Julia, oh Julia

I found Julia Ownbey Searcy, FINALLY! 🥳

Okay, those folks at FamilySearch.org get total credit for this one. I truly thank the good Lord for the people who tirelessly go through and input all those old-timey records for us regular folks to use in our family research. Without them, we'd probably never find half of what we're looking for!

Anyway, let me tell you what I know now about Grandma Julia.

After Taylor was allegedly "killed" sometime between 1904 and Julia's remarriage in 1909, I had speculated that maybe she went back home to her parents. But nope—she remarried.

Julia married a gentleman by the name of Adolphus Brown, who was nearly 30 years older than she was. Julia became Julia Searcy Brown. They had three more children together: Dan, Lula, and Wilbert.

I haven't been able to find much on the boys, but I did find a little information on Lula. I also have a theory that Dan may have actually been Taylor's son because I've found him listed as both a Searcy and a Brown. That's just my theory, though.

On a few records, I noticed that Dan and Lula had the Searcy surname. Now, I don't know if these children were born out of wedlock and later took the Brown name, or if the transcriber simply assumed they were Searcy children.  

This means Floyd and his brothers had siblings who were much younger than they were.

Fast forward to 1918. Adolphus dies, leaving Julia with five minor children to raise. I'm almost positive Floyd and Andy helped their mother take care of the younger ones. I'm not sure whether Julia was left with land or a house because I've never found any evidence of a will. I'm not even sure if all of them eventually moved into one of her older children's homes.

In the 1920 census, Julia was living with her son Floyd (head of the house), Joe, Dan, and Lula. Luther and his wife lived next door in Buncombe County. I am unsure where Wilbert was living at this time because he is not listed in either household.

In the 1930 census, she was living with Luther and his family. Again, Wilbert is nowhere near his mother. Floyd and his family were living nearby, as well as his mother-in-law Malinda Jones and sons Sam and Albert, along with her mother Harriet.

I do know that she was still alive in the 1940 census and living in Limestone, Buncombe County, NC. She was living close to her older children, especially Floyd, his wife Maggie, and their children. I'm guessing that by this point, most of Julia's children were living pretty close to one another.

In the 1940 census, Julia was about 70 years old.  

On April 4, 1920, Julia married a man named James "Jim" Henderson (1867-1953). 

I do not know the circumstances in which they were acquainted, and Limestone being a very small town, it is likely they knew of each other.

So now she was Julia Searcy Brown Henderson.

No wonder I couldn't find any more records for her! Women are SO hard to track down sometimes.  

So, this is what we know thus far:

Taylor was allegedly killed in a logging accident, although I still don't know exactly where or what year, or even if that story is true.

Julia was left with four young sons to raise and apparently couldn't afford to raise them alone. She married a much older man, Adolphus Brown, and they had three more children. Adolphus died in 1918, leaving Julia to raise young children on her own again.

Sometime later, she married for a third time to James "Jim" Henderson.

And finally, after all of this, Julia passed away in 1957 from cervical cancer.

There are still a LOT of questions here, but at least I finally found Grandma Julia! And honestly, every time I knock down one little piece of this family mystery, it just makes me want to dig even deeper.