Looking for Riddles buried in Cedarville, Crawford Co., AR

One of the Riddle researchers I am corresponding with said there were some Riddles buried in a cemetery in Cedarsville, Crawford Co., AR.

1) Today looked at all the cemetery listings, one by one, in the Crawford Co., AR Cemetery page and found only one Riddle family buried in Macedonia Cemetery, Van Buren, Crawford Co., AR:

Frank Riddle, b. 23 Mar 1873, d. 28 Oct 1941
Ellen Riddle, b. 25 Aug 1884, d. 14 June 1920

2) I also perused the Crawford Co., AR rootsweb archives - No Riddle or Riddell stones

3) And I searched the Crawford Co., AR Tombstone Transcription Project as well – No Riddle or Riddell stones

Laurens Co., SC – BOOKS

I found the following information in the Laurens Co., SC mailing list archives. It gives good book suggestions for finding information on the county.

“The Scrapbook, A Compilation of Historical Facts About Laurens County, South Carolina.” It was published by the Laurens County HistoricalSociety and the Laurens County Arts Council in 1982. It is a fairly large,hardback book with history, maps and families. Very interesting. I don’tremember what I paid for it; I believe in around $25.00. It might possiblystill can be purchased from the Historical Society. This can be found at Duke Library in Durham, NC.

One of the most useful books on LC history and places I’ve found is ” Laurens County Sketchbook” by Julian S. Bolick and Edna Riddle Foy, about 1973.

“Stoddard-Sudduth Papers” by Mary Sudduth Stoddard (privately printed, date unknown, prob. about 1960). This book has a lot of ancient gossip in it that’s simply not available anywhere else, and I wish this whole thing could be put on the Net somewhere. Gloria Forrester said that parts of the “Stoddard-Sudduth Papers”by Mary Sudduth Stoddard are already online. It is only a small portion ofthe original paper, but it is very interesting. Fortunately, Bob Burgesshas a portion of these on the Laurens County SC GenWeb Page at http://www.geocities.com/bourbonstreet/4492/studdard.htm

Another very useful book is “Abstracts of Early Records of LaurensCounty, SC, 1785-1820,” compiled by Sara M Nash, privately printed about 1982. Miss Nash, a lifelong genealogical expert, painstakingly copied all these abstracts on her battered old manual typewriter and had this 600-page book bound from photocopies of her typed sheets. Her niece is in the process of re-typing the records. Miss Nash used to charge $22.50 for her copies but I don’t know what they are now. If you want more info, contact me and and I’ll pass along your inquiry to the niece who probably has any remaining copies. Please include your snail mail address as she’s not yet on the Net. I hope others will pick up on this thread and let us all know about books they’ve found useful, and where they might be available.

Jeremiah Brooks

A few weeks ago, I engaged in a message board discussion about Jeremiah Brooks. I have a Jeremiah Brooks from Caswell Co., NC in my files. JackieSBrooks has a Jeremiah Brooks from Person Co., NC in her files. We shared information and determined that these were probably two different Jeremiah Brooks’.

I updated my Jeremiah Brooks.doc file today with information I learned from our message board discussion posts. Although their Jeremiah moved to Person Co., NC, some of his descendants, including Jackie’s husband, ended up in AR as well as my Brooks family.

Follow Up on Brooks research

Ok, so this is proof of my digressions! I was working on the Brooks and Williams families before I went on vacation and since I got back I’ve opened a whole can of worms on the other side of my family! So now I have several working documents that I would like to get back to pertaining to my BROOKS line:

• Christopher BROOKS- I have updated my files with the information I got from the Kingston Parish Records of Gloucester Co., VA; including information on the FLIPPIN family.
• I have yet to review the pdf file on Jonathan BROOKS, the supposed progenitor of Christopher, via Thomas Brooks, that was sent to me by a Holderness family researcher, Kay Haden.
• I copied all the WILLIAMS family estate and will records from the archives and still have yet to review and transcribe them. - Update: Estate records of Elizabeth Williams (1) and (2) were transcribed and posted to the blog here
• I had some ongoing communication with fellow researchers of the Jeremiah Brooks family; Their Jeremiah Brooks settled in Person Co., NC. I learned some interesting things from these posts on the Brooks family ancestry.com board.

RIDDLE family researchers List

I searched for “Riddle” in the Laurens Co., SC mailing list archives and contaced the following researchers in June 2007:

Robin Franks – great great grandchild of Martha Carolina Riddle (Mattie), who was born June 22, 1854 and died 6 Feb 1915. Martha Riddle married Mills Todd. Robin posted a query in 1998 about the ancestry of Martha Riddle. Donald Tucker posted the ancestry of Martha Caroline Riddle (Landrum, William, John) here. Robin, in turn, posted his descendancy chart here. However, I had a hard time reading the information because the generations are not numbered. I emailed Robin for clarification on the people he mentioned. I finally got a response from him in email Sept 2007.

Donald J. Tucker – not sure how he is descended from the Riddle family, however he has posted that he has a lot of information on the Riddle family of Laurens Co., SC. He also posted that researchers have been searching for the parents of John Riddle for 15 plus years and still there is no more information. He also posted ancestry information for Martha Caroline Riddle (Landrum, William, John) here.

Don sent me a genealogy report for John Riddle of Laurens Co., SC. John Riddle was the oldest Riddle in the county, so most Laurens Co., SC Riddles have been linked to him. To Do: Review and input data from Don’s report re: John and Mary Higgins Riddle.

Bruce Smith - Bruce did not post specific messages about the Riddle family, however, in his list of surnames, he has the Riddle name listed. I emailed himon 6/4 to see what his Riddle connection was. I emailed him again on 6/15 with my Riddle connection and my Smith family information as well. He was looking for Smith connection in South Carolina. I believe now that my Smiths are from TN.

Carolyn Singer - the granddaughter of Greenlee Riddle’s sister, Emma Lou Riddle. Emma Lou Riddle married Martin Singer and their family removed to California.  Carolyn and I corresponded via email back in June 2007. She has information on Permecy Moore, Greenlee’s mother. She sent me information in the mail back in 07.

Jeri Borders – great great grandchild of Marion Frank Riddle, Greenlee’s brother. Shared a wealth of information. Lives in OK.

Robbie Beth Wilson – also great great grandchild of Marion Frank Riddle, Greenlee’s brother. Shared pictures both new and old. Lives in OK I believe.

RIDDLE family, Laurens Co., SC

Yesterday I stayed home from work while recovering from a cold / flu that was passed around my family during our family vacation last week in GA. While I was on vacation, I scanned a bunch of my grandfather’s old family photos. I found the photo of the Riddle family and posted that online for folks to look at. Although I didn’t get much response (The Riddle family mailing list is not currently active), I did spend the day looking through census reports for the Riddle family in Laurens Co., SC. I noticed that we did not have very much information on the Riddle family and I wanted to fill in the gaps.

The oldest Riddle family member that I located in Laurens Co., SC was John Riddle. He was enumerated on the 1800 Laurens Co., SC census report and supposedly married to a Mary Higgins. There were two other Riddle men, William Riddle, who married Levy Cheek; and James Riddle who married Lydia; These two men are thought to be sons of John and Mary Riddle, however they are not in John’s will, presumably because they were older and probably had already received their share of John’s personal property.

William and Levy Cheek Riddle had a son, William Marion Riddle, b. 23 Feb 1836 in Laurens Co., SC. William Marion Riddle married Pernecy Moore and they had a son named Greenlee Riddle, born in 1873 in Laurens Co., SC. I found census reports for Greenlee from 1900-1920 and I lost him in 1930.

I’ve made contact with two other Riddle researchers and have been able to share information on my Riddle family via emails this week. One researcher shared information on the family of William Marion Riddle (1836) with me. This researcher is a descendant of William Marion Riddle’s son, Marion Frank Riddle (younger brother to my Greenlee Riddle). I sent him my descendancy report on 6/5/07.

Here is a brief History of Laurens Co., SC:

South Carolina was first formed in 1682 as “proprietary colonies” of Berkeley, Colleton, and Craven.
In 1769, 6 or 7 “Districts” were formed including the 96th District on the North Western corner of the state.
In 1785, 34 “counties” were established within these districts
In 1800, The “districts” of Washington, 96th, Pickney, Camden, and Cheraws were abolished and the existing 34 counties renamed to “Districts” in their place.
In 1868, The “districts” were reassigned as “Counties”