William Martin Baldridge and Huldah Catherine Smith Baldridge of Carroll County, MS

Although I did locate William Martin Baldridge, enumerated as "Marten" Baldridge on the U. S. Census of Carroll County, Mississippi, taken in 1850, living in the household with his parents, John and Nancy Baldridge, I was unable to find him on another U. S. Census until 1910.

When the census was recorded that year, W. M. Baldridge and his spouse, Huldah, were living in Attala County, Mississippi, and his occupation was shown as "farmer." According to family oral history, Huldah was actually Huldah Catherine Smith, whom Baldridge married after his first wife, Kitty Baskin, died. That oral history also says that Claudia M. Baldridge, William Martin Baldridge's daughter, and my paternal great-grandmother, was born after he married Huldah Smith. This information is validated by the 1910 census record, which shows Claudia's age to be 30 years old and the length of her parents' marriage as 34 years. The length of her parents' marriage is further validated by a marriage record in Carroll County, Mississippi, that shows Miss H. C. Smith married William M. Baldridge on January 6, 1876.

In 1910, William Martin Baldridge was 65 years old, and his wife was 54. The census indicates Baldridge's father was born in North Carolina, his mother in Kentucky, and Huldah's parents in South Carolina. Although William Martin Baldridge was raised in Carroll County, Mississippi, in 1910, he and his wife lived in a portion of Attala County very near many of my other ancestors, including J. J. and Maggie Merriweather Porter, my other paternal great-grandparents, and Maggie's mother, Malvertie Gibson Merriweather Felts, my great-great-grandmother.

When the 1910 census was recorded, two adult Baldridge sons, Beecher, age 28, and Caswell, age 18, were living in the Attala County, Mississippi household and working as laborers on the family farm. I have been unable to find the names of the children, if any, who were born to William Martin Baldridge and his first wife, Kitty Baskin.


Sources:

Ancestry.com, 1850 U. S. Census [database on-line] 2006. Provo, UT, USA; 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line] 2006. Provo, UT, USA. For details on the contents of the film visit the following NARA web page: NARA Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census.Description: County: Carroll

Carroll County Marriage Records, available online, accessed September 10, 2009