Sunday, June 23, 2013

Happy birthday Catharine Clack Rogers, June,1778

Catharine Clack Rogers b. June 23.1778 in Virginia d. 10.30 1850 Sevier County, TN

married to Rev. Elijah Rogers in 1794 (b. May 1774 Farquier County, VA d. 5.11.1841 Sevier County, TN)  His birthday post was in May HERE.

SOURCE: Rogers Family Bible, as transcribed by George Elmore Rogers, Sr. in 1950s. (My grandfather may have mis-spelled her name, as he's the only source that spells Catharine with the second "a".)

I'm learning the ins-and-outs of research.  But the Family Bible was also poorly organized.  Have you ever seen one?  There's a listing of Births.  There's a listing of Deaths.  There's a listing of Marriages.  They often have the same names, and you have to figure out which one was married and put it after they were born and before they died!  I'm transcribing the actual posting in the Rogers Bible for each person as I can get to it.

Catherine Clack Rogers' mother was Mary Beavers Clack (name may have been de Beauvior, Beavier, or Beauville, changed during French & Indian war) born 1.12.1745 in New Jersey, d. after 1832

Catharine Clack's father was Lt. Spencer Clack born 3.28.1746 in Loudon County.VA, d. 7.9.1832 Sevier County, TN. Also from Franklin, Henry & Brunswick Counties, VA and Sevier County, TN. He trained in surveying and military tactics under Gen. George Washington who sponsored him when he joined the Masons.  Representative and Senator from Sevier County from 1796-1832.  Member of committee who drafted State constitution of Tennessee.

Her father (and Henry Rogers, her father-in-law) were thus veterans of the American Revolution.

The further reaches of the branches of the Rogers Family Tree, before those in the Rogers Family Bible were probably completed by a professional genealogist. I have yet to have some connections explained adequately to me, so I continue to look for what are called "Primary sources" like family Bibles, cemetery records, obituaries, church records, census records, etc.

In 1935 an application for Sons of the American Revolution also published connections that I can't find to substantiate relationships.  I am beginning to think there were a lot more folks named Rogers who had these various children than just the ones in my tree.

It is noteworthy here, when talking about records that may not be accurate, to say how nobody is probably falsifying information on purpose.  But the inaccurate records (for instance on Ancestry.com) are often used as research materials.  As these are records that are typed into forms by many different descendents, there are sometimes typos, or differing opinions on dates.  I am also glad to find more accurate information of other web sites where cemetery records confirm birth and death dates of some ancestors (like Find A Grave. com)

An important thing to consider in a woman's life, is her being a mother.  Catharine Rogers had three children who lived to be married, according to the Rogers Family Bible.

Other sources give her another daughter who was the great grandmother to an author in Sevierville, TN who provided some of my research, namely Mr. J. A. Sharp.  A historical library in Tennessee had microfilm copies of his writing, which was very interested in Elijah and Catharine Rogers.  I took notes from the microfilm in 1993.

Mr. Sharp had also written to my grandfather, saying that his own grandson then lived on the land of the Rogers original homestead in Sevierville.  I don't know how much of the Sharp publication is fact and how much anecdotal, but it is very interesting.  He added a child to Catharine's family that wasn't in the Rogers Bible.  But it is perhaps possible that the people who moved to Texas and started keeping the Bible didn't remember details about this daughter, just the details of themselves, and somehow forgot to include her.  Mmm, what a strange thing genealogical research is.


 
Mr. Sharp told the Sevier Historical Society he was Catherine and Elijah's descendent, and he put a lot of effort into commemorating them.  Since he was in Sevierville, TN, and my branch of the Rogers were in Texas, I am really grateful for his efforts.





There is a DAR chapter in Sevierville for Spencer Clack, Catherine's father.  Mr. Sharp was involved in efforts to create the Memorial Cemetery "Forks of the Little Pigeon River," which is next to a state highway, and he applied for a memorial marker for Spencer Clack (see below).



It may have been there when I was asking about the Rogers of Sevierville, (in 1993) but it wasn't well known, and I never visited it.  And the markers are mostly new, not ones from the actual burials.  That bit of information should be included somehow in Find A Grave, where pictures of markers are available.  These markers are all commemorative, not of the actual graves.  At least that's what I now surmise.  Maybe in a few weeks or months I'll know more.  There is a list of internments that Find A Grave has listed...I wonder how they figured that out if the markers were put up in the 70's.

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