A caution: even “official records” may contain erroneous information. Late into the twentieth century, birthdates could be guesstimates; parentage c0uld reflect informal adoptions, rather biological fact; names, both first and last, could shift or change, and spellings fell to the whim or talents of the inscriber. Oral history can be helpful when sifting through competing versions of facts to arrive at (or get reasonably close to) truth.

Here’s an example:

The “true facts” — Jesse Henderson was the son of Loudie Henderson and Joseph Buckner Martin. He was born about 1893 near Dudley, in southern Wayne County, North Carolina, and moved to Wilson as a teenager. There, he was nicknamed “Jack” by Jefferson D. Farrior to distinguish him from Jesse A. Jacobs Jr., the uncle with whom he lived and worked at Farrior’s livery stable.

On 3 Dec 1914, Solomon Ward applied for a marriage license for Jesse Henderson of Wilson, age 21, colored, son of Jesse Jacobs and Sarah Jacobs, both dead, and Pauline Artis of Wilson, age 18, colored, daughter of Alice Artis.  They were married later that day.

Sarah Henderson Jacobs was Jesse Henderson’s maternal aunt. She and her husband Jesse A. Jacobs Jr. were Jesse Henderson’s foster parents and were very much alive in 1914.

In November 1936, Jesse Henderson, using the name Jack, applied for a Social Security number.

By reporting his first name as “Jack” rather than Jesse to the Social Security Administration, Jesse Henderson essentially effectuated a name change. (It was so effective that few of his descendants would remember the name he was given at birth. He was Jesse in the 1910 and 1920 censuses and when he registered for the World War I draft, but Jack in the 1930 census and thereafter.)

The names Jack provided for his parents on this application are both inaccurate and puzzling. Lewis Henderson was, in fact, his grandfather. “Ludy” (or Loudie) was his mother’s first name, but she was Loudie Henderson, not Jacobs. As noted above, Jacobs was the surname of the uncle and aunt who reared him after Loudie died in childbirth.

In a further inaccuracy, note Jack’s birthdate: 16 Sept 1892. The 1900 census lists Jack Henderson’s birth month and year as February 1892, and his draft registration card only as 1893, month and day unknown.

Finally, when Jack Henderson died in 1970, one of his daughters provided information for his death certificate, naming his parents as an unknown father and “Lucy (?) Henderson” (and his birthdate as 21 April 1898.)

“Lucy” certainly was Loudie. My grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks remembered her great-grandmother’s name variously as “Loudie” or “Lucy,” but a church record and a single census entry, in 1880, confirm that it was Loudie. God only knows Jack’s birthday, but the year was probably 1892 or 1893, as reflected in the 1900 census and on his Social Security application.