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Researching my Great -Great Grandfather Andrew E. Tryon has been a mystery for our family for a long time. He died leaving behind 3 motherless children in 1902. We kept hitting brick walls, between the Orphanage, and county records. Either the records were destroyed in fires or no direct family link to apply for the records. Today a relative of mine caught me while I was on Facebook, she had found his name listed in a Mississippi Supreme Court Case in a Google Book. As I read through all the legal information I came to page 46 paragraph 3, that described the situation he was in. Him being very ill and having to place the children, in two Orphanages, despite his desire to keep them together. He truly had hoped to recover and keep his children together. Only two years prior on an US Census his family included him, his wife, an older son, two daughters and two young son. And now in 1902 it was only him, two daughters, and my Great Grandfather. One of the daughters was listed as ill in the court documents. The reason the case had gone to court is because two individuals were disputing who was entitled to the guardianship of the children and the insurance settlement of $2,000 from Woodmen of the World. Only for the children to later end up back into the Orphanage.
When I read Woodmen of the World, an idea came to me. I had read in my favorite cemetery research guide: Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography
This was a great discovery for us and hopefully soon we can find out what had happened to the family. There were a lot of Yellow Fever and other illnesses in that region during that time, it will be nice to finally get a little further in our research.
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