Bascum Stanford and Hettie Brewer Lawrence

A call about one of my very distant relatives this morning, prompted me to research what I could find out about them on familysearch, to document my sources. I have long been a "collector" of names, but have not been too picky about proving the "facts" I found, or documenting the sources. The new FamilySearch.org makes it so easy to document your sources (and with Rootsweb, I can transfer sources from FamilySearch straight to Rootsweb), that I have now become obsessed with finding whatever records I can on FamilySearch, and Find-a-Grave.com, and documenting things.

The name I was exploring was Bascombe Stanford Lawrence. At least that was the way I thought it was spelled. This man was one of the sons of Alice Priscella Yow Lawrence, who was one of the daughters of Enoch Spinks Yow, my great-great-great grandfather.

I looked for sources on FamilySearch, and found several for him, but not as many as I would have liked.

I found him in the 1900 census as a child (Bascom Lawrence):

the 1930 census (as Bascom S. Lawrence):

and the 1940 census (as B.S. Lawrence):

In the 1930 and 1940 censuses, his wife was listed as Lenora, and he had 2 children.

Then I found a 1917 WWI Draft Registration Card.

On the draft registration, his name was spelled "Bascum" instead of Bascom. At the bottom, he signed that everything on the card was true, which makes me wonder if that's how he really spelled his first name, or if he didn't notice the misspelling. It's spelled that way on his gravestone, too, so I've decided to re-spell his name in my genealogy program. On the draft card, Bascum mentions having a wife and three children to support. This was interesting, because in the records I had found previously on this family, only two children were listed.

Then the tragedy started. I found a death record for Wilbur Lawrence, son of "Boocum Lawrence" (someone's really bad handwriting or bad misspelling) and Hettie Brewer Lawrence. Wilbur passed away on April 16, 1918 at the age of nearly 2 years, from "dilated heart (blue baby)."

The next thing I found was almost too tragic to imagine. Infant Lawrence, born to "Boscom Lawrence" and Hettie Brewer Lawrence, was born on April 16, 1918. I can't find a death record for this baby, but the lack of a name leads me to believe that he died the same day or soon thereafter. Which means that Bascum and Hettie Lawrence lost not one, but two children on the same day.

I can't imagine how sad this would be. But the tragedy continued. Exactly one year later, Hettie Brewer Lawrence passed away.

Whoever the friend is who wrote this obituary, they were a terrible name speller (they even list the deceased as "Nettie"). Of course, it could have been the typesetter at the newspaper who made the misspellings, too.

She was buried in the Hope Methodist Church Cemetery, in Bonlee, Chatham County, North Carolina, where they were living at the time.

Bascum and Hettie's two living children, Mollie Alice Louise (called Louise) and James Leighton (called Leighton) were 8 and 5 when they lost their mother.

Bascum remarried at some point, to Lenora Mattie Bray, who was 9 years older than him.

Bascum passed away in 1953. Lenora passed away in 1967.

Bascum and Lenora are buried in Whynot Cemetery, in Seagrove, Randolph County, North Carolina.

Sources: www.familysearch.org, www.findagrave.com