Julia Rivers McClain - Query

Comment

Comment by Spivey on January 7, 2013 at 4:10pm

Hi, John Felder.  I am researching the FELDER family originally located in Elloree, Orangeburg, South Carolina.  Members of the family relocated to Brooklyn, Kings, New York sometime before the 1930 federal census was enumerated.  The surnames I have that are associated with these Felders are COLEMAN, EDWARDS, MATHEWS, PARKS, SINGLETON, and REMBERT.  There may be others.  Are any of these names familiar to you?

 

At one point, I was doing research on Americus Felder to try to determine whether there was a connection between the Felders I am researching and the descendants of Americus Felder.  That research has been lost and, until recently, I did not recall the connection I was previously trying to determine.  I would like to hear more about your Felder research to see if we have research interests in common.

 

Spivey     

Comment by John Felder on February 26, 2011 at 10:36am

Hello.  I am a son of William "Buster" Felder, and the grandson of Americus Felder and Julia Rivers McClain. Am curious about Julia and her ancestors.   Also curious about slavery connections.  Family lore has it that Americus was born c. 1846 on a plantation in South Carolina. Have not heard any mention of his slave status.  Yes, he could have been a free black, but was he?

Comment by Spivey on September 16, 2009 at 5:11pm

Wow, another Felder Association! Several years ago, I was in contact with someone who gave me literature on the National Felder Family [founded September 1977]. This must indeed be a very large family to support more than one organization! Kinda scary. Anyway, I am glad I made the connection to Americus Felder. Now I have to sort and weed through this massive family to find the one acorn I am looking for that fell from this giant oak tree. Whenever I wax poetic, it means I am tired. LOL. Or frustrated. Or angry. Or a combination. Now I am really making myself laugh. Please excuse me.

I think this Winston-Salem Felder Family District organization has fleshed out these lives so that you can virtually see them as the events took place. Thank you for that reference. You're right, hard to stop reading once you start.

This will keep me busy and out of trouble for a while. I opened a discussion as you suggested because I can use all the help I can get. Big families like this one [I have another one, the Kelseys, who also bred and bred and bred], and I tend to find myself confusing facts and getting totally lost in the midst of trying to sort people out. Thanks again. I look forward to talking with you. Who knows, I might be able to help you out some day.

Comment by Spivey on September 16, 2009 at 4:10pm

Hi again, Gene. Thanks for pointing out that it is unlikely Julia was married before she married Americus Felder. Among my notes, I have a scribble that indicates I was tracing the Felder family in Georgia [where the majority of my ancestors came from] and ended up in Alabama where I found the Rivers/McClain surname. I could never find a link to my research, so I somewhat abandoned that research path.

When I recently revisited my Felder line, and found the name Julia Rivers McClain in that line, I initially thought she had been married before and started trying to find some indication of that. Hence, my query.

I used to travel to Georgia to look up records but that option is not really viable for me right now [surgery on my leg kinda put a kink in things, and the associated costs of travel are just not appealing right now. I do have Ancestry, so I have become more of an armchair genealogist. LOL.

Looking at it all now, I thought perhaps Julia's maiden surname was Rivers, and McClain a married surname. Thanks for stopping me from going around in circles again. That makes me dizzy, which interferes with my thinking. :-) It just may be that the Rivers and McClains in Alabama have no connection to my research at all. Back to the drawing board.

Comment by Spivey on September 16, 2009 at 1:42pm

P.S. I am not yet familiar with how to post an image here. I am learning, though. This is a wonderful site and I am very fortunate to have found it. Thanks again.

Comment by Spivey on September 16, 2009 at 1:38pm

Sorry, Gene. The family resided in North Carolina. This is my daughter's paternal line.

Americus Felder had three wives, one of which was Julia Rivers McClain. Julia bore the following children:
Charlotte [1884]
Judge [Nov 1885]
Graham [Sep 1886]
Maggie [Apr 1889]
Martha [May 1889]
Ella [Apr 1890]
Frances [June 1891]
James [Mar 1893]
Henry [Sep 1893]
Johnson [Feb 1896]
Mary Jane [July 1897]

One of my quests is to discover if the marriage to Americus Felder was her second or third marriage, and whether all of her children were borne of her marriage to him.

Americus' other marriages were to :
Elizabeth Church [in Jacksonville Florida somewhere between 1863 and 1870], a common-law marriage. The following children were borne of that union [none of their birthdays are known at this point]:
Abraham [Hammie/Ham] Felder
William Buster Felder
Mattie Felder
Addie Felder
[Unknown Given Name] Felder

Americus was also married to Rachel Jenkins [somewhere around 1870 in Bishopville, South Carolina] and the following children were borne of that marriage:
Sam Felder [1869]
Jim Felder [1874]
Gus Felder [1975]

This is the point at which I am stumped. Pinpointing the mother is important because that will assist me in establishing my daughter's lineage. The paternal part of that lineage is almost certain [that the person was Americus Felder], but the maternal part of that lineage needs to be determined.

Thanks for your interest. I was trying to be brief in my initial post, but I see that that attempt at brevity cost you time. I apologize.