#52Ancestors: WK 8: MOORE, Franklin Wheeler

Theme: Week 8 (Feb 19-25) – Good Deeds. Does this mean a generous ancestor or one you found through land records? You decide.

This week, I'm going to focus on Franklin Wheeler MOORE. Frank is my 2nd great grandfather on my paternal side. Without his death certificate, I would have very little to say about Frank. Here are some basics...

DOB: 11 Oct 1852
POB: Montogomery Co, AL
DOD: 23 Apr 1919
POD: San Antonio, Bexar, TX

Death Cert: Moore, Franklin Wheeler

Frank is very elusive. I can't find him in the 1860 Census or the 1870 Census. However, on 15 Sep 1872, he married Martha Elizabeth DEBORAH in Lavaca Co, TX.

Marriage Record: Moore m. Deborah

Frank and Martha had nine children, five survived to adulthood. The family mostly settled in the Bexar County, Texas area. Frank died 23 Apr 1919. That's the basics. I know there is more. I know I should be looking at land records and deeds and probate...but I'm intimidated by the amount of information.

After seeing at least two RT/FGS sessions discuss the multitude of records that can be found, I decided to dive into deeds.

The Family History Library has: Deed records, 1846-1886; index, 1846-1889. This is sort of shocking because Lavaca County suffered a terrible court house fire that destroyed most records -- so we have been told over and over. Looking at the Lavaca County Texas Wiki page, I'm beginning to doubt that story...the destroyed records part at least.

I was tickled pink to see the deed films. Imagine my surprise when I started reviewing the index and found nearly every page had a transaction from/to either someone named Moore or Deborah. I stopped snapping cellphone photos after 42 pictures. At that rate, I was going to A) drain my cell battery, B) run out of memory, and C) end up with bad copies of the entire index.  Here are a few examples of what I found.

Deed: Deborah, Martha A to J.H. Debord | Deborah, Martha A. to Riley Tate

Deed: Dowling, J. from Amos Moore | Dowling, Josiah to Amos Moore

Deed: Deborah, John to Josiah Dowling

I have a feeling Frank is in there. I ran out of time working with this set of films. I'm going to have to plan my research for these film since I may need every film FHL holds. I have to decide if it would be better to order the index film and record all of the transactions I want to review and take a trip to Salt Lake City...or slowly order each film. Finding this treasure trove, I now want to dip into probate records!