DUKE-FAMILY-L Archives

From: "Tony Cox" <>
Subject: DUKE/FOSTER: New book containing info on Burge/Ford descendants
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 20:29:52 -0500

Sidney Tatom has nearly finished Volume I of a book on the
Ford Family of Fairfield County, SC. Chapter 13 is about
Elizabeth Ford and her descendants. Elizabeth Ford was the
mother of Nancy Burge. -- Tony

+++Scanned Copy of the Letter from Sidney Tatom+++
+++Converted to Text for this List++++++++++++++++

Ms Sidney Ford Tatom
2165 Rio De Janeiro Avenue
Punta Gorda, FL 33983
tel. 941-764-1343


August 11, 2001

Dear Cousins and Friends,

Some of you know me quite well - others do not know me at
all. Some of you are first cousins or the children of first
cousins. With others, our relationship begins with our Civil
War ancestors- but with most of you, we connect through our
Revolutionary War era ancestors! Since the degrees of our
kinship are so complicated and remote, one cousin wisely
advises, "Let's just say we are kissing cousins"'. What we
share is our interest in our Ford ancestors.

I'm writing to tell you that, I hope to, have Vol. I of my
book, THE FORDS OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, A
DOCUMENTARY HISTORY in the hands of the publisher, Anundsen
Publishing Company of Decorah, Iowa, by the end of the year.
I want to tell all of you something about the book- how it
came to be, what has been involved in putting it together,
what it contains- and what it doesn't- and what my plans are
for Vol. 11.

I grew up knowing very little about the Fords preceding my
Grandfather, Elchanah Gardner Ford, M.D. of Troy, Alabama
(1841-1922). My father, Julian Clifford Ford, M.D. of
Luverne, Alabama (1876-1960), discouraged my poking around
in the past lest I rattle a skeleton or two- or uncover a
long buried scandal. Of course, this warning only stimulated
my curiosity, though I did no exploring for many years,
being involved with other things. In 1982, while on a
business trip to Lakeland, Florida, on impulse I stopped at
the fine, though small, Polk County Genealogical and
Historical Library- located in a ramshackle old house in
Bartow. I had a few names to offer to the librarian- nothing
more- and intuitively, she decided that the families must
have come from South Carolina. Soon she had located my
great-great grandfather Elkanah Sawyer in Edgefield County
and a Gardner Ford in Fairfield County. (This Gardner was
not who he initially appeared to be and soon became a
problem.) With these scant bits of information from Bartow
my genealogical career was launched. I wrote close cousins
for any information they might have and soon departed on the
first of many trips to South Carolina.

At first- in the 1980s- I was completely overwhelmed in the
SC Archives by the volume of Ford material (mostly scattered
and disorganized) and my inability to sort out the different
Fords. (Little did I know what lay ahead- their descendants
were to turn into a great horde!) In the beginning I was
still under the impression that Gardner Ford, Sr. of
Fairfield County was my ancestor, but none of the data fit
properly. Later, Ruth Stevenson and her sister, Sarah
Bolick, (both deceased) who managed the old Winnsboro
Historical Museum (now the Fairfield Genealogy Room)
provided immeasurable ongoing help with my research. It
turned out that Ruth and Sarah were kin. Our mutual ancestor
was Nathaniel Ford, Sr. (brother of Gardner Ford, Sr.). They
were descendants of Nathaniel's son John, and 1, a
descendant of Nathaniel's son Gardner (II). (To the
bewilderment and bedevilment of beginning Ford researchers,
there was yet a third Gardner- Gardner L. Ford, son of
Gardner, Sr.- and the name Gardner has been carried down in
my family.)

Over the ensuing years I've made many additional trips to
South Carolina and have spent endless hours in the SC
archives poring over a variety of books and microfilm and
copying and later transcribing old documents. I've also
collected material in old courthouses- in Crenshaw, Pike,
Barbour, and Coosa County, Alabama and in Carroll and
Yalobusba County, Mississippi. I've worked in the Alabama
and Georgia State Archives and in the genealogy section of
public libraries- Macon, Georgia, Fort Myers, Tampa and
Orlando, Florida, and Troy and Eufaula Alabama as well as
the South Caroliniana Library of the University of South
Carolina. I've attended Ford family reunions and have
tramped through many old cemeteries photographing
gravestones.

I haven't used any LDS material. I ran into some problems in
local LDS libraries that turned me off. Since I've done
thorough on site searches in the counties and states of
interest, I doubt that the Mormons have much- if anything-
of significance that I don't have on our Fords.

What I collected from various repositories has included
Revolutionary and Civil War records, land grants, deeds,
wills, estate settlements, lawsuits, census records, any
marriage/ occasionally divorce/ death records available,
newspaper articles- in short, anything in public record I
could lay my, hands on. The Fords fortunately left abundant
records. Especially fascinating are the numerous lawsuits in
which they were embroiled.

Not only have I worked with archival material but also with
personal information contributed by numerous Ford
descendants. I've received family charts, wonderful family
histories, personal sketches and memoirs, pictures, old
letters, and other family documents. All of you have been
generous with your contributions.

Since I started my genealogy before the advent of the
Internet, most of my personal contacts with cousins were
made through referrals from other Ford researchers via the
US Mail or telephone. I discovered that each of us Ford
descendants had bits and pieces of Ford information but no
one could provide a coherent or comprehensive picture of the
Fords of Fairfield County. Most of us were storing our
research in file cases (later computers) where it was doing
nobody any good. Often the fate of such collections is the
trash can after one departs this life. Children may have no
interest in preserving musty old papers. It would be a
crying shame if this wealth of Ford material were lost!

In 1994 1 retired and began working on my Ford collection in
earnest. I purchased and learned to use my first computer.
In 1997 1 met Leo Loviza- then residing in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. Leo was a descendant of Gardner Ford, Sr. (through
Dorrell Ford) and an excellent researcher. After we shared
information for a while, I proposed that we pull all of the
scattered Ford data together and write a book. Leo agreed,
and we worked together closely for the next four years. Leo
later moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, and was able to do
important courthouse research in Franklin County,
Mississippi (on Hezekiah Ford, Sr., brother of Nathaniel,
Sr. and Gardner, Sr.), and Choctaw County, Alabama (on the
descendants of James and Keziah Ford- husband and wife who
were son and daughter respectively of Nathaniel Sr. and
Gardner, Sr.). Leo had also done work in Salt Lake City as
well as the Dallas Public Library. He was an expert in
teasing out necessary data from the most unlikely and
troublesome sources. My interest has been in the text of old
documents. Together we were a great team.

To my great disappointment, Leo became seriously ill in
summer of 2000 and died in January, 2001. This was a
terrible loss for his family, for me, for all of the Ford
cousins, and for our big project.

Immediately I had to make a decision about what to do next,
since Leo had not provided me with his final summation on
the Gardner Ford, Sr. lines. THE BOOK, in January, 2001,
already contained 11 chapters on the descendants of
Nathaniel Ford, Sr. plus one chapter on Elizabeth Ford Burge
and was approaching 300 pages in length. I decided to split
the project in half and publish what I've completed to date.
As soon as Vol. I is in the hands of the publisher, I'll
start Vol. II, which will contain Leo's research on the
Gardner Ford lines, chapters on Keziah Ford Peay's
descendants, and a chapter on the elusive Hezekiah Ford, Sr.
Leo's son Michael Loviza has kindly agreed to lend me his
father's notes (35 pounds of data). All of the Gardner Ford,
Sr. descendants have also agreed to help me, since this is
not my area of expertise. I am committed to publishing Leo's
work.

Also, I've become fascinated with Austin Ford Peay, son of
Keziah Ford Peay (sister of Nathaniel, Sr., Gardner, Sr.,
and Hezekiah, Sr.) and want to do him justice in Vol. II.
This gentleman, according to legend, was given a suit of
clothes by his father, Nicholas Peay, and told to go out and
make his own living. (Early 1800s) Austin returned the
clothes and through his own efforts became a SC state
senator and one of the wealthiest men in South Carolina! The
Fairfield County indirect index to deeds lists over 100
purchases of land that he made! I plan to abstract all of
them. All of the Peay wills and estate settlements are
fascinating, as are his Quaker in-laws and his son Nicholas
Adamson Peay.

More problematic, and requiring more research, is Hezekiah
Ford, Sr., who went to Franklin County, Mississippi, in
1804. The Franklin County courthouse burned, so we are
dealing with scraps of information. Only a few weeks ago I
accidentally discovered his one son in Louisiana- which
opens a new domain to explore. Maybe I'll get lucky!

If I had attempted to add all of the Gardner Ford, Sr.,
Hezekiah Ford, Sr., and Keziah Ford Peay material to what I
have completed, publication would have been delayed for
another year or more, and the book would have been 500-600
pages long- too expensive to print and unlikely to sell.
This way the project becomes manageable for me and
affordable for all since two volumes will be spread out over
a year or two.

Volume I contains not only family charts but also all of the
other information I've mentioned above. I reproduce wills
and estate settlements as well as letters and most personal
family histories in full. I've abstracted deeds. Everything
is
presented in chronological order so that by following public
record we can trace our ancestors through time. If you will
read each of these documents carefully, you will get a good
sense of what our ancestors were like. I've relied heavily
on the L.M. Ford FORD FAMILY HISTORY (written in 1904) for
guidance with the earliest family groups but have backed up
everything he says with census records or other legal
documents. (L.M. is about 95% accurate.) I've written or
reproduced as much Civil War material as I could find. (What
happened to the South Carolina Fords in the path of
Sherman's troops was very ugly.)

It was impossible to provide complete family charts of all
descendants of Nathaniel Ford, Sr. down to the present.
When living descendants came forward and contributed charts
there was no problem. However, when there was no one to
help, I stopped with the 1880 census (or earlier). In the
unfortunate census gap between 1880 and 1900 children
married (daughters assuming new names), composition of
households changed, and families moved. Without guidance I
could not proceed with those families. The beauty of THE
BOOK is that any of these lost relatives can connect to the
family in 1880 and can go back to old Nathaniel with clear
documentation.

The chapter titles are:

I. Overview
II. Nathaniel Ford, Sr.
III. John Ford
IV. Gardner Ford (II)
V. James Ford and Keziah Ford (first cousins)
Vl. Nathaniel Ford, Jr. and Keziah Ford Guntharp
Vll. John Long Ford, Sr. and William Boyd Ford
Vlll. John Long Ford, Jr., Riley McMaster Ford,
Moultrie Judson Ford, and Alice Ford Hollis
IX. Aaron Ford and Robert Ford
X. Wyatt Nathaniel Ford, Bartlett Hilliard Ford, and
William Riley Eugene Ford
XI. Hezekiah Ford II and Keziah Ford Burge Ford
(first cousins)
Xll. Annie Ford Ford, Mary Ford Armstrong, Sarah Ford
Nettles/Crumpton/DeLashnitt, Elsie Ford Yongue, and Martha
Ford Coleman (Annie Ford married her first cousin Gardner L.
Ford)
XIII. Elizabeth Ford Burge

The last chapter is at this time in the hands of Burge
researcher/cousin Tony Cox, of Coweta, Oklahoma, for proof
reading and correction. Tony has provided immeasurable help
with this difficult chapter. As soon as Chapter 13 is
finalized, I will index the book and mail it to the
publisher. I hope the indexing program on my computer
behaves as advertised!

As you will see, I have not attempted to dip into "The Black
Hole of Virginia" to try to identify the parents of the five
Fords of Fairfield County. My efforts to date have been
futile, and discussion of my work and correspondence with
Virginia Fords is beyond the scope of this book.

What I need now is an indication of how many books I should
plan to order. If you would send me an e-mail or card or
note saying yes or no and how many, it would be most
helpful. I hope that if the older cousins have several
children that you would consider giving each child a copy as
a gift. The more copies we are able to order, the lower the
price will be. This is a straw poll to enable me to
negotiate with the publisher. I hope that the price per book
will be around $30, more or less, plus mailing costs. (This
is about the same cost as a good hardback from Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble.) An order form will be sent later.

I would also appreciate your sharing this information with
other interested relatives, friends, and libraries. I would
like to have a wide distribution of this material for the
benefit of other Ford researchers.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Cordially,
[signed] Sidney

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• DUKE/FOSTER: New book containing info on Burge/Ford descendants by "Tony Cox" <>