Ella's Three Babies, Lost So Soon

Research Report, the As It Is Series

This series was begun over at Reflections From the Fence (at Blogger).

This purpose of the series of posts, is to post in an efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors. This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report. It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments. As I add years to my existence here on Mother Earth, I hope to add more such posts, hoping that this format lasts long past when I have started pushing daisies. Leaving a record.

Let’s begin - -

Meet - - Ella Cleora Rawls Darden, 1853 - 1916, a nicely filled in version.

A quick review - - research on her parents, ongoing, siblings, have not begun. Research on her husband, ongoing. Research on his parents and siblings, ongoing. I need to write about all of this - - later - - for now - - the focus is on her three babies, lost so soon.

This story started here, several months ago, as I frequently do (much to my own embarrassment) I was researching, scrolling, darting in and out of data bases, research sites, recording, darting off to another web browser tab, leaving orphan browsers in abundance on the two computers I use daily. Not much here, is there?

Eventually the open browser tabs re-grab my attention and I force myself to concentrate, stay focused, do the work.

This time I stuck it out for good. Well, cept, as we all know, the work is never done when there are questions and missing documents, newspapers articles to yet be discovered. But, I did fill in holes.

Along the way, digging, reviewing, starting over, I found that Ella had 8 children per the 1900 census enumeration, 5 surviving:

Ella C Darden
in the 1900 United States Federal Census
Name:Ella C Darden
Age:46
Birth Date:Jul 1853
Birthplace:Virginia
Home in 1900:Holy Neck, Nansemond, Virginia
Race:White
Gender:Female
Relation to Head of House:Head
Marital Status:Widowed
Father's Birthplace:Virginia
Mother's Birthplace:Virginia
Mother: number of living children:5
Mother: How many children:8
Occupation:View on Image
Household Members: Name Age
Ella C Darden 46  widow,  8 children, 5 survive
Inez I Darden 18  daughter
William W Darden 16  son
David W Darden 16  son
Julius R Darden 13  son

This review/discovery is when I started focusing all my work on those 3 children who did not survive. I found some hints at Find A Grave, others I fell into via family trees at Ancestry dot com, others, frankly, I fell off a cliff and found them. So, today, I bring you the three babies, lost so soon.

First, is William W. Darden, 1878 - 1880.

His bio notes do include birth and death information, and no more:

W W Darden
in the Virginia, U.S., Birth Registers, 1853-1911
Name	W W Darden
Gender	Male
Race	White
Birth Date	31 Mar 1878
Birth Place	Mason Cove, Nansemond, Virginia, USA
Father	Mills T Darden
Mother	Ella C Darden

William H. Dardan
in the Virginia, U.S., Death Registers, 1853-1911
Name	William H. Dardan
Gender	Male
Race	White
Age	1
Birth Date	abt 1879
Death Date	29 Feb 1880
Death Place	Nansemond, Virginia, USA
Cause of Death	Measles
Parent 1	Ella C. Dardan
Parent 2	Mille T. Dardan

William does have a Find A Grave presence, at memorial # 45198988. At this moment of my writing this post it has two photos, links to his parents and 5 of his siblings.

Next meet - - Mills Thomas Darden, Jr., 1888 - 1894.

His bio has no information, I have been unable to locate any birth or death records. I did a manual search of the Norfolk Virginian paper, published in Norfolk, Virginia through October 19th and found nothing. Search for Suffolk papers, continues.

Mills, Jr., has a Find A Grave presence at memorial # 45198917. Like his brother’s memorial, there are two photos, and links to his parents and 5 siblings.

Next meet - - Emma Irine Irene Darden, 1890 - 1892

As her sibling Mills, Jr., Emma has no bio on my data base, other than notations of the newspaper from Norfolk that I have manually read, page by page, column by column, from August 31 through September 7th. As with brother Mills, Jr., a search for Suffolk papers continues.

I did learn that there was a cholera epidemic around the world being reported during the time frame of Emma’s passing, it was in several of the papers, front page. Yes, I did a net dive. Search parameters were 1892, and cholera and epidemic. You can learn more, if you are so inclined. That Wiki. Pedia. place has an article titled, “1881–1896 cholera pandemic”. You know, if you are so inclined. (No links, I abhor links, they expire, see my disclaimers below my signature line.) No, I am not suggesting that Emma died of cholera. Just an interesting historical factoid I learned along the way.

Emma, also, has a Find A Grave memorial # 45198843. As I write this post there are 2 photos on the memorial, no links to any family members. I have submitted an edit request to link her to her parents.

Here are a few disclaimers. I have not found obituaries, death notices, birth or death records for Mills, Jr. and Emma. That makes the case of their parentage weaker. However, if we look closely at the Find A Grave photos on their memorials as well as that of their elder sibling, William, we note that the 3 headstones are remarkably similar, and that the second photo on each memorial is exactly the same, taken by the same volunteer, posted on the same day. It is sad, but sometimes, the photos are all we have.

(For the record, I have also submitted a request to link sibling James Ryland Darden to his parents.)

Carol

* Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors.  I pay for subscriptions, full price.

** My judgements may or may not be correct.  Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

*** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink.  Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs.  As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed.  If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me.

**** Images may be digitally edited to fit my data base and for my ease of viewing, originals, are in most cases, maintained in an archival folder on my computer.