52 Ancestors #4 Ned Edgar Green

 This week's 52 Ancestors post is about an uncle that led me on a merry chase when it came to tracking him down. Ned Edgar Green was my great grandmother Della Green Houston Schostag's older brother. The two were children of Henry Edward Green & Caroline Valentine "Tiney" Bourland Green. Ned was born in Hillsborough, Hill Co., Texas on Valentine's Day 1891 (as evidenced by his death certificate, WW1 registration & military marker request cards). He died on 30 July 1954 in Temple, Bell Co., TX & was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Cameron, Milam Co., TX.

Death Certificate of Ned Edgar Green

Burial Card of Ned Edgar Green signed by his widow Ionie Merchant Stone Green
when she ordered his military headstone

WW1 Registration Card of Ned Edgar Green

I never really knew a whole lot about my great grandmother's siblings, but I do remember Dad saying that the only thing he remembered about Uncle Ned, who died when he was a child, was that his Aunt Iona Green Farley kept an American Flag on her wall that she received when Uncle Ned was buried (why his widow or one of his children didn't get the flag at his funeral is another question).

Ned married Vera Mamie Sheppard, daughter of Levi C. "Bud" Sheppard & Cynthia C. "Callie" Nugent Sheppard on 4 Oct 1912 in Bosque Co., TX. They had four children together: Douglas Nelson Green, Raymond Morel Green, Loyd Claude Green & Venita May Green. In 1900 & 1910, Ned is shown living with his parents & siblings. In 1900, the family lived in the Chickasaw Nation in what was then known as Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). In 1910, the family had moved back to Texas & were living in Milam County. In 1920, Ned & Vera were living in Meridian, Bosque County, Texas with their four children.

Then came a big gap in Ned's history. In the next census in 1930, Ned is no longer living with the family. The boys have been shipped off to the State Orphan's Home near Corsicana in Navarro County, Texas. The youngest child, Venita, was still living at home with her mother Vera who is shown as widowed, only they now lived in San Antonio. I knew she could not have been widowed because Ned was married to Onie Lee Merchant Stone in Milam County, Texas on 8 Mar 1950 & died in July 1954. So where was Ned?

I searched the 1930 census, but could never seem to come up with someone I thought could be my uncle Ned. I thought that perhaps he could have left the state for awhile & came back later like my Uncle Dave Turnipseed had. What finally knocked down the brick wall for me was finding his obituary on newspapers.com. In it, it not only noted the names of his brothers & sisters, but ALL of his children among the list of survivors. I had known about his four children with Vera, but who were these additional three children I knew absolutely nothing about before now? From there, I went to the Texas State Birth records & searched for the three additional children I had known nothing about & found their mother listed as Mary E. Johns. So back to the census records I went & found that Ned had remarried after his divorce from Vera (who also remarried) & moved to Dickens, Dickens Co., Texas. He was there for the 1930 census, but by the time of the 1940 census, he & his family had moved to Knox County, Texas.

Together, he & Mary had a son, Elmer Dahle Green, & two daughters, Nelda & Ethel. He had no children by his third wife Onie (who was a widow with children by her first husband). Ned farmed the land to provide for his family & he served in WW1 from September to December 1918 at Camp Bowie, Texas. I still wonder why he chose to leave his first two families. Was it perhaps in part due to the Great Depression? But finding this obituary for Ned gave me a little better insight into than I had before. It pays to keep digging because you never know what you might find.

Ned Green's obituary in The Cameron Herald

Sources:

Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Year: 1900; Census Place: Township 2, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory; Roll: 1849; Enumeration District: 0165; FHL microfilm: 1241849.
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Milam, Texas; Roll: T624_1577; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0054; FHL microfilm: 1375590.
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Year: 1920; Census Place: Meridian, Bosque, Texas; Roll: T625_1781; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 33; Image: 123.
Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Year: 1930; Census Place: San Antonio, Bexar, Texas; Roll: 2297; Page: 22A; Enumeration District: 0130; Image: 860.0; FHL microfilm: 2342031.
Ancestry.com. Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 2, Dickens, Texas; Roll: 2323; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0003; Image: 458.0; FHL microfilm: 2342057.
Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Year: 1940; Census Place:  , Knox, Texas; Roll: T627_4088; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 138-7A.
Marriage to Vera M. Sheppard. "Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F6BQ-42V : accessed 31 Jan 2014), N. Green and Vera Shepherd, 06 Oct 1912.
Marriage to Mrs. Onie Stone. Milam Co., TX Marriage records, vol. 24, pg #315.
Ned Green Obituary found on pg 1 of The Cameron Herald, 5 Aug 1954 edition.