Carlotta Nelson Marries Louis H. Fairchild

According to available records, Carlotta Nelson Andersen, 35 years old, married Louis Howes Fairchild, a 60-year old widowed father of six, on June 8, 1909, at Trinity Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a second marriage for both.  Although I have been unable to locate the full name of Carlotta's first husband or details about the marriage, available records indicate that she was a childless widow at the time of her marriage to Mr. Fairchild.  Carlotta's new husband was a well-established New Orleans cotton broker, who had been married over 30 years to his first wife, Mary Winnamore Fairchild, before she died in 1905.


The U. S. Census recorded in 1900 in New Orleans, shows Louis and his first wife, Mary, living in a residence on the corner of Camp and Prytania Streets. The Fairchild household at the time included five children, Blanche, 20, Mary,18, Edmond A., 15, Hazel, 12, and Margaret, 9, three servants, and Mr. Fairchild's widowed mother and aunt. Servants' names and their listed occupations were Winnie Williams, "Cook," William Randall, "Butler," and Adaline Wilson, "Maid." In 1910, one year after Carlotta's marriage to Mr. Fairchild, the U. S. Census shows that she was living in a household headed by her husband, in a residence located on St. Charles Avenue, now the center of what is known as "The Garden District."  The Fairchild household in 1910 included three of Louis's adult children, Edmondo Fairchild, 25 years old and an automobile "merchant," Hazel Fairchild, 19, Margerite Fairchild, 22, and five individuals identified as "servants."  The names of these five servants were Mary Albert, 40, a "Dining Room Maid," Caroline Nelson, 27, a "Cook," Eleonor Bassford, a 20-year old "House Girl," Henry Righnes, 20, a "Chauffer," and Thomas Johnson, 33, a "Yard Man." Although Louis Fairchild's assets were not shown on either the 1900 or 1910 census records, it is evident that Carlotta had married a very wealthy man.

Next: Carlotta's Life in New Orleans

Sources: 

Ancestry.com. 1900; Census Place: New Orleans Ward 12, Orleans, Louisiana; Roll: T623_575; Page: 26A; Enumeration District: 120. Accessed online January 9, 2011

Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Accessed online January 9, 2011.

Times-Picayune newspapers.  Digital Archives dated 1900 - 1910; accessed online on January 9, 2011

Carlotta J. Nelson, American Born

Carlotta J. Nelson was born on October 10, 1874 in Mississippi to William R. Nelson, and his wife Christiana Fredericka Nelson, both Danish-born. William was born on June 24, 1823, in Frederikshovn, Denmark, and Christiana was born ten years later, on October 30, 1833, at Levenholm Castle, Ronden, Denmark.  Although I have been unable to determine the exact date of the Nelson family's arrival in America, the U. S. Census of 1870 shows that William and Christiana were already living in the Richland Beat of Holmes County, Mississippi.  The Nelson household at that time included William, a 57 year old merchant, Christiane, a 47 year old housewife, and three children, Dorothea, age 12, Florina, 11, and William, age 9.  In 1880, the U. S. Census shows the Nelson family had moved to the Town of Goodman, where William sold "general merchandise." The family likely lived in the business district, since the census record indicated their nearby neighbors included a preacher, a physician, two saloon keepers, and another merchant. The Nelson household in 1880 included five children, six year old Carlotta, Dorothea, 22, Florina, 21, William, 18, and W. L., age 4.  Since Dorothea, Florina, and William were all born in Denmark, it appears that Carlotta was the first member of her family to have been born in America.  


Source:
Ancestry.com. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2009.  Images reproduced by FamilySearch.


Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

The Story of Carlotta Nelson Fairchild - Introduction

This past Tuesday, I posted a photo on Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek of the grave stone that marks Carlotta Nelson Fairchild's burial place in Hillcrest Cemetery in Holmes County, Mississippi. I photographed Carlotta's headstone while visiting this old cemetery off U.S. Highway 51 North, near the town of Goodman, early last year.  My actual purpose of the trip to Hillcrest Cemetery was to visit the graves of my paternal grandparents and great-grandmothers and to photograph all the headstones of my deceased Porter and Branch ancestors who are buried there.  After I completed what I had set out to do, I walked among the other graves, intrigued by the Confederate section of the cemetery, where many of the community's young men lay buried, and by so many old and unusual monuments. 

As I neared the top of the hill where the earliest burials at Hillcrest began, I immediately was drawn to a family plot that contained the grave sites of members of the Nelson Family. The plot was surrounded by a wrought iron fence, rusty but still in fairly good condition.  Based on the substantial size of the monuments located in the plot, I thought the Nelson family must have been among the more prosperous citizens of Goodman around the turn of the twentieth century. 

But what really caught my eye was the word "Denmark,"  inscribed on the markers, which told me that Nelson family members had been born in Denmark. The fact that someone buried in Holmes County, Mississippi, in the very small hamlet of Goodman, was born in Denmark is significant.  Of the hundreds of thousands of people who migrated through Mississippi during the 1800s in their search for land and new lives, the Nelson family would be in a very small minority of settlers who would have been born in Denmark.  

How and why the Nelson family would have chosen Holmes County and Goodman as a place to settle fascinated me, to say the least, and I wanted to know more.  So I photographed the gravestones of those buried inside and near the family plot, including Carlotta's.  Those photographs led me on a research journey that ended just this week.  I hope you will follow me here as I tell Carlotta's story.

Next:  Carlotta Nelson's Beginnings

Google Analytics for 2010

Last year was a great year for genea-bloggers and for family history research in general.  Right now, it seems that genealogy is a hot topic everywhere you turn.  Not only is it the subject of several television shows, but family research capabilities are constantly being expanded with an increasing number of new and improved online databases and high tech devices that make successful research faster and easier than ever before. Family history research is no longer "just a hobby," it is becoming an industry itself.  And it is this increased interest in searching for one's roots that caused the readership of my blogs to reach an all-time high this past year, with over sixteen thousand visits recorded. According to Google Analytics, about three fourths of those who landed on my blogs were searching the web for specific names and locations for their own ancestors. And it still amazing to me to see where these visitors originate. Although a majority of the visitors to my blogs reside in the continental United States, others live throughout the world, including Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada, Russia, Netherlands, France, Ukraine, and Australia.  I am both humbled and pleased to think that some of these visitors may have found something on one of my blogs that helped them in their own family research.  

Sunday's Poem - "Winter's Roads"

Winter's Roads

By Ron Carnell

I cannot speak for all who stem
'Long roads less traveled as their way,

Nor question choices made by them

In days long past or nights long dim

by words they spoke and did not say.

Each road is long, though short it seems,

And credence gives each road a name

Of fantasies sun-drenched in beams

Or choices turned to darkened dreams,

To where each road wends just the same.

From North to South, then back again,

I followed birds like all the rest

Escaping nature's snowy den

On roads I've seen and places been,

Forsaking roads that traveled West.

This journey grows now to its end,

As road reflections lined in chrome

Give way to roads with greater bend

And empty signs that still pretend

They point the way to home sweet home.

But all roads lead to where we go

And where we go is where we've been,

So home is just a word we know,

That space in time most apropos

For where we want to be again.

For even home, it seems to me,

Is still a choice we all must face

From day to day and endlessly,

To choose if home is going to be

Another road - or just a place.

Happy New Year!

My Research/Writing Plan For 2011

For the 101st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, Jasia, at Creative Gene, has challenged genea-bloggers to write about "My genealogy research/writing plan for 2011."  Let's just say this is something like a list of New Year's Resolutions - genealogy-speaking, that is.  So here is what I have planned for next year.

My first goal is to locate the ancestors of my great-great-great-grandfather, John P. Gibson, who was born in 1799 in South Carolina.  For over ten years now, I have been unsuccessful in determining the names of his parents and his siblings.  Further examination of South Carolina,  Tennessee, and north Mississippi records is warranted, and maybe, just maybe, 2011 will be the year that my research comes together.

Secondly, I plan to load photos of gravestones in of one Holmes County cemetery on to the Find-A-Grave website. Most of the deceased buried in that cemetery are related to me through my mother's side of the family. Although, I have posted about many of these ancestors already, it is time that I share all the photos with other researchers.

Another item on my agenda is to write a follow-up story about the descendants of Robert W. Ragland/Raglin, a brother to my paternal great-great-great-grandmother.  Based on information I recently discovered during a review of the U.S. Census of 1870, Robert fathered at least four mulatto children by an unidentified female after his first wife died about 1855.  Descendants of these four children still live in several counties in Mississippi and in other places throughout the country.

Organizing my multitude of photos is neither research nor writing, but it is something that will make my research and writing much easier in 2011.  It is a task that I plan to accomplish in small segments spread out over the year. Included in the task is scanning actual photos and reorganizing photos already in digital format. Purchasing some new technology currently on my "wish list," such as an upgrade of my current edition of Photoshop, will surely make the task much easier.

Transcribing and writing about some original documents I obtained from the National Archives is a small, but vital part of my plan. Although I have previously posted details from some of these documents, there is still a wealth of information in them that provides leads for additional research on my paternal side of the family.  Additionally, I want to explore and photograph tombstones in several Mississippi cemeteries, including two in Holmes County and another in a remote part of southwest Mississippi. 

Now that I have these tasks in writing, it makes it much easier to decide where to begin.  And as we family researchers all know, there really is no ending.....there is just more research to do.