Life History
about 1912 |
Born in Ada, Pontotoc, Oklahoma.1,2,3 |
1997 |
Died |
Notes
- 1920 Federal Census, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, 12 February, Ada (Chickasaw Township), District 170, page 9B; Hse #146, Family #140
Samuel R Tatum Head M W 40 Georgia Georgia Georgia Farmer
Mary A Tatum Wife F W 37 Arkansas Unknown Unk
Ona M Tatum Dau F W White 8 Oklahoma Georgia Arkansas
1930 Federal Census, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, [no date], Allen Township, District 9, page 2B, Hse #36, Fam #39
Tatum, Sam R Head Rents M W 50 Married at 19 GA AL GA Farmer
Tatum, May [sic] A Wife F W 47 First married at 17 AR MS AR
Tatum, Onie M Dau F W 18 Single AR GA AR
At least one genealogy has reported that Ona died in California. The superficial details seemed to match, but I found some problems. The following genealogy had this info for Ona, including the missing middle name. They had very little on her, and linked to the California Death Index for the information on her name and death. This indicates her married and death name was Wilkinson.
Ona Magdeline Tatum
Birth 24 Apr 1912 in Arkansas
Death 24 May 1985 in Butte, California
-- Mullinnix, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/35556841/person/18825959666?ssrc=&ftm=1
But there was a big problem that made me doubt the validity of this record. The California Death index helpfully includes the surnames of the father and mother. The surname of the father (and maiden name of the individual) was Tatum. This fits. But the surname (Maiden name) of the mother was Shrader. Here we hit a brick wall. Sam Tatum's wife was Mary Ann Nelson (as reported by this genealogy, also, except under the variant found in a census as Mary Jane Nelson). Further, the genealogy and the Death record both report that this Ona was born in Arkansas, not Oklahoma.
Mary Ann outlived Sam, and we have no indication they divorced and Sam remarried someone named Shrader. As close as this record seems to be, and as much as we would like to include these details of middle name and date and place of death, I can see no way that this record goes with our Ona M Tatum. As close of this name and the birth date are, this is a different Tatum family.
Some quick searching confirmed the doubt, when I found the real parents and family of this Ona Magdaline Tatum. Here is the family information matching Ona Magdeline Tatum Wilkinson from Arkansas.
------------------------
Emma Lou Shrader and John Thomas Tatum were married on November 21, 1909 in Benton, Arkansas.
Children:
Ola Eunett August 27, 1910 December 24, 1982
Ona Magdalene April 24, 1912 May 24, 1985
John Thomas November 5, 1915 November 17, 1993
James Orval December 4, 1921
Barbara Lou November 19, 1924
-- RootsWeb, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tatum/tatum/Tatum%20Archives/HaleyManuscript.html
------------------------
I expect that with this location in Arkansas, if we probe a bit we could find this is a branch of our same Tatum family, but this is not our correct Ona or her nuclear family. Unfortunately, family genealogies are not reconstructed by wishing and hoping and unresearched record-matching.
I found a candidate for a match, but this Leona M Tatum, while born about the right time, died in Tulsa. This is an uncertainty, as I do not have anything else connecting a member of this family to Tulsa. Also, the SSDI would usually have the married name of a woman, or in this case she may nothave ever married. I have been unable to find detailsabout Ona.
Social Security Death Index
Leona M. Tatum
Born 11 Jul 1912
Died 15 Apr 1997
Last Residence Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74133
SSN 448-18-3945 issued Oklahoma (Before 1951)
Sources
- 1. One World Tree (sm)
- Haddox Family History http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ihaddix&id=I24185
- 2. 1920 Federal Census, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma
- 12 February, Ada (Chickasaw Township), District 170, page 9B, Hse #146, Family #140
- 3. 1930 Federal Census, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma
- [no date], Allen Township, District 9, page 2B, Hse #36, Fam #39