Two Tate County women have done just that. Winnie Sykes has compiled a book of letters written by her great-grandfather, T.G. Clark, and two of his sons during the Civil War. Marie Carlton has also published a book, with the genealogy of the Barmer family.

Both women will share their stories at the meeting of the Tate County Genealogical and Historical Society, this Thursday October 6.

Letters sent home

Summers visiting grandparents started Sykes on her journey.

"When I was a little kid, I would spend a week with my grandmother during the summer," said Sykes. "She had a trunk, and she would take out each piece and tell me about it before she put it back."

Inside that trunk were typewritten copies of letters Civil War-era letters written home by her ancestors. According to Sykes, the Works Progress Administration came in the 1930's to document these historical artifacts. The originals are in the Mississippi Room at Ole Miss.

Those copies now belong to one of her first cousins, but they were lent to Sykes to compile her book. She traveled to Ole Miss, where the staff there made copies of the originals for her.

Using those originals and the typewritten copies, Sykes placed the text of those letters into her book. She titled it "Dear Margery" after her great-grandmother, to whom the letters were addressed. There are around 28 letters in the book.

"I only found one error in those typewritten letters," said Sykes.

Sykes regrets that no copies of the letters that Margery wrote to T.G. have ever been uncovered. After serving for around three years, all three Clarks were killed at Gettysburg.

Margery went on to raise her children herself, and lived to be 98 years old. "I had thought for a long time that I would do this," said Sykes. "The more I thought about it, the more I thought about how we should spread it [the work] around to our family members."

The work, done a little at a time over several months, was completed next year.

Sykes has given a copy to the TCHGS, where she has been a member since 1988. She was also a member of a former incarnation of the Historical Society during the 1960's and 1970's.

Members of her immediate and extended families have also purchased copies of the book.

Tracing roots

Marie Carlton had also been fascinated for many years by her family history. "I knew my grandparents. They didn't die until after I married," said Carlton. She became interested in finding out about her family origins. She wondered who her grandparents parents were, and she started digging.

What she found was that the Barmers had moved from North Carolina to Marshall County in the 1840's, and then their part of Marshall was turned into Tate County.

One of the places she looked was county courthouses. Since her family had spent time in Marshall County, she traveled to Holly Springs and found marriage records for her great-grandparents. Her grandparents, who were married in Tate County, had records at our courthouse.

She searched land deeds, estate settlements, census records, and birth, death, and marriage records to put together the story of her ancestors.

According to census records, the Barmers moved from Montgomery County, North Carolina, where they had one child. The only record she found in North Carolina was a tax record stored in Raleigh. The courthouse in Montgomery County had burned several years ago, destroying the records there. At some point they passed through Tennessee, where they had two more children, but Carlton isn't sure where that was because it was between census years.

For the full story, pick up the October 4 issue of The Democrat

Email News Editor Melissa Turner

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