Our night and weekend librarian, Jef Whatley, made some revelatory discoveries in his own family history recently. We often share our own discoveries to encourage our patrons to continue searching for elusive records. We hope you enjoy.
My dad and his 2 brothers were adopted by the Whatleys when he was 9 years old. Elton and Jean Whatley were the grandparents that I knew growing up, although Elton died when I was 18 months old. I do not know the exact circumstances of my dad and his siblings’ adoption, but I know they were not living in sufficient surroundings. My dad has never spoken much about his biological parents, and I’ve never really asked. All that I’ve known is that my biological grandfather’s name is Joe Ward, and I did not know this until he reached out to my father right before he passed away in 2003. I had thought about looking up this family for years, but it was very difficult to narrow any records down on a name like Joe Ward. I had resigned myself to having a mystery heritage, which I was fine with. I’m a Whatley and proud of what my family became because of their love and support of a stranger’s children. They were good people who I learned well from, but that other family out there was still an unknown I occasionally thought about.
The other day I was casually looking up information about my Whatley grandparents just for the fun of it. For instance, I did not know that Elton’s mom’s first name was Missouri. While I was at it, I decided it would be fun to find my parents’ marriage license. I found it and noticed my dad’s birthplace. I’ve known for a long time where he was born, but at that moment I had a breakthrough on how I might be able to find my long-lost Ward family. I searched for my dad with his original last name, place of birth, and his birth year. The second result that came up was the 1950 census that listed my dad, his brothers, and their biological parents: Joseph A. and Mildred Ward. Voila. At that moment, it all opened up for me. Utilizing multiple databases, I started connecting records and building a clear picture of the family that I thought I might never know – all from that one initial search result.
Joe Ward was born on December 18, 1927. He was the 4th child of Brumby and Autie Ward (at least 9 children in total). I found where he signed up for the draft on his 18th birthday in December of 1945 – 8 months after my oldest uncle was born and 6 months before my dad was born. He and Mildred married in February of 1946. Shortly after that, they moved to Utah where Joe found work at a military base. This was also a detail I had known about, but it had not helped my search until it helped me verify the census record that I found. I’m not sure where the story diverges from here. At some point Joe joins the military and serves in the Korean War, and Mildred moves back to Alabama where my dad was adopted around 1955. In 1964 he married Nancy James who had two daughters from an earlier marriage. He and Nancy had a son Joe Jr. who tragically died at 21 months old in 1967 after a brief illness. He later had at least one daughter, and his step-daughters from his marriage with Nancy appear to have stayed in his life to some extent.
I’m still working on a more complete story for Mildred who has more inconsistent records, but I’m hoping new sources may point me in other directions. Reaching out to an individual who posted the first pictures I’ve ever seen of the Ward family, I have made contact with a second cousin who has already done an extensive amount of work on the family genealogy. So within days after that one search, I have already found more than I ever expected was even out there, and I can’t wait to continue the story. I will always be glad I’m a Whatley, but I’ve already begun to see some hilariously astonishing similarities between me and my Ward ancestors.
back row (L-R): Grandpa Joe, Earl, Huitte, Ed, and Glen; front row: Autie, Hillmon, Nell, Mary, Betty, and Patsy
Athens: In Time 