Obituaries and Findings

I ordered several obituaries form The Anderson Public Library for Henry Williamson, Ida Williamson (Thompson), Rena Frances Thompson (Tyler), Mattie Thompson (Clifford), James Thompson and Mary Thompson (Fennimore). Trying to get more information about these people and their families.

I was happy to see that Henry Williamson's obituary listed his civil war service, but a bit disappointed that it didn't contain any information on his parents. In fact that seemed to be the standard with all the obituaries except Rena Tyler. Her obituary lists Mr. and Mrs. Levi Thompson. Hers is the first obituary that mentions him by name. Even his wife's obit leaves his name out.

I also learned that James Thompson is really James Henry Thompson and Mary Thompson is really Mary Alice Thompson. So I have middle names for several of the children. That could be helpful when trying to figure out family relationships.

I also learned the death dates for several of Levi's children. James was 1929, not too awful long after he took that picture. He died in Ida's house. All of that information is good to have too.

I can continue with my plan to order death records for Henry Williamson and Rosa Blades, I will probably add Ida Williamson to that list too. Death records seem to have information about parents on them, so I hope to be able to get mother's names for all three of those people and father's full names if possible. If the state death records turn out to be informative, I might order one for Albert  to see if I can get his full name and possibly the full name of Levi.

I put a question in to the Madison County Historical Society to see what resources I might have to learn about the trial Levi was involved in. I haven't heard back from them yet. After some time I may contact the library again to see what they might have there. I imagine it was news worthy, because it was still talked about a decade plus later.