I am relaying information from the internet to a friend of mine named
Joyce Massey Geick. She is not blessed with a computer that can help
her out. She's desperately searching for information on her family
tree. If you can help her out, we would be grateful. (Not that we can
do much in return, but come have dinner if you get in our neck in the
woods. We'll talk Cato till your blue in the face).
Cato/Catoe/Cator, Massey, Teague, Comer, Murphy, Petropal, Clark (Pearl
Massey). If any of these names strike you as familiar, please help us
connect them. Joyce would love to talk/correspond with anyone on these
family names. Her address is Joyce Massey Gieck, P.O. Box 472,
Pahrump,Nevada 89048. (702) 727-5983. She will accept all collect
calls. Just keep calling, she'd love to hear from you.
She is most interested in connecting her great grandma Elizabeth Cato
(born in the 1850's) Kershaw, SC. Maiden Name unknown, Maybe Simms,
Hinson, Lafer or Cato/Catoe. Her children are Emma Massey (Joyce's
grandma), Janie, Minnie, Louis, Robert. Her mother was Jacqueline Pearl
Massey/Clarke. She is also looking for any info on Minnie Cato Comer.
Married to J.E. Comer in 1912, Charlotte, NC. She died in Dinsmore,
Florida. After 1945. Also her sister Janie (Cato) Petropal, Barnes,
Woods. Janie married a man Thomas Petropal but was a Woods when she
died in (possibly) Charlotte, NC about 1966. Janie has a daughter that
is living, possibly on the coast or NC. Anybody know?
Emma was in an institution in Columbia, SC in 1924 and she died there in
1966. Her name was Emma Massey Swan (Cato in there somewhere, too).
Minnie lived in Texas in 1934. Joyce lived with Minnie in Amarillo for
4 years and can remember pretty much just her. Jacqueline/Jackie/Pearl
Clarke was living in Long Beach, California at that time.
The Elizabeth we are looking for had a baby in Texas and carried it
(this is so awful to imagine) by covered wagon all the way back to SC to
bury it. William Charles Cato, who passed away last year, told Joyce
that he remembered hearing a story when he was quite young...He couldn't
remember all the details, but he remembered the aunts and cousins
talking about the Elizabeth that brought the baby back home from where
they were in Texas to SC, with it on her lap. This Elizabeth we are
looking for has 6 known kids, one that died. So this seems to be the
same person. The fact that Joyce remembers the story, and William
remembered a similar tale, seem to make sense. Um, the problem is, he
can't connect that Elizabeth and neither can Joyce.
Elizabeth's son Louis had a son named Oscar, William and Donald and two
more. A daughter Savannah, we think. The fifth child had a named that
might have started with a B. (This is so vague, sorry)
Elizabeth was supposed to have died in Kershaw, SC. She was in
Rockhill, York County, 1910. She was found in the census, so was
Jacqueline, who was only 2 1/1 years old at the time.
Emma was known as Emma Swan, she married a Tom Miller Swan. They had a
boy named Jesse Swan. Jesse Swan had a boy named Larry and two
daughters. They live in Maryland, we think.
In the 1910 census, Elizabeth was listed as a widow. She had with her,
Minnie (23) who was listed as Marie in the census. She also had Louis
who was 17. They lived in a cotton mill village in or around Chester,
SC. (And Jackie (2 1/2 yrs) as mentioned above).
Robert had a wife named (Bessie, maybe?) Murphy. They broke up because
Bessie was a little nuts. (Well, that's what we heard, no offense
intended) They 3 children. Gilbert lives in Pennsylvania. Two
daughters, one called Sunshine, who is now senile in NC near Burlington.
The other daughter is in an institution in NC somewhere.
Joyce's mom, Jackie Massey Clarke married Hugh Clarke in 1931. He was
from Oklahoma. She remembers going there to see his family.
Apparently, Jackie and Hugh came to Texas, picked up Joyce and took her
to Oklahoma. They had a baby at the time. Her name was Doris Marlene
Clarke, she married a William Byrne who used to be in the movies with
Shirley Temple and they lived in Palm Springs (still there, we think).
Marlene isn't very helpful, though. Marlene was born in Amarillo in
1931.
Joyce's mom told Joyce once, that she and her sister were named after
her aunts. Joyce Aloma and Doris Marlene. There was a Jackie in the
family line, too, that Jackie had been named after. Somewhere here, in
the aunts that Joyce is named after, comes a William Cato.
Joyce has some old pictures. She would love to share those with anyone
who thinks they might identify the people in the pictures. There is one
of Joyce with Minnie and a man named Fred. Joyce was about 2, so it was
circa 1929-1930.
Elizabeth was in someone's home, and we think it was an Aunt Mary. She
died there.
As far as people who visited Emma in the institution, there was a Paul
Massey who visited. Emma had boys named Ben, Henry, LeRoy, Paul, and
Jackie (Joyce's mom). LeRoy died in the same institution, staying there
at the same time, and didn't know his own mother was there. He died
around 1946 there.
In 1924, when Emma went into the institution, there was a terrible
hurricane. We think that the shock of the destruction is what might
have sent her over the edge.
Thanks, Jennifer