Florence Green's Mother

Florence Patience Green was the wife of August Fingleman of Germany, and the daughter of John L. Green. John and Florence were both born in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. We have extensive documentation of the Green family, who arrived in Catahoula Parish shortly after 1800 and later moved to Liberty County, Texas.

Of Florence's mother, we have until recently known very little. I was told very early in my quest for family history that Florence's mother's name was Adeline L. Green, and it was presumed that her maiden name was Adeline Abshier, one of a large number of Abshier's who moved from Louisiana to Liberty County around the same time that John Green and family moved. This turned out not be the case, however.

The 1860 Liberty County census lists John L. Green's wife as "A.L. Green". Her name on the 1880 Refugio County census is difficult to read, but it definitely does not say "Adeline". I deciphered it as "Claudia", and my family tree file recorded this as her name for quite a while. It was wrong.

Then, a few months ago, another descendant of John L. Green contacted me, and told me that John L. Green's wife's name was "Aurelia". Yes, it's clear enough when you know what it says to read it on the 1880 census - "Aurelia A."

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That other Green researcher pointed out that the 1900 Goliad County census shows "Arilia A. Green", mother-in-law, living in the home of Sam Prescott, husband of Aurelia's daughter and Florence's sister, Martha J. Green. Also living in the Prescott household at that time was Aurelia's grandson, Charles Louis Fingleman, son of August Fingleman and Florence Patience Green. Now it began to make sense.

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One mystery that I had pondered for some time was the presence of John L. Green's son, Florence's brother Wood Conrad Green, on both the Refugio County, Texas and Catahoula Parish, Louisiana censuses in 1880. For a while I assumed that these census records indicated there were two men named Wood C. Green in 1880, both born in Texas, both with fathers from Louisiana, both with mothers from Mississippi, and both 21 years old. The occupation of Wood Green in Refugio was listed as "cow herd", and in Louisiana as "stock trader". But these censuses were recorded a little over three weeks apart, in June, 1880. I eventually realized that these two Wood C. Greens were one and the same person, and that Wood had travelled from Refugio to Catahoula Parish between the two dates.

On that 1880 Catahoula Parish census, Wood Green's relationship to the head of household, John Grey, was "nephew". This meant that either John Grey or his wife, Mary. A., was the brother or sister of Wood's mother or father. So which was it?

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Finally I found it. The marriage records of Catahoula Parish show that on March 12, 1851, John Grey married Mary Ann Land. After a little more research I found Mary A. Land in the Catahoula Parish census of 1850, living with her mother and father, Benajah Land and wife Patience. Also in the Land household were daughters Jane and Adeline. Next door lived Mary Ann's future husband John Grey. Four pages and 27 households away on the same census lived John L. Green with his father John Green of Pennsylvania, his mother Barbara (Hooter) Green of Lousiana, and his sisters Nancy and Catharine Green.

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Some of the records indicated Aurelia's middle initial was "A" and others "L". I assumed that one of these letters represented her maiden surname, and the other her maiden given name. This turned out to be correct. John L. Green's wife was born Aurelia Adeline Land. She was known to many people as Adeline, but used her first name Aurelia formally.

John and Aurelia gave her mother's name, Patience, as the middle name of their first child, Florence Patience Green. They also gave her father's odd name, "Benajah", to their second child. Benajah is a biblical name from the Old Testament. Benajah, a soldier of King David, proclaimed Solomon to be King of the Israelites. And John L. Green and wife Aurelia passed this name on from her father to their first son, Ben. Most of the records I have found of Florence's brother Ben show his name as "Ben" or "Benj.". The 1860 Liberty County census, however, records it as "Benaja". This had been one of the many little mysteries I had encountered, this strange spelling of Ben's name on the 1860 census. I had dismissed it as a misspelling, an error that is extremely common in nineteenth century records. Who ever heard of a name like "Benaja"? Now this mystery is solved. "Benajah" was misspelled, but not as badly as I thought at first.

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This is how the pursuit of genealogy works. You struggle for long periods without uncovering any new information. Then you find a clue, pursue it, and if you're lucky, you may unravel several mysteries all at once.