Ida Thurman Davis Update on Research

I received some photos from my Aunt's estate, she had old family photos which were of her Mother's family,the Newby family. Some had names which I knew and other photos were a mystery. Here you can read about my discoveries on one such group of photos. Ida Thurman Davis would have been the grand daughter of Lydia W. Newby. Looks like she sent photos of her family to her grandmother. I am working of finding some of Ida's descendants, hopefully they may be the holder of Newby family information.

I have recently obtained the obituary for Ida Thurman Davis which was printed in the Chattanooga Times on December 16,1947. She had one daughter Mrs. Earl White and four grandchildren.Harry Hill, Norfolk,Va. DeForest Hill, Detroit,Mich. and Dianne Rowland and Ronnie White of Chattanooga. I found where Clara Davis married Granville Hill on 10/3/1923, in Hamilton County, Tennessee.  In the 1930 Census there is a Clarolie Hill, 22 listed as daughter of Minor and Ida Davis living with them and also a grandson, 6, Edward D. Hill living with them. I'm not sure if Clara married again to Earl White or if this was Nettie. 

Have you ever discovered that your family paths may have crossed? When I read Ida's obituary the first thing  I noticed was that she lived on North Orchard Knob Ave.,which is the same road that my Great Grandmother Lettie Edgemon Wilson lived on. I Googled the addresses and found they were just a few houses apart. Then she was a member of the Avondale Baptist Church which was where Lettie Edgemon Wilson was a member. Then Ida was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, which was where Lettie was buried.

I just had to ask my Mom if she remembered any of her Grandmother's neighbors. She did remember a few but did not know the Davis family. Maybe they moved in after Lettie died in1944. Ida would have been from my Dad's side  and Lettie was from my Mom's side.

Marriage License for Martha Newby and Edwin Burdick

The marriage license for Martha Newby  and Edwin Burdick

Thanks Apple!

Martha (Mattie) Newby and Edwin Burdick

             Martha J. Newby Burdick and husband Edwin Burdick
David H. Newby's sister Martha (Mattie) married Edwin Burdick on Feb. 6,1897 in Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin, I'm not sure. They lived in Chicago,Ill. Looks like they met in college, Edwin was a lawyer and Mattie was a doctor. They later lived in Denver which is where Edwin was from. I recently ordered the marriage license from the Wisconsin Historical Society. I scanned the license and tried to upload it here but for some reason (too big a file) it never uploaded. I wish the license had some information on Mattie's family but really nothing new. It does show her father as K.N.Newby instead of K. H. Newby but this may have been a mistake. So the search goes on for K.H. Newby.
There were no names on this picture but based on the way they looked here compared to the way they looked in the ones with names I would say this is a picture of Mattie and Edwin. I've found no record of Mattie and Edwin having children. I think it is amazing that she was a doctor in the early 1900's.

Children of David H. and Jennie Newby

                                      Children of David H. and Jennie Newby
I have not found a photo of the Newby children together when they were younger, this photo was probably from the late 1960's or early 1970's.
L to R- Lydia, Ed, Fay, Henry, Tom, Jewell
This is all but one of the Newby children, this may have been after King Newby died in Nov. 1971 or he was unable to travel down to Georgia from his home in Dayton, Oh. Tom Newby died in Aug. 1974 so I know this was taken before then.

Newby Family Photo

The photo at the top of the blog now is some of the Newby family. I'm sure that the man on the right is my Great Grandfather, David Newby. The lady behind him is his sister Mattie Newby Burdick and her husband, Edwin Burdick, is the man on the far left. I've seen enough pictures of these with names that I know who these three are. The man in the middle a think is my Great Grandfather's brother Thomas Newby, I've seen a few of him that had names and I think this may be Tom. The lady on the far left looks older so I think this could be their mother, Lydia Newby. Since I have not found a photo of her that has a name I can't be for sure. I think that Mattie looks like the older lady. The young boy I think my be my Great Uncle Edwin Newby.
My thinking is that this photo may have been taken sometime around 1916 after my Great Grandmother, Olivia Jane (Jennie) Long Newby died. When she died her son Edwin would have been 7 years old. This could also explain the sad faces.

Newby Family Featured

In January the Featured Family of the month was started, to highlight the surnames I’m researching. The first family featured was the Edgemon family simply because I had recently visited the family cemetery and had pictures of tombstones and some obituaries. I was excited to post these and to start the new Featured Family. At the time I felt the natural progression would be to Feature the Wilson Family next, since my Great Grandmother, Lettie Edgemon married a Wilson.


After I had a couple of people Terri and Alice express an interest in the Newby family, I decided the next family should be Newby. I hope Terri and Alice will check the information posted at the top of the blog to see if the Newby’s in their families could be related.

I know it looks like a lot of information but we have hit a brick wall with King Newby. We don't know for sure when or where he died and we have not found his parents.

Featured Family of the Month

I’m adding a new feature to the blog, I hope it will be enjoyed and also be helpful to me and others.

Each month (I hope!) I’m going to put information about one family at the top of my blog. It maybe information I have with names and a link to the stories I’ve posted. Where I have a brick wall I’ll post briefly the names and the help I need and a link to stories posted.

My desire is to get some feedback on some of the brick walls and to also find others who are researching these families and share what information I have.

Hope this works out. Let me know what you think.