Comer Eugene BAUCOM (1909 - ~1993)

Comer Eugene BAUCOM (1909 - ~1993)

Garland Baucom, son of Estelle "Doc" Baucom and Bennie Eliza Hall Baucom

(All of these photos unless other wise noted are from the collection of Ruby Baucom Rosato and graciously supplied to me by cousin Christina.

BAUCOM - ENGLISH or GERMAN? by Jim Baucom

BAUCOM - ENGLISH or GERMAN

Any person can post whatever genealogical information that want to at almost all websites. No one checks them so you have to go to source documents yourself to verify all findings. And I have been told by fellow researchers that they have found professional researchers who have made big errors, perhaps to satisfy a client or they were just lazy and said, “what the hell” the names match.

The LDS website is a great example of misinformation but a wonderful site to get a starting place. And they state that there information is not verified. I had a pretty good idea that my Baucoms were of English extraction before I contacted Banks McLaurin in Dallas, TX about the Baucoms. He had done a lot more for a longer period of time than I had. We both had traced our line back to Wake, Co., NC to John Baucom and his father Nicholas. We had both found that Nicholas and his wife Mary had John baptized in Baltimore, MD in 1725 at St. Georges Parish, an Anglican Church. We agreed that having the baptism done in an Anglican Church was a big clue to Nicholas being English.


We both had read in The History of Deleware: 1609- 1888, volume 2 by John Thomas Scharf a write up on a Peter Baucom who lived in Delaware and Maryland in the 1600s. He participated in many land transactions and was named sheriff of Kent Co., DE. And I got my hopes up high that he was Nicholas’ father, but Peter’s will named only a daughter and wife. He still could have been his father, having given him property in MD before his death. Or perhaps he was an uncle or maybe no connection at all. By the way, Banks and I were both college trained engineers. Now that does not make us smarter than anyone else but we are trained to not take anything for granted. Always challenge any idea to see if it seems logical and try to prove it for yourself.

One day soon after I found the google website I put in Baucom TN history, just for kicks and out popped:
http://www.tngenweb.org/haywood/goodspeed/b-gdsp.htm
I had read some of his work on another line of my ancestors so I knew of Goodspeed’s Tennessee history work. He had written a short piece about J, F. Baucom of Haywood Co, TN. Here is part of the article:

“J. F. BAUCOM, citizen and farmer of the Tenth District, was born in Maury County, Tenn., August 30, 1826, being one of six children born to Brittain and Elizabeth Baucom. The father was of English origin, born in Rockingham County, N. C., in 1796, and moved to Tennessee in 1814, locating in East Tennessee, but two years later moved to Maury County, and in 1829 to Illinois, where he engaged in farming and died in 1831. The mother was a Miss BARKER, born in Caswell County, N. C., in 1798, and died in 1874.”

It goes on to tell of the family J. F. and his accomplishments in Haywood County. Notice that it stated that Brittain was of English origin. And we know that his father Brittain Sr. and 10 other children were named in the will of John Baucom, Sr who died about 1800. And if you stop to think about it, who, but a person of English origin would name a son Brittain. Could John Sr. have done this to announce to others around him that he was of English origin? I was satisfied that my line of Baucoms were English and probably from the region of Baucombe, England as Banks had speculated.


So I was surprised when one day I returned to the Baucom name at the Genforum website and saw the discussion about whether our line was German or English and the story about the Von Baucoms coming from Germany and one of them being an ancestor of our Nichols. I knew that Nicholas had to be English because of the foregoing information. And John Sr. or his father Nicholas never named any children Otto or Herman, or Heidi or Hilda, nor did they belong to a Lutheran or Roman Catholic Church. Therefore I immediately dismissed the ideal of a German connection.

And then one day I came across some work by a Sandra Vossler on the Genforum Baucom website. She is a true researcher who leaves no stone unturned. Her early work can be seen at:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mdannear/firstfam/baucom.htm
Check it out. So when Sandra started trying to verify the Von Baucom story she found out that it could not be proven. The following is what she sent to me in an email:

Did you know Marietta Cowan is doing an update of Banks McLaurin's book? I don't have her e-mail address listed on this email but you can find her easy enough, she is on the Baucom GenForum all the time. The last time I checked she had no further information on Nicholas either.

I have a copy of the "Upchurch Family of Enlgand, Virginia and North Carolina". On pages 90-92 they have the Von Baucom theory. The only problem is, what little siting they do I can not find. They list two ships that the Baucoms were suppose to have owned and came over here on, the "Faterland" and the "Brigantine" but I can not find where these ships existed. They say Nicholas was only married once, to Sarah, and that John is Sarah's son. Which they would if they have no records for Maryland, as that is where John was born to Nicholas and Mary. But they do not have him anywhere near St. George Parish Maryland. They have him coming from Prusia to Manhattan, Philadelphia (PA), then right to North Carolina. Which I can find no proff of the Manhattan or PA period. They report "unfortunately a large collection of information of the Von Bakum (Baucom) family of East Prussia was lost some years ago."

If it was lost, how did they supposidly come up with it? I find the Jacob Leedertsen Van de Grist family they mention that was suppose to be "in-laws" of the Von Bakum (Baucom) family, but find no mention of a Baucom in that family. They say Susannah Van de Grist married Johan Von Bakum, but all the Van de Grist records I can find does not show Susannah marrying a Von Bakum and some don't show a Susannah as a daughter at all. So I just have a hard time with this theory, not to say it is not true, I just can't come up with any information to back it up at this time.
Well, I got to go check on mom. Hope to hear from you again.
Good luck with your genealogy,
Sandra



And just recently she wrote me a letter:
Edited Letter from Sandra Vossler PO Box 314 Kimball, NB 69145 8-24-09

Dear Jim-
My line is through Nicholas and his second wife, Sarah Lee, so I don’t have a lot on John Baucom Sr.
John Baucom’s father, Nicholas Baucom was not German. That is a story going around that says Nicholas was related to a one Jaochim Eric Mailian Von Baucom, and other Von Baucom “stories” with a story of the Heidelberg Military Accadamy in 1705. I wrote to the University at Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany twice. According to a reply from Mr. I.V. Hunerlach, Archeiamtfrau, “There is not and never has been a Heidelberg Military Academy. The registry of the University of Heidelberg for the period between 1662 and 1704 isn’t saved. The name von Baucom couldn’t be found in the printed registrar of the University of Heidelberg. There is a story of the Baucoms coming over here from Germany on the ships called the “Brigantine” and “Fatherland.” No one in Germany or in the USA can find either one of those ships. So- to me anyway, this German and von Baucom story is just that- a story with no foundation to it.

My connection to the Baucoms:
Sandra (me), Albert Caves my grandfather, his parents Maggie Sarah Lee Baucom and John Wright Caves, Moses Baucom Jr., Moses Baucom, Sr., Nicholas Baucom Jr. and Nicholas Baucom Sr. and second wife Sarah Lee.

Grandma Maggie helped raise me. She said the Baucoms are Irish and English and mostly English up to Moses Sr., then from Moses Sr. add in Cherokee. She said her daddy only mentioned the Irish a couple of times- mostly he just said English and Cherokee.

Sandra Vossler
Note: her letter goes onto list the children of Nicholas Sr. and Sarah. And there is some discussion about Nicholas Sr. and Mary his first wife who were the parents of John, my line.

Finally, I have had my DNA tested and match up almost perfectly with descendants of two different sons of Josiah Baucom, a brother to my Cader Baucom. Another one of their brothers, was John Jr. He supposedly had a son named Isham. A descendant of Isham had his DNA tested and was no match to me or Josiah’s descendants. That means that Isham was a son of a different John Baucom or that an adoption or hanky panky took place. I am looking for other Baucom descendants that would get their DNA tested. So far there are at least 3 different Baucom lines that have been identified, maybe at least one of them go back to the New England Balcoms, of which there were many.

Comments please!

Jim Baucom
7379 S. Eudora Ct.
Centennial, CO 80122

Descendants of Nicholas Baucom, Sr. [256]

For my cousins who are not familiar with our early Baucoms

1 Nicholas Baucom, Sr. [256] b: Abt. 1700
.. +Mary ???, [257]
.... 2 John Baucom, Sr., [128] b: Jul 01, 1725 in Baltimore, MD
........ +Rachel Barker, [129] b: Abt. 1735
3 Cader Baucom (my line)
3 Josiah Baucom
3 John Baucom, Jr.

*2nd Wife of Nicholas Baucom, Sr. [256]:
.. +Sarah Lee
.... 2 Thomas Baucom b: Bef. 1743 all children born in NC
........ +Keziah Hardcastle
.... 2 Nicholas Baucom, Jr. b: Abt. 1748
........ +Dollie ???
.... 2 Jacob Baucom
.... 2 Moses Baucom
.... 2 Aaron Baucom
.... 2 Susannah Baucom
.... 2 Ann Baucom
.... 2 Ester Baucom

In Memory of Bear Edward Baucom

A Page from the Baucom Family Bible

Click on the images for higher resolutions.


I believe this Bible page (below) was from the Bible of Mettie Lambert Baucom. Mettie (shown above on the right) was married to Charles Baucom (Left). They were the parents of Estelle "Doc" Baucom and around 12 other kids if I remember correctly. I could be wrong about the total.
In later years, the son of Charles E. Baucom and Mettie Lambert Baucom, one Doc Baucom, rose to regional fame as the man who ran the peanut stand at Eastlake Park.







And in later years became the second husband of the widowed Lessie Carlton. And Mama Lessie was the mother of the most famous man in Sweet Tea, (in Birmingham anyway) MILO CARLTON!

All that having been said, if you click on the Bible page image, it will expand in a new window where you will be able to read all the names and dates and different notations. I'll try and transcribe them.

The Magic of Going Home – From The Birmingham News, by Frank Baucom

The Magic of Going Home – From The Birmingham News, by Frank Baucom

Around out house we start the holiday season rather early. My music loving daughters have been playing Christmas records since the first week of November. While listening to the familiar strains of the old favorites, I couldn’t help but notice how many were about home or going home.

Christmas means gifts and brightly lit Christmas trees to the young, but for children now grown it brings memories of home and thoughts of going home, if only for the holiday.

In 1943 when I was a lad of 4, my parents moved to Germania Park, a little community between West End and Powderly. Around the turn of the century a group of Germans settled there, building sturdy homes with foundations of hand carried stones from nearby Valley Creek. There was once a small amusement park there, complete with a carousel.

We lived in a large nine room house with a covered front porch along its entire width. In the 1920’s the house was known as the Lula Foster Home for Boys. On many a Sunday afternoon we’d see a young man afar off, walking down Lee Avenue and we knew it was one of the now grown “boys” that had caught the #3 trolley from Birmingham to come and see the old home once more.

Our property, then owned by the state, was a tremendous 150 ft x 500 ft. It was completely enclosed by a 5 ft high wire fence with 2 x 4’s planks along the top, from post to post. Almost every foot of the back fence was covered in red climbing roses and honeysuckle. In the springtime and fall it was a place of rare beauty.

Behind out home was a good 20 acres of woodland that we could have purchased for a song. But it was just after the war and we didn’t have much to sing with. Eventually the woodlands were cleared and houses were built all around us. The roses lost the fence they’d climbed upon, and as time passed my siblings and I all married and moved away to start families of our own.

Never the less, at Thanksgiving and Christmas our hearts always called us back home, as we still called it. My mother and father were never happier than when their children and grandchildren were gathered together again, even if for just one day.

But time in its way won its usual victory. The old home deteriorated beyond repair and was sold to a builder who wanted to divide the property for new home construction. So one afternoon I drove out from Huffman to see the old home place one last time. I wish now I hadn’t gone because a few days before a bulldozer had completely leveled our old house. I got out of my car and walked over the now vacant lot, overwhelmed with feelings of loss and despair. Memories of youth and childhood flooded over me and a single tear rolled down my face.

As I made my way back to the car in the deepening twilight, my thought turned toward home, my home, where my wife and young children waited for me. When I arrived, the smell of an apple pie in the oven and the sound of my daughter S onja singing “White Christmas” greeted me.

A writer of old once said that “home is a little picture of what Heaven must be like,” and I know now that how true that is. My home is here, with those I love, who love me. One day they’ll be grown and gone, but coming back home for Christmas, hopefully with grandchildren! I look forward to that day.

I guess my purpose in writing this has been to say, don’t wait too late. Go home if you can, while you can. One day, you’ll be glad you did. (Written by Frank Baucom, published in The Birmingham News, early 1970's.)

Lessie Jordan Baucom and Mickey Baucom Sr.

Uncle Lloyd Jordan "In Memorium" by Frank Baucom - continued

This post continues Uncle Lloyd Jordan "In Memorium" by Frank Baucom. Part 1 is below.



"In looking back on our friendship, I think about the things we have done, and the things we could have done. Always there was that joke about me being a jinx whenever we went fishing. We probably got more fun and laughs out of that than anything.

[Editors note: My dad WAS a fishing jinx.]

It was nice years and about four months ago that we last camped and fished together. I was working six days a week at Miller's and didn't have too many chances to take time off. But this was Labor Day weekend I somehow managed to get Saturday, Sunday and Monday off.

We took my tent and camped (and fished) at Payne Lake. It was lovely weather all the way. I mostly worked around the campsite, keeping busy with the trivial things that need to be done, and I was happy to do so. It was a luxury to me - not having to work at the store.

Frankie Jr. and Uncle Lloyd were messing around in a little flat bottomed boat, just drowning worms and feeding mosquitoes. Frank Jr. is not a half bad jinx himself, for Uncle Lloyd only caught one fish.

(Photo taken at Payne Lake during this trip.)

I laughed about that, but Uncle Lloyd said there was no such thing as a jinx. According to him, they'd drained the lake recently and there was not very many fish left. (But before we left that weekend, he got a better idea of what the truth was!""

That night, I grilled a big sirloin steak for us. Uncle Lloyd thought it was a most excellent piece of meat, and I had to agree with him. he boiled some little red potatoes, something Frankie Jr. and I had never had while camping, and they hit the spot with our big juicy steak.

(For years afterward, Frankie always called those type of potatoes "Unlce Lloyd potatoes.")

I think they next night we had some grilled pork chops. The flame grill did it's usual good job on them, with a little help from me. We talked about what good food we were having on this trip and what a great time we were having. We had a campfire going and the low hissing of the Coleman lantern and stove were soothing background music for us as we sat peacefully along the banks of Payne Lake.

We talked for hours it seemed, before turning in for the night. My big red and white Thermos brand wing tent provided ample room for our three cots and other supplies. Here is how our camping site looked:

Editors note: I'll continue to transcribe my dad's journal entry about Uncle Lloyd and this trip they took together. And it only gets better! Let's just say it involves something Hitler-esque, an almost blind man with a gun, and a kid who could sleep through anything!)

Uncle Mickey Baucom's Giblet Gravy

Back in the early 1990's I called Uncle Mickey to get his recipe for Giblet Gravy. I asked Nanny first, and she said she always liked Mickey's the best and to call him. So I called him at the lake and wrote the above recipe for his famous giblet gravy down. He was very firm about the 1/5 of an onion part. "Don't over do it," he said.

Uncle Mickey was a great cook. Meats were his specialty, and if it was off the grill, even better. But he could also put out one of the best turkey's you've ever tasted and his ham was the best. In fact, the first turkey I ever tasted was at Uncle Mickey's when he lived in Hoover. I remember that day so well, Aunt Katie came, and John was with her. He was just a little fella then and we all just fell in love with him.

I remember when Uncle Mickey died, Nanny had a boiled egg that she had just cooked for lunch. She stuck it in the refrigerator and didn't eat it that day. The next day she wrote the date on it.

Several years later I was cleaning out the fridge for her and I asked her about the egg with the date on it. She said "Leave it there, that was from the day Mickey died and I don't want to throw it away."

So I left the egg right there, dated 11/19.


Left to right: Charles Lloyd Baucom, Mary Katherine Baucom Ellis, Frank Baucom, Mickey Baucom.

Frank Baucom, West End High School, Class of 1958

This is his junior year picture.

This is Dad's sophmore year varsity basketball photo.

My dad's lifelong friend Bo Linn is in the lower basketball photo.

(Photos are from the West End High School, Birmingham, Alabama . . . 1934-1958 website.)

Uncle Lloyd Jordan "In Memorium" by Frank Baucom

Click on the image for a larger copy.I believe Uncle Lloyd died in 1979, although I could be wrong about that. So the date given in the journal I believe reflects the date that Dad started writing about Uncle Lloyd. (In 1974.) Then the memorium portion starts and should be dated 1979.

I'll try and transcribe as I get time.

It begins as follows.

June 15, 1974.

Uncle Lloyd Jordan

I wish that I had cultivated my relationship with Uncle Lloyd Jordan at a much earlier age. Of course, years ago I only got to see him once or twice a year, whenever he would come to Birmingham for a visit. He worked for years in the fabric mills of Massachusetts. (I think in Chicopee, home of the manufactures of Savage, Stevens amd Fox firearms.)

He was very adept at repairing machinery and consequently it was always easy for him to find employment.

(This portion of the journal ends, it appears that it was not finished. Now, the memorial essay begins as follows.)

Today, this morning sometime, Heaven became a a little sweeter. My friend, my camping and fishing buddy, my letter correspondent and favorite uncle by far stepped over into another place to check out the fishing for himself and perhaps to see if there were any big bucks there for me.

Mother [Lessie O. Jordan Baucom] called me tonight to tell me. It saddened me of course, but I know how much pain he suffered the last 2-4 years. I talked to him a few months ago and he told me that he prayed nearly every day for the Lord to take him.

Sometimes we can not understand these things, but take comfort in Him who does. I'll miss him, but I'm glad the painful ordeal is over for my friend. Now he has passed from life to eternity.

(To be continued.)

A letter from Uncle Lloyd Jordan ~Gone, but not forgotten~

I remember my dad reading letters to us, from Uncle Lloyd. There were quite a few of them at one time. But many of my dad's files were stored at a warehouse owned by a friend. That man died and his sons cleared everything out, so a lot was lost. But some things remain. (Click on the image to read the letter.)

Uncle Lloyd never did make back to Alabama, just like he figured. In fact, he died not too long after this was written. Dad wrote a tribute to Uncle Lloyd after he died. I'll try and copy it later this week and post it here, it was beautiful. ~Gone, but not forgotten~

Foster Maddox family

Back row, left to right: Foster Maddox, Virgie Snider Maddox (holding infant Bettye Matthews), Dorothy Maddox Matthews, James "Bud" Matthews.
Front row, left to right: Unknown, Clint Maddox, Earl Maddox, Sue Maddox, and Ima Maddox Niemeyer. I believe this photo was taken in 1943, in Purvis, MS. The infant is my mom. :-)

Foster is my great grandfather who had Marfan's. His sister, Ruby Maddox Delbridge was the grandmother of author Melissa Delbridge.