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Innis Family Tree

Liva Caldonia Innis was born 15 Jan 1883 in Clinton County, Kentucky and died 22 Oct 1956 in Whitewright, Grayson, Texas.¹ Liva was married to Alonzo Huston Taylor and was the easiest of the children to locate. Her death record was the first one that came up when I searched for Thomas Innis and she is the Mrs. L. [Lon] H. Taylor who was the informant on her mother’s death certificate.

Her family as I have been able to put it together:

Alonzo Huston Taylor (1879-1936),²
Liva Caldonia Innis Taylor (1883-1956),
William Douglas Taylor (1898-1949),³
Hattie May Taylor Roller (1900-1931),⁴
Ocie Taylor Puryear (1903-1925),
Irene Taylor Whisenhunt (1906-1976),⁵
John Hamilton Taylor (1909-1985).⁶

Okay – I did it – I looked at a family tree because of Ocie. I couldn’t find anything except that Ancestry tree to help me identify a marriage or a date of death. It is important to note here that the information in those trees was not sourced – I found no outside online information that verifies that death date. I checked all the cemeteries in Bryan County and found no grave for Ocie.

In the course of that I noticed looking at the family trees for this family, I found many of the trees for Liva showed an “Infant” born and died 1904. According to the 1910 census Liva listed 5 children born and 5 children living all of whom are accounted for.⁷

I won’t directly pursue these lines any further as I have enough information concerning the children of Thomas H. Innis and Elizabeth N. Davis. Also going any further would bring us into the living generation and our focus is ancestral. When I begin work in Clinton County, Kentucky while looking at the children of John H. and Nancy Innis, I will still keep my eye out for any birth, death, or marriage records that might apply to this generation and I will update them as needed.

1. Texas, death certificate no. 58736 (22 Oct 1956), Liva Caldonia [Innis] Taylor; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 27 Dec 2009).
2. Texas, death certificate no. 73114 (9 Nov 1936), Alonzo Taylor; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 20 Jan 2010).
3. “Texas Death Index, 1903-2000,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 Jan 2010), William D. Taylor, 4 Nov 1949, Cert. #53355.
4. Texas, death certificate no. 7925 (17 Feb 1931), Hattie May Roller; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 20 Jan 2010).
5. 1910 U.S. census, Grayson County, Texas population schedule, Justice Precinct 3, enumeration district (ED) 90, p. 3A, dwelling 45, family 46, L. C. Taylor; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jan 2010); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 1557.
6. Social Security Administration, “Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry (http://www.Ancestry.com : accessed 20 Jan 2010), John Taylor, SSN 455-18-5543.
7. 1910 U.S. census, Grayson County, Texas population schedule, Justice Precinct 3, enumeration district (ED) 90, p. 3A, dwelling 45, family 46, L. C. Taylor; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jan 2010); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 1557.

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Innis Family Tree

While I’m here I’m going to have a look for the rest of the family. I had to search for Elizabeth using her birth date and finally found her indexed as Elizabeth Temis. Her last name on the certificate is pretty messy, but we now have the following information:

Elizabeth Innis, born 26 May 1843, TN, died 13 Feb 1930 Whitewright, Grayson, TX, father: John Davis, mother: unknown, informant Mrs. L. H. Taylor, buried Randolph Cemetery.¹ A mother would have been nice, but I’ll take a father to start!

Chasing the children proved to both easy and frustrating all at once.

Louisa Christine Shelley, born 10 Sep 1864 KY, died 28 Sep 1929 Bells, Grayson, TX parents T.H. Ennis & Elizabeth Dories, informant J. B. Shelley, buried Randolph Cemetery.²

Tabitha Alice Parrigin, b.15 Apr 1874, Clinton Co. KY, d. 13 Apr 1947 Sherman, Grayson, TX, parents Tom Ennis & Elizabeth Davis, informant Virtel Parigin, buried Whitewright TX.³

John H. Innis, b. 6 Sep 1872, KY, d. 13 Nov 1918 Yowell, Dallas, TX, Father John Innis, KY, informant Mr. J.H. Innis, buried Shiloh Cemetery.⁴ While this certificate lists a father of John, I’m fairly confident that it is actually the son of Thomas H. and Elizabeth, but until I can check the other John’s this will remain a “highly probable.”

I was looking for Minerva and put in her name as Minerva Innis and found a death certificate for her daughter Tommie Alta Howlett, which listed a father of William Guyam Parrigin.⁵ I didn’t find Minerva’s record, but when I looked for William G. Parrigin I found him listed as a parent for William H. Parrigin with a mother listed as Catherine Innis, but I found no death certificate for a Catherine Parrigin either.

Looking for Mary T. Innis I found a death certificate for Eula J. Shelley with parents of J. W. Shelley and Mary Innis born in 1885 in Kentucky, but no death certificate for Mary herself.⁶ I believe J. W. will probably be the brother of the Shelley that Louisa Christina is married to.

In summary you have to be very creative in your searches. Try searching by first name, middle name, initials, and alternate spellings of each of the names. The other thing is to use the advanced search function and try searching the death records by a birth date. Try every field, try every option!

Thank you to all those hard working indexers for FamilySearch!

I’m going back to the census records to look at some of these new names and create family groups. Once I have done that I will come back to the Texas Death Records and search for the spouses and children. Perhaps I will find more clues along the way to help with the missing children. With the names I have I’ll also be checking local cemeteries to try to find more information.

1. Texas, death certificate no. 8220 (13 Feb 1930), Elizabeth [Davis] Innis; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 19 Jan 2010).
2. Texas, death certificate no. 44673 (28 Sep 1929), Louise Christine [Innis] Shelley; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 19 Jan 2010).
3. Texas, death certificate no. 16530 (13 Apr 1947), Tabitha Alice [Ennis] Parrigin; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 19 Jan 2010).
4. Texas, death certificate no. 48857 (13 Nov 1918), John H. Innis; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 14 Jan 2010).
5. Texas, death certificate no. 53397 (30 Aug 1965), Tommie Alta [Parrigin] Howlett; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 16 Jan 2010).
6. Texas, death certificate no. 2204 (1953), Eula J. Shelley; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Death, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 19 Jan 2010).

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Innis Family Tree

It’s time to take a short break from Ancestry and I have heard from friends that the Texas Death Certificates are online, so that’s where I’m going to start. If you are not checking out the new records being posted on FamilySearch – now is the time. Once on the site, mouse over Search Records and select Record Search Pilot from the drop down menu. Below the fill in blocks you will see a magnifying glass with Browse our record collection and select it. Click on Canada, USA and Mexico and all the available collections for North America come up. Texas Death Index 1964-1998 with no images or Texas Deaths, 1890-1976 are the two options – I headed for 1890–1976 because I want images.

I put in Thomas Innis and was rewarded with a couple entries. Thomas Ballard’s information is on the first screen when you select it – this includes his parents.¹ Selecting the image in the upper right corner was even more rewarding. It is the full death certificate and I also notice that while the Record Details list his father as Thomas W., the actual image sure that looks like an H., and his mother is listed as L.W. Davis, it looks to me like E.N. Since I know from the census records that her name was Elizabeth it becomes pretty easy to see. You can save or print the image for your files.

I went to the second available record and it is for Tom Innis as the father of the deceased female Liva Caldonia Taylor.² She is born in Kentucky in 1883 and her father is Tom Innis of Kentucky. My best guess based on age is that she is probably the daughter of Thomas H. Innis and is the seventh child that I had previously listed as unknown.

As we have just seen, FamilySearch has indexed the records based on the names of the deceased and on parent’s names. This opens up a lot of research possibilities, so I promptly changed my search to a last name of Innis with no other information and had 105 hits. This includes people with the name McInnis that were indexed with a space between the Mc and Innis. It also included the surname of Dennis. I backed up and added Thomas as a first name and had five. The Tom Innis father of Liva Caldonia Taylor, and also the Thomas W. listed as the father of Thomas B. that we discussed and a Mc Innis. But there is also the record for Thomas H. Innis who is the father of Thomas B.³

This is a report of death by a doctor so it’s not as helpful as a full death certificate, but I can’t complain. His date of death, 8 February 1908, and cause of death is clearly noted and we know where he died and his age in years and dates. Using my favorite Tombstone Birthday Calculator I now know his date of birth was 22 January 1843. Not a bad haul for less than five minutes of work.

1. Texas, death certificate no. 11162 (29 Jun 1910), Thomas Ballard Innis; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 19 Jan 2010).
2. Texas, death certificate no. 58736 (22 Oct 1956), Liva Caldonia [Innis] Taylor; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 19 Jan 2010).
3.Texas, Doctor’s Report of Death no. 28537 (8 Feb 1908), Thomas H. Innis; digital image, FamilySearch, “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 27 Dec 2009).

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