents to Jamie (Janie).
In the 1910 census, Frances states that she was the mother to 6 children, with only 3 still living. On the census roll there are two Russell children that are probably hers and Isaac’s children; Johnie L. age 5 born Mar 1895; since his first wife has passed this cannot be hers, Ethel M. born Sep. 1899 and then Jamie (Janie) born 1893. All of this needs to be checked out and researched more.
The 1910 census has Isaac listing Jennie (Jannie) as his adopted daughter. Birth years match our records and she seems to fit. Searching I have found no legal adoption of Ollie Jane by Isaac Russell.
Frances Jackson Russell’s death certificate lists her parents as John Jackson and Hannah Blair. Other researchers have noted the same information. The informant was Huse Russell, of Maryville, Tennessee which was one of her son’s with Isaac Russell.
Ollie Jane married again on Jan. 21, 1926 about two years after David passed. This time she married a Will Young. She stated her name as being Janie Hall. This marriage is recorded in book 21 page 214 located at the Blount County Vital Records in Maryville, Tennessee. Ollie had two children with Will. The first was a son, unnamed in the record book, born July 30, 1927, whom must have passed between a live birth and 1930 when Alice was born. This birth she recorded her name as Jane Breeden. On Alice’s she states her name as Ollie Hall.
Will’s death certificate information states Ollie Russell Young as the informant. His parents were George Young and Jane Lane. He is buried in Keeble Cemetery in Blount County, Tennessee; Funeral Home in Madisonville. Ollie and Will made their home in Walland, Tennessee at the time of his death on July 1, 1940.
This is all the information I have at the time. I have lots more research to do.
Additional Note: Ollie and Will's son was named William Row. He died in 1928 in Alabama City, Alabama.  Added: Jan. 27, 2011