Wednesday, April 1, 2015

52 Ancestors Week 12~Different~A Sunday With Family

  Researching newspapers this week lead me to the ancestor(s) for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2015 Edition. The topic for week 12 is "Different". What did I find that was different? Spelling. 

  My search was on the Stafford family of Sumter County, South Carolina during the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Now, you're probably thinking, Stafford?-there's not much you can do to mess up the spelling of Stafford, but it wasn't the Stafford name that I found.
 It was Dortery. 

My maternal Grandmother was a Daughrity. The surname is found in records spelled many ways. 
  Dorrity in the census.
  Dority on Civil War records.
  Darrity on a headstone.
  Daugherty by a collateral line. 

 This new spelling is one I may have never found it if my Stafford and Daughrity families weren't connected in more than one way.
    From a society column on 26 July 1911 I learned that:

County Correspondence
Newsy Letters From Our Special Correspondents
Items of Interest from Sections of Sumter and Adjoining Counties
Sumter County Watchman and Southron (Sumter, South Carolina)
26 July 1911 pg.8
  
Manning David Dorrity (1844-1918) and  Mary Elizabeth (Stafford) Dorrity (1843-1930) were my maternal Great Great Grandparents. They both were born, lived and died in the Sumter County area of South Carolina.  
    Who were they visiting on that Sunday in July of 1911? A search of the 1910 census along with finding his Delayed Birth Certificate lead me to Arthur Franklin Stafford (1883-1960). Arthur was Mary Dorrity's nephew, the son of her brother Franklin Bradford Stafford (1869-1926).  They had traveled about 20 miles from home for a family visit. 

Arthur Franklin Stafford (1883-1960)
Photo Credit: Charles Farmer
Franklin "Frank" Bradford Stafford (1869-1926)
Photo Credit: Charles Farmer

   An earlier search of this same newspaper for the same period for the Dorrity family using known name variants did not produce this search result.  Luckily, due to the association that the Dorrity's had with the Stafford family, I was able to find out that Manning and Mary spent a Sunday with nephew Arthur in July of 1911.
 A hole in a brick wall? No, but just something fun to know.

Are we kin? Please contact me. Together we can find our people.
Thanks so much for stopping by!


      



3 comments:

  1. Cheri, it always astounds me when I see how many different ways one name can be spelled! Glad your detective work uncovered your family!

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    Replies
    1. The best part was that I wasn't even researching that name when I found it. Pays to have ancestors closely knit in one area! Thanks so much, Colleen!

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  2. I had a student whose last name was "Daugherty" and she pronounced it "Dorrity."

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