Carr Family Mystery 

I have been playing around a bit with my genealogy on FamilySearch.org.  It has been extremely interesting, but I have a mystery or two.  Truth be told I have several things in the public records that have left holes in my understanding of the genealogy.

My great grandfather is Robert Anderson Carr, the father of Thomas Henry Carr, who is the father of my mother. He was interesting in himself, as he seemed to have moved a bunch when moving around was a big chore.  He was born in Tennessee… I believe to a John Carr and Louisa Jane Carr.  I am not sure they are the right parents and the tree ends there.  John was from North Carolina and Louisa from Tennessee. They married in Wayne, North Carolina. The three, John Carr, Louisa J. Carr and Robert A. Carr are probably found in the 1870 US Census living in Georgia.  Robert went on to marry an Alabama girl, Mahala (Mahalia) Weaver and they had their first child in Alabama.  Robert A. is next found in Pope County, AR.

John Carr was 40 years plus older than Louisa, but I cannot find an earlier marriage for him.  Strangely enough, the document “ratifying” their marriage was a document used to legitimize the marriage of former slaves or people of color or mixed blood, definitely a mystery there.

Mahala died at 18, probably due to childbirth, but there is no record of that.  The birth year of her second child matches her death year.

Robert went on to marry a second time to Nancy Caroline Treadwell and they had a passel of kids together.

My mystery is what happened to his first two children with Mahala. They are Lourindia Carr born in 1878 and Dora Leon Carr born in 1881.  Lourindia can be found on the 1880 US Census in Pope County, AR with Robert Anderson Carr.  Then the two girls disappear until marriage certificates are found.  I would assume they lived with Robert and Nancy, but there is no record.  Part of the issue is the 1890 US Census was destroyed by fire before microfilm or digitization.

There must have been a decent relationship there as Lourindia had six kids.  She named one son Robert and another Anderson.  I wonder what her husband did as they moved all over Oklahoma. Her sister Dora was more settled, having 8 children and living her whole life in Arkansas, specifically Pope County.

Just as an aside:  You should check out FamilySearch.org.  It is a genealogy site ran the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Mormons. But do not let that throw you, it is a well regarded site.  I am concurrently watching an online course on genealogy, and the professor, definitively not a Mormon, frequently refers to it.  AND IT IS FREE.

It differs from Ancestry.com and a lot of the for profit sites as it is a single, collaborative (crowd sourced) family tree, as opposed to everyone building their own trees.

Give it a shot.  You might surprised by what you find.  I know I was which is why I have started referring to myself as Sir David of Snottingham.