Hi Dr.Henry!
As you can tell, I'm still off & online & running a half-dozen
directions at once! I got your snail-mail letter & I think I've
misunderstood something that you sent. We're apparently talking about
different Allen's. Let me explain what I'm looking at here:
The Allen who's shown in Leake Co., MS, is the son of William CATO (the
one who was the father of Rosanne who married Wm. Barrett TRAVIS). He's
shown in the Bible records that are here in the Texas Archives & is
fairly well documented. I've also just spoken with a CATO researcher
here in town (is that great or WHAT!!!) who's descended from him & am
going to be comparing notes with him when we can find the time.
The Allen in earlier MS with James is supposedly a different Allen CATO,
according to Marilou Roach Fair (I also tend to agree). If you look at
the census info, there certainly APPEARS to be 2 Allen's, one is in MS &
the other is in AL. The Allen in MS & the James in MS seem to be the
same age to be brothers. I don't think they're Needham's since they
would at first glance appear to be approximately the same age as he is.
The Allen in Leake Co. later is definately the son of William (Monroe
Co., AL, etc.) who is most likely the son of Henry, son of John. Allen
saying he was born in NC IS interesting but is most likely either a
mistake on the census or an unusual situation where Wm's wife just
happened to be in NC at the time of his birth. The age fits & the
neighbors fit, along with the other family members who are in the area
(he's living with his daughter's family & others are in the area).
From the census span of possible dates of birth & the amount of
children
& ages of the children shown of Allen who is in Jefferson Co. in 1810,
I
don't see how that Allen could have been born in ca 1790. Even if he
had a brother or someone else living with him at the time, he had to
have had several children by this time (there are - I think! Don't have
it in front of me! - 9 others listed aside from he & his wife) so I'm
having to assume that even if only 2 or 3 children were his, he'd have
been born before 1790 (only 20 years before).
I should have another 'round' of film (5) coming in for MS here in the
next week or so (I spent tonight looking through a "dud" court & orphan
record which was unindexed (fun, fun, fun! <groan!>). Anyhow, I'm going
to check some other info I have on Needham's children & get back to you
in a day or 2. There's a lot of "family tradition" running down that
particular line & since most of them stayed in the area there's a lot of
people who did research when people the people mentioned were "old" at
the time I'm a little hesitant to try to assign different children to
Needham yet. Some of that research dates back to the late 1800s & they
would have been first-handers, if you know what I mean! (Also, their
descendants are VERY protective of their research!!!! Translation: I've
gotten major flack in the past for questioning it!!!) I don't know for
now if they're right or wrong - just that I have to keep digging for as
much as I can where I can & that I want PROOF of anything that will
become "final". Of course, this was also the same line that I had a
person on the phone tell me that there was a group that came "up" from
SC (the rich ones) & a different group that came "down" from VA & they
couldn't POSSIBLY be asscociated with the "poor" VA line - the SC line
is "supposedly" asscociated with the DuPonts... (Very bizarre
conversation!!)
On a personal note, I'm sorry I've been so scarce! It's due my
mother-in-law moving & adjusting to the stupid diabetes *&%$#@*, in
addition to trying to keep up with my certification course & 3 kids & a
husband - My mother in law's taken 2 months, 1 van-load of breakables at
a time that I offered to help unload (she's moving from a 4,000 sq ft
house into a 3,000), in addition to helping her set up the tons of
flowerbeds in her new house - about 2 million square feet of them it
seems at times - <grin> - she's too old to run a tiller or dump manure &
sand & potting soil, & plant, & & &... The movers just now brought
the
"mother-load" 2 days ago so it's now (almost) final (they're still
unpacking - guess who's helping!). She's SO lucky that I love her so
much & understand!!! (Everyone else quit a month or so back!!!) She's
more like a mother than a mother-in-law, though, & I wouldn't leave it
all to her for the world - she's one of those REALLY special people & I
love her for that (and my husband's her only child so he & I are it)!
I also had a bit of a problem for a bit with off & on blurring vision
which isn't a big deal in itself but really plays hell with looking at a
computer screen for any extended period of time!! (Thank goodness I've
gotten that worked out! Everything's pretty much stable now - just my
DIET controls my LIFE!!!) On the bright side, my blood sugar has been
under 120 for the past 20 days, no exceptions, so I'm very, very happy!
(It went completely out of control for a bit several months ago! I
thought I was a 'basket case' until I found out what was happening!!! I
guess you've seen a lot of that in your life, considering your
profession! How many patients have YOU had that thought they were going
crazy?? (Rhetorical question!))
Anyhow, I'd like to thank you, once again, for keeping everything going
on the list & just in general, for being you! I NEED you here to
question EVERYTHING. (I almost put an (!) behind that, but I didn't
want you to think I was kidding. I can't tell you how very much I need
you!) I have fun with this but I consider the list a "government" - you
know - the checks & balances! You've already proven yourself to be more
than gold by just questioning "stupid" things I've said - we all do it -
no big deal - just we need each other to figure out this complex stuff!
Funny thing is that in this course I'm taking, many people are saying
that Southern genealogy is too tough! I only have 1 Yankee line - yes,
that one was easy - but everyone's complaining about their "Southern
lines"! Seems those are too tough for them!!! (Burned counties...)
Since that's all (almost) I've ever researched, I got a big kick out of
hearing us referred to as a "tougher breed" in the genealogist world!
As a final note, I'm trying to catch up - I haven't changed the page for
months now - but HOPEFULLY there's an end to all of this coming soon!
Keep up the good work & thanks so much for not giving up on me during
this kind-of strange set of circumstances. Also, thanks for keeping me
up-to-date on what your thoughts are! I still have several printouts in
my "debate" file that I'm going to tackle in the way you wanted them
looked at when I get back fully in gear. I haven't seen any BIG
problems & hence no answer for most.
I'm attempting right now to settle things one state at a time since it
seems no one else really wants to do the actual leg-work excepet Gloria
& Cynthia (& of course you). I figure I'll keep doing what I'm doing
one state at a time & eventually be able to put all the lines together.
I hoped at one time to have everyone assigned out separate states &
counties, but apparently things have gone "capoot" here there just
aren't that many people interested. Could you suggest this on the list,
perhaps, & stress that only one or 2 of us cannot handle the expesnse?
Just for MS I have now hit, with initial orders & the 2nd "stay put"
expenses & "long-term" & new expenses spent over $400 dollars in the
past 2 months. How on earth can we get others to defray some of this??
(Keep in mind that I'm also doing OTHER lines of mine! I've personally
bought several pieces of equipment for my local FHC by my equations!!!)
You know, as well as I do, that anything that is publishished in the
future, will never defray all expenses. I spend on the CATO family
alone, probably about $70-80 per month (although I tend to "indefinate"
about 1/3 since they are indexes & other importantant stuff). Everyone
seems to just be waiting to see what I find...
Best to you & our resident Mrs. "Cato" - a very sweet person according
to my daughter! (Hi!)