52Ancestors 52Weeks – Brick Wall

Blogger Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us with writing about an Ancestor once a week for the year 2019.  She will give us prompts to get us started.  This week's prompt is Brick Wall.

I have several Brick Walls.  They are people I have not been able to find where they were born, married, or died.  Many of the Brick Walls also include finding where they immigrated from in Europe. Some I will find the information when the records come on line because I can’t travel to the country where the records where registered.

The one Brick Wall that is particularly frustrating is my Great Grandfather, Tristram Anderson Moore.  He was born in Canada in 1851 and travelled with his family to Alabama as a young boy.  The family moved to Alabama to be near his father’s sister Emily Moore Williams.  As Tristram grew older he worked for Emily’s son, Frank Williams.  Frank had the largest Cypress Lumber Company in Louisiana.  Tristram worked on one of his boats delivering wood.

This picture is of Tristram (2^nd from left in back) about 20 years old working in the Southern Music Company store in Savannah, Georgia.  The family moved there when Tristram’s father, Horatio, got a job with the Chickering Piano Company in Savannah. In 1885 Tristram married another employee of the Southern Music Company, Genevieve Counts.  They seemed to have a happy life with 6 children, Mary, John, Bessie, Wilhelmina, Tristram (called James) and Francis.  They lived in several different places in Savannah during this time which was very typical of people who rent rather than bought homes.  Sometime between 1900 and 1910, Tristram leaves the family.  He is in the 1900 Census but not in the 1910.  The story that has been passed down through the years is he died at sea.

Apparently, he deserted the family and went in search of adventure on the high seas!  Several thoughts come to my mind when I hear that.  First, it is true.  Second, they divorced, and it was quite a big deal if someone divorced.  Third, he just left and never came home so she made up the story of him going to sea and dying.

I have looked at the records available in Alabama and Georgia of deaths for Tristram A. Moore and have found none.  I have checked for him in the census records in several southern states, nothing.  I have looked for records of seaman dying at sea but haven’t found any.  I have looked with all the possible name variations that he used: Tristram Moore, Tristram A. Moore, Tristram Anderson Moore, T. A Moore and Tris Moore.

I have checked many records for the Williams family in Louisiana in case he was living with them but didn’t find him. 

One day I hope to find an answer to my Brick Wall question, what happened to Tristram Anderson Moore?