The Bramble Bush

This many Visitors!
Since 09 April 2000

~ The Bramble Bush ~

Spence~Spiers~Patterson~Moorhead and Allied Families.

by Ottice E. Spiers

"To ignore your ancestors is like having a brook without a source
or a tree without roots." ...old Chinese Proverb

Dedication

    These pages are dedicated to you, the Reader, whoever you are and for whatever reason you might have for stopping to visit with me. If I can give some small part of fullfilment or joy in reading these pages to my Visitor, then any vanities that I have presumed in recording this journal of my life and the people who were a part of it, even though some are long deceased, will be justified.

"No less than linked together by a network of intermarriages bringing about a perplexing entanglement of kinship back and forth unto the third and fourth generations." ... Quote from DeLaHunt's 1916 History of Perry County, Indiana.

Introduction

    My interest in genealogy did not begin until after the death of my father when I realized how little I knew about my ancestry and who my father was. The personal relationship between my father and his children was such that he had been dead for a year before we became aware of his passing. It was another three months, from our home in Idaho, before I found a relative in Louisiana who knew the married names of my father's sisters and I was able to pass along the message that he had died, only to discover that they already knew but had been unable to contact us.

    This book then is a result of the mixed emotions I felt about my father's death and for what might have been in our relationship and was now no longer possible. Although they must exist somewhere, my brother and I were unable to obtain any of his personal effects so little is left to us of our father except memories which are fading with each passing year. When my brothers and sisters and I are gone, what will then remain of my father? How we can estimate what we have lost of ourselves by never really knowing our family may remain an unanswered question if I do not attempt to establish a connection to my father and his ancestral history.

    Although I intend this record for the Internet, I am much more familiar with books and for those reasons have chosen to present it in this format as much as possible and perhaps, if my efforts are worthwhile, gain a byte sized bit of immortality in the Cyberworld for the family members herein.

    These pages feature my ancestry and that of Sharon Jean Patterson, the mother of my children. They are a collection of personal thoughts, notes, photographs, stories, fables, histories and anything else I found interesting from various sources with references as I know them. The reader should bear in mind that not being a legitimate researcher, I paid almost no attention to the source of my information when it was first gathered.

    Of special interest to me are the cousins' marriages and interrelationship that exist in the Spence-Spiers-Stovall-Ratliff and other closely related families. If you don't want to find out that your grandfather may have married his cousin who was the daughter of his father's wife, then proceed at your own risk. As to who am I? My Spiers father, Grandfather and great-grandfather all preferred the nearby pool of Spence ladies. My mother, in her life story, calls my father "a distant relative" since he was only her second cousin, third cousin and fifth cousin once removed. Thus after only a few generations we arrive at The Perfect Child and I am my own 3C, 4C and 6C1R. In fact, I find the third arm growing out of the center of my forehead extremely handy for holding notes as I am writing this . . .

    This site is open to view but is under construction and as a living and growing document, you may find changing information, incomplete conclusions, broken links and utter chaos at any time if you venture within. Welcome, but please be patient.

   

Table of Contents.

Our Immediate Family:     Ottice E. SPIERS, Jr & Sharon J. PATTERSON & Our Children.
My Parent's Family:     Ottice E. SPIERS & Atha A. SPENCE& Their Children.
My Direct Line:    All my ancestors and their relationships to each other and how the RATLIFF, SPENCE & SPIERS are connected to each other.
Her Parent's Family:     Albert Eugene PATTERSON & Lillian Virginia MOORHEAD & Their Children.

Alphabetical Surname Ancestry and Allied Families

Brown     My 2G-GP's Susan Ollie Ann BROWN 1836 and Willian Washington SPENCE and other relatives of Sharon or I.
Burkhalter     My 7G-GP's Rudolph BURKHALTER 1658 and Anna MOSCHBERGER and their son Michael who immigrated from Switzerland to Pennsylvania in 1735. Photo/ History
Cobb     My 5G-GP's Joseph COBB 1740 and Rachael, Last Name Unknown. Thier daughter Mary COBB 1770 married Francis Marion GRUBBS 1770.
Conerly     [aka: Connerly ] My 5G-GP's John CONERLY, born about 1720 and Kezian HERRING, born about 1720.
Converse     Sharon's Great Grandparents: Norton Newton CONVERSE 1879 and Katherine Bell WADDELL 1903.
Clowers     My 5G-GP's John CLOWERS and Jane PERKINS. Both were born about 1750 wag [Wild Ass Guess] and there are other unresolved questions about this family.
Denzler     My 6G-GP's Conrad DENZLER 1703 and Hannah Dorothea WICHINE 1725. This connects to the BURKHALTERS.
Dyslans     Sharon's Relatives John Nelson DYSLAN 1803 and Great-Greataunt: Carrie Amelia WADDELL 1872 and their descendants.
Draughon     My 6G-GP's Walter DRAUGHON abt 1690 and Bridgett BROWN abt 1690. This SPENCE Ancestry has a reference to Indian Ancestry for Letitia WARD, the daughter of Bridget DRAUGHON and Luke Thomas WARD.
Duncan     My 5G-GP's Edmund DUNKAN about 1730 and Grace UNKNOWN. This file is still being worked on. Lots of Duncans and lots of them marrying about everybody with a Surname related to me that I can think of . . .
Gamble     Sharon's 3G-GP's, Mary GAMBLE 1819 and James Gibson WADDELL 1812. Very little else is known and we could use more information about this GAMBLE family if you have it.
Gartman     This family is up and can be viewed but is still being worked on. Lots of inter-family marriages in this one.
Grubbs     My 5G-GP's Benjamin GRUBBS and Hannah HUMPREYS, both born about 1740.
Harvey
Herring
Hicks
Holmes
Jones

Koch     Sharon's Ancestry.
Lee
Massey
Moon
Moorhead
Nicewander
O'Quinn
Patterson     Sharon's Direct Line
Palmore
Peaden
Perkins
Perry
Poole
Rainwater
Rooks
Spivey
Smith
Spence     Spence Ancestry
Spiers     Spiers Ancestry.
Sprawls
Stovall     Stovall Ancestry.
Trammel
Thomas
Waddell     Sharon's Direct Line. 3G-GP's James Gibson WADDELL 1812 and Mary GAMBLE 1819. Photo/History
Walker
Ward
Winningham

Supplements.

   

Historical Site

Choctaw Indian Treaty at Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830...Signed by W. WARD, 7G-GF to our children who are 1/64th Choctaw according to my mother who was apparently wrong and if you can't trust your mother, who can you trust?
Indian Ancestry Disputed

Our Family Websites and E-Mail Addresses

Genealogy of Barbara Mary RATLIFF-HOMAN: The Homan-Ratliff Family     Most common surnames are: RATLIFF, SPENCE, SPIERS and STOVALL.
Email:    Barbara.

Genealogy of Lucius M. SPENCE, Jr: Mississippi Choctaw with heavy Scotch. DUNCAN, JONES, GARTMAN and SPENCE.
Email:    Luke.

Genealogy of Carleton "Tot" SPIERS: Tot is a 1st cousin to me and has an excellent personal collection of SPIERS family history, photos and documents in the Loyd Homer SPIERS and Cynthia Elnora SPENCE line.
Email:    Tot.

Genealogy of Kevin SPIERS: Go to SpiersWeb for All the SPIERS and to Descendants of John P. SPIERS 1799-1889. for the families in my line. Tons of Spiers and other allied surnames. This is a must visit if you're a Spiers or related to one.
Email:   Kevin.

Genealogy of Ottice E. SPIERS, Jr. and Sharon J. PATTERSON: The Bramble Bush. PATTERSON, SPENCE, SPIERS and WADDELL. This is our Rootsweb Index.

Genealogy of Jeanette WILSON-CUTHRIELL: "Roots and Twigs"     Most common surnames are: ARD, BROWN, DAVIS, MAJORS, NOLAN, TILL, WALL, WILSON, WISE, YATES and my favorite; Louisa Amanda PEADEN and Unknown Sea Captain
Email     Jeanette.

Acknowledgements.

I have begged, borrowed and purloined information from the following people whom I can never thank enough: Carleton "Tot" Spiers 1C , Kevin Spiers 4C , Ruth Ann Price 4C , Daisy Vermell Brumfield 2C, Chris Beard 2C1R, Dianne Kropp, Gloria Anderson, Mark Dyslin, Fred Lee and The Stovall Family Association.

The Luter-Davis and Allied Families Book by Marie Luter-Upton dtd 1959. Marie visited with my mother, here in Idaho, while writing this book

The Waddell Family Circle Book 1812-1966 by Hazel Waddell and given to her grandparents, the A.H. Waddells, on their 64th Anniversary as a wedding present.

This Page belongs to:
The Decendants of Ottice E. SPIERS & Sharon Jean PATTERSON
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